It's times like these...

when I am so grateful that I know how to cook and especially bake. We are expecting 4-6 more inches of snow the next few days. The turnpikes are closed and the roads are still bad from the storms that hit here Tuesday, so no trucks are getting in to the area. That means food deliveries are non-existent for the most part.

We stopped into the grocery to get a few basics. There was no bread and no milk. I heard a woman telling her kids that they had no bread and she looked pretty frustrated. I saw another woman, pretty upper middle class by the looks of her hair, jewelry and wardrobe, cut a face and buy what bread was left and that was only the cheap hot dog buns, and there weren't many of those left, either.

I grabbed a bag of flour, knowing I was low on AP and have plenty of wheat flour and a little bread flour left. I always keep plenty of yeast in the house. I picked up almond milk, because we really aren't all that picky, except I didn't want milk made from GM soy. No problem, there was plenty of soy, rice and almond milk.

I wish more people, especially those with lower incomes, know how easy and inexpensive making bread really can be. It makes me sad that there are people who will go without when times are like this rather than have the skills to make what they need.

I think the time has come to go out into the community, especially to those who need it most, to get the word out with recipes. When all of this clears up and we are mobile again, I may look at going to the food bank or any other agencies and offer a demonstration on homemade bread.

:hi:

That would be such a great service to your community, I hope you can make that work.

I hope you stay warm & safe throughout the next phase of this "Great Winter Storm of 2011". What an awful winter this has been for you and many parts of our nation!

You have a heart as big as all outdoors, HW

:loveya:

I just sent you a PM a few minutes ago. :hug: :loveya: back!

Check with the inner-city churches and inter-faith groups. The churches have commercial kitchens and you could teach those who can teach others.

You're amazing, you know. :hug:


:loveya:

I just sent off an email to the volunteer coordinator of the food bank. They do have a culinary center there where it would be possible to do this, and I already have a food handler's permit which is all they require. I don't expect to hear from her until Monday, earliest.

Great idea about the inner-city churches, and I have lots of good contacts within the interfaith groups since working with the peace fellowship hear for years and chairing the Season for Nonviolence one year. Thanks for the extra ideas.

:loveya: too. :*

in inner-city neighborhoods also has an education group to teach the residents how to prepare the fresh produce. No point in growing eggplant if you don't know what to do with it.

:)

I have friends that already teach people the community gardening thang. I think I will start with the bread if they will let me, see how it works out from both perspectives, and go from there. Just test the waters, if you will. :)

And you're wonderful for thinking of doing it!

and be reliant on the giant corporate ag monster when it doesn't take much time or money to do it themselves.

Hiya, babe! :hug:

Or, maybe they do and just forgot about them. It's even easier to make bread with those things than by hand. Throw in the ingredients, hit a button or two, and walk away for a few hours. They make a respectable loaf of bread. Yeah, it's not quite what you'd get if you made it the old-fashioned way, but it's still infinitely better than most store-bought bread.

If you wind up doing a demonstration, will you consider demonstrating an Irish soda bread? It would be a great for newbies to start out with, especially since it doesn't require yeast. Besides, I suspect that at least some of them already know how to make biscuits from scratch, and soda bread isn't that far off from them.

the old teach a man to fish... etc. Maybe not having such easy access might even inspire folks to get out the flour, etc and make some bread.

:thumbsup:


Since reading this forum more, even I keep thinking I should start baking bread. (my husband is the bread guy - he has big hands), but it isn't as hard as one would think, and it is a lot less expensive overall.

and healthful, too

Do it! I hope that you do. There's just something almost magical/mystical about homemade bread, not to mention as a creative act.

I think the time has come to go out into the community, especially to those who need it most, to get the word out with recipes. When all of this clears up and we are mobile again, I may look at going to the food bank or any other agencies and offer a demonstration on homemade bread.

:hi:

You inspire folks. Thanks :loveya:

in high school we had to take Home Economics. It was kind of a joke - women's lib was gaining ground and many conscientious mothers felt that their girls should have other options that weren't necessarily open to them...like shop class. lol. Our class was open to guys but I think most guys wouldn't be caught dead doing 'women's work'. Seems counter intuitive if they wanted to mix it up with a whole bunch of girls, but I digress. It was also a joke because we never really did any serious baking. I think the closest I ever got to making bread was making some muffins with Bisquick. That said, it did provide me with more confidence than I had before that. My mother always cooked when I was young and ocassionally I'd help her, so she was certainly a role model for that activity, and many things she did came back to me later in life. But it was much later. My father LOVED to cook AND eat and I do think his joy did rub off. He was very intuitive in his approach and he made some delicious meals. But he didn't cook that often because of work, and because that was just the way couples were back in the day. Their roles were more defined than now.

