Great Depression Cooking with Clara

I just discovered this fascinating, real-life Upstate New York Great Depression-era cook and blogger, Clara, whose blog is Great Depression Cooking With Clara.

From her Blogger profile:

"Clara is a 94 year old cook and Great Grandmother. She is 100% Sicilian-American and grew up in a Chicago suburb, Melrose Park. She survived the Great Depression and claims to have actually gained weight during America's worst state of financial despair. How did she accomplish this? Check out her cooking show and discover her secret!"

From Amazon's description of her cookbook, Clara's Kitchen:

"Clara Cannucciari is a 94 year-old internet sensation. Her YouTube® Great Depression Cooking videos have an army of devoted followers. In Clara’s Kitchen, she gives readers words of wisdom to buck up America’s spirits, recipes to keep the wolf from the door, and tells her story of growing up during the Great Depression with a tight-knit family and a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” philosophy of living. In between recipes for pasta with peas, eggplant parmesan, chocolate covered biscotti, and other treats Clara gives readers practical advice on cooking nourishing meals for less. Using lessons she learned during the Great Depression, she writes, for instance, about how to conserve electricity when cooking and how you can stretch a pot of pasta with a handful of lentils. She reminisces about her youth and writes with love about her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Clara’s Kitchen takes readers back to a simpler, if not more difficult time, and gives everyone what they need right now: hope for the future and a nice dish of warm pasta from everyone’s favorite grandmother, Clara Cannuciari, a woman who knows what’s really important in life."

Here is a commercial for her cookbook:




Enjoy this wonderful sample of Clara's cooking genius:



And here is a charming sneak peek into her retro-furnished kitchen, her stories, and her amazing arm-wrestling with one of her great grandsons:



You can purchase the Season One DVD of Great Depression Cooking with Clara here. This swanky lady also twitters! And you can buy her cookbook here.

Great Depression Cooking with Clara