before the rumor gets started

[Trigger Mike]

Before the rumors get started I will go ahead and confess that we were poor growing up so we often ate chili tamale casserole for supper and now my children like it too.  

 

take 1 can of chili though 2 cans is better and 1 can of hormel tamales , line the casserole dish with the tamales.  cover with the 2 cans of chili, heat at 350 until it starts to bubble, cover with cheese and crumbled crackers and heat for another 5 minutes and for $3 you can feed a family.

[Michigan Slim]

No. You can feed everybody but the picky kid. My boy would have pouring a bowl of cereal. 

[Finagler 6853 Life]

Sounds tasty.

My wife grew up poor. Her mother, in order to stretch a meal for 8 or more at the table would make fried noodles.  Melt enough butter or margarine (preferably butter) to brown the edges of a bag of egg noodles.  About 5 minutes.  Once browned to desired coloring, add a can of condensed soup, beef, chicken, whatever your preference.  Add enough water to bring noodles to a soft consistency, like boiled noodles.  Add bullion if desired.  If you are living in tall cotton, add a second can of soup.

We still enjoy this on a cool fall day.  Makes for a quick meal too.

[Trigger Mike]

Finagler I told my wife about it and she is on the way to the store anyway and will get the ingredients.  sounded good

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

13 minutes ago, Finagler 6853 Life said:

Sounds tasty.

My wife grew up poor. Her mother, in order to stretch a meal for 8 or more at the table would make fried noodles.  Melt enough butter or margarine (preferably butter) to brown the edges of a bag of egg noodles.  About 5 minutes.  Once browned to desired coloring, add a can of condensed soup, beef, chicken, whatever your preference.  Add enough water to bring noodles to a soft consistency, like boiled noodles.  Add bullion if desired.  If you are living in tall cotton, add a second can of soup.

We still enjoy this on a cool fall day.  Makes for a quick meal too.

Doesn’t the bag of noodles burn or melt instead of just browning on the edges?

[Perro Del Diablo]

2 hours ago, Trigger Mike said:

Before the rumors get started I will go ahead and confess that we were poor growing up so we often ate chili tamale casserole for supper and now my children like it too.  

 

take 1 can of chili though 2 cans is better and 1 can of hormel tamales , line the casserole dish with the tamales.  cover with the 2 cans of chili, heat at 350 until it starts to bubble, cover with cheese and crumbled crackers and heat for another 5 minutes and for $3 you can feed a family.

Are you sure you are not confirming the rumor? I remember many meals of bowl of beans, and cornbread on good days.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Bread and milk anyone?  How about tripe?  Beef liver?

[Pat Riot]

What rumor?

[July Smith]

Lots of pintos and venison.  Heck, still go through a lot of pintos and venison but at least I have one rifle, one shotgun and two revolvers for SASS.  So not poor just bad priorities. 

[Catlow4697]

When things were tough or just short of money we had vegetarian spaghetti .

one can tomato soup and one box of cooked pasta.

ground beef was a extra as was Parmesan cheese

[Finagler 6853 Life]

2 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Doesn’t the bag of noodles burn or melt instead of just browning on the edges?

Ok, take them out of the bag first.  Sheesh.

[Pat Riot]

Spent many a night having pasta or rice and butter for dinner.

One night in New Mexico back in ‘88 I opened the fridge to find a pithcher if water and a half a stick of butter. There was a bag of macaroni in the cabinet, some spices and a can of coffee. The next day I sold my Colt Combat Government and went to the grocery store. I couldn’t make my little girl eat another lame meal because Daddy was out of work but wanted to keep his gun. I miss that gun but I never regretted why I sold it. The sale of that gun and a diamond ring got us the hell out of a lose-lose situation. 

[Chief Rick]

1 minute ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Spent many a night having pasta or rice and butter for dinner.

One night in New Mexico back in ‘88 I opened the fridge to find a pithcher if water and a half a stick of butter. There was a bag of macaroni in the cabinet, some spices and a can of coffee. The next day I sold my Colt Combat Government and went to the grocery store. I couldn’t make my little girl eat another lame meal because Daddy was out of work but wanted to keep his gun. I miss that gun but I never regretted why I sold it. The sale of that gun and a diamond ring got us the hell out of a lose-lose situation. 

As a young E5 with the kids I sold my Colt Anaconda. 

 

We'd split a pound of ground burger (the kind that comes in a tube) into fourths. Mix that with a box of cheap macaroni and cheese or hamburger helper.

 

Still like GOOD mac and cheese but I won't buy or eat hamburger helper but about once a year. 

[Trigger Mike]

Speaking of macaroni. When I was a private and just married we sometimes only had mac and cheese as a box was 20 cents. Once in a while we added tuna

[Smoken D]

52 minutes ago, Trigger Mike said:

Speaking of macaroni. When I was a private and just married we sometimes only had mac and cheese as a box was 20 cents. Once in a while we added tuna

 

Friday night dinner, mac & cheese with tuna. Dang good dinner in my book.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Beans again.

[Smuteye John SASS#24774]

4 hours ago, Country Wildman said:

Are you sure you are not confirming the rumor? I remember many meals of bowl of beans, and cornbread on good days.

Them beans were homegrown in the garden, too.

 

Still dispise butter beans, too.  Ate them back then, though, because it was eat what was put in front of you or do without.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

4 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Bread and milk anyone?  How about tripe?  Beef liver?

I love fried beef liver but can't stand onions with it.  However good old fashioned white gravy with sausage is great.

[Chief Rick]

21 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I love fried beef liver but can't stand onions with it.  However good old fashioned white gravy with sausage is great.

