end of the month food

I've banged around most of the east coast in my years. Lived from Florida (Cocoa Beach) to New York (Poughkeepsie); Maryland (Bawlmer, hon) to Kentucky. During our five years in Lou-a-vull, I was introduced to a wonderful dish called burgoo. Now, in Kentucky there are as many burgoo recipes as there are barbeque recipes in Texas. Mostly because its po-folk food. We'd have burgoo socials where everybody would bring an ingredient, it would all go in the pot, and, after a good, long stew, dinner was served. Sometimes the cheapest meals are the best.

HatRak said:

I've banged around most of the east coast in my years. Lived from Florida (Cocoa Beach) to New York (Poughkeepsie)...During our five years in Lou-a-vull, I was introduced to a wonderful dish called burgoo. Now, in Kentucky there are as many burgoo recipes as there are barbeque recipes in Texas. Mostly because its po-folk food. We'd have burgoo socials where everybody would bring an ingredient, it would all go in the pot, and, after a good, long stew, dinner was served. Sometimes the cheapest meals are the best.

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Sounds grand! And you're certainly right about those meals...a large component, however, is the sociability. As I remember it, squirrel is one of the "traditional" bases of the dish, yes?

Po'keepsie, eh? I grew up in Ossining....
"Skeet"

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]As I remember it, squirrel is one of the "traditional" bases of the dish, yes?

"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

Don't remember much squirrel, though as a kid I'd hunt squirrel and they fried up quite nice. Not much meat on a squirrel but waste not, want not. Most of the burgoo recipes I'm familiar with were mutton or pork.

umm soups any kind really, but the funny thing is I only realize what was going on now :eusa_doh: . But I still love soup.

HatRak said:

During our five years in Lou-a-vull

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Love it, HatRak! There are as many pronunciations of "Louisville" as there are Burgoo recipes! I am glad you have a good association with Kentucky, my friend.

Is it weird that I think this is a fun thread?

HatRak said:

The Lord has blessed me enough that I can pretty much eat whatever I want, whenever I want, from wherever I want. I still want things I used to eat in college like tuna mac 'n cheese, spam sandwiches, black beans and rice. Truth is, you don't often stray far from your roots.

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I grew up extremely poor. We always ate pretty well because we were out in the country and had a huge garden, and my mom did a lot of canning and preserving. My mother was on food stamps for a time and we did get the free government commodities once a month - cheese, rice, etc. I'm not ashamed to admit that, because we needed it! We ate a lot of tuna casserole (which is one of my comfort foods to this day) and the occasional American chop suey (basically homemade Hamburger Helper). I remember lots of veggie meals, beans, pastas, stuff like that. I don't remember ever having steaks or anything - I do remember a lot of ground beef. The one meal I remember most was jack mackerel out of a can - packed in tomato sauce, over toast. I still crave it sometimes!

Oh and I'll admit that I like spam, especially fried with eggs! A word of caution, however: early in our marriage, my husband and I discovered that if you eat spam for 3 meals in one day, you will spend copious amounts of time in the bathroom, and it will not be fun.

Living on my own in my early 20s I worked at a newspaper and had a pathetic paycheck and an old beater for a car. Lots of ramen, beans and rice. Beans & rice were probably my favorite "broke" food because you could prepare them sooooo many ways - black beans & rice with some adobo style pork, red beans and rice with cajun seasoning & sausage, lentils and rice, pintos cooked with a ham hock and rice... the possibilities are endless! I still make a mean pot of pinto beans with smoked ham & onions - delicious with cornbread in the winter!

I read an interview with Dita von Teese once where she said that her favorite chore was grocery shopping because, "I wasn’t always able to afford food, so I love putting things in my cart and realizing I can afford them." That rings very true with me. I truly enjoy grocery shopping, because now I can actually afford to eat.

Originally Posted by "Skeet" McD

It was immediately apparent who among the shooters had actually LIVED through the depression: the litmus test was the reaction to the SPAM casserole: the older shooters made a beeline for it and it was their favorite dish: younger shooters wouldn't even try it....they turned up their noses at the very thought.

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My parents were Depression-era kids and they LOVE Spam to this day. My dad, however, still refuses to eat corn chowder (which, evidently, made more than a few weekly appearances on the dinner table.)
The funny thing about growing up with Depression-era parents is that mine stash food all over the house, even now. There are cases of surplus canned goods and pasta stored in nooks and crannies all over the house! I guess once you've been broke and hungry, you don't want to revisit it.

My favorite end-of-the-month meal was always breakfast for supper night: scrambled eggs and platters of toast!

I get paid monthly and yes, things do get a little lean towards the end of the month! My end of month staples are macaroni cheese, stews and vegetable and cheese bakes. Lots of cheese based dishes, basically!