Feeling a little better....

My father's obituary was in the paper today. I feel better now that some of the business parts of his passing are finishing up. It has been an emotional roller coaster. I took my children to a local town fair last night just to get away and have a little down-time. It was nice to forget and not hear the phone ring for a few hours. I think taking care of business has kept me from feeling extreme sadness. It keeps me busy thinking about the tasks at hand and making sure my father has a dignified end. I am not sure what lies ahead for me when I am all done taking care of his affairs. I look forward to a leave of absence from courses to get my life reorganized. I hope you all have a great summer!

A long road.....

My father passed away in his sleep on June 10th around 3:00 pm. My aunt pointed out that I was due June 10th and I was born at 3:00 pm. She thought it was a cosmic sign about how important I was in his life. I thought the hardest part would be losing him, however the aftermath of taking care of his end-of-life issues have been very difficult as well. The hospital my father were my father was staying appointed a payee for his bills. When he passed away he did not have a will or life insurance. The only way to take care of his funeral expenses was through the cash account he had in savings. The payee would not release his funds to the funeral home because she was still paying his other bills, such as rent and power even though he was deceased. I have since found that this was illegal and she had no right to continue to pay bills after he passed away. Even though I am the only next of Kin and was able to make end-of-life choices for him, I still have to file in probate court just to access his savings for his funeral expenses. It has been discovered that the payee was and maybe still is stealing from his account. I have to wait 30 days after his death before filing with probate court. In that time, this payee can continue to deplete his account. The funeral home he was at originally, told me that my father was beginning to "smell" on ice and that they were not going to send him for cremation until they knew how his account was being paid. They said to give them a call during the weekend if I could " come up with" some more money. I was frantic knowing that my father had almost enough in his account to pay for his funeral, and the thought of him sitting there over the weekend was very emotional for me. I contacted another funeral home in my city and they moved him without any issue. I am so grateful for the kindness of the new funeral home. Needless to say, this has been a nightmare. This has shown me that my husband and I need to make sure everything is set up for our deaths so that our children never have to go through this.

Depressed state-of-mind.......

This week's depression cooking took a backseat to more pressing matters. My father was admitted to a nursing home with terminal cancer. He did not tell anyone in the family that he was sick. It came as a complete shock the whole family. He is on a pain management program at the nursing home, but that is all they can do. He was given a few weeks, then a few days and now it seems we are at hours. I have been serving more convenience foods because my life is so hectic right now. I am taking my life hour-by-hour also. Every time I hear the phone ring, My heart sinks. My grandmother passed away in 2005 from cancer. I considered her my mother. Luckily, I did not have to do any of the end-of-life tasks because she had 4 children. I am my father's only child. It has been very difficult to discuss funeral arrangements and obituaries. His sister ( My aunt) has been a wonderful support for me and him through this horrible time. My heart goes out to all of you who have lost a parent.

Using the seasons to my advantage

One of the ways people survived during the depression was to have their own gardens. Every year our gardening skills improve. Last year proved especially difficult due to the massive amounts of rain and blight that was so widespread throughout the state. This week we found our first pumpkin blossom of the season! Our peas, onions, carrots and potatoes seem to be taking off as well. The one disappointment so far is our lettuce. In years past, it seemed lettuce was all that would grow! I love the fact that my children will stop to pick peas fresh off the plants for a quick snack while playing. I have high hopes that our garden will yield enough food to make a dent in our grocery expenses. Another benefit to eating healthy, organic, home-grown produce is less medical expenses!

Second week and not depressed yet!

Phew! Another week flew by! My efforts yielded better results than last weeks' experiments. I incorporated the idea of saving energy while cooking affordable meals into my daily routine. I realized that the more work I have to put into preparing something, the cheaper it is. For instance, I purchased a whole chicken for $1.00 a pound. I cut two breasts and ground them in my food processor to create ground chicken meat. I used one half for a lasagna and the other half in my taco potato recipe. Instead of cooking the meat a little at a time, I cooked it all at once. I took out what I needed for the lasagna and placed the rest in the fridge. When I cooked the lasagna in the oven, I also cooked the rest of the whole chicken to use in another recipe later in the week. The biggest Ahuh! moment this week came when I realized that a little planning can save a lot of money!