I don't think most schools even offer HomeEc or cooking anymore, going the way of many classes that are imo essential to the development of a well rounded, happy individual like various forms of creative self expression - art, music, theatre, dance, gardening....and COOKING. I'm glad we have so many cooking shows to view now. That helps. I agree about bread making hippywife - and wouldn't it be nice to have some of these things re-introduced to young people either in the classroom or as extra-curricular activities? Parents could also make sure they are teaching these things. I wonder if a club or organization could provide classes like this in their towns or neighborhoods? Do you think it would be popular? This could be partially volunteer work so long as the food was covered or perhaps the local grocery would like to play a supporting role. Maybe it could be connected to a food bank organzation. Or volunteer cooks could join forces with a gardening club and use the produce to supplement the cooking classes. That way they could learn to grow it and cook it. Sure seems that this is a niche that could be filled without too much difficulty.

Hippywife, I'm guessing you are thinking more about adult classes. Maybe it could be a parent and child experience too. That couldn't hurt, and then the parent is not having to find someone to watch their child while they take a class. Anyway, I like the way you think!

and they eat for a day, teach a person to bake bread... knead I say more... Excellent idea Hippywife!

props to you and Housewolf and all the C&B'rs who gave me feedback on my own quest to make my own bread! Thanks! :toast:

You could probably do demonstrations for quite a few groups and I'm sure you could get them publicized. I'll pm you on a contact for your area. Every person should know how to make bread. A noble endeavor, hw--good on you! :loveya:

I would welcome the help. :hug:

:loveya:

Virtuous Bread sounds like a nifty group:
Doing Good With Bread - http://www.virtuousbread.com/do-good/

Bread Angels Pilot Program (off to a rough start) -
http://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-conversation/the-bread-angels-pilot-part-one/


And one person's lesson plan for teaching children to bake bread and the many benefits
and lessons that can be integrated into that activity:

http://www.globaled.org/myself/bakingbread.html

Thanx for all of the input, I really appreciate it. I am very excited to start this and I hope the food bank does take me up on my offer. It could mean they could solicit and accept donations of flour and yeast, too! We'll see what she has to say.

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. For so long I've envisioned the day would come when people would no longer know how to cook for themselves.

Thank you all for the support and well-wishes. I will keep you all filled in on how it goes. :hug:

:loveya: all!

Back to making jewelry! :hi:

:*

:* to you, too. :D

I am mailing your package on Monday, sweets. :hi:

hard to come by, I am fixed.

I bake my own bread in cooler weather, so yeah I just laugh at the rush to buy all the french toast ingredients (bread, milk, eggs) before every storm.

that I use for the light wheat sandwich bread recipe at smitten kitchen.

And heck! I love almond milk. Bill and I talked about it tonight, and it's no more expensive than the organic cow's milk I usually buy, so I just may continue to buy it, too.

:hi:

I soak the almonds overnight in some water, rinse real well 2 or 3 times, then the toss fresh water and the almonds into the VitaMix (about a 3:1 ratio for thick, 4:1 for thinner - based on the original dry weight or volume of the almonds. So for 4 oz (1/2 c) dry almonds (soaked, they'll weight more), I'll add either 12 or 16 oz of water. ) Turn the VitaMix on and let it spin for a minute or two and there's my fresh almond milk.

'Course it's filled with almond meal, so if I want it soooth I need to strain in through a fine-mesh strainer (and cheese cloth helps too), then you can re-dry or toast the almond meal for use in something else. I add it to blends so I'm okay with leaving the almond meal in the milk.

It's a little more work than opening a box of almond milk, I'll grant you that. But Costco's raw almonds are SO inexpensive compared to the cost of boxed almond milk. It's a wonderful, freshly made, homemade high nutrient ingredient for many things.

You can add some vanilla or other flavoring to it if you want, and even sweeten it a bit if you like.

