Arkansas Blog

When most of Americans begin eating this way out of necessity due to Cheney-Roves doings just keep in mind how nutritional basic dog food can be. You should avoid the specialty "small dog" types of food as they contain extra saturated fats.

There's some good generic brands which will allow you to feed a family of four on about $44 week. Add some water and heat for the evening meal. I understand garlic improves it immensely. To keep your hair shiny add an egg or two a week.

After chowing down on some Purina Hi protein for a few months be careful not to end up in the middle of the street licking your butt.

I make cornbread several ways, all of the recipes are from memory. That said, I have never heard of hot water cornbread?

HOT WATER CORNBREAD

1 c. white cornmeal
1 c. yellow cornmeal
1 tsp. salt

Mix thoroughly and pour in 2 cups of boiling water containing 2 tablespoons of shortening. This produces a firm mound of dough. Set the dough aside and let it cool for approximately 20 minutes.

After the dough is cool, work in 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water. Pinch off a piece of dough and pat into small round cakes. You may either fry the cakes immediately or refrigerate on wax paper for later cooking.

Fry in deep fat hot enough to bubble freely over the cornbread. This cornbread should have a crisp crust on the outside, yet be soft on the inside.

A couple of years ago, the organization America's Second Harvest conducted a survey of Arkansas food pantries and kitchens and the people who use them. One of the questions they asked was: Do you have a place where you can cook? Not everyone has access to a kitchen with a stove and refrigerator. Others may not be able to pay the utility bills to keep them operating. These unfortunate people must buy food that doesn't require refrigeration or cooking.

My Mammaw makes just about the best hotwater cornbread around. It's pretty tough to do, even if you have the recipe. Some folks just never can get the hang of it (my Momma, for example).

Everyone should try it. Make sure you use real butter.

Lwood, the garlic also helps ward off fleas. Be careful who and where you lick, though. They could take offense.

I need to know what in the hell one does with jack mackerel? I've got 4 cans of the stuff I moved from Ma's apartment almost 3 years ago. I had never heard of it, my kids run when I show them a can of it and will old jack mackerel kill us if I ever figure out how to fix it for dinner? Is there anything on earth that someone doesn't eat? Suggestion?

DBI....My mother used to buy canned mackerel, 'cause we couldn't afford the uppity salmon, to make them "croquettes". A platter of croquettes, some fried Irish taters, and a pot of navy beans, and a skillet of cornbread was some kind of supper.....for 2 or 3 days usually.

"...
2 lb bag of cornmeal
2 lb. bag of sugar
..."

Yikes! I hope they're not planning to put that sugar in the cornbread!

"I need to know what in the hell
one does with jack mackerel?
Posted by: Deathbyinches"

My mother would occasionally dump a can of mackerel into a pan of hot cream sauce and we'd eat it on toast. Not bad, really, but nothing I ever have cravings for.

dbi that mackel has omega 3 in it lots of it and here is a MACKEREL CROQUETTES recipe I loved when my mom made this when i was a child granny made it to she used canned salmon as well .

MACKEREL CROQUETTES

2 cans mackerel
1 med. size onion
2 raw eggs
2 slices bread
2 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. oil
Seasoning to taste

Drain excess oil from the cans and place the mackerel in a large bowl. Mash the mackerel (as if you were preparing mashed potatoes). Chop onions, break bread into small crumbs and place into the mixture along with the eggs.

"Lwood, the garlic also helps ward off fleas. Be careful who and where you lick, though. They could take offense."

Reminds me of an old joke ... Ol' Homer and Verne were sitting on the porch of the bait shop just whittling and chewing tobacco. Homer's hound dog, Duke, was on the porch, too, and Verne observed Duke licking himself in the naughty bits department. Verne said, "Man, I wish I could do that!" Homer said to Verne, "Well, if you pet him real nice maybe he'll let you."

But seriously ... I'm glad to see so many legislators and regular folks trying this exercise in frugality. We really try to be economical at the grocery store and in our kitchen, and it's possible to eat reasonably well on a small budget. I always look through the marked-down meats to find something to cook right away, and am always surprised at what I find. "Family pack" meats can be re-wrapped and frozen for smaller use. (But don't make the mistake of buying too much and not marking the packages with the contents and date. It's not frugal if you end up throwing it out.)

You can find whole chickens for a dollar a pound or less. I always roast them and pick and reserve the meat for any number of recipes, then put the bones and everything else in a pot to make stock.

Whatever dry stuff you tend to eat a lot of (rice, pasta, beans) consider buying in bulk. I found some clear glass canisters with screw top at a dollar store years ago, and I still use them for dry goods.

