My Mom was a TALENTED and well-educated woman. She loved people and we entertained often. She grew up in a family that threw big, lavish parties....but they also had help that did much of the preparation, leaving them to enjoy the party. Mom learned basics of cooking but it was not her forte. Her basic "go-to" meal was baked ham (or ham loaf), green beans, sweet potatoes, corn souffle, pineapple and a green congealed jello/cottage cheese salad with chopped pecans on top. I don't remember her baking other than german chocolate or carrot cakes. Pies were always frozen---we didn't complain---but ice cream was generally homemade in the summer. There was never a shortage of ice cream at the Uible house! Speaking of summer, Dad had a helaciously big garden. His favorites to cultivate were strawberries and asparagus. The children had no problem liking the strawberries but asparagus is not something I appreciated until I was old enough to buy it and realize it can be an expensive delicacy. He would pinch off strawberry blooms to get more runners and bigger berries. Alas, I am wandering far off the path and about to step into the fertilizer, so I will come back to where I intended to go!
Mom would just as soon play cards or read a book or visit in the nursing home as to cook. Eating out was always more preferable, especially as she grew older! What I've learned about cooking has been from other folks and life is too short for all of us to make the same mistakes. In light of that, I've decided to insperse some of the lessons my Mom attempted to teach me by her wonderful example and no-nonsense parenting and frugal spending with some basic cooking lessons I've learned or taught myself. If you're looking for fine cooking---which if you've read this far, you're not OR you are looking for comic relief---please see my delightful friend, Renee's blog at www.http://joytomyheart.com/
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