Pioneer Food

For our Praire Adventure, I cooked out of my Little House Cookbook. Most of the recipes were so good, I'll be making them again!

Our main beverage was coffee, made from a french press.

Add coffee grounds into the glass container. Add hot water, let sit for a few minutes and then slowly press down a metal disk that separates the grounds from the water. Very simple and it made the best cup of coffee I've ever had!

Coffee
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

I don't have pictures for all the food we ate but it included oatmeal, pancakes, baked beans, bread, mashed potatoes, roasted hens, and apple pie.


For breakfast there were pancakes, and Ma made a pancake man for each one of the children. Ma called each one in turn to bring her plate, and each could stand by the stove and watch, while with the spoonful of batter Ma put on the arms and the legs and the head. It was exciting to watch her turn the whole little man over, quickly and carefully, on a hot griddle. When it was done, she put it smoking hot on the plate. -Little House in the Big Woods

Pancake
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

The bread-sponge was lifting the lid of the pan. Ma hurriedly floured the breadboard, and kneaded the dough. Then she got dinner. She was putting the pan of light biscuits in the oven when Pa came driving the wagon up the hill. Behind him, the wagon box was piled high with willow brush that he had brought for summer fuel, for there were no real trees at Lake Henry. -By the Shores of Silver Lake

Rolls
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

Laura always wondered why bread made of corn meal was called johnny-cake. It wasn't cake. Ma didn't know, unless the Northern soldiers called it johnny-cake because the people in the South, where they fought, ate so much of it. They called the Southern soldiers Johnny Rebs. Maybe, they called the Southern bread, cake just for fun. Ma had heard some say it should be called journey-cake. She didn't know. It wouldn't be very good bread to take on a journey.
-Little House in the Big Woods

Johnnycake
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

Slices of salt pork were frying, and Mrs. Brewster was slicing cold boiled potatoes into another frying pan on the stove. Johnny fussed in the bedroom, and Laura quickly pinned her braids, tied on her apron, and said, "Let me fix the potatoes while you dress him." So while Mrs. Brewster brought Johnny to the stove and made him ready for breakfast, Laura finished slicing the potatoes, and salted and peppered and covered them. Then she turned the slices of meat and set the table neatly. -These Happy Golden Years

Potatoes
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

At noontime everyone was allowed to move about the schoolroom and talk quietly. Eliza Jane opened the dinner-pail on her desk. It held bread-and-butter and sausage, doughnuts and apples, and four delicious apple-turnovers, their plump crusts filled with melting slices of apple and spicy brown juice. After Almanzo had eaten every crumb of his turnover and licked his fingers, he took a drink of water from the pail with a dipper in it, on a bench in the corner. Then he put on his cap and coat and mittens and went out to play. -Farmer Boy

Turnovers
Originally uploaded by pwinn.

As you can see, we certainly didn't starve out there on the Prairie!!