Update

Sorry I haven't beem posting for a while! Working on more recipes and tips. Follow Homefront Kitchen on Twitter! www.twitter.com/homefrntkitchen for tips and ideas.

Oven Dinner

Just like everything else in WWII, fuel was also rationed.  That meant keeping your thermostat at 68°, riding a bike instead of driving to work, and using as little fuel as possible when cooking.  In many of the Homefront cookbooks, were menus that coordinate foods so that all the items cooked in one oven, at the same time, for the same length of time.  This not only saved time, it saved fuel!

In this modern era, time is a valuable commodity, and cooking everything at once can be a great value!  I decided to try and make an oven menu dinner.  I am using Chicken thighs, as they are still inexpensive relatively speaking, frozen green beans, brown rice, and cherries. With WWII rationing on food in mind, this recipe uses very little of the foods that were rationed at that time, like sugar, white flour, or fat (which I might add is healthier for us anyway!). 

Tonight's meal is:

Crispy Oven Chicken
Italian Green Beans
Brown Rice Stuffing
Cherry Cobbler

Bake it all at 400° for about an hour.

All in!

Crispy Oven Chicken

6 Thighs

1 T Seasoned Salt

1 C Corn Flake Crumbs
(2 Cups Corn Flakes Crushed finely)

1 C Skim Milk

In a large mixing bowl or large zipper plastic bag, combine crumbs and seasoning. 

In another bowl or bag, pour the milk.

 Pat chicken dry with paper towel. Dip in milk. Shake off excess.

Roll chicken in crumbs.  Let set aside to allow the crumbs to adhere to the chicken, about 5 min.

Place on a cookie sheet that has been lightly greased or sprayed with non-stick spray.

Do not crowd on sheet. pieces should not touch.

Bake until juices run clear and chicken is golden brown.

It makes life so much easier to line the pan with foil or parchment
and spray with non-stick spray!

Italian Green Beans

16 oz bag  Frozen Green Beans; french cut 

1/2 C Broth

2T Flour

1/4 t Garlic Powder or 1 clove Garlic, minced

1 Cup Diced Tomatoes

Mix. Place in covered casserole. Bake.

Remember the veggie broth made in the last blog?
Using it in these recipes! Cost = $0

Time to make more broth!!

Brown Rice Stuffing

1 Onion, chopped

2 Stalks of Celery, Chopped

1 Carrot, chopped

1/2 C Chopped Bell Pepper

1 T Olive Oil

1 Cup Instant Brown Rice

1/2 t Salt

1/4 t Pepper

1 C Broth

In a saute pan, heat oil for a few minutes.  Add onion, celery, carrot and bell pepper. 

Saute until onion is translucent.

In a casserole, combine sauteed vegetables, rice, salt and pepper.

Pour in broth.

Cover and bake.

This smells AMAZING!!

Cherry Cobbler

2 C Frozen Cherries

1/2 C Sugar

1 T Corn Starch

1/2 C Juice or Water

1/2 C Wheat Flour

1/2 C All Purpose Flour

1/2 t salt

1 1/2 t Baking Powder

2 T Oil or Melted Butter

1/2 C Milk

In a mixing bowl, combine cherries, sugar, and cornstarch.

Add juice. Pour into casserole.

In another bowl, whisk together flour & leavening.

Add to flour mixture, oil and milk.

Pour flour mixture over cherries.

Bake.

A delicious meal!

Leftover Love

During WWII, leftovers were practically as valuable as gold.  Wasting was unpatriotic! So our grandmothers had to come up with creative ways to reuse leftovers.  Many of the comfort foods we consider common deliciousness were created as a result of WWII kitchen wizardry.  Today, with the rising cost of food, and little sign of economic improvement, this kind of "magic" is almost a necessity! That in mind, and the fact I had some leftovers that were about to perish, I decided I would try my hand at creating a yummy dish out of virtually nuthin'!  The result: meatballs!

I am going to give the basic meatball recipe I came up with.  From there you can do anything!!  I decided to make a meatball stew, but more about that later. 

