People in the past knew how to feast…..and how to enjoy a simple dinner.
Holiday feasts weren’t the casual throw-together meals that we generally create. But their everyday meals were often kept quite simple, unlike our weekdays meals which can be time consuming.
I don’t want to over-generalize. All you need to do is pick up Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls and read the descriptions of his meals and you will know that many a farmer had bigger meals then we could ever imagine! (and there was a farmer’s wife who made it all too). But still, there are many literary illusions to simple meals of the past that have always appealed to me.
For example, in Wives and Daughters
A favorite childhood book, Heidi, by the Swiss author, Johanna Spyri, was written in the eighteen hundreds. In this sweet story, you get a picture of a poor man’s food in Switzerland. She and her grumpy Grandfather ate warm (grassfed) fresh goat’s milk and toasted cheese and rye bread.
Another childhood favorite book, The Good Master
I read once in a bread making bread that shepherds in the past would often make thin, crisp, almost cracker like breads that would keep for long periods of time, just once or twice a year. Talk about spreading out your baking days!
Don’t you just love the simplicity of it all?
We may not need to keep things quite so simple as necessity dictated in the past, but we can certainly learn from these examples!
Enough from the past and on to the present! How do you keep things simple? Share recipes and tips for making nourishing food that’s simple too! I can’t wait to see what you all have to share.
Please read the carnival guidelines before entering, and make sure to link to this post in your post. I retain the right to delete any blog posts that do not meet the carnival guidelines. Thanks!
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Hi Kimi –
Let me know if this was too simple for the Simple Carnival 😉
Hi, Kimi!
I hope you’ll enjoy the Layered Taco Spread. It’s simple, nutritious, and delicious!
Hi Kim,
Hope the dish fits the event.Cheers.
I did another post on my favorite simple veggie roast. I think I’m getting boring, will have to add to my repertoire. Love your carnivals! Peace –
Hi there — great topic this time around!
I don’t have a blog, but I just couldn’t resist participating!
I have a simple meal that is easy and yummy. It takes a little planning but nothing big.
Prep: Defrost 1 broiler chicken. I like to use game hens, as I only feed two, but chicken is just a yummy!
Equipment: Slow cooker
Method: Put defrosted bird into slow cooker and cook until it falls off the bone. You do not need to add water, the chicken will make it’s own liquid. I like to stuff my bird with onions and sprinkle it’s nether regions with salt and pepper. I salt and pepper the skin and say good bye until it smells like dinner. I then check bone falling-offness. When it is tender enough I turn off the cooker, and make gravy with any drippings in the slow cooker.
This is so yummy with mashed root veggies, and some greens. Last time I had mashed squash and spinach wilted with onions, garlic, and butter. Pretty easy and super yummy.
We have also just ate the chicken and gravy, with some cut up cucumbers and tomatoes.
To make the gravy use drippings from chicken, or bacon fat. I like about 1 tbsp. Melt over medium heat, add 1 tbsp unbleached flour to make a rough. Cook until it starts to bubble and develop a slight golden color. You want to make sure you stir the rough often as it will burn easily. Now you add 1 to 1/2 cups of liquid. I like 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 milk. Although just chicken broth would make a yummy addition. Fully incorporate broth with rough. Cook on med-low heat until desired thickness. Then you are in for yummy town!
Hi, Kimi. This is a great carnival ~ I will enjoy reading everyone’s contributions. Thanks for hosting it. Before I go off to read, I wanted to say that Wives & Daughters is one of my favorites, I’ve read it many times, but I’m always sad that Elizabeth Gaskell didn’t survive long enough to finish it. Even though we know that Roger & Molly would be together in the end, I’d still have like to read it from Mrs. Gaskell’s pen.
Thanks again~Wardeh
Rosy,
Thanks so much for sharing a yummy recipe! My mother-in-law also makes chicken this way and loves it!
And I am always glad when “non-bloggers” share recipes too! I usually mention that in my post, but just forget this time! Thanks for sharing!
Kimi – This carnival has been perfect timing for me. With trying to plant a massive garden, having company, trying to keep up with housework and cranky teething babies I have been overwhelmed. I am going to plan a SUPER simple menu for next week so that I can get caught up and stay above water. Oh and finish planting that garden.
Also, have you seen wives and daughters (done by the BBC)? I have been getting period dramas from the library and
forcing my husband to watch themwatching them with my husband. We have so enjoyed them as a date night treat, as it seems there is hardly anything clean to watch anymore. North & South by Elizabeth Gaskell was also really, really good. It was also done by the BBC and we got it through library loan – which I love!I’m off to read everyone’s entries now 🙂
Oops! I posted twice! Go ahead and delete one of the “Erin’s” 🙂 .
Hope you like the simple breakfast stack!