I really like beef liver and onions with brown gravy.

 

But I like deep fried chicken livers even better!

 

Add some collar/mustard/turnip greens and black-eyed peas. MMMMMM Good!

[Subdeacon Joe]

5 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Bread and milk anyone?  How about tripe?  Beef liver?

 

 

Yep.  Not  fan of tripe, but I'll eat it.  Love liver.  Especially with onions and bacon.  And a little sage.

 

7 hours ago, Trigger Mike said:

take 1 can of chili though 2 cans is better and 1 can of hormel tamales , line the casserole dish with the tamales.  cover with the 2 cans of chili, heat at 350 until it starts to bubble, cover with cheese and crumbled crackers and heat for another 5 minutes

 

I read that and thought, "That....sounds...GOOOOOOD!"

Read it to my wife just now, she started drooling and said, "That....sounds...GOOOOOOD!"

 

Went through a period of mostly flour  (50 lb. sack for the price of two 5 pound bags), rice, beans, and cornmeal. Store near us usually had bacon ends at less than a dollar a pound, and from about April through October had 5 pound packs of chicken thighs at 39 cents to 49 cent a pound.  Looked for managers specials on bulk sausage.  Onions, garlic, and carrots were the vegetables we could afford.  

 

Saved all the bacon grease, chicken fat, if we had beef or pork (again, managers specials made small amounts affordable from time to time) saved the fat from that.  Used it for making biscuits and cornbread.

 

[Sedalia Dave]

Any one remember commodities?

 

I still despise hard cheddar cheese and powdered milk.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

We were so poor that our Dad would give us kids a quarter if we didn't eat supper, then he would steal it back during the night and give us kids heck the next morning for losing it.

[Springfield Slim SASS #24733]

At least you guys were eating supper for supper. Many's the time my Mom made us 4 kids pancakes for supper. We loved them though. She never made us mac and Cheese, ever, wasn't until I  made it for my own kids that I tried it. Not a fan.

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

4 hours ago, Chief Rick said:

I really like beef liver and onions with brown gravy.

 

But I like deep fried chicken livers even better!

 

Add some collar/mustard/turnip greens and black-eyed peas. MMMMMM Good!

I like chicken livers, too, and you can keep your greens (almost anything green) but I'll take black eyed peas with ham or pork shoulder any time.  Throw in some Arkansas chowchow and I'm happy.

[Cheyenne Ranger, 48747L]

When I was first in Army would make a batch of pinto beans each Sunday (lasted about half the week)

 

big (or two small) bags of beans, some fresh jalapeos (they're cheap) and an onion or two.  If we could find a cheap piece of pork end or whatever we were 'high on the hog.'

 

Farted my way through many formations

 

 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

14 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Any one remember commodities?

 

I still despise hard cheddar cheese and powdered milk.

Last time I drank "powdered" milk was in 1968 on Okinawa. There was a reconstitution plant at the depot in the Machinato - Naha Service area that added some milk fat stuff back into it and sold it at the commissaries, and mess halls used it exclusively.

 

When we returned state side I went to a dairy bar at the San Francisco airport and bought a quart of ice cold milk and three cups.  My wife and I drank that and second one while we waited for our plane, but my sone, who was two and a half, wouldn't touch it.  He'd been raised on the reconstituted stuff and was in second grade before he learned to drink real milk. 

 

The hard cheddar was alright for cooking.  It melted easily and tasted okay, but I still prefer Sargento or Tillamook.

[Chief Rick]

I like hard cheddar cut thin on crackers with salami or pepperoni. 

[Chief Rick]

15 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Any one remember commodities?

 

I still despise hard cheddar cheese and powdered milk.

I don't. At least by that name. 

 

I do remember Parmalot, though. 

[Sedalia Dave]

Commodities were the predecessor to food stamps.

 

Grandpa would pick up a box in town. In it was a large box of powdered milk, big box of generic cheerios or cornflakes,  huge block of cheddar cheese that was as hard as a rock, and several cans of fruit and vegetables. Would also have large packages of rice, beans, or pasta.

[Dustin Checotah]

23 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Spent many a night having pasta or rice and butter for dinner.

One night in New Mexico back in ‘88 I opened the fridge to find a pithcher if water and a half a stick of butter. There was a bag of macaroni in the cabinet, some spices and a can of coffee. The next day I sold my Colt Combat Government and went to the grocery store. I couldn’t make my little girl eat another lame meal because Daddy was out of work but wanted to keep his gun. I miss that gun but I never regretted why I sold it. The sale of that gun and a diamond ring got us the hell out of a lose-lose situation. 

The definition of being a grown man. Some people do not get it an keep being children. Pat Riot you are a man.

[Chief Rick]

2 hours ago, Sedalia Dave said:

Commodities were the predecessor to food stamps.

 

Grandpa would pick up a box in town. In it was a large box of powdered milk, big box of generic cheerios or cornflakes,  huge block of cheddar cheese that was as hard as a rock, and several cans of fruit and vegetables. Would also have large packages of rice, beans, or pasta.

My dad died when I was barely 13 - my sister is 5 years younger and my brother 10 years younger than me.

 

We were on food stamps and WIC.  I remember getting the cereal, peanut butter and cheese.  May have received rice/beans/pasta and milk but I don't remember.

[Muley Gil SASS # 57795]

Ever had campfire stew? Brown a pound of ground beef, drain and add a can of vegetable soup. Crackers go good with it.

 

We wuz so po,  we couldn't afford shoes. Momma would dye our feet black and lace our toes together.