First I want to tell you about where the idea came from. As you may recall, my oldest son, S, is getting married to his lovely bride, A, in April - in something like 60+/- days. (Clearly I am the MOTG and not the B in this case or I could tell you down to the minute, I'm sure!) A is truly a lovely girl, and I could not be any happier for the two of them than I am. I'm tellin' you...it's such an incredible blessing when you love the spouses your kids have chosen, and know that they are well suited for each other. Last Thursday we had a family dinner at Olive Garden, and I got to sit across the table from K&S and A&S, and I got such a kick out of just watching them all interact and laugh and simply enjoy each other as couples and as family. Thank you, God!!
Anyway some very wonderful friends threw a shower for A on Sunday. (And PS - my son, S? Oh yea...he is quite the romantic. As we are leaving from the shower on Sunday a few of us ladies see the card that he has picked out and left for A on her car - a "Happy Shower Day" card. Ladies, does it get more romantic than that? Nicely played, son! You did good!)
Back to the shower. My daughter, S, had a wonderful idea of putting together a collection of family recipes for A to welcome her to the family. We have had so much fun remembering recipes. Both of my nieces, A & L, have contributed recipes, including a cinnamon hallah french toast (can we say indulgent!) and derby pie - a Kentucky tradition that my sister, J, picked up years ago. J has also contributed a number of things. She reminded me of bean sandwiches. Have you ever had a bean sandwich? It's been DECADES since I had one, but they are good. No truly, they are! It's toast and beans and some cheese and some bacon. Cheap, good eats. But I'd forgotten all about them. We actually collected so many recipes that her book isn't really "done" yet. Which is not the same thing as not giving it to her, you understand. See S made it so it can be added to. Here are 3 pics before I go on with the real focus of this post. (Have you forgotten the title? We're getting there, I promise!)
This is supposed to be turned 90 degrees counter clockwise, but I have no idea how to make that happen...I'm blaming blogger...
Let's see if this one loads better...
She divided it up into sections - Starters, Entrees and Desserts. And apparently we have more desserts than anything. Can you imagine? I can't either. I think S is making that up...see, this one isn't a dessert...but again it needs to be turned 90 degrees counter clockwise. Hey, at least I'm consistent, right?!
I thought it turned out really fun, and once we get the rest of the recipes formatted and printed, they can be added to the rings.
BUT, there are a couple of recipe stories that did NOT make it into the book yet! And these are some of the biggies! Shameful, I tell ya, just shameful. And it's not shameful on S; it's shameful on me. Or shameful on me and J - we just didn't get them written down in time. So with an apology to S and A both, here they are...good luck formatting these down to 4x6 to put in the binder...
Sunday Dinner
Some of you who read these posts are already smiling, cause you know where I'm going. My mother would cook Sunday Dinner every week, and 7 Sundays out of 8, it would be Roast Beef, Mashed Pototates with Gravy, Green Beans and Fruit Salad. There may be rolls; there may not be rolls. If it was summer, there may be corn on the cob or fried okra, too, but you could always count on the Main Four.
The key ingredients weren't necessarily the foods as much as the cooking tools. The first one of these tools was the time-bake oven. Remember those? You set the timer for the oven to come on at a certain time and then go off at a later time. For my mother's Sunday Dinner that was 9am for start and 12pm for stop. Why you may ask? Because she was at church every Sunday morning, teaching Sunday School from 9 to 10:30 and then going to worship service from 11 to 12. And the roast was quietly cooking in the oven while we were gone. She typically seasoned her roast (chuck, most often, cause it was often cheaper) with good old Lawry's seasoned salt and, of all things, believe it or not, kelp. My dad was big into natural nutrients and read about the benefits of kelp. It has a somewhat salty taste, so it was almost unnoticeable on the roast, and Daddy felt good that we were sneaking in some kelp intake. Mother would season the roast, add water and then cover it with foil before putting it in the cold oven (remember the time bake?) and finish getting ready for church.
The best part of the time bake oven? Walking in the door. You were already STARVING from church and then you'd walk into this most amazing aroma. Makes my mouth water just to remember it.
The oven would be off by the time we got home, but Mother would remove the foil to let it brown just a bit in the retained heat. Daddy would do the carving, and he never seemed to notice if we came along and took a piece here or a piece there from the platter. Oh, those were the best tasting pieces ever!
The second cooking tool that was vital to Sunday Dinner was the pressure cooker. Remember those? Trust me, my parents would not cook Sunday Dinner without one. If the pressure cooker died, which was rare, but if it did, you'd somehow muddle through one Sunday, but you went out to the store on Monday and got the replacement before next week. You just did.
The pressure cooker was used twice each Sunday - once for the green beans and then for the mashed potatotes. First the green beans - we always used fresh green beans, and Mother would start with a bit of bacon grease to saute a small bit of onion. That is not to say that Mother fried up bacon every Sunday. No, this was back in the day when people kept bacon grease in a can on the back of the stove. Some of you are just about dying right now, but others of you are smiling. It's amazing we survived them days, when I sit and think about it. The health department is banning this blog now. Once the onion was just beginning to brown, and depending upon how hungry we all were, Mother would toss in the beans with some salt, close up the pressure cooker and wait for it to do its thing. But it was always Daddy's job to run it under the water to bring the pressure down at the end. Then it would be time to dump the green beans out into another pan, so you could cook the potatoes.
I know, some of you are thinking, couldn't you just do the green beans in one pan and the potatoes in the pressure cooker or vice versa? Well, no, of course not. That would just be silly.
Fruit salad was whatever Mother had on hand - an apple, an orange, a banana, maybe some grapes, some canned pineapple slices. No dressing, just toss the fruit together and serve.
Those were good memories. Most of the time, even after I was a grown up, and I'm ashamed to say this, we'd be in the living room reading the Sunday comics and the Parade magazine while Mother and Daddy were in the kitchen. There was something so satisfying about the routine of it all. It tasted good, and you knew you could count on it tasting good. Every Sunday.
I just realized how long this has gotten. (Hey, I don't call these posts Deb Dissertations for nothin'!) And I haven't even gotten to the Monday leftovers or the Friday/Saturday night burgers and fries. But those can be a Food Memories Part 2.
I think I need to make Sunday Dinner for everyone soon. Where do I find kelp?
No comments:
Post a Comment