Depression-Era Cooking with Clara

Clara Cannucciari is the internet sensation who shares her depression-era cooking tips and stories on YouTube.  Her success has spawned a book and DVD.  One of her relatives, Christopher, in instrumental in bringing her talents online.

She's picked up accolades from Martha Stewart and even the CBS daytime TV show "The Doctors."  It's funny that cooking that was once considered so simple or even low brow is now the new gourmet thing and people are realizing how healthy some of it is.

She's a 94-year-old great grandma who remembers what it was like to live during the Great Depression and hopes America never has to go through that again.  I hope so as well but I'm not too optimistic at this point. Along with the recipes shown in the videos, she will tell you a brief tale of what her family did to survive during the depression.

She reminds me so much of my grandma who would be about the same age if she were still alive. Her attitude wasn't one of poor pitiful me but "Hey, we did what we had to do and we survived." She usually said it with a twinkle in her eye just like Clara.

In my dandelion soup link roundup post, I shared some of the attributes of this free edible plant.  Clara has a video of her take on dandelion salad.  It looks delicious.



Sometimes in watching her videos, you'll pick up frugal cooking tips.  In her pizza recipe, she said her mother would be making her usual bread dough and reserve a bit of the dough for pizza.  This is how frugal cooks think.  They have to make the best of their money and time.

She has an official website with a bio, a link to her blog, and info on buying her book and DVD.  I think she's slowed down a bit as far as posting videos as often, but I do see one from this year.

I'll leave you with her pizza video as it seems to be one of her most popular.  She reminds you that in hard times, we might not have the fancy fixings we're used to putting on pizza today, but that doesn't mean it can't be delicious (though I'm not sure about the anchovies).



© P.J. Deneen