05/30/2026
Thanks to my frugal mother, who lived on a farm and through the Great Depression, I learned to fix meals for our large family and company with not much and lots of it. As dairy farmers with “free” milk, many wonderful meals were milk gravy with - a small amount of hamburger or boiled eggs or tuna and peas or asparagus or … My children picked pails of wild blackberries to freeze and turn into crisp , making the topping from oats with lard from our pig and always our own maple syrup. Almost free and great hot from the oven with cold milk poured over. Potato (we grew so many!) soup might or might not have a bit of hamburger with homemade bread, we ate like kings! Every bit of meat was made into something nutritious and delicious, including chicken livers with green onions and sour cream in toast cups and thinly sliced cull cow tongue. The details of boiling and peeling a tongue are interesting but not a bit of food was wasted. Ever. An abundance of eggs? Prepared in every possible way - boiled, poached, omelette, scrambled, angel food cake. Eggnog, quiche, dutch puff. And so on.
We ate like kings.
What’s this? Pumpkin pie made from winter squash , milk, eggs and maple syrup. Leftover filling baked alongside for pumpkin custard or drank by eager children before baking.
