Grandma's Cheap Breakfast Now Gourmet

[Nyboy]

My grandma fed a large family during the depression on pennies a day. While she was from Italy, I am sure other cultures made the same breakfast. She would take a slice of homemade bread, remove some of the middle making a hole, where she then fried a egg from her chickens. Cheap hot filling food. Last night I went to upscale Italian restaurant, one of the appetizer specials was Uova E Pane $12.99 bread with egg fried in middle LOL They did trim the crusts, grandma never waste crust.

 

[thistlebloom]

Oh, my mom made those all the time too! She called them birds nests. Only sissies trim the crust off their bread btw.

 

[Larisa]

Yes ... We did not have depression. My grandmother raised children during the war. What are the eggs? They were never seen again. They ate quinoa, nettles. There was a small ration. It contained a little cereal, bread. This cereal mixed with grass, in summer added pieces of vegetables. From potatoes cut sprouts. They were used for planting. Potatoes eaten with the peel. In the spring the childrenwere looking at the old fields of winter potatoes. He was frozen, but it is also eaten. The bread consists of flour and food waste. Tea made from carrots is not allowed in the restaurant now . Each of my grandmother and great-grandmother had a lot of children. One of them had six of them. They had only one dinner a day. My grandfathers - all were at war. Women do not sit at home. All worked for the victory. All of them are the real heroes for me.

 

[so lucky]

Larisa, I doubt if many people died of starvation or of freezing in the depression here in the US, but we know that many people died in Russia, and in other countries during the several depressions and wars there. For the most part, we in the US have been sheltered from a lot of the hardships the rest of the world has suffered. I don't know why, exactly.

For most of us now, having to do without air conditioning is a hardship.

 

[digitS']

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/16635/toad-in-a-hole/

Mom said that she didn't know when the Depression started, her family was always depressed ...

Actually, we ate very little bread. I can still remember the conversation between Mom and Dad about my brother and me needing bread for sandwiches when we went to school. I'm not sure if Dad was suggesting that we take a cold potato ....

See, isn't it odd that we had a meat and potatoes diet? We had beef - always. Sometimes, we had venison, even elk. We had lots of milk. I won't say that it's odd that we didn't grow potatoes. They were and are cheap - at least, some varieties are.

There weren't many chickens, or eggs - I suppose. It was me later, cooking toad-in-holes for my own kids. Mom didn't like chickens. Ha! My sister-in-law claimed she hated to hear them walk! I think she might have meant that it was easier to keep track of cow poop than chicken poop when we were out in the farmyard.

It's a little funny how my own adult diet reflects a difference from my parents.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

My father was in school during the depression. My mother much the same. I doubt the worst of the depression affected them too much although many of the foods Dad would cook seemed to be depression "comfort foods". Mom's dad died when she was very young, so her older brothers probably bore the worst of getting the family along.

While there still isn't much work in the area, both lived in the country and so had large gardens, but little cash money.

 

[Carol Dee]

I still make those for myself. A quick easy lunch. I am shocked at the $12.99 price tag!

 

[seedcorn]

I use to make then for the kids before school. Put jelly on bread.

Grew up poor, even today I most enjoy meals trying to replicate what Mom use to make.

 

[aftermidnight]

I haven't made them for ages, I used to beat the egg whites stiff fold in some grated cheese drop spoonfuls on buttered toast, make the nest for the egg yolk and pop them in the oven.
Annette

 

[majorcatfish]

I haven't made them for ages, I used to beat the egg whites stiff fold in some grated cheese drop spoonfuls on buttered toast, make the nest for the egg yolk and pop them in the oven.
Annette

know what i am making for breakfast tomorrow with the hash browns......