We were watching one of my wife’s favorite cooking shows when she noticed a set of colored bowls the woman on the television was using.
“My mother used to have a set of bowls just like that!” she said. “I always loved those bowls. I wonder whatever happened to them? I wonder if she still has them? I’d love to have a set of those. They bring back so may memories!”
Before she had finished the last two sentences, I was already ...
Continue Reading →
Joe DiMaggio was great for baseball, but bad for coffee.
The man who got a hit in 56 straight games in 1941 and married Marilyn Monroe, could do no wrong in the eyes of most people. I agree except for one thing: he killed the percolator.
Prior to 1972, most American households used a percolator to brew their morning beans. But, that year, two bad things happened. Richard Nixon was re-elected, and the Mr. Coffee drip brewing system debuted.
I’m sure there will ...
Continue Reading →
Forty-five years ago, my mother began collecting a series of antique canning jars. I can’t remember why this happened, but my best guess is that she came across one that was unique, she liked it, and she bought it.
This purchase would start a chain reaction and a multi-year search for my family.
Specifically, she sought green Atlas jars with glass lids. These were also known as “Lightning Jars.” Allegedly, the name came from how much faster they were to open than ...
Continue Reading →
During a recent discussion with coworkers, someone asked me what was typically served every Sunday after church when I was a kid.
Of course, I said pot roast.
Pot roasts migrated from the oven to the Crock-Pot during my childhood. The Crock-Pot was and still is the perfect cooking appliance for a pot roast. It was also the original set-it-and-forget-it appliance.
Moms would get up in the morning and sear the roast in a cast iron skillet, then toss it ...
Continue Reading →
My wife and I love to buy old cookbooks. I find most of them at estate sales.
The families who are selling them are indifferent and I’m sure they have never looked for or seen the notes that their mom, grandmother, or great grandmother, scribbled in the margins.
So, for 25¢ or 50¢, I take home the guidebook for so many of their memorable family meals.
But, some of the best recipes are not found in a cookbook. They were found in ...
Continue Reading →
As a kid, I hated the vegetable garden. If you stood on our back porch, it was to your left. It took up the entire corner of our large yard.
To me, gardens were work and nothing more. From planting, to weeding, to harvesting, to canning, it was a waste of valuable play time. It also took away the area of the yard that the neighborhood kids and I liked using for a baseball diamond.
I would watch television and see advertisements ...
Continue Reading →
This week, for the first time in my life, I made my own butter.
But to get to the beginning of this tasty story, we have to go back a few years.
In 2013, I was sitting in the waiting room at my sleep doctor’s office when I became tired of the talking heads on the news network arguing with each other, so I struck up a conversation with an older gentleman and his wife. Turns out, they were also sick of ...
Continue Reading →
Biscuit making is a lost art.
There have been many great advancements in civilization, but I have to say that canned biscuits isn’t one of them.
Pillsbury Grands, the flaky variety of course, are about as close to homemade biscuits as you can get, but they’re still nowhere near as good as biscuits made by the hands of an experienced biscuit maker.
This came to mind at Thanksgiving after eating my brother-in-law’s famous yeast rolls. It’s not his recipe (it came from one ...
Continue Reading →
If you like bologna sandwiches, you’re alright by me.
If you grew up with a dad who worked, a mom who stayed home, one car, no air conditioning, and bologna in the fridge, then it’s likely you also are familiar with this particular lunch meat and other budget-conscious grocery items.
When I was a kid, you ate what they put in front of you or you didn’t eat at all. Matter of fact, I can remember many an hour sitting at a ...
Continue Reading →
We buy a lot of food that we used to make ourselves.
Consumerism has made the world a better place, but it’s also made us quite lazy. What we used to be forced to make at home for economic reasons, we now, generally, just go and buy.
Last week, I made what was by my own count, the second loaf of bread in my life. Granted, I used a bread machine and didn’t knead the dough by hand, but it was still ...
Continue Reading →