Slingin' Hash

"You know, nobody can ever cook as good as your mama."

-- Paula Deen

Self portrait 6-12-14

"I'll take a double triple bossy deluxe, on a raft, four by four, animal style, 

extra shingles with a shimmy and a squeeze, light axle grease. 

Make it cry, burn it and let it swim."

-- Bubble Bass, Spongebob Squarepants, "Pickles"

I fed supper to the four people in my family at four separate times yesterday.

I fed Leo at 4:30 p.m. so he could get to a rehearsal.

I fed myself at 6 p.m. because, well, I was hungry and I was the only one here.

I fed Sam at 7:30 p.m. because he was out feverishly mowing three lawns before the rain came.

I fed my husband at 9 p.m. because he was out late working on a project that got delayed because the rain came.

Sometimes I feel like a short-order cook.

It seems like my kitchen never closes.

There are days when I'm still making somebody a snack or a sandwich at midnight. 

I even make takeout and pack it up in brown bags when somebody's on the run and needs it to-go.

But what mom hasn't felt that way during the busy seasons of life when everybody is going in separate directions at separate times?

My own mother was a little less sympathetic. She used to bark: "I'm not running a restaurant! Eat when we all eat or don't eat at all!"

I'm not running a restaurant either, but I'd much rather feed my boys home cooking than abandon them to rely on junk food and drive-thru. On extra-busy days I try to make something they can all eat whenever their individual comings and goings permit. It's kinda like my "daily special." Yesterday's daily special, for instance, was meatloaf and cornbread. I cooked it early, kept it warm in the oven and served it up all night.

More often than not we do eat together as a family, even though it seems like somebody always has to leave the meal early and dash off  to be someplace else. 

I don't take it personally.

I just keep cooking and trying to do my best to make sure nobody goes away hungry. 

I'll be here all night. 

Don't forget to tip the waitress.

Order up!

A Well-Stocked Freezer

"One morning, as I went to the freezer door, I asked my wife,

'What should I take out for dinner?'

Without a moment's hesitation, she replied, 'Me.'"

-- Unknown

Frozen soup 5-22-14

"How to thaw a frozen turkey: 'Blow in its ear.'"

-- Johnny Carson

I didn't feel good yesterday.

Actually, I felt really shitty. The last thing I felt like doing was cooking, or eating.

On days like that, I'm super glad that there have been other days when I've felt better and had the energy and foresight to stock my freezer with lots of homemade soups and other good things.

So I thawed some delicious homemade chicken soup in the slow cooker so that it was all heated up and ready just in time for supper. Somewhere I found the energy to whip up some cornbread (yes, from scratch). Then I spent the rest of the afternoon in the recliner with heating pads on my sore tummy, watching the Indians beat the Tigers in 14 innings of some of the most exciting baseball of the season so far. 

In baseball terms, my freezer is kind of like my pinch hitter.

It steps up to the plate when the regular hitter is taken out of the lineup.

Luckily, the soup was a hit.

The Smell Of Supper Cooking

"I said, names aren't important," he repeated.

There was a silence between them for some seconds,

then the Ranger said: "Do you know what is important?"

Will shook his head.

"Supper is important!"

-- John Flanagan, The Ruins of Gorlan

Polymer clay face with his supper 2-19-14

"People think that if a man has undergone any hardship, he should have a reward;

but for my part, if I have done the hardest possible days work, 

and then come to sit down in a corner and eat my supper comfortably -- 

why, then I don't think I deserve any reward for my hard day's work --

for am I not now at peace? Is my supper not good? 

My peace and my supper are my reward, dear Hawthorne."

-- Herman Melville, "Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne"