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Peach PIes and Protein, From the Gold Rush Era

Peach PIes and Protein, From the Gold Rush Era

Description

(On sale this week marked down from $10 to $5 - so your total cost for this week's meals will be even cheaper than stated below!)

Do you often find yourself well past mealtime with no real food in the house, or no idea what to make? Even those of us who cook regularly can fall into not-so-healthy ruts. For everyone who wants to save money on groceries, expand their repertoire, or is simply too busy to plan meals ahead, I create weekly Menu Planning Kits with meal plans, exciting recipes, fun activities or stories, and grocery lists organized by aisle.

This one offers week of historic Gold Rush-era recipes!

The groceries you will need for this kit cost about $40-$50, depending on your area and season and whether you buy organic - which makes your total food cost for a week's worth of high-protein, healthy, mostly-organic meals (for one person) $50-$60.

Along with your grocery list organized by aisle, and fun activity or story, this kit contains the following recipes:

Hangtown Fry (7 breakfasts)

It's amazing to me how what we consider to be luxury food changes over the years. Troops stationed in Russia used to complain about having to eat so much "fish jam" (caviar). Cartoons from the Gold Rush show that gold was everywhere but good food was scarce; depending on how long ago food deliveries had come into port, it could cost a king's ransom to get a pound of beans. Oysters, though, were plentiful along the coast, and made it into this common fry-up!

18-Carat Hash (6 meals)

Hee! Golden in era and in color.

Campfire Beefsteaks (4 meals)

A super-simple preparation that lets the meat show off its own flavors. I recommend cooking them as rare as you can get away with, but let your own tastes be your guide!

Pork & Beans (4 meals)

Another simple dish, but one that has definitely stood the test of time. And which can be deceptively high-quality in ingredients and flavor!

Peach Hand Pies (many desserts)

Don't you just love the name? There was a lot to do back then - no time to sit around with sloppy pieces of pie gushing peach everywhere! But a neat little enclosed pastry - now that could work! May you go about your days with a peach pie in one hand and a lot of gold in the other!

That great pic of a hangtown fry is by Jef Poskanzer via Flickr, and the campfire steak is by Phototram.

Added on Sep 24, 2009