Self Starting "Old Fashioned Girls" by Choice!!!

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PureSnowChic -- good for you! I have been dedicated to cooking from scratch for a while now. I think it is soooo worth it! I've recently taken up sewing, too. Don't know what you other sewing ladies think, but I recommend Janome brand sewing machines. Or Kenmore (Sears) brand, which is made by Janome. My aunts (who are great at sewing and quilting) told me those are the brands to buy and thats what I did. You can also find free downloadable/printable tutorials for sewing projects. I've made table runners, aprons, and am making a girl's skirt -- all from tutorials. My friends and I are young 30ish somethings and enjoy these things, too. It's making a comeback! Yay!

www.allcrafts.net and www.freshlypicked.blogspot.com has some free tutorials on sewing.
Here's a couple of my favorite sites www.chickensintheroad.com, www.tammysrecipes.com, www.thepioneerwoman.com -- these ladies are dedicated to cooking from scratch. I also have a blog -- www.clutehomestead.blogspot.com that I like to share my recipes on.
 
I was married at age 19 and never learned to cook. My mom wouldn't let us girls mess up her kitchen. The first few years of marriage we ate at every fast food restaurant there was. I can't begin to tell you what it did for our health as well as our waistline. Money got tight and then the kids came along and I needed to start cooking. I relied on my mom as much as I could for instruction even calling her once for instruction on how to bake a cut up chicken. Through trial and error, I kept us alive and then I started gaining confidence and began to branch out. I liked the idea that I could perhaps be able to cook the things I love myself. Now nothing daunts me.

One thing I learned is that with the staples in the house, you will never starve. Simple things like pancakes, bread, pasta, etc are just manipulations of a very few basic ingrediants. Keep things on hand like flour, sugar, butter, salt, levenings and of course eggs.

My first favorite cook book was the New Doubleday Cook Book that I got through the bookclub. I actually wore a copy out. It is a large book that has many basic recipes as well as specialty recipes. For country recipes, I always favored the Farm Journal Cook Book. Not for general cooking but it has some wonderful recipes in it. Scour your local flea markets and thrift stores for old, old books. I have a book from 1898 that has a recipe for head cheese that starts with boiling a calf head. There is a lot of knowledge to be gained from these books. Collecting cook books is a passion of mine.

Invest in a Kitchen Aid stand mixer if you don't have one. I've had mine for about 25 years and it is still going strong. Buy an old iron skillet. I was lucky to inherit my husband's grandmother's well seasoned skillet. It's better than any non-stick pan out there.

Research recipes. If you have something in mind that you want to cook, look up several recipes and see how they are the same and how they differ. With all these eggs coming in, I recently looked for a good poundcake recipe. I had never been able to find one that wasn't dry. Perserverance paid off with this recipe: http://www.chitterlings.com/pound-cake.html

Most of all, have fun. Never think of cooking as a drudgery.
 
PureSnowChick -

If you want to get back to basics, try and get your hands on one of the older versions of Carla Emery's Old Fashioned Recipe Book. I don't care much for the later versions, some of them have been "edited" to death by lawsuit leery editors and added to the the point of craziness. You may find one in a library, or try e-Bay or Craig's list or Amazon. Aim for one no later than the 80's if you can. I literally wore out my first copy, seriously, the covers and first and last pages were gone, and then the binding started falling apart and the pages started falling out. I had the original Bantam edition and was disappointed when I bought a "newer" version in the 90's. Finally went out and searched until I found another original one. It is not a "recipe book" per se, but a HUGE book on whatever you could ever possibly need to know to be as self sufficient as possible. All in plain talk with the pros and the cons. Animals, candles, cheese, gardening and cooking/baking are just some of the topics. When we first moved out into the country, I used this book over and over and over and over. Best money I ever spent, and it was a LOT of money for us back then, so that's saying something.

Good luck with your efforts - you'll find good days and bad days and wonderful days and will find yourself happier and happier (if tireder) as the days go by. Doing things the "old fashioned" way is more work, but has more satisfaction as well
 
PureSnowChick -

If you want to get back to basics, try and get your hands on one of the older versions of Carla Emery's Old Fashioned Recipe Book. I don't care much for the later versions, some of them have been "edited" to death by lawsuit leery editors and added to the to the point of craziness. You may find one in a library, or try e-Bay or Craig's list or Amazon. Aim for one no later than the 80's if you can. I literally wore out my first copy, seriously, the covers and first and last pages were gone, and then the binding started falling apart and the pages started falling out. I had the original Bantam edition and was disappointed when I bought a "newer" version in the 90's. Finally went out and searched until I found another original one. It is not a "recipe book" per se, but a HUGE book on whatever you could ever possibly need to know to be as self sufficient as possible. All in plain talk with the pros and the cons. Animals, candles, cheese, gardening and cooking/baking are just some of the topics. She wrote it with the idea of helping folks who didn't know the basics and went on from there. When we first moved out into the country, I used this book over and over and over and over. Best money I ever spent, and it was a LOT of money for us back then, so that's saying something.

Good luck with your efforts - you'll find good days and bad days and wonderful days and will find yourself happier and happier (if tireder) as the days go by. Doing things the "old fashioned" way is more work, but has more satisfaction as well.
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As for sewing, I agree totally with the idea of buying a good used machine. If you can, find a repairman who is in private business (preferably for a long time) and get his advice on what machines are good ones to have, and that he can repair. The go looking at yard sales, estate sales, auctions, and the like. My machine is almost 30 years old, has just enough stitches to be useful, and sews like a dream. My first machine was a cheaper one (although a supposedly "good" brand) and never sewed well, never could me repaired to sew well and caused me no end of tears.
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When you progress to sewing with a pattern, look to Wal-Mart. Not kidding. They must have some kind of deal with pattern companies because you can get them cheaper at Wal-Mart than you can direct. I recently bought a pattern for my Granddaughter there. It was marked $16 something, and I paid less than $5.
 

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