Let's Make Cooking Easy With Convenience Foods !



Photo of drying Buffalo meat  for pemmican

Today there are so many convenience foods available that if we buy the right ingredients and have them on hand, anyone can cook.   They save the consumer time in the kitchen because they are quick, require very little preparation, are packaged for a long shelf life and can be purchased frozen, chilled, boxed or canned.  They require few cooking skills.  

Canada has a long and interesting ‘convenience food’ history.  Before the invention of commercial food preservation methods, Canada’s First Nations people relied on their own convenience food called ‘pemmican’.   It was very nutritious, portable and long-lasting.  Dried meat was combined with berries and fat.  Pemmican   was stored in bison-skin bags called ‘parfleches’ that were sealed with melted lard.  As the skins dried, they shrank, compressing the pemmican   creating a vacuum seal which kept the contents from spoiling.  First Nations people sold pemmican, as a convenience food, to the Hudson Bay Company in the 1820’s.   European fur traders bought it at the HBC to take with them on their travels. 

Breakfast cereals are a well know convenience food.    In 1930, three doctors in   Ontario invented Pablum.  It was a nutritious pre-cooked, vitamin enriched baby cereal that was easy and fast to prepare.

     

During World War II, all available food was sent overseas to feed Canada’s military.   This created a food shortage for civilians.  The Canadian Government issued War Ration Books to each family to guarantee that everyone got a fair supply of staples like milk, cheese, sugar, butter, coffee and tea.  Home cooks had to make do with less ingredients and substitutions.  Cookbooks, magazines and government pamphlets introduced new meatless recipes as well as sugarless and eggless baking. In 1937, J.L. Kraft, originally from Ontario, introduced Kraft Macaroni & Cheese.  His timeing,  when there were food shortages , had a lot to do with its success.  Convenience foods are very profitable and their development has had a lot to do with the manufacturer’s point of view regarding the sales potential of the product.   

After the war, foods like cake mixes and dehydrated juices were introduced to the Canadian public.    Pre-packaged foods were invented by the military in order to feed the post war population increase.  New products developed at a rapid pace.  By 1962, research scientist Edward Asselbergs, Department of Agriculture, Ottawa, invented instant mashed potato flakes. They were sold as a packaged  convenience food  that could be reconstituted by adding hot water or milk. It was sold world-wide. 

A hundred years ago the average grocery store had about one hundred food items for sale. Thirty years ago there was a choice of approximately eight thousand items.  Today’s modern grocery stores have more than 17,850 convenience foods to choose from.  Every Canadian household uses convenience foods in one form or another.

A few of my handy staples include: canned tomatoes (whole, diced or crushed), flour, sugar, bouillon cubes of various flavours, an assortment of pasta’s, rice, spices, canned salmon and tuna, peanut butter, frozen vegetables and fruits etc.. 

When my kids were young they would pitch in and help make “Clean Out the Fridge Soup”.  The reason I called it that was so that we could take anything that was a left over, meat or a vegetable (all within reason and food safety in mind) and incorporate it into a pot of home-made soup.  Here is a simple recipe that my mom made for a basic tomato soup.  By jazzing it up with what you have in the fridge it can become your original recipe and a hardy meal.

Basic Tomato Soup

1/2 cup of celery, chopped

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 large can of crushed of tomatoes  

1 can of water or stock

 Salt and pepper to taste.

Add a bit of oil, usually about 2-3 tablespoons, to the bottom of a soup pot.  Sauté ½ cup of celery and 1 onion in the oil.  *While you are at it see what’s in the fridge if you have carrots, broccoli, zucchini, peppers, or any other veg chop that up and add that to the pot. Sometimes I add a bit of fried bacon, sliced wieners, or leftover cooked sausage. Add the can of tomatoes and then fill the same can with water or stock and add that to the pot.  If I don’t have stock I add low sodium bouillon cubes.   Add salt and pepper to taste.   Bring the pot to a low boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.  You can add about one cup of cooked elbow macaroni to this or left over cooked rice if you like, some canned chickpeas or any other canned beans. You can eat it as is or add a few toppings for added interest like a spoon of sour cream, yogurt, pumpkin seeds or grated cheese, a sprinkle of a fresh herb or parsley.  It is all good and nutritious.

The main point is to get a feel for cooking.  It doesn’t need to be a big production. Convenience foods make the job a lot easier. Enjoy!

When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, go by your own taste. 

Laiko Bahrs

Photo courtesy of http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_metis/fp_metis3.html

Canada's Own Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the second Monday of October.  But, that was not always the case.  A few years ago when I was a contributing writer to an educational textbook, I discovered that our holiday had an interesting beginning.

The very first Canadian Thanksgiving commemoration took place in 1578 in what is now called the province of Newfoundland.  According to historical records, Martin Frobisher, a British explorer and navigator, arrived in Newfoundland.  There, he and his crew held a ceremony.  It was to give thanks for surviving the long journey across the Atlantic.

Other settlers who later arrived continued holding the same thankful observance.  These were thought to have influenced the Canadian Thanksgiving tradition.  Now what followed is the confusing part so I will break it down: 

• For a few hundred years Thanksgiving was celebrated in either late October or early November. 
• The first Thanksgiving Day in Canada after confederation was observed on April 15, 1872. It had nothing to do with any harvest festival but rather it celebrated the recovery, from a serious illness, of the Prince of Wales. He later became King Edward the seventh. 
• There is no record of a Thanksgiving Day between 1873 and 1879.  
• In 1880-1898 Thanksgiving was celebrated on a Thursday in November. 
• By 1908 the holiday was predetermined on a Monday in October. 
• In 1921, Parliament passed the Armistice Day Act, which stated that “Thanksgiving would be observed on Armistice Day”, which was November 11. 
• Ten years later Parliament adopted an amendment to the Act that stated that “November 11 would be known as Remembrance Day and Thanksgiving".
• Thanksgiving became an official holiday in 1957 when Parliament announced that there would be a day of general Thanksgiving to celebrate ‘the almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada had been blessed’.  
• Until Thanksgiving became an official holiday in 1957, Parliament announced the date of the holiday every year. Ever since then we celebrate it on the second Monday of October.

I make the traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixings.  Usually there are plenty of leftovers.  I like to make my version of a recipe that was served to me in England many years ago.  The dish was called Bubble and Squeak.  It is usually made from the cold leftover vegetables of a roast beef dinner.  I use the leftovers from a turkey dinner.  If you are a vegetarian there are ample   versions of this recipe available online.  Here is my adaptation:

Gloria’s Bubble and Squeak

It really depends on how many leftovers you have and how many people are going to eat.  I base my recipe on four.  My measurements are very approximate. 

Ingredients:

Cube two or three cups of leftover turkey into bite size pieces combining dark and white meat. 

About three cups  of a mixed assortment of veggies like brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, carrots, green beans, squash, peas.

1 chopped onion

¼ cup of vegetable oil for frying

Season with salt, pepper, sprinkle of dry sage

Pour enough oil to cover the bottom of a heated heavy duty frying pan. 

Once it sizzles add the chopped onion and lightly fry.

Add the vegetables and the leftover turkey mixing them together in the pan.

Add a bit more oil and press the bubble down into the pan

Fry over a moderate heat until it is browned underneath, about 15 minutes.

Turn the bubble over and add the rest of the oil and fry until the other side is browned.

You can then serve this as a light meal or as part of a brunch with fried eggs, sausages, bacon and sliced tomatoes.   Bubble and Squeak is a great way to use up leftovers from Thanksgiving Dinner.

In the childhood memories of every good cook, there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.  ~ Barbara Costikyan