Ok, something almost every WWII housewife had was a meat grinder. They were often used to chop nuts, make breadcrumbs, chop veggies finely, crush ice, etc, as well as grind meats.  Most had a hand crank kind, and they are still available today.  They tend to run about $35 to $100-ish.  The electric are double in cost and then some, depending on the brand and model. I used an attachment made for my Kitchen Aide mixer. If none of these are possible, a good food processor might do the job.

LEFTOVER MEATBALLS

4-5 Cups Ground Cooked Meat

20 Crackers

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Milk
(add more if mixture does not hold together as a ball)

1Tbsp Italian Seasoning
(Or any salt free seasoning blend you like)
1/4 Cup Oil

1Tbsp Garlic Powder or 1-2 Whole Garlic, minced

2 Tbsp Dry Minced Onion or 1 Small Onion, minced

1/8-1/4tsp Ground Black Pepper (Optional)

************************

Combine the ingredients, mixing well (hands are good for this, but remove all jewelry!). Shape into 1/2 " to 1" meatballs. Roll in flour. Put in skillet that has been preheated and has 1/4 Cup of oil. Cook for about 5 minutes on medium to medium low until brown, carefully turn the meatballs with a spoon to brown another side. Repeat until meatballs are brown.

Left-over Beef and pork

Here are the meats I had to deal with, a beef steak and a couple pork chops...not too exciting.  I diced the beef into 1" pieces and the pork, as it was denser, into 1/2" pieces.

Diced Beef

Grinding

Once it was all ground, I ground up some stale crackers.  It helps clean the grinder a little plus it makes the cracker extra fine, like meal.

Ground meats, cracker meal, egg, spices, oil and milk

Mix it all together and VOILA, meatball mix! I rolled the mix into 1" meatballs and rolled in plain flour, then placed in a skillet with 1/4 Cup of oil on medium heat.

Meatballs in flour

Meatballs in skillet

Once cooked, they are ready for whatever you want! Just a little warning, they are delicate, and can fall apart a little easier than traditional meatballs.   I do not recommend these for soups.

Cooked meatballs

I went with a meatball stew.  They whole menu was very WWII traditional:

Meatball stew

Brown rice cooked in Beef Broth

Chop Salad

Iced tea

Going further on the "Waste Not, Want Not" philosophy, this is a kind of "Use it Before You Lose It" meal.  We are near shopping day and the stores are getting a bit low. There were lots of things in the fridge and pantry that had to be used or thrown out in a day or two. The meatball stew consisted of cooked meatballs, stewed tomatoes, beef broth I had in the fridge, less than a serving of Tomato Juice I had at the bottom of the can, some flour and seasoning.  I simmered it until the sauce thickened.  I had about 1 cup of brown rice left in the cupboard.  Used the rest of the beef broth to cook that. There were a couple radishes, sweet peppers, celery about to go limp, some green onions on a similar path as the celery, and a lonely, very soft tomato. I chopped them all up, added a couple tablespoons of mayo, and TA-DA, Chop Salad!  The whole family enjoyed it including the finicky teen-aged daughters I love! 

But it doesn't end there!! Remember the Chop Salad?   Well, I took the stuff I chopped OFF the veggies, put them in a pot with water and seasoning. Simmered about an hour and got myself two cups of veggie stock! 

Discarded veggie peelings

Veggie peelings, cooked about an hour

2 Cups Rich Veggie Broth

You Got Beer, You Got Bread!

I wanted an accompaniment for my dinner tonight that would be quick to fix.  I already had the oven going for a roast, so I thought,"how about bread", but then I realized I didn't have time to rise a loaf. Even with my quickest yeast bread recipe, it takes and hour and a half, start to finish (that includes using a bred maker!).  I thought maybe a quick bread.  We had biscuits for breakfast, so again for dinner would be no fun, but all the recipes I had were for muffins, pancakes, fruit breads, none of which appealed. Then I remembered a recipe I used many years ago for beer bread. It was ok, but was very salty.  I thought I would try one more time, but try to eliminate some of the sodium. I found a recipe online that did the trick.  I did have to make a few changes to it though, due to happy happenstance. 

