Parenting from the Pantry

(Dedicated to my Grandma Louise, 1915-2011)

Back in the old days (whenever that was), life seemed a lot more simple than it is today. Sure, in a lot of ways things were tougher, but maybe that was a good thing. Maybe it helped build peoples' character, gave them something to work toward, made men out of boys. (These are all things my grandfather would say!)

My grandma raised eight children in a farmhouse not much bigger than my living room. The boys worked the farm, fed the animals, tilled the fields, and rounded up the cows - and this was all after walking 4 miles each way to and from school. The girls took care of the house, did the laundry, and kept everybody fed. The babies were always close by, with someone to attend to their needs and keep them out of trouble. These days we call that "attachment parenting." Those days I suppose they called it something like, oh, just plain old "parenting."

When I see lists like the one in the "Attachment Parenting Video" we watched this week, frankly I get a little annoyed. Have we really reached the point where we need a perky fake newscaster to tell us how to nurture our babies? Are we that out of touch with reality that we must memorize the "7 Baby B's" which - let's face it - are basically just common sense? News flash, yes, you should HOLD your baby when it's crying! You should FEED your baby when it's hungry! Gosh, I feel better now - hopefully the word will get out and spread like wildfire.

Back at the farmhouse, they were miles from the nearest grocery store - and even if they felt like running there for a quick trip they didn't have the money to do so. They had to make do with what they had. Grandma and the girls would spend all summer tilling the garden, and all fall canning various veggies, fruits, jams and relishes for the family to eat over the winter. They'd bury potatoes and onions in sawdust down in the basement, and grandpa and the boys would slaughter cows and hunt deer for meat. When it was time to think about dinner, grandma didn't run down to Fred Meyer...she ran to the pantry. And when grandma's babies cried, she didn't turn on You Tube to see what Dr. Whoever had to say about it. She picked up the baby to see what it needed - a meal? A diaper change? A cuddle? Grandma figured it out!

Attachment parenting is basically doing what comes naturally, out of necessity. Just like cooking from the pantry. When things get tough...when money is tight or you're snowed in for a week...you make do with what you have.

Stuck-in-a-Snowstorm Black Bean Chicken Chili (with a Cornbread Crust)

On Day 4 of our recent snowstorm I found myself in need of some dinner ideas and unable to make my usual "quick trip" to Fred Meyer to pick up supplies. So I did what would have come naturally to grandma: I headed to the pantry!

First, I grabbed a couple of cans of beans, some corn, and some diced tomatoes.

I poured all of the canned stuff into the crockpot, along with some diced leftover chicken breasts from the freezer, a chopped onion, and some crushed garlic. (Grandma would have had to go down to the basement and dug hers out of the sawdust. Luckily I had some in the fridge.)

I also added chopped cilantro, a tablespoon of cumin, and a couple of tablespoons of chili powder, plus some salt and pepper. Once it was all mixed up, it looked pretty good!

Meanwhile, I mixed up a batch of cornbread batter - I always keep a few boxes of Jiffy in the pantry. It is cheap and easy to make, plus my kids love it which is always a bonus. I suppose grandma would have ground her own corn for this, but I wouldn't even know how to do that!



After the batter was done, I poured it onto the chili.

Then I spread the cornbread over the top of the chili, put the lid on, and cooked it on low for 8 hours. It was so beautiful in the end I forgot to take a picture. But trust me, it was good. Grandma would have loved it too! (But she'd have been upset that I didn't can my own beans.)