John E. Simmons

Tightwad Gourmet - Cooked bread

Now 93, Clara shows us how to salvage a rock hard loaf of old bread, using a recipe she perfected during The Great Depression.

First, she slices the bread into manageable hunks.

Then she adds olive oil - it must be olive oil, not some other kind.  Add salt to taste.

In the meantime, bring a pot of water to a boil.

Add the boiling water to the bread, and mash the bread until it is soft.

Clara tells why the bread is good for infants and old people. With a laugh.

Again we don't make health claims for these recipes, but they are proven to keep people alive during hard times.

Tightwad Gourmet - Peppers and Eggs

Clara was 92 when she made this video.  Once again, she reprises favorite, cheap, recipes from the depression. This time, it's peppers and eggs.

First, she cleans out and slices three large  bell peppers.  Be sure to get all the white stuff out of the inside -it's bitter.  Slice them into long strips.

Brown the peppers in a skillet in oil.  You may be able to use less oil if you cook in a non-stick pan.

After the peppers are brown, add salt and turn down the heat.

Mix four eggs as you would for scrambling, then add them to the peppers in the skillet.  Stir around to mix thoroughly.  Cook until the eggs are done.

Watch Clara cook the Peppers and Eggs recipe for a few hints about quantity.  Like most cooks, she doesn't measure. 

Plus, you'll learn why she stopped sharing sandwiches at school

Tightwad Gourmet - Poorman's Meal

91- year old Clara shows us how to cook meals she once made during the depression.  While the ingredients might make a modern day health nut cringe, the wholesome food kept people alive.

As usual, she begins by peeling and dicing a potato and frying it in oil.  She uses a skillet.  You might get by with less oil if you use a non-stick pan.  Then she adds a diced onion, salt and pepper.   She browns it all together in the pan.

Towards the end, she adds a couple of tablespoons of tomato sauce.

While the potatoes and onions are cooking, Clara thinly slices several hot dogs.  Commentors suggest you could also use Italian sausage.  Clara says they hot dogs were cheap.

She adds the sliced dogs to the potatoes and stirs until they are thoroughly heated through.  She adds a little water to help soften the potatoes.

Watch Clara and learn a few more tips - plus the reason she had to quit high school

Tightwad Gourmet - Egg Drop Soup

Once again, we turn to 91-year old Clara who teaches us about cooking during the depression.  Today's recipe is Egg Drop Soup.  Don't know how healthy it is, but this food kept people alive.

First, you peal and dice a potato.  Add olive oil to a deep pot and toss in the potatoes.  Dice an onion and toss it in, too.  Cook until the potatoes and onion brown.

Add salt, pepper and a bay leaf.

Fill the pot about half-full with water and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.  Break five eggs into the boiling water and stir to scramble them.  Break one more egg, but let it cook without further stirring. 

Toast bread slices and put them in the bottom of bowls, then pour the soup over the bread.

Watch Clara and get further details.  Like most good cooks, she doesn't really measure things.

Tightwad Gourmet - Pasta with Peas

A 91-year old grandmother named Clara is reprising her favorite recipes from the depression.  We don't make any health claims for these recipes, but the did fill many bellies during a true financial crisis.

First, we'll feature Pasta with Peas.

Peal and dice one large potato, and fry gently in oil.  Use a deep pot. Add a diced onion.  Add a can of peas, juice and all.  Then add warm water - enough to cook the pasta.   Add salt and pepper.

When the water is boiling, add about a cup of small pasta - any kind - you can even use broken spaghetti.  Boil until the pasta is cooked.  Or, turn off the stove and allow the heat retained in the water to cook the food.

You'll want to watch the video to get an idea about quantities.  Like most good cooks, Clara doesn't actually measure.   She also has some additional tips for saving even more money.

Watch Clara here.

Tightwad Gourmet - making homemade soup

A good, inexpensive meal can center around soup.  With homemade soup you can control the ingredients - limit salt and sodium and leave out artificial ingredients.

The taste can be far superior to canned soups, but the basics should be followed.  And basic to soup is stock.  Stock can be based on beef, chicken, fish or vegetables.

A basic recipe consists of a quartered onion, a couple of stalks of celery cut on a bias into sections a couple of inches long, and a couple of carrots sliced similarly.  Add a little garlic, a little pepper, a little thyme and a bay leaf or two.  You fancy it up with a quartered turnip or, perhaps, some broccoli.  In other words, most any vegetable you can cook.  Add the vegetables to several quarts of water, raise the temperature to boiling, then reduce the heat to low and cook for several hours.

Supermarkets once gave away bones, but now they charge for them. Look for beef bones with good marrow.  Cook the bones with the onions, celery and carrots either in the oven or in a non-stick electric fry pan for about an hour at 475 degrees. Then add all to the water pot.  Clear the cooking pan with a little water - scrape the bottom to get all the good bits and add to the pot, too.