I asked my hubby for a bottle of beer from the beer fridge.  I told him any old one would do.  Sometimes, when we have parties, someone might bring a beer that is not "popular", so to speak, and it sits in the beer fridge for a while. Instead, he brought me a Guinness Black Stout.  I commented that the beer was probably too nice for the bread, and secretly worried it would be too bitter for the bread. But worrying I would hurt his feelings, I took the beer with a smile on my face. So glad I did! After baking, when we tasted it, it tasted like banana bread!! Made me think, "hmmmm, nuts might work in this...." then our friend tried some and said, it would taste even better with a crumb topping. Again, "hmmmm."  So, here my friends is the result:

Stout Beer Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

3 C Flour

3 t Baking Powder

1 t Salt

1/4 C Flour 

1 Bottle Stout Beer

1/4 C shortening

1/4 C Finely Chopped Nuts

1/4 C Butter/Margarine

1/4 C Brown Sugar

1/4 C Flour

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in shortening.  Add beer and nuts.
Mix until just combined. Pour into greased loaf pan.
In a smaller bowl, combine flour and brown sugar. Cut in butter.

Crumble over loaf.
Bake 45-60 min until toothpick comes out clean from center of bread.

Let sit for 30 min. before slicing.

7 Basic Food Groups

Going into World War II, the eager young men volunteering to join the military taught the government an interesting fact, Americans were out of shape, suffering from malnutrition, and had little understanding of what a healthy meal consisted of. Our government went on an all out effort to find out what make a nourishing meal, and share that information with the public.

The Government came up with the Seven Basic Food Groups.  The food groups we are know now are set up according to how our bodies process the foods; Meats and Proteins, Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, Dairy, Fats.  During the most of the 20th century, we looked at the food groups according to the vitamin and minerals content and how much our bodies needed. The food groups essentially broke down to Non-starch based Vegetables, Citrus and Vitamin C Fruits and Veggies, Starchy Fruits and Vegetables, Dairy Products, Animal Based Proteins, Grains, and Fats.

The Seven Basic Food Groups were a great idea, but hard to follow. Between import issues, feeding our growing military and trying to share with the Allies, some foods became scarce and rationing was required. Trying to make sure your family got food from each group was almost impossible.  In cooperation with the government, a plethora of pamphlets were written and cookbooks revised to meet the needs of a changing country's health.  More women were working full time or volunteering now, they didn't have time to make the elaborate meals they used to, let alone make a menu.  What was available at the grocer was changing daily and they couldn't depend on a food being available from one week to the next. 

Many of these pamphlets and cookbooks had menus, including substitutions, anticipating possible shortages.  Much of the emphasis was on foods that were plentiful but considered cast offs at the time. We have now learned some of these foods are essential to optimal health; whole grains, beans, bran, lean meats, and fish.  Organ meats were also considered healthful and encouraged as a replacement for more traditional meats.  Although they are high in fats, they are rich in iron, omega fatty acids and other trace minerals.  

Due to food shortages, a campaign was started to encourage the people on the home front to begin growing their own fruits and vegetables, canning, and dehydrating.  Many people raised rabbits and chickens for food as well. No need for preservatives, because everything was fresh! And working in the yard to take care of your garden gave you vitamin D from the sun and exercise.  

Ok, this WHOLE dissertation is to say, the war may have helped save our health! Although the end of the 20th Century brought huge changes in our ideas of health and nutrition. We believed that fat-free, sugar-free,  and low carb was what we needed. But recent research in the new century is showing our grandparents probably had it right all along (apart from the fact they are living into their 90's and 100's).  Something that rationing taught our grandparents was everything in moderation.  They couldn't splurge.  Not only was the food unavailable, it was unpatriotic to over-do anything.  A concept foreign to our modern culture, moderation is the key to any good dietary lifestyle.

I am going to use this blog to share information I have gathered from the cookbooks and items I have collected over the years from WWII.  I love to cook, so as I try new recipes or find tips, I will share them here.  And please, feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions I can share with everyone.