30 Days to better Preparedness. Day 12. Cooking from Scratch/Making do.

 I know some of you already excel in this area.  In hard times or shortages of any kind the old skills of being able to put a meal together from this and that are really important.  I have found the old recipe books very good.   They are mostly simple, basic ingredients and they are flexible.    We have had such good times, and so many ingredients to choose from,  we are kind of spoiled.  But our Nana's were much more adaptable cooks.  I think they were much less specific!   If a recipe called for a spring onion Nan would probably say "oh well I have an onion, that is near enough. "   She just would know how to make something with what she had.   A handful of bacon or left over ham would become a pie.  The ham bone would become soup.  Nothing was wasted.   There was none of this modern day making a list of meals you would like to make then buying the ingredients.  Instead you worked our what you COULD make from the stuff you have and could find.   Left overs from the fridge,  a few bits from the garden, some eggs collected, something swapped with the neighbour and it was then a challenge to make this is up into as much as possible!    Shopping was a few things to top this all up and be some good buy at the butcher or grocery store (which was the corner store when I was little.)

If a quiche was made  the left overs could be tomorrows lunch.  Two spare eggs could make a cake.  The apples on the tree would become a pie.  All the scraps would make a stock.   I am sure most of our Grand Parents and Great Grand Parents cooked this way.   Well, we need to do our best to get clever at the things like they were because they are skills.  

 

Nan was an absolute expert at making meat go further although I never noticed at the time!    I wrote about that here.

Some of the skills ( I realise now)  that made everything delicious were the making of a good gravy and a good stock.  Think of all the things we have used packet mixes for and while they are wonderful we need to know how to make do the old way.  If know how to make things from scratch and we store a lot of long lasting basics then we have just endless options. 

Things we have grown and can harvest then add to our possibilities.   Our stored pantry food will last a lot longer if we maximise all the fresh produce we can find.  We might add to our pantry if we have a surplus. 

So many of the old ways are a million times nicer.  A real baked egg custard is delicious.   Nothing like a custard from packet mix or from a carton at all!  A rice pudding home baked.   Homemade soup with some sour dough bread... you get the idea.   Goodness from simple ingredients.  Real food.  

I have never been one to fathom fake food that is just a bunch of numbers.   In times of stress we need actual nutrition so now is a good time to get back to basics.  Learn to be happy with simple meals.   Buy ingredients not boxes.  Your pantry will grow a lot and your options will really be much better if the store is no longer the option it once was.  

Mum and I was talking about baby food.   She said she cooked veggies every lunch time and put them through the mouli to make them smooth.  Making the baby food was just part of the normal day.   Convenience has been great but it has kind of dumbed us down.   We want to be as good as we can be at extracting all the goodness and flavour of anything we have and making the most of it.   We really might need these skills so now is the time to practice.       Maybe challenge yourself to come up with meals with just what you have on hand and see how well you can do.   The less we need to store the better. 

Today my opportunity was to make the most of the first day of Spring!  It was sunny and beautiful.  I planted another fruit tree and my very first seedlings for the season.   I am soaking some pumpkin seeds over night to plant tomorrow.  I am really happy I started my veggie garden on the very first day!  No time to waste....xxx