Funny What they Remember

As a kid, I grew up in a family where my Mom stayed home most of the time.  She wasn't the best homemaker, but boy did she have great hugs.   She was also one of the most inventive cooks I had ever met.  Her goal was to make a great meal and cook it all in one pot.  Several meals come to mind -Chili and cornbread,  Ham and Beans and her famous Spanish Rice with pork chops.  If you went away from the dinner table hungry, it was your own fault.

I know this comes as a surprise to the nieces and nephews because they saw Mom at the end of her cooking life and think she was a lousy cook.  I think most of that came from the last time she made chili for one of our family soup meals.  Her eyesight was about gone because of macular degeneration and she used heaping helpings of cinnamon instead of chili powder.  That had to be about the most disgusting chili I ever ate.  Change that to never ate.  One taste to confirm that it tasted like it smelled.  I smelled cinnamon and thought oh great cinnamon rolls and chili.  WRONG!

Barbara fixed a great breakfast of Cinnamon raisin bread made into French toast.  As we were sitting there, I told her about the theme of my Mom's cooking and she reminded me of some of Mom's failures and good meals.  On the list of failures was the Sour Cream Raisin pie and Minced Meat pie that Mom made for years until all of us told her that we would not eat either one.   Mom also made a mystery meat spread that we would consume in large quantities until one day I was home sick and saw what she made it out of.  Beef Tongue and Beef Heart ground up with enough mayonnaise, a little pickle and some celery.   It was good until I spilled the beans about what was in it.  The last of the things that should have not been on the table was Mom's pimento cheese spread. 

On the list of things my Mom did that was good was Bieroaks. Bier rocks or Kraut cabbage rolls.  I could eat my weight in those hamburger, onions and cabbage rolls.  Barb also remembers the first meal she had in Kansas was one of Mom's baked steak and potato packets baked in the oven.  Mom always put onion under the steak and put the potato on top.  Yummy stuff.  For the record, I will skip all of the pot roasts that mom would put in the oven on high and go to church.  Now that I think about it Dad did just cover the meat with catsup and keep on trucking.  She did make a great chili and my Dad would cover it with catsup and half a package of crackers.

My dad was one strange guy.  Mom would buy a chocolate cake and a half gallon of vanilla ice cream. Dad would take this humongous bowl and cut the cake in half and cut the ice cream in half and the rest went to the family.  I don't think he hardly ever ate anything that wasn't covered with catsup and with a side of crackers.   Dad walked to work at the Beech Aircraft plant down the road.  Every noon, he would come in the house, open and put a can of Oyster stew  on the stove and go to the bathroom. He would wash his hands and come out and put that can of soup in a bowl. Crackers, a hurried eat and off he would go.  That went on for over 35+ years.  I don't think any of the kids would touch that oyster stew.   Oh well.

Just this last week, I put out my mother's birthdate to a couple of friends.  You would think that I could remember that my Brother Rick was born the day before her 30th birthday.  Yes, I missed Rick's birthday.  I did give him a belated birthday shout out on Facebook a day late but crap I hate that I missed it.  Mom was born on 4/23/22 so she would have been 91 today.

Birthday Boy - Rick Petty



 This past week, I was going to stop feeding the critters down the hill.  Barb convinced me that perhaps a couple more bags of corn wouldn't hurt our budget and might do the critters some good.  I think they have a bell or something that tells them that I have come out with some more food.  Barb said that she saw the turkeys stop at the empty pan and came up the hill to make sure I knew they needed more food.   We have some great male turkeys eating at Che Petty. 

Better get running,  See you on the flip side.

MUD