Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression
4.5/5
()
About this ebook
YouTube® sensation Clara Cannucciari shares her treasured recipes and commonsense wisdom in a heartwarming remembrance of the Great Depression.
Clara Cannucciari became an internet sensation late in life, making cooking videos until her 96th birthday. Her YouTube® Great Depression Cooking channel garnered an army of devoted followers. Now, in Clara's Kitchen, she gives readers words of wisdom to buck up America's spirits, recipes to keep the wolf from the door, and tells her story of growing up during the Great Depression with a tight-knit family and a "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" philosophy of living.
In between recipes for pasta with peas, eggplant parmesan, chocolate covered biscotti, and other treats Clara gives readers practical advice on cooking nourishing meals for less. Using lessons learned during the Great Depression, she writes, for instance, about how to conserve electricity when cooking and how you can stretch a pot of pasta with a handful of lentils. She reminisces about her youth and writes with love about her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Clara's Kitchen takes readers back to a simpler, if not more difficult time, and gives everyone what they need right now: hope for the future and a nice dish of warm pasta from everyone's favorite grandmother, Clara Cannuciari, a woman who knows what's really important in life.
Clara Cannucciari
CLARA CANNUCCIARI (1915 - 2013) was the author of Clara's Kitchen: Wisdom, Memories, and Recipes from the Great Depression and hosted the web series Great Depression Cooking with Clara.
Related to Clara's Kitchen
Related ebooks
Depression Era Recipes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Back to Basics Cooking for the Great Depression Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Cookbook for Hard Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Prairie Homestead Cookbook: Simple Recipes for Heritage Cooking in Any Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The First American Cookbook: A Facsimile of "American Cookery," 1796 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Amish Cooks Across America: Recipes and Traditions from Maine to Montana Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/599 Favorite Amish Recipes: *Best-Ever Breakfasts *Midday Meals and Snacks *Quick and Easy Dinners Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Amish Canning Cookbook: Plain and Simple Living at Its Homemade Best Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The American Frugal Housewife Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: 200 Gourmet Recipes for Any Budget Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmish Community Cookbook: Simply Delicious Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Homes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Settlement Cook Book 1903 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best of Amish Cooking: Traditional And Contemporary Recipes Adapted From The Kitchens And Pantries Of O Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Homestyle Amish Kitchen Cookbook: Plainly Delicious Recipes from the Simple Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Authentic Amish Cookbook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Frugal Foodie Cookbook: Waste-Not Recipes for the Wise Cook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meals in a Jar: Quick and Easy, Just-Add-Water, Homemade Recipes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving Recipes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recipes from the Old Mill: Backing With Whole Grains Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Amish Family Cookbook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Grandma’s Vintage Recipes: Old Standards for a New Age Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerica's Most Wanted Recipes: Delicious Recipes from Your Family's Favorite Restaurants Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Beverly Lewis Amish Heritage Cookbook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Prairie Cookbook: Memories and Frontier Food from My Little House to Yours Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fix-It and Forget-It Best 5-Ingredient Comfort Food Recipes: 75 Quick & Easy Slow Cooker Meals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/599 Favorite Amish Breads, Rolls, and Muffins: Plain and Simple Recipes to Warm Your Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Low Budget Cooking For You
The Quick and Easy College Cookbook: 300 Healthy, Low-Cost Meals that Fit Your Budget and Schedule Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe "I Don't Want to Cook" Book: 100 Tasty, Healthy, Low-Prep Recipes for When You Just Don't Want to Cook Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Real Bento: Fresh and Easy Lunchbox Recipes from a Japanese Working Mom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 10:10 Simple Recipe Book: Fast, healthy and budget-friendly recipes for the whole family Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe College Cookbook: 100+ Fast, Fresh, Easy & Cheap Recipes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meal Prep: Made it Easy! Meal Prepping for Beginners with Healthy Recipes for Weight Loss Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fix-It and Forget-It Slow Cooker Freezer Meals: 150 Make-Ahead Meals to Save You Time and Money Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ultimate Cooking for One Cookbook: 175 Super Easy Recipes Made Just for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Meals on a Budget Cookbook: High-flavor, low-cost meals your family will love Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings$5 a Meal College Cookbook: Good Cheap Food for When You Need to Eat Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Make-Ahead Cookbook: Cook For a Day, Eat For a Week Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The I Love Trader Joe's College Cookbook: 150 Cheap-and-Easy Gourmet Recipes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFix-It and Forget-It Big Cookbook: 1400 Best Slow Cooker Recipes! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The DIRTY, LAZY, KETO Dirt Cheap Cookbook: 100 Easy Recipes to Save Money & Time! Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultimate Veg: Easy & Delicious Meals for Everyone [American Measurements] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Everything College Cookbook, 2nd Edition: 300 Easy and Budget-Friendly Recipes for Beginner Cooks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeal in a Mug: 80 Fast, Easy Recipes for Hungry People—All You Need Is a Mug and a Microwave Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFood Preservation and Canning for Beginners: Self Sufficient Living, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFridge Love: Organize Your Refrigerator for a Healthier, Happier Life—with 100 Recipes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Modern Freezer Meals: Simple Recipes to Cook Now and Freeze for Later Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Vegan on the Cheap: Great Recipes and Simple Strategies that Save You Time and Money Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fix-It and Forget-It Best 5-Ingredient Comfort Food Recipes: 75 Quick & Easy Slow Cooker Meals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fix-It and Forget-It Cooking for Two: 150 Small-Batch Slow Cooker Recipes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Clara's Kitchen
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful insights into what people did to survive during the Great Depression. Clara was a character!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Clara, well known as the grandmother on YouTube, was 94 years old when her book was published. Her videos on the Internet made her famous for their common sense, simplicity and wisdom. This book captures the essence of Clara.Born and raised in a Chicago, IL. Suburb, Clara and her family survived the "Great Depression". Her stories are mostly of that time; they are filled with family, friends, and food.Clara tells a story from her life, and then adds a recipe associated with the story. There are many photographs illustrating the stories. The photos feature Clara, friends and family, and food.Clara adds tidbits of her cooking wisdom throughout the book. The tips are useful and practical, such as differences between olive oil and vegetable oil. The index makes it easy to follow and find items and recipes.The illustrations are also listed, putting Clara's life into perspective. Her book is a wonderful volume of history, memoir, cookbook, and advice. It is no wonder that she is known as YouTube's "favorite grandmother"!