Taco potatoes: $4.09 total = about .82 cents a serving

5 medium - large potatoes ( will make 5 servings) $1.24

1 pound of ground chicken (Hamburger or ground turkey can be subsituted) $1.00

1/2 of a 24 ounce jar of spaghetti sauce .50 cents

1 1/2 cups of water

1 tsp garlic powder .10 cents

1 tsp cumin .10 cents

1/2 tsp cayenne red pepper .05 cents

1/2 tsp curry .05 cents

1 cup of shredded chedder cheese .75 cents

1/2 cup of sour cream .30 cents

Wash the skins of the potatoes, poke holes in each potato with a fork and bake at 375 for 60 - 90 minutes. When the potatoes have about 30 minutes left, begin browning the chicken. When the chicken is cooked and juices run clear, add the spaghetti sauce, water, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, curry and Mix until blended. Simmer on low until sauce thickens. When potatoes are done, cut the skin off the tops and fluff the potato with a fork. Put potatoes on each plate and spoon the meat sauce over each of them. Sprinkle chedder cheese on top of them to melt. Serve with sour cream.

Still Learning.....

We made it through our first week of depression cooking! I have to admit, I cheated a bit. I have been spring-cleaning which has left little time for food preparation. We ate out more times than we normally do :( Tonight I made homemade macaroni and cheese with left over chicken. As I was transferring all of the ingredients from separate pots, I realized that this probably was not the way they cooked in the depression. The ingredients were low-cost, but the way I was cooking them was not.

Energy costs were just as important as food costs during the
depression. One of the reasons that pasta was a good staple was because it was easy to cook without using a lot of energy. Once the water boils, you can put a cover on the pot and turn off the stove. The pasta will continue to cook and soften without using energy. I also thought about washing the dishes as I placed 3 pots into the sink. Depression cooking used one pot as much as possible. In the next week, I will try using less energy as well as cooking more cost-effective foods. This photo is of my apple curry chicken. After I cooked it I realized it had too many ingredients to be considered a depression era meal. It was low-cost for me because I had all the ingredients in my pantry. Here is the recipe:

Apple Curry Chicken

1 lb of pork or chicken cubed

1 apple peeled and diced

1 onion peeled and diced

1/2 c orange juice

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

4 tbsp flour

2 tbsp cold water

Rice ( prepare as directed on package) and vegetable of your choice


Cook the meat all the way through with apples and onions. Add the orange juice and all the spices, simmer on low for about 15 minutes. Add the cold water. Sift flour evenly over pan, stir until smooth and flour is melted. Simmer another 10 minutes. Serve on warm rice

The Depression Experiment

One thing I love about homeschooling my children is the ability to incorporate learning into our everyday lives. Recently, we began researching the depression. There was a great debate on whether we were living in another depression or a recession. We concluded that economic times are fairly close to the depression, but not quite there yet. I think there are many lessons we could learn from those who did live through the depression that could make this recession easier for our families. When I was a teen, I volunteered in an elderly apartment building. I remember a few of the elderly ladies had boxes of canned goods, dry milk and toilet paper. I asked one of them ( Mabel) what the box was for. She explained that she grew up in the depression and you never know when times will turn tough. She called it her emergency box.

I made my own emergency box when I had a home of my own. There were many times that my paycheck just didn't allow for food and that emergency stash of chef boyardee saved me from hungry nights. Living in Maine, we get all kinds of weather and are no strangers to power outages. The emergency box was a blessing when we were without power for over a week and the stores were closed. In the spirit of learning from our history, I have decided to create a challenge where we cook like they did in the depression. I will post the recipes, budget and outcome of our experiment as we go. My hope is that we can still have healthy, happy meals and save money!