After cooking, drain the stock through a collender or other strainer and throw away the solids.  The liquid can be frozen for several months.  The stock forms the basis for you other soups.

Remember soup is the sustenance for body and soul. And it can be cheap.

Tightwad Gourmet - making bread at home

One way to save money is to make your food at home.  If nothing else, you save money by not driving to a restaurant.   You can make food that's better for you, and if you have food allergies  or need to watch your diet,  you can carefully choose the ingredients in the food you make.

Let's start with bread.  Commercial bread is made to maximize profits for the shareholders of the companies that make it.  Nothing wrong we that - we like profits.  We just don't like to needlessly pay for them.  You can find simple ingredients for bread at the grocery store, and bread easy to make.

I've made many loaves by hand mixing the dough in a bowl, letting it rise, then cooking it in the oven.  I'm now convinced that a bread maker is easier.  Find a thrift store in an upper middle class area.  A lot of churches have them.  I see cast aside bread makers at these places on almost every visit.  They usually sell for five bucks, tops, much cheaper than new.  And if you shop carefully, you may find one that's never been used.

With a bread maker, you toss everything in and walk away.  It mixes, kneads, and bakes the bread over the course of several hours.  Many have timers to let you enjoy just-baked bread when you wake up in the morning, or when you come home at night.   By baking overnight, you use electricity generated in the non-peak hours, which may also save you a few cents.  I don't have a way to test, but it seems logical that since the bread machine heats a smaller area when baking, it uses less electricity than your oven.

Recipes for machine baked bread are all over the Internet, and there are a number of books published containing only bread machine recipes.

Here's one I use:

• Water - 1 1/2 cups
• vegetable oil (I use olive oil) - 2Tbs.
• molasses - 3Tbs.
• salt - 2/3 tsp.  Be sure to include the salt - it's necessary for baking.
• flour (bread or whole wheat) - 3 cups
• oat (I use old fashioned rolled oats from the grocery store) - 1 cup
• yeast - 2tsp or one package

Throw the ingredients in the bread machine in the order given.  Set the machine to large loaf, regular or whole wheat cycle, depending on the flour you used, with a medium crust.  Your machine may or may not have all of these settings. 

The olive oil is supposed to be good for you, and the heart association says oats help reduce cholesterol.

We'll be publishing more tightwad fine dining ideas.

Tightwad Assignment - free food at Denny's

Denny's Restaurants hit a grand slam with the chain's offer of a free Grand Slam Breakfast to anyone arriving at one of its locations between 6AM and 2PM today (Tuesday, Feb. 3).  Web trackers in Los Angeles, Dallas and Seattle reported the company's site suffered outages today - they suspect from potential customers logging on to find the nearest restaurant.  Google reports that five of the top 40 searches on the internet today have been for Denny's.

The 1500-restaurant chain has been in business for 50-years.  It claims to be the largest full-service family restaurant in the United States. The company says it annually has more than $2-billion in sales and employes about 21,000 people.   It's best know for serving breakfast all day, led by The Grand Slam Breakfast - the item the company gave away today.

Arriving at the Denny's on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville just after 6AM, I found the parking lot full and folks lined up outside.  The cold wind blew from the west and people pulled their jackets tight.   The wait was about 20-minutes, and while we waited in line, a hostess circulated offering free samples of what they called a Pancake Puppy.

The Puppy was a golf ball sized globe obviously dusted in cinnamon and served on a long toothpick.  I bit in and found it much like a cake donut.  Perhaps not quite as sweet.  The hostess said the dish is pancake batter formed into balls, deep fried and coated in cinnamon.  I thought it needed to be a slight bit sweeter.  Maybe it needed syrup, but I would first try adding a bit of confectioner's sugar to the cinnamon coating. 

I went with a friend, and it was so packed, we invited a woman who was there alone to join us. She turned out to be a delightful person.

We were seated in the crowded restaurant, and I was surprised at how quickly a waitress (server, whatever) arrived.  She was in good cheer but beginning to feel the stress of the mob.  She took our orders and disappeared into the crowd. 

I was again surprised by how quickly she returned with the food.  Eggs scrambled just firmly enough, bacon cooked through but still limp, sausage links, and large pancakes.  The eggs were just fine, the bacon flavorful, and the pancakes tasty with good texture.  They did taste just like the Pancake Puppies and a bit of added syrup indeed, added the sweetness the Puppies lacked.

Even with such a crowd, the employees were cheerful and fast.  I think they were surprised at the response, but seemed to handle it well.

I had not been to Denny's in a long time.  The most convenient restaurant to me requires negotiating the hazards of the new bridge under construction over the Intracoastal Waterway.  But the breakfast was good, and I will probably return when the construction is finished.

We had to pay for the drinks, so the final bill for three people - $4.11 with tax.  Yes, we did leave a tip.

Free food - Tuesday, Feburary 3

From 6AM until 2PM, Denny's restaurants will give away a Grand Slam Breakfast to anyone who shows up. Follow the link to the website to find a location to you.