1 person found this helpful
Book preview
Clara's Kitchen - Clara Cannucciari
Preface
Cooking with Clara
An afternoon with our grandparents was always a magical experience, as warm golden light streamed through their kitchen windows and the aroma of something sweet wafted from the oven. They would tell timeworn stories of people and places long forgotten. They’d teach us their favorite card games and tell us how much better behaved we were than our father or mother. Their wisdom was ours for the taking, but sadly, we may have been too young to appreciate the fullness of this gift.
I had lost all but one of my grandparents before I grasped the meaning of their often repeated tales and instruction. I remember the day that I sat in the kitchen with my Nana, Clara, as she retold one of her favorite stories while I relished a magnificent plate of pasta. The recipe was as old as the story, and it dawned on me that my Nana was the last open window to my family’s past. Without her we would have only a few written stories and recipes to show our children and our children’s children. I immediately set to work to capture the tales she so freely spins.
Clara has so many stories that she loves to retell, but as it is for most of us, it’s her childhood she loves to recollect. Clara’s childhood had very little resemblance to my own. She has seen more trials and tribulations than I can imagine. Listening to her share these stories, I hear not only the hardships, but also a message of hope that has given me the confidence to share her with the rest of the world. She is indeed an optimist, raised in a time of great pessimism. I think this message touches many people in these tough times. It is a nice reaffirmation for us to hear that frugality and family are truly the keys to a good life.
The pages before you are more than a cookbook. Here is a book of experience and wisdom from a genuine survivor of America’s most challenging era: the Great Depression. Clara’s tales, from a time ravaged by poverty and sadness, reveal special recipes and stories to help fill the stomach and soul, and bring us back to a strong sense of family, heritage, and legacy.
I hope you will enjoy Clara’s wit and wisdom as much as I do.
—CHRISTOPHER CANNUCCIARI
Introduction
MY NAME is actually Calogera
Bonfani Cannucciari, and I was born August 18, 1915. When people find out how old I am and that I lived through the Great Depression, they ask a lot of questions, especially these days. How did you live on so little—and how did you stretch out what you had? How did you eat? I tell them that it wasn’t easy, but we managed. We just relied on what we did have—the ability to sacrifice and put our needs in perspective. To be resourceful about what we got. And by preparing and eating simple, filling foods.
These are the basic truths I’ve always lived by, even now into my mid-nineties. I’ve experienced two world wars and many other wars. I was a teenager during the Great Depression, and I survived all the recessions that followed. I have seen the world and people’s attitudes change. And I’ve lived to become something I would never have imagined: a celebrity chef.
e9781429963718_i0002.jpgI’m not a trained chef. I learned to cook from my mother, who learned to cook from hers, back when she was a girl in the Old Country. My family is originally from Sicily (I am first in my family to have been born in America), and my parents brought up my younger brother, Sam, and me Sicilian, just as they had been brought up. This means they worked hard and they expected the same from us. Even in the toughest years, we got by.
When I was growing up, we lived in an Italian section of Melrose Park, a suburb of Chicago. It was so Italian, in fact, that whenever we rode the street car and the conductor came close to our stop, he’d say, Next stop, Spaghetti Town!
We had family there, both on my mother’s and father’s side, but everyone in the neighborhood was like a big extended family. We knew everyone, and all of us Italians pretty much stuck together.
My father, Joseph Giuseppe Bonfani, was a carpenter and brick layer. He worked with Irish, Polish, and German Americans and learned to speak their languages. He was used to learning languages. He was born in Sicily in 1883, but when he was six, his family moved to Tunis, Africa, a French colony, where he learned to speak and read French and Arabic.
When he was twenty-three, his father died, and his mother, sisters, and their husbands all headed to America. He and his mother settled in Pennsylvania, where he became a coal miner, while his sisters and their families traveled on to Chicago. But several years later, after a mining accident that nearly left him blind, he and his mother moved to Chicago to join the rest of their family in Melrose Park. And that’s where he met my mother in 1914.
e9781429963718_i0003.jpge9781429963718_i0004.jpgMy father learned English quickly. He liked learning. He always had a book in his hand. When he was working, he was working, but when he was home he was reading. He always told us that we should learn as much as