Making ends meet: How we did it yesterday

Settling into my cushy armchair, I couldn't help but think about food. It's a favorite subject. And then I think of shopping, and the price of food.

Despite all the complaints I hear about the high cost of foods and / or eating out, I still believe the cheapest way to sustain yourself and your family is by cooking at home. You have to think about it. You have to be proactive. You have to make a list, and check the items on sale at your favorite markets. But if you shop weekly, you'll build a pantry arsenal that within a few months can meet ll your culinary needs.

First, though, think about the foods you like(d). Think about your favorite meals from back when you were a child, or back when you had you first apartment.

In my family, that "family favorite" was learned when I was a child and that continues today, as I emerge into great-grandparent hood.

My list:

Shepherd's Pie
Spaghetti
Golumpki'
Baked Chicken with carrots and potatoes
Baked Ham
Roast Pork
French Meat Stuffing/Pie
Mom's Macaroni & Cheese with a side of fish cakes
Trout (my dad caught hundreds each year)
Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese

Shepherd's Pie: a creamy mix of ground meat, topped with cream and whole kernel corn, topped with potatoes. When we made it in the big baking dish, we not only had a meal for all, we had leftovers, which could be reheated in a skiet a well as a microwave.

Spaghetti: What's to know. Pasta is cheap. Sometimes we'd use canned sauce but every month or two we'd whip up my dad's soup pot (which I still use) and make several galons of meat sauce. The first use was fo Spaghetti dinner. Then we made tray of lasagna which gave us one meal, plenty of leftovers and a few frozen servings.

Golumpki was an all day affair and the whole family chipped in. Six or seven basketball sized cabbages. Beef and ground pork. Rive. Some of that leftover tomato sauce. We'd begin by making the met filling, cooking all that savory meat and adding the rice and spices. Then we's steam the cabbage, one head at a time, peeling away the softened leaves. That's where the kids come in. As we cooled the leaves under water, the kids would each each brab one, spoon the filing in at the top, then carefully follow our directions in rolling them up and stacking them three layers deep in our biggest roasting pan. Hours later, we would have 90-100 golumpkis in several cover pans, each waiting its turn in the over. The kids got to lick their finger and pick up and eat what had spilled onto the table. At least half of those stuffed cabbages were packed in 2s or 4s and frozen for later use.

Baked Chicken was cooked every Sunday. Mom would place it in the oven, go to church, come home and have a cooked meal just waiting. Ditto the Roast Pork and the Ham.

French Meat Pie, another all day affair, has now been taught to two more generations. It was my grandmother's (circa 1880s) recipe. The recipe dates back to at least 1888, maybe much longer. I still have the full recipe in French from my Canadian ancestors,

Mom always made Mac & Cheese from scratch,using just 3-4 ingredients. Grotons fish cakes, frozen, were a cheap add-on.

Dad was known for catching so much Trout he'd often give it away. "You catch it you clean it" was his motto. Trout was cleaned in the field and cooked riverside on a grill, or in a skillet on the stove or in the oven. A fishing day was a mix of swimming, playing, and catching fish or chasing salamanders. All it cost was the gas to get out there in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.

Campbell's Tomato Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich was always present, warming up a rainy day or hours spent playing in the snow. You could substitute Habitant Pea Soup, Clam Chowder or Chicken Noodle soup. Or any of dad's home made soups that cooked for hours on our gas and gas stove.

Eating at home, with family or friends, was a great way to socialize and tap down the cost of meals. The preparation was as much fun as anything, and part of the recreation and teaching of children. Some my best memories are coming into my mother's kitchen to find my daughter perched on the counter, covered in flour or cake mix or sometimes mangled carrots, sitting by mom while mastering these early fine arts.

My food budget, some would say, is on the low side. Yes, but that's also budget and priorities.

Don't get me wrong; I love to eat out. I love to sample new locally owned restaurants, even if I only go a couple of times a year. At my ages, my friends and I spend our birthdays sharing lunch at one of those restaurants -- in lieu of gifts. I don't need more things but the company is the greatest gifts,

One year three of my friends and I spent every Saturday night in a large kitchen, splitting up the recreation of Menus from New England's most famous Inns. Fifty Inns. Fifty Menus. From prep to clean up, we each worked with the ingredients we were most familiar with.

But to get back to my point: planning to cook at home -- whether for personal enjoyment or monetary necessity -- has always been a part of my life, a part that hopefully will transfer down for generations to come. It's not just about the food.