Also, try growing some of your own food. You don't have to have a "real" garden. I've seen people cut a slit in a bag of potting soil and stick a tomato plant in there. Grow herbs in a window box or most anything in containers on your patio. You need at least 6 hours of full sun per day for most stuff. And in zone 7, we can grow at least something year 'round.

I'm glad this awareness has at least been raised. As Pavel pointed out, many people don't have access to some things most of us take for granted (stove, refrigerator).

Oh ... and don't throw away anything that can be composted, especially if you want to grow something.

I don't remember mackeral. I do remember fried up salmon "croquettes." Salmon on the grill was a foreign concept in Mabelvale. Actualy, it was a foreign concept everywhere until fairly recently in human history.

Well if I had some leftover cornbread right about now I would put a chunk in a big glass of milk and eat it like a ice cream sundae. One thing I have never figured out how to get around is frying cornbread cakes without smoking up the kitchen.. Anyone out there have an idea on that?

"One thing I have never figured out how to get around is frying cornbread cakes without smoking up the kitchen.. Anyone out there have an idea on that?"

We used to fish when I was a kid and if we ever caught enough of a mess we'd keep them, clean, cook, and eat them that night. Mom put her foot down ... no frying fish in the house. Dad would set up the Coleman stove on the back patio and fry the fish in a dutch oven. He tested the grease by dropping in a wooden matchstick. If it ignited, we were good to go. I'm not sure sulphur is the best thing to put in your food, though. The fish cooled on the pages of the Arkansas Gazette, as the Democrat was saved for the catbox.

One thing RLR, after you mix all that up do you then put it in the oven for a while? Did you leave out the cooking part? I don't think forgetting to cook the fish is a very healthy thing to do, though my daughters think sushi is wonderful. I can't get them to eat mushrooms, but they'll eat a raw fish....

I'd like to introduce more fish to our diet here at Grey Gardens, but no one else will go for it. I can't really blame them, I got shrimp Alfredo down, but my fried fish sucks........oh hey....

We're supposed to be talking about the hunger of the poor and here I am blathering away about food for my belly. May we see the day when no one in America or the world goes to bed hungry.

"..never figured out how to get around is frying cornbread cakes without smoking up the kitchen.. Anyone out there have an idea on that?" ES

Two solutions:
1) cook them outside with your Coleman stove.
2) use peanut oil or canola oil neither of which smoke very much. But grill cornbread just doesn't
taste very good if you use anything other than crisco.

>introduce more fish to our diet here<

Great approach. Since you're close to NWA DBI Wally should stock talipa (?) fillets. If you know how to deep fry most teens will eat anything that's deep fried. Just NEVER re use the oil. Gases which condense into cooking fats become carcinogenic. On the few occasions when we fry I use an inexpensive canola oil and discard it into the compost heap when we've finished.

Since we've gone way beyond $3 day food you could also try chowders or bisques. You can use about any fish for either.

Opps DBI you just fry them in a little oil till there golden brown like you would fry fried green tomatoes . in a skillet on top of the stove , sorry about that .

Goes to show there's always something to make ya feel better about your own raising...and never having to eat that nasty canned mackerel is one of em! (I opened a can once in an attempt to make 'healthy' dog snacks and couldn't get it out of the house fast enough.) I remember an occasional salmon patty, but that's about as far off the fried pork chop/spaghetti path my mother got...lucky me. And now that I know that most of our wild seafood should be glowing neon green 'cause of the mercury/etc., I'm doubly glad. I do love tuna...so I ration my tuna indulgence.

'Most' families I know have had to subsist on limited grocery funds at one time or another (illness/unemployment/accident/life)...so doing it for the experience seems foreign. I'm never 'willingly' going back to times we worked so hard to get out of.

The fried cornbread looks delicious...of course most everything is better fried!

DBI, I've got some mushrooms I think your daughters would REALLY like!! Again, how old are they?

We're on the wrong blog here aren't we? We should be over at Eat Arkansas...

DBI: I have used mackeral for "croquettes" when I thought I'd bought Salmon (Dammit!). I used a basic recipe as above, but added green onion, a little monteray jack cheese--not too much or they'll burn, dill, and then throw some lemon juice on them (I love citrus on my fish) and make burger-patties out of them. I really like that better than hamburgers.

I add the seasonings like Basil does, but dredge the patties in cornmeal before frying ... makes a very nice crust on them!

That was cheating adding oil and spices to the greens. I can't tell you how many times in my very poor homeless youth when oil and spices would have been a godsend.