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Early Influences
 Paternal Grandparents, Wedding Day |
I never met my grandfather, he died of cancer earlier the year my parents were married. Rumor has it he was an adventurous eater who loved seafood and expected you to eat whatever was on your plate.
My Nana made saurbraten and potato dumplings for special occasions when I was a child. I’m pretty sure she made me steak instead. Staying at her house might have included a lunch of bologna on Roman Meal whole wheat bread slathered in Miracle Whip. And sometimes there were Fudge Stripe cookies. |
 Maternal Grandparents, Birthday Celebration  The Crisco Cookbook |
In my memory, my grandfather ate two meals a day – breakfast and dinner. I don’t remember him eating any meat except for for pork, which probably explains why all our holiday turkeys were accompanied by a ham. He ate lots of greens.
My grandmother had two cooking impacts of note on my life. The first, is that she ruined cheese sandwiches for me. The redemption was her french toast. Apparently her french toast recipe came from the Crisco cookbook. It is coated in lumpy batter and fried, then dusted with powdered sugar. It was the score of all the grandchildren to get Grandmom’s french toast for breakfast. Many of us have the recipe, but we are missing the magic ingredient – “Grandmom fingers.” |
 Summer Bounty at the Homestead |
When I was growing up, my parents had a huge garden. Corn, potatoes, carrote, eggplant, green beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, okra (people eat that?), tomatoes, and tons of other crops that I can’t pull out of my memory.
One year a large raised herb garden appeared and along with it mysterious plants like garlic chives. And fruit: strawberries (ripe for my birthday), rhubarb (I don’t remember eating it), blueberries (always cobbler), grapes (homemade jelly), raspberries (always worth getting stuck for), blackberries (never worth getting stuck for), apples, plums, peaches, cherries and more. Our neighbors had a large chicken coop and made part of their livelihood from selling eggs at their farm and delivering them on a weekly egg route. I learned a lot of parts of the business hanging out at their farm after school. |