Economy 101: Bread Pudding and Its Origin!

These days, Bread Pudding is served in the finest restaurants and is often on the fancy dessert tray the server brings to the table to tempt you. It is very delicious – sort of soggy with a liquor or caramel sauce over it.  It cost about five dollars at our favorite restaurant here in town. 

Do you know that our immigrant grandmothers created this dish to use up old bread so it would not be wasted? It was made using stale, left-over bread soaked overnight with suet, egg, sugar or syrup. Then it was squeezed dry and possibly mixed with raisins and baked in a dish. 

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding was a popular main dish brought over to North America by the English. By making little flour biscuits and placing them in with the stewing beef, they created little balls of beef flavored dough. This extended the meal so Grandma could feed more people on a small budget. 

Chicken and Dumplings were another version of how to make whatever was available into enough for the whole family and perhaps some visitors. 

So, these items are on the bill of fare at many restaurants where it is very difficult to purchase dinner for under $10.00 each, and that is generally without a beverage. 

It’s hard to believe that nobody saw today’s financial fiasco coming. 

Budget meals at blue ribbon prices are everywhere. Outrageous paychecks for very average people who have played the corporate game to the executive suite are quite common. If we had been watching, we could have seen trouble coming. 

Commonly, families of four are living in elaborate, large homes with financing higher than any expected selling price. I do not see children riding bikes or walking to school but I do see cars lined up in driveways. Every family member old enough to drive has his or her own vehicle.

So, no one saw this coming? History books are full of downfalls of lavish empires. Your grandparents told you about the hard times. Nobody wants to listen. Everybody wants an easy life, a free ride. 

Remember, when you were a kid riding the roller coaster and screaming with just a small, straight bar across your lap? Were you afraid? I know I was! Then, all of a sudden, when the ride was over, the whole contraption came to a sudden, grinding halt! 

Well, here we are! The ride is over and a few of us are feeling more than a little queasy!