dinner and other meals.

[gfrancie]

Looking through the recipes in the family cookbook that my Mother is letting me borrow there are some things that strike me as interesting. There aren't really any directions for most of the recipes because there was the general assumption that you knew what you were doing. The recipes that came from my Grandmother's Mother tend to have a theme. Most of the things you bake are baked at 325F. My Mother told me that this is because Grandma T (as she was known) spent a number of years as a farm wife in Minnesota in the early 20th century. 325 is a heat that a farm wife could handle standing over in the middle of a humid Minnesota Summer and could equally work in the winter. I never met my Great-Grandmother but I heard some entertaining stories about her. To get my Grandmother and my Great-Aunt to do the dusting around the house, she would write the word, 'shit' in the dust. The girls would be so horrified that they would go and dust. (this is a woman with a sense of humor I like.) She didn't let the girls learn how to milk a cow. Her reasoning was, "if you could, they could make you." This was a woman who knew that if you ended up a farm wife, your lot was going to be tough and there was no point in making it more difficult. She gave birth to five children and she gave them names with the idea that no one could make nick-names out of them (she had some particular ideas but all the women in my family have definite ideas about everything. And we aren't afraid to tell you.) and all of them ended up with nick-names. She was one of several sisters. They were named (as I recall, my Mother would probably remember it better) Zelma, (my Great Grandmother) Helma, Alma, Melba and Mabel. Yes. Hand to God that is true. Obviously a theme started and then fell off the tracks.
I am looking at a couple of recipes to try this week. I will have to report back on the successes.

As for non-family recipes, I was trying to think of something meat-free and non-pasta to make for dinner. I ended up making a rather delightful cheese souffle. I served that with a spinach salad and some bread. We have a ton of eggs right now since my Mother brought over a bunch of hers and we always have a lot of cheese. It was a win all around. I think it makes a good light dinner. I will have to remember to do that more often. I tend to do souffles for dessert and I forget how much I like savory souffles too. Of course I have to think of something to make tomorrow. Time to look through the books again and go, "okay now what."

Comments

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

I have never eaten a souffle! Its the kind of thing we used to see on American tv as a kid but not the kind of thing my mother made. On tv someone's (usually Alice or Mrs Brady) souffle was always being ruined.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

It isn't too hard. Just takes a little patience. It is pretty light and delicious and you can do all sorts of flavors.

[jess-faraday.livejournal.com]

>She didn't let the girls learn how to milk a cow. Her reasoning was, "if you could, they could make you."

Ahahahahahahahahahaha! That's awesome.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

The girls lucked out in a way. They didn't become farm wives and neither one knew how to milk a cow. I think in some ways she was trying to make sure they didn't get stuck with a hard lot.

[robiewankenobie.livejournal.com]

so, you're obviously going with a family name for the new babin', right?

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Melma all the way!!! It is kind of hard, there are all these Scandinavians and while they are lovely people they had the habit of being named Borgny and Dagny.

[needlediva.livejournal.com]

alma, helma, zelma, melba, and mabel.
we used to chant it when we were kids.

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

Obviously they missed their calling as some kind of novelty vaudeville act.

[sallysimpleton.livejournal.com]

I remember my elementary school principal doing something similar to the no-milking thing. She didn't know how to type. She was probably born in the 1920s or early 1930s & never wanted to be pigeonholed as a secretary, so she studiously avoided learning. Nowadays it's the programmers that need to know it! (I've sat in painful meetings, watching others chicken peck their way through something...like this morning!)

[cutebutpsycho99.livejournal.com]

Alma, Helma, Zelma, Melba, and Mabel -- for some reason it seems like one of those word games where you replace a letter to make another word.

You sure about Melma? How about Thelma? Or Pelma? Or Relma? Taking the Pelma 1-2-3?

[aimgrrrl.livejournal.com]

I always like the old-fashioned names, myself. I had a great grandmother named Hazel, and I really love that name.

Luis made us a lovely dinner the other night. It was a variety of root vegetables (yam, sweet potato, carrot, beet) plus cauliflower, cubed and roasted with onion and a full head of garlic. He roasted them the night before and popped them in the fridge so they'd be fast for a worknight. When we got home he pulled them out, sauteed them briefly and added zucchini, and then cracked eggs over them and put a lid on the pan. The eggs ended up approximately a poached consistency, and they were nice with the sweetness of the veggies.

Bonus: no meat, no gluten :)