Monday, February 18, 2008

1950s budget menu: Monday breakfast

  • French toast from day-old cinnamon swirl bread
  • Brown sugar syrup (a first for me!)
  • Grapefruit juice--whole grapefruit were less expensive than canned juice this week.
  • Milk


Click here to return to the complete 1950s budget cooking experiment!

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always you set a beautiful table. I love grapefruit. I know that your family has to be loving this 1950's menu. Thanks for sharing. Roxie

Anonymous said...

yum! was the syrup good? Sure looks pretty.

dm

Michelle said...

You have the prettiest dishes, are those Hadley?

Anonymous said...

Oh that sounds so yummy. That is a huge hit of a breakfast here at our house. And we just recently discovered we LOVE grapefruit juice. We were playing with my new food processor that has a juicer attachment and juiced some grapefruit. So yummy!

Queen of Carrots said...

I love doing brown sugar syrup. It may not be much cheaper than store-bought syrup, but at least it avoids high fructose corn syrup and what-not additives. Plus, much tastier!

TracyMichele said...

I'm interested in your review of the syrup. We don't consume HFCS so we always buy the 100% Pure Maple Syrup which can kill a budget. :) It sounds like it isn't a savings compared to the processed stuff but what about pure maple syrup? Thoughts??

Baleboosteh said...

Fascinating stuff! I have many British books with menus in them dating from the 1920's through to the 50's and there isn't a great deal of difference in them (saving the wartime period) across the years. They are very similar in the style of menu to the one you are using - the dishes are different taking into account British tastes and available ingredients of the time but the actual structure and 'formal' style of the meals is pretty much the same. Lots of desserts and puddings too! Either portions were a lot smaller or they were a lot more physically active. Probably both!

I've often thought of trying one of the menus for a week and so I am so glad you have braved it. Can't wait to see what your final conclusions on the subject are.

Anonymous said...

Hi... I cannot wait to see how you fare financially after this week because from the looks of it, you are eating VERY well !!! Does it feel like you are eating good ( versus on a budget) ?? Jennifer

Rhonda said...

love your President placemats!

Anonymous said...

tracymichelle:

If you are using pure maple syrup you must know about its' health benefits. It is a wonderfully healthy mineral-rich sweetener! We can't wait for maple season (or, mud season take your pick) to hit here, always help friends boil their syrup. Takes something like 40 gallons sap to make a gallon of syrup which explains its' cost.

a good website to check out: WellTellMe.com

deb meyers

Anonymous said...

We, too, do the brown sugar syrup here. No complaints. I like to stay away from the HFCS as much as I can.

Brenda

Anonymous said...

You know, I just clicked to read the brown sugar recipe, & had to laugh at the comment "they'll never notice...just bring on the good china", because that's exactly what happens in my own house! Sometimes, the more humble the meal, the prettier I set my table. Presentation is everything!!

Brenda

Patti said...

We live in maple country and buy a gallon every March. But it usually runs out shortly after Christmas! And that's for 2 people (well, we do serve it to guests also). I can't bring myself to pay grocery store prices for little bottles of the stuff, plus, who knows who made it? And I will NEVER buy the fake maple syrup. But I will try this recipe, and we can come off our waffle, french toast, and pancake fast. Thanks for the link!

Amy said...

This looks really yummy! I just started making our syrup and I doubt I will ever buy it again, especially now that I know how easy it is to make!

Anonymous said...

I'm really enjoying watching this experiment. Thanks so much!

Jane said...

Thanks for the syrup link! I too want to get away from HFCS. I always come away from this blog with some tip!

~katie~ said...

I love this idea about planning a menu from the 50s! I'm quite intrigued by that era, and I'm very interested in following along with your insight regarding this!

Apostle to Suburbia said...

But Meredith, where are your stewed prunes??? :)

I have a book, "The Care and Feeding of Children" by L. Emmett Holt MD (first published in 1894, though I have the 1920 edition) that suggests a menu for each stage of childhood. Every single menu from toddler up to teen has stewed fruit at breakfast.

An example:

What would be a proper diet for a child of eight or nine?
Breakfast: Cereal; milk; bread and butter; egg; stewed fruit.
Mid-morning lunch: Cup of milk, chocolate or soup; with crackers or bread and butter.
Dinner: Meat, chicken or fish; potato, one green vegetable; stewed fruit; bread and butter.
Supper: Cereal or milk toast; thick vegetable soup; plain pudding or custard; glass of milk; bread and butter.

Whew! Talk about getting your pans and pots dirty. I love the "chocolate or soup" for lunch.

I'm enjoying your series immensely.

LynnMarie said...

Great job staying to your budget. I know that your family is enjoying it too. Looking forwarded to the final tally on how the week went, from both your point of view and the rest of the family.

Edi said...

my grandma used to make her own pancake syrup that sounds very similar to yours - but I thought their was butter added to it...would that make sense???

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality said...

Now that looks very delish! 1950's or not, we love french toast.

I was reading back, the only dried beans I usually buy are black beans for my black bean soup. It's pretty easy to think ahead & soak them, then cook them, and add them to my soup. I bought some great Northern beans the other day for a soup & they had some sort of lard in them...yuck! never will buy those again. I had to rinse them off in a colander.

Rhoda

Anonymous said...

:O You never had brown sugar syrup?!! OH MY. My great grandmother taught me how to make this. Keep in mind that she lived on a dairy farm, so my recipe is a little different than yours.
We melt butter, add cream (yep, that wonderful rich fattening stuff) then brown sugar and vanilla to make it syrup consistency. DELICIOUS.
Man, Meredith, now I'm going to have to make pancakes in the morning. ;)
(Oh - and btw, I found out long ago, that by adding only a little bit of butter and substituting the cream for evaporated milk, the flavor was quite close - close enough for my kids and hubby who didn't grow up with the real thing, any way) :D

Anonymous said...

I can't get the syrup link to work:( Could you please post the recipe? I pay over 14 dollars for a regular bottle of Aunt Jemimas pancake syrup here....you can forget the real stuff! Gill.

Anonymous said...

I love the carmel/buttery flavor of brown sugar syrup. We never buy anything but the real maple stuff here, so when we cant afford it, (which is a lot) we always make brown sugar. We also add evaporated milk, butter and vanilla to ours. We like ours with very thinly sliced tart braeburn apples, along with the brown sugar syrup. Sinful!

If you happen to have fenugreek it has a very similar flavor to maple and it is worth adding a teaspoon for the rich flavor.