Food Memories

I remember Mom's meatless meal ( a concept way ahead of its time)--- French fried eggplant. I could only eat it with ketchup and avoided the pieces that had a lot of seeds. Yuk! I secretly thought it was pretty cool that our family had this unusual meal. None of my friends ever had eggplant for dinner.
I learned to eat fish by eating those "wonderful" fish sticks. I thought they were great. Now I love fish--but not fish sticks.
I remember Grandma Calkins standing at the kitchen table, stirring up a double batch of cookies for us in one of those crock type bowls. She was astounded a few days later that they were gone! She couldn't believe that we could eat so many cookies. Mom often wrapped up some in packages for Dad's lunches and hid them so he'd have some for himself. Otherwise he didn't get any.
I wonder if Mom had any experience cooking with her mom. I thought maybe she didn't have to cook because she was the "baby" and her mom cooked for her, especially because her siblings were older and out on their own earlier. She liked to try new recipes but stuck to the ones we loved--like Corned Beef Casserole.  On Saturdays when we'd empty out the fridge of the week's leftovers and have them for lunch. We would fight over the Corned Beef Casserole leftover, as well as the Corn Flake-covered mashed potato balls with cheese in the center!  Yum!!

Remembering Mom

What I remember the most about mom was that growing up, she was always one of the coolest moms. While she never let us get away with anything or have something just because a friend did, she was cool. One of my fondest memories was when she chaperoned a field trip when I was in fourth grade. She assigned us each a number and when she would yell "Sound Off!" we had to each shout our number in order. That way she made sure she accounted for each of us. The other kids in my group thought she was the greatest mom. Then after I started teaching she chaperoned one of my field trips again...only now I was the teacher. Again, my students thought I had the coolest mom in the world. Looking back, I guess I did!! Happy Mother's Day, Mom. I miss you bunches!