"DreadfulBitch" > wrote in message
...
> On 2/4/2014 7:56 PM, Julie Bove wrote:
>
>> Used to be in this country, canned soup was considered the food of the
>> poor because you could get it for really cheap or sometimes free if you
>> had coupons, particularly if your store doubled or tripled those
>> coupons. Didn't apply to all soups. Was usually the Campbell's tomato,
>> chicken and noodle and cream of mushroom. I suspect that a lot of
>> recipes involved using the cream of mushroom soup only because people
>> could get it so cheap and likely had tons of it in the house.
>
> Uhh...um...wha? On what planet were you raised? Growing up we were
> hardly poor but we always had soup in the house for this, that or the
> other thing. I was such a snot as a kid I used to feel sorry for the
> families that used coupons. It game me a completely misplaced sense of
> superiority. But, I digress... Campbell's chicken noodle soup was the
> standard meal for us when we were kids and Campbell's tomato soup was
> perfect with a grilled cheese sandwich on a cold winter day. If we had
> "tons" of it in the house it was because my parents could afford it and
> there was never any need to worry about the cost of food - or anything
> else for that matter.

Well, that's *your* house. You seem to think that all houses should be like
yours.

We ate a lot of soup too. But never the tomato. And we never had grilled
cheese at home and rarely ever had sandwiches. Our standard soup meal was
soup and popcorn. My favorite was bean with bacon or Scotch Broth. Not
sure why I liked that one and I think it had *eek* lamb in it. Not sure
they even make it any more but as soups go it was one of the more expensive
ones so I only ever got it when my mom or dad or whoever I was shopping with
was feeling flush or I managed to sneak it into the cart.

We did have the various chicken soups. I hated the one with the rubbery
little dumplings but it was my brother's favorite. But we also had lots of
canned chili, and when the canned pastas came out, ravioli, Beefaroni and
sometimes Spaghettios. We did not have those things often until I went
through that one year of eating nothing but Ravioli for breakfast.

Another common lunch was cottage cheese and fruit with a green salad. Or
tuna or egg salad. I liked mine stuffed into a tomato but my brother
wouldn't touch tomatoes which perhaps is why we never had tomato soup. We
did have it in the house. My dad ate it. But we were told it was for
grownups and we didn't question that.

But we also went out to lunch a lot. If we stayed home from school and had
to go to the Dr., a lunch out was often in the picture. Unless of course we
were sick to our stomachs.

On Saturdays, my mom and I went grocery shopping and that meant lunch at the
one Safeway which had a lunch counter. We'd go to one store, have lunch
there then finish up at the third store. She would only buy meats at one
store and produce at the other. The last one is where she bought canned and
frozen foods.

We did also eat a lot of TV dinners but usually for dinner and not for
lunch. And usually only on Fridays. But again, when they had the money to
do it, we dined out for dinner. And not fast food.

We did use coupons. Couponing was my dad's hobby. He was the frugal one in
the family and he was all for getting what he thought were deals. He would
buy store brands and generic foods. But my mom would only buy specific name
brands even if she had to pay more for them and she is still that way. Very
brand loyal and sometimes for no good reason. She just claims that she grew
up having to eat off brand stuff so she won't do it now.

We were not for the most part considered low income. My mom did work but
did not keep her paychecks, instead donating them back to her employer, the
church. My dad worked for Boeing at at times got his hours cut. He was
never actually laid off like some people were but there were reduced hours
and reduced wages. Also during much of my childhood he either worked a
second job or was taking college classes. I certainly had friends who were
less well off than we were.


>>
>> Those three are still usually the cheapest of the soups as sales go but
>> the coupons I've seen for them don't give you much money off and often
>> you have to buy three of them. I think such soups could be had for
>> around 10 cents a can when I was a kid. By the time I was a young
>> adult, they were perhaps 25 cents and now I've sometimes seen them at
>> three for $1.00 Note that these are the sale prices.
>
> Please note that above comments are YOUR experience, Julie Bove, and from
> YOUR grocery. Even on sale I've never seen any of the most used soups for
> anything anywhere near three for a dollar. If they are the first thing I
> would do is check the "best used by" date.

It's not just one grocery store. Many of them in this area have those
prices although perhaps not often. Since I do not generally buy those
soups, I don't generally pay attention to the prices. Winco does now have
their own line of soups and some of those sell for 79 cents. Some varieties
are more.

When I was a kid, we did buy our canned goods and other staples at one of
the cheap cheap stores. In those days, we had several. You'd get a flat
bed, some cut open boxes and a grease pencil as you went in the front door.
You marked prices on the items as you wen. When bread was on sale it was 4
loaves for $1.00. My mom did buy that as she didn't eat bread much at all
and she only froze it anyway.
>
>> She did have a cookbook though. Betty Crocker, Cooking for Two or some
>> such thing. Hideous book that involved some sort of canned soup in
>> probably close to half of the recipes.
>
> Just curious... hideous because of the content or did it just have a
> really ugly cover?

Both.
>
>> There actually was one recipe
>> that called for two cans of soup. Mix them together and you had a new
>> soup!
>
> One soups we had a lot of as teens was Heinz. They no longer sell them
> anywhere I've lived for the past 40+ years, but I can't say for sure if
> they've been discontinued. Best soups I've ever had! Their cream of
> mushroom was amazing! No mushroom pieces, just very large slices of
> mushrooms. None of the Heinz soups were condensed. How I wish they still
> made them!

Heinz soup is still sold. You can get it sometimes at the Vermont Country
Store and I have seen it at Big Lots. Have not seen it in the regular
grocery stores and don't think I ever tried it. We did get something called
Yankee Doodle Soup and we loved it! Our family were product testers. That
is one thing we did test and we were soooo happy when it went to market.
But it didn't stay on the shelves for long and no sure why.
>
> One soup we "cooked" as kids was a combination of two Heinz soups - split
> pea and tomato. I *think* we called it Mongolian Soup, but I have no
> clue why. After mixing and heating we served it with a drop (or more!) of
> Tabasco Sauce in the middle of the bowl. Good stuff, Maynard!

I don't think I would like that. I like split pea so long as it doesn't
have ham in it. A little bacon is fine but no ham!