The VitaMix recipe for almond milk says to use the almonds dry, straight from the package. But much of the research I did on it indicated that soaking overnight starts an enzymatic process, and recommend the overnight soak.

I've made pecan milk too, and walnut milk. Not hazlenut milk yet, though, or cashew nut milk.

You are so industrious! I bet the hazelnut milk would just rock! :hug:

Ever since the regulators mandated the fumigation or pasteurization of almonds a few years ago, I have not liked them as much as previously. The delicate flavor is gone, for me. I'd like to find a source for raw ones.

they aren't loaded with salt, either.

I paid just under $10 for 3 lbs of Costco raw almonds a week or so ago. The package says "all natural" and "no preservatives", but they're not organic and the package doesn't say "no fumigants" on it', so I can't vouch for that.

If you like, I'd be happpy to send you a sample that you could try. :-)

The law mandated that in 2007 despite opposition from growers. :wave:

I seem to remember that my sister used to make soy milk back in the day - with mixed results! :D

Almost all my life, nuts were a feared-food because of their fat content. Now we realize that the fat content of nuts is very heart-healthy, and they are a good source of protein and other nutrients, too. I'm happy to add more nuts in my diet.

any sort of real cooking to be beneath their dignity, and suggestions to cook from scratch are the lowest form of insult.

How do I know this? DU has its very own contingent of these sorts. I totally don't get it.

I will try to make it funny, as I usually have a tendency to clown it up in front of a crowd. LOL

:hi:

Nah.... never! Can't see it. Nope, not in the least...

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


:hide:

would put that fantasy to rest, eh?

Ok I bake my own bread however at $.99 the "cheap" bread is often less expensive to use.

While the cost is lower for making good bread rather than buying it, purchasing all the ingredients all at once can be prohibitive. One of the problems the low income have with "bulk buying" is the initial outlay is too much when you are trying to spread all your food costs over a month. It might be less expensive to have that case of green beans but ...that is what the family will then have to eat for a month. Same thing with other bulk buying.

Energy costs are a challenge for low income people, so using the oven is always something to "multitask". I use the cooling oven after it is turned off for heat after baking, simply open the door and let the heat out to warm the house.

If you want to donate something worthy to the food bank, consider yeast because unless you can afford Costco, buying it at the grocery store is expensive. At my local Safeway a jar costs about $5.00 and that is alot for someone low income trying to feed a family on a budget. Those packets only make one loaf each ~ and again, the cost for the yeast alone would buy a cheap loaf of bread.

However, did you know you can make your own yeast? It comes from the air! It is what sour dough gathers while it is fermenting. I often use starter for bread when I don't have yeast, but you have to plan ahead for that one ~ not too easy for a mom working a full time McJob who barely has the energy or time to help her kids with their homework, much less bread. Still a recipe for starter might be good.

Also pretty expensive are the "specialty" flours such as whole wheat, gluten, rye, etc. Another thing to consider donating to the food bank.

Molasses and honey is VERY expensive, and my oat bread is absolutely heavenly with one of these, but to buy even a small bottle is almost beyond my budget. Another thing to consider to give to the food bank.

I visit the food bank and staples are often at a minimum. Four, sugar, powdered milk for cooking (many cooks do not know this milk is almost undetectable if cooked into certain recipes, but it is expensive to buy outright), unsweetened cocoa, yeast, rice, salt, pepper, oil, cornmeal, condiments, spices, and bread crumbs all are expensive and hard to buy for a low income cook and good things to donate if the food bank will take them (some things get bugs in them if they are not well packaged so be careful about that).

Some of the ingredients for bread transfer across ethnic lines so they can make things that are their comfort foods native to them. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen an Ethiopian mom or Russian Grandma pick up something like a skillet dinner with the expression on their faces like, "What the hell do I do with this????" However if they had some unbleached flour or rye, cornmeal or whatever basic, and VOILA, homemade noodles or Pirogies!

My dream is to make a "Community or Free Speech TV" cooking show using food bank foods and making not only traditional American dishes with whatever comes in a box from the food bank, but ethnic dishes as well. Since most low income cannot afford cable it could be used there on TV for raising funds and donations to the food bank AND also run on a monitor AT the food bank as well to give patrons ideas about what they could do with what they get. It could be done with humor such as having a "French Chef" (holding a smashed loaf of bread up to the camera) "This loaf has a lit-tle moooold on the corner of it but ... (while taking a knife from a drawer and slashing the loaf with a flourish), just cut it off and you can use the rest of it to make bread cubes ..." or "Emeril" while lavishly peppering a dish, "Bam!"

