Poor Folk Food

Dan and I both grew up in modest homes (ie: the moolah wasn't flowing). So our mothers were creative on putting food on the table. My mom taught me how to cook less expensive cuts of meat and still make it fabulous. Dan's mom can stretch any meal to feed extra guests (being missionaries, they never knew who might drop by around dinner time). And both of our moms could cook a mean pot of beans, the ultimate cheap food!

Tonight... it was 5:30 and I had no idea what to fix and didn't have any meat thawed out. I did have some staples: milk, flour, butter, eggs, and a couple of cans of salmon. So I made one of Dan's childhood dishes. Creamed Tuna - did I mention I never follow a recipe completely - I didn't have tuna, but I did have salmon...close enough! There's no recipe card with this recipe written down, so I'll just tell you how I made it, with the new name of course.

Creamed Salmon over Biscuits
5 Tbs. butter (the real stuff)
5 Tbs. flour
4 hard boiled eggs
1 - 6oz. can boneless, skinless salmon
Milk
salt
pepper
Biscuits - I make them from scratch, it's almost as fast as popping a can and much better :) (the recipe to Stir & Roll Biscuits are in one of my previous blogs)

Melt the butter in a skillet and then add the flour. Stir and let bubble for a couple of minutes (if you don't cook the flour it will taste bad). This is also called a roux, like you make gravy. Add milk and stir, stir, stir until all of the roux is mixed into the milk. Sorry, but I never measure the milk. You can always add more if it turns out too thick. Heat until bubbly and thickened. Add salt, pepper, chopped eggs, and drained salmon. Serve over biscuits.

**you can add more milk if it's too thick, you cannot add more butter or flour if it's to thin - it doesn't work that way.

I made a double recipe of biscuits, good thing. Our family likes to have some with honey after dinner. I also cooked some frozen cauliflower (white broccoli as Claire calls it) and peas. The kids loved it and I have to say, I liked the salmon better than doing it with tuna.

You might be saying this is the grossest thing you have ever heard of, but don't knock it till you try it. I was a little skeptical when Dan told me about it when we first got married, but I really like it.

To keep it fair, here's one of my mom's cheap-oh no-I don't know what we're having for dinner recipes.

Chili Mac
1 pkg. angel hair pasta
1 large can Wolf Brand Chili (I use 2 cans of Wolf Brand Turkey Chili to keep calories/fat down)

Cook pasta. Drain and return to pot. Stir in chili and heat thoroughly.

The best part of tonight - besides a cheap, quick dinner...we sat at the table together and talked about the day. Dane told us a couple of riddles he heard at school today and Claire made some up which were hilarious!