Recession Foods: Partake Like It’s 1929

Long gone are the days of mindlessly spending $5 on a gourmet grapefruit.

It’s time to embrace three-for-a-dollar items and rediscover Spam.

Here to guide you in your culinary journey through time is Clara, an adorable 93-year-old grandma who grew up during the Depression and demonstrates how to make more with less in the "Depression Cooking With Clara"series on YouTube.

There are at least seven episodes, where she’ll teach you how to make everything from the "Poor Man's Meal" (fried potatoes, hot dogs and onions) to the "Poor Man's Feast"(meat, lentils and soup), while telling you about what it was like to live through the Depression.

“I had to quit high school because we couldn’t afford socks,” Clara says in one episode. “We couldn’t afford anything to wear. But, we survived.”

And then, you just peel the potatoes ...

I know you’re all going to want to adopt her as your grandmother, but sorry, take a number. You can, however, check out her Web site and blog at www.greatdepressioncooking.com or friend her on Facebook. Her name is Clara Cannucciari.

Oh, snap!

Pony Treats:

• Healthy and Under $1. If you’re worried about packing on the recession pounds eating fried potatoes and hot dogs, women’s web site Divine Caroline offers the “20 Healthiest Foods for Under $1,”including everything from nuts to garbanzo beans.
• Credit Crunch Cookies. The recession is slamming companies left and right but a couple of enterprising gourmands in Scotland have found a way to capitalize on it. They’re selling tins of “Credit Crunch Cookies,”their premium shortbread and chocolate-chip rebranded to reflect the times. Their tagline is, “The times may be crummy, but our cookies are yummy.”

Questions? Comments? Write to [e-mail].