Saturday, February 23, 2013

Challenge Day #23

If I could eat dinner with anyone who would it be and what would I eat? I'm trying not to make this another tear jerker, I'm really not. I've been thinking about this all day about who I was gonna choose. I just can't help it. I would love to be able to eat with my Mamaw Ruby. She didn't cook a whole lot, but just a few things. Maybe fry up some sausage and some can biscuits when we got to stay all night with her on Friday nights. We would be sleeping on the couch in front of the freezing window air conditioner that blew right on the couch where we sat. The tv would be blasting the beloved Saturday morning cartoons that we rarely got to watch because we didn't have a tv at home. We would eat that sausage biscuit while sipping orange juice. Mamaw always had orange juice in the refrigerator. Whatever leftovers were left seem to sit on the stove all day. Why that's a vivid memory in my mind, I don't know. (The leftover breakfast) Two other things that Mamaw cooked was soup beans and biscuit bread and a picnic ham with potatoes. I loved to sit at the table and watch her pick through them beans one at a time. "Why you doing that, Mamaw?" "Because, you have to make sure there are no rocks in there and then you gotta wash them real good before you cook them. Then she would put them in the biggest crockpot I had ever seen and cook them ALL day. She would add her big ham bone she had kept from the ham and potatoes she had cooked a few days before. I can't hardly eat ham and potatoes now without thinking about her. I remember hearing her tell my Mom one day that she was gonna fix "Amy" some ham and potatoes because she knew I liked it. Anyway, those beans would be cooking all day. We would be gathered around the tv all day. lol Nah, not really. She only had about 4 channels and soon enough our options would be the news, football, racing, or some kind of ket documentary show. Then we would mosey on outside and play. Mamaw had a 24/7 yardsale and we would get out there and play and have a great time. She lived right beside a lake and we would walk down in the woods and pretend to fish. We were old enough to be careful so they didn't have to worry about us being outside alone and near the lake. We would get bored outside after a while and go back in to see if Papaw had any coke hid under his bed. If we didn't find any under there than we knew to check in mamaw's room in the cedar wardrobe. Otherwise, we had to drink the big gallons of syrupy grape or lemonade koolaid. Right before the beans would be done Mamaw would be in the kitchen starting to peel and fry potatoes. She would put them in the skillet in the now melted lard. Any of you all use lard? I never have and hope I never do. Thank goodness for Pam or vegetable spray. I rarely fry anything anymore. Then she would get out the flour add some water and milk and she would start mixing and roll out on a greased pan the best biscuit bread a person could ever eat. She hardly ever made cornbread, it was always biscuit bread. Now my Mom makes this and I make it every now and then. Spread grape jelly on there, and yum yum. We would all come grab a bowl and eat. It was so good! We would come back to visit later on in the week and when I would open the refigerator there in the bottom would be the big pot of beans. The top would be all crusted over and it would look disgusting. Why she left it in there so long I'll never know. But to this day, I will not eat left over soup beans, ever! That crusted top had completely done me in forever. There are no leftover soupbeans in this family the next day unless they have been frozen in ziplock bags properly. So, to answer the challenge question........ I want to go back to Mamaw's house and eat soup beans and biscuit bread. I want to sit at the table and watch her cook and show me how to make the biscuit bread as perfect as she always did!!!

5 comments:

  1. When is this Daily challenge stuff gonna be over???? I can't take it any more!