Depression Era Cooking with Clara

If you've never heard of Clara, then stop reading this post immediately (!), clear your schedule for the rest of the day, and watch everything on youtube.

Seriously. You'll be glad you did.

And if you're anything like me, you might just be a better cook for it. Here's Clara's recipe for Pasta with Peas




And here's what my attempt turned out like. And this is just what I had left over!
I made 3 of her recipes in one day. Here's the baked apples I made for desert. Not the prettiest things, but putting them in my Pyrex "Black Tulip" casserole dish does seem to snazzy the appearances up a bit. Her video didn't tell an oven temperature, so I baked mine at 350 degrees, probably for around 50 minutes.
Also, I used my gigantic new (to me) Le Creuset au gratin dish I wrote about just the other day - a 10 dollar thrift store find - woo-hoo! I actually cooked 6 apples at once, spaced them out evenly, and added water to the bottom.

I pulled them all together for this picture just to illustrate how truly huge this au gratin dish is!

And finally, Poorman's Meal. Originally, I didn't add any tomato sauce to the dish because I didn't know if my husband would like it, so it's shown here without it. We both decided later that the tomato sauce was a requirement.

I can totally see why this dish was such a hit around her household. It's basically hot dogs with french fries and ketchup, but in a different form. Try it and see if you agree!

Also, I have to say that I love Fire King sapphire blue ovenware. I don't have a lot of clear glass pieces, but the blue glow and pretty Philbe-style pattern hooked me. I have this covered loaf dish and an individual casserole, both of which were GW finds a few months ago.

I love you Clara! You're the best!