I don’t have a blog but I wanted to share one of my favorite simple, nourishing meals.
Kimchi rice – serves one
1 c cooked brown rice (warm or room temp)
1/3 c lacto-fermented kimchi
1/4 c raw shredded or cubed cheese
soy sauce, if desired
Serve the kimchi and cheese over the rice, add a little soy sauce, and voila! A nourishing, simple meal that includes lots of good enzymes from the raw cheese and kimchi.
A good kimchi recipe is found in Nourishing Traditions. Two websites with recipes for lacto-fermented cabbage are (these have just regular sauerkraut. You would use Napa cabbage, thinly sliced green onions, shredded carrots, grated ginger, minced garlic, etc. for the kimchi):
http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/02/homemade-sauerkraut.html#more-298,
and
http://www.wildfermentation.com.
Enjoy!
Kimi- I love the theme for your blog carnival. Always great info on your blog and now even more! I hope you’ll join in my carnival tomorrow, Friday Foodie Fix. The secret ingredient is Artichokes. Now time to start visiting all of these great blogs that have posted here.
Kimi – another great carnival idea…thanks for sharing!
I Also don’t have my own blog, but have a simple meal that my family just loves, and thought that sharing it would bless someone!
Half a bag of organic potatoes
Half a head of organic cabbage
1 onion
and a pound of nitrate free turkey sausage ( smoked flavored )
Just put it all in a large pot with a steamer basket and add water and cover with a lid and steam until cabbage and potatoes are tinder and sausage plumps up!
Salt and enjoy! Sometimes if I feel up to it I add homemade cornbread.
Hi Kimmi,
Just posted my entry for the Simple and Nourishing Carnival. Thanks so much for doing this. I haven’t had time to read all the entries yet, but can’t wait to see them all:)
Katie,
That sounds really good. I will have to try that, but I prefer my cabbage fried in butter. I bet the whole thing would be good in butter……I may improvise on your idea…
**Simple Summer Time Meals Here**
Salmon Quesadillas
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. olive oil
1 can salmon, drained and large bones removed
1 to 2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 pepper
In skillet, saute garlic in oil until tender. Stir in salmon, basil and pepper. Cook over med. heat until heated through. Spread filling on tortilla and top with shredded raw cheese. Fold and place on griddle and cook until melted together. Serve with salsa and guacamole.
Tuna Melts
Canned tuna
Homemade mayo or best mayo available
olives, sliced (opt.)
onion, chopped (opt.)
Small chunks or shredded raw cheese
Mix ingredients. Top pieces of homemade bread, rolls, biscuits or english muffins with mixture. Bake in oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Finish under broiler for a few minutes if you want a browned top.
Basil Burgers
One pound of grass-fed beef
One chopped onion
Lots of fresh basil, chopped
Beef roast seasoning(Penzeys)
Worcestershire sauce
Mix together and make into patties. Pan-fry in skillet or grill. We eat these without a bun. Good with ketchup. No exact measurements just dump in what looks good. Use plenty of basil and onion.
I got this recipe from a CSA garden I was a part of. It is very good. I do add a egg especially if grilling to help them stay together. I do not have the beef roast seasoning so I just add some garlic powder, real salt and pepper. Easy and delicious!
Baked Rice
1/4 melted butter
1 cup brown rice (soaked in warm water and some whey, and then drained)
2 1/2 cups homemade chicken broth
pepper a dash
leftover pieces from baked chicken
Mix all ingredients in order given and place in casserole dish and cover.
Bake at 350 for about 1 hour and half. Check at one hour and 15 minutes you do not want it to be dry so depending on your oven it may get done a few min. early.
So simple and yummy with the homemade broth. I freeze small containers of leftover chicken pieces and then this is easy to whip up.
Thanks to all who are sharing!
How I LOOVVEEE your carnivals. Just posted my link and I can’t wait to shop around for summertime ideas. everything Look DELICIOUS! Thank you Limi and thank you to all who linked up! Kimi I can’t wait to make your lemon curd! Especially with your soaked whole wheat biscuits!
Kimi–
Another wonderful carnival! Thank you!
I’ve started making half of my bread dough into buns because they are so convenient to have on hand when I need to give the kids a quick snack or throw something else in my husband’s lunch. My kids love their sandwiches on buns.
I also LOVE Wives and Daughters, and North and South. And I now read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books with a much different perspective than when I was a kid. Back then I always identified with Laura, and now I identify with Ma–how in the world did she take care of three little girls (including a baby) and do all the other things she did?! What a woman. A great example to me. I’m half-way through reading Farmer Boy to my kids right now and I had the same thought about Almanzo’s mother. She fed her family very well!
Thank you for sharing how you take care of your family. Farmer Boy was always one of my favorites.