Have lots of more ideas and recipes. Hope this helps you all brainstorm about low income cooking ...


Cat in Seattle

I don't know if that is still the case.

...but they are few and far between. I think it depends no who is running the food bank . Maybe if they get federal money (just wondering now myself why some do and some don't, lol). The food banks that have them often have a special "commodity day" and a some just put them in with the general stock.

One thing I've noticed about commodities is that they do not have same stuff they used to have. Yes you can get small packets of powdered milk (less than the smallest box at the grocery store) and some cans of meat ~ beef, pork,, and chicken (BTW, this meat is good and any of them make wonderful BBQ sammiches) and usually you get to pick which kind you like. You get margarine now instead of butter, and perhaps some shortening as well as corn meal. Oh yeah usually a block of American cheese. I think that is about all.

I think I forgot to mention another thing to donate that is often pretty expensive and that is cooking oil.

Hope this helps

Cat

From someone who has obviously "been there."

Too many of take things for granted. If I want the latest in vogue exotic ingredient, I just cruise down to Whole Foods or wherever and pick it up. Or click, click, click online and buy it. So many people both in the US and worldwide don't have that luxury, especially those who worry where tomorrows staple foods will come from.

You are absolutely correct about the cost of many items. Bulk buying is good IF you can do it, but many people can't afford the warehouse club membership in the first place. Transportation is an issue. Storage is an issue. Waste of excess product is an issue.

I think so many people would benefit by having to live another's life for just a few days. I watched a segment of the new (well, new to me, not sure when it was produced" cooking show 'Avec Eric' on PBS the other day. Celebrity chef Eric Ripert was traveling with Second Harvest or Gleaners or somebody along those lines pickup up leftover and unwanted food in Manhattan for the organization to redistribute. He was given a case of organic salmon fillets, and some other "high end" stuff. I'm not sure how authentic that felt to me. I'm sure that may happen, but I doubt that in real life the "good stuff" gets donated all that often. Maybe it does. To his credit, the recipes he created with what was gleaned relied on very simple ingredients, some common vegetables and rice mostly, with eggs. He said he wanted to create nutritious, filling food with very low cost ingredients. He made a fried rice dish and a ratatouille.

What bothers me is that I don't see things go well in the US for the foreseeable future. With climate problems, energy issues, political turmoil, the economy is going to tank again, IMO, and that will result in many more people wondering where their next meal is coming from.

I can and do buy fast acting yeast for .35 a packet at a small local grocery, the same price it is at the large local chain. There is always some brand of flour on sale. The same little grocery had Gold Medal AP for $2 and it isn't even the holidays. Sugar? It took only 2 TB and 2 TB of butter for that recipe that made two loaves in my kitchen this weekend. They only took 45 minutes to bake, at 350, so the oven was not in use for a long time at high temps, and it took no special equipment other than your cheap everyday glass loaf pan, would work in a cheap everyday metal one, too.

I am far from rich. I admit I'm not dirt poor, either, but far from even upper middle class. And I, too, remember what it was like to scrape for grocery money. I think that people with lower/fixed incomes have been made to feel that they can't afford to eat better than the .99 loaf of white bread in the grocery. Even if all you make is white bread, it is inexpensive to do and you know what's actually in it. There isn't much real food in that .99 loaf of white bread anymore. You can make inexpensive meals with real food (I'm not talking organic) that can last for several days.

Just like a person doesn't have to look poor, they don't have to eat totally poorly and unhealthy, either. That being said, I do feel for people on fixed incomes trying to grocery shop these days. The cost of food these days is criminal and given the dearth of real food in processed pre-packaged offerings, many times buying them because they are "cheap" actually can turn out to be a more expensive option.

Welcome to C&B. :hi:

Maybe it depends on the part of the country you are in ~ or even in the neighborhood you live in. In many low income neighborhoods the very same store chains will make prices higher than in their upper income neighborhoods. Often their fresh produce and meat isn't so fresh and their stock is often at or even beyond pull dates. Ethnic foods are sky high, especially in ethnic neighborhoods.

I have been to this same store in upper income neighborhoods and the prices are actually lower, the produce far superior, and the ethnic foods a little more reasonable. By "ethnic" I am thinking about things like an oyster sauce or some maize, some golden syrup, or perhaps matzo bread, all that cost much more in lower income places.

I know that seems "counterproductive" but it is so where I live. Just today I was at the supermarket (Safeway) and they had milk that was almost a week past due. I did have to "dig" into the back of the cooler to get a fresher gallon.

In the summer I glean and I am trying to start a gleaning for the food bank where we go into people's yards and pick whatever apples, plums, or whatever fruit trees that have left over fruit. In a nearby city, the food bank actually picked something like 18 tons of fresh fruit this way! It helps people clean their yards, it gives fresh produce to low income who often can't afford it, and it is usually organic. The way it works is the picker can keep a certain portion of what they pick and then the rest goes to the food bank.

I can my own fruit if I can afford it and I make an apricot jam that all my relatives beg me for. As a matter of fact my FIL comes all the way from Southern CA to get a dozen jars every year! Canned apricots (and apricot jam MMMMM!) make a wonderful glaze/sauce for chicken, apple butter and apricot jam is good on pork (especially in the slow cooker) and canned plums are good on beef.

I pick wild blackberries and freeze some whole and then use them in the winter to make sauces, on waffles and with ice cream and for other things. My blackberry jam is delicious, if I might say so myself. My granddaughter just likes to reach in the freezer and grab some berries she calls her "pop-cycles" and eat them frozen. If I can find a blue berry bush to glean, well I freeze those whole and use them for a lot of things and they make good "popcycles" too. I travel to a friend's house who has raspberry bushes all over her yard and pick to my heart's content. I make jam with those and also freeze some of them whole, but they aqre delicate and getting those home whole can be a challenge. I freeze them by putting them on cookie sheets in one layer and after they are frozen, I put them in ziplock bags. I also re-use the bags because they are hand washable.

All this takes a lot of time for a low wage worker who depends on the local store and/or a food bank. If I could figure out a way to assist others to do this, they would find their winters much more tasty. I do give a lot away of what I make and it is appreciated but my family is pretty spoiled, lol.

Cat in Seattle

cheap in price and a dearth of actual real food ingredients, plus all the yucky chemicals and fillers.

:thumbsup: and best of luck to you! Your points about donating staples to the food bank are very good ones. This is particularly true now since so many people are having a rough time economically. (damn those crazy traders and bankers who should be in jail.)


ps the info about gleaning is so cool and so right. I've been seeing much more info about this in general.

why it's better to make their own bread or cook meals from scatch. For some folks, stopping by the Dollar Store on the way home from work to pick up a box of Hamburger Helper or Rice-a-roni is all they can manage. They're tired because those boxed foods are making them sick, but many of them will resist going back to grandma's way of cooking because they "don't have time." I live in a rural area and hardly anyone plants a garden anymore, although more people have started doing it in the last couple years. Walmart and the dollar stores selling cheap canned stuff from China has been the greatest obstacle to good nutrition in this country, and if Michelle Obama can get Walmart to even start to address this issue seems like a good idea.

I'm just rambling here, but I think you're on to something and it could be a wonderful thing for your community. I hope you will find a way to do it.

:hi:

I really envision a day, that isn't as far off as we like to think, where corporate AG and food processors control what we eat completely. When people have no choices, then they will realize what they lost when they stopped learning to provide for themselves the good food that is still out there.

:hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x383286#383615 :P

So many sad stories out there. A lot of the crap that goes on this country -- I'm not sure whether to cry or scream.

Do both, and kick inanimate objects lol

I just read that thread. Sad stuff. Kinda felt good knowing it wasn't just me though. Not saying I'm glad others are feeling the pinch, but saying I'm not so alone in the struggle ;)

:hi:

I got an email tonight from the volunteer coordinator at the food bank. She said they had been out of the office because of all the snow we've had the past two weeks, and then she got sick, followed by their head chef getting sick. They just got back into the office today.

She asked him if he had gotten in touch with me yet, and he said he was planning on doing so next week, as soon as he got some project deadlines all sewed up.

So, it sounds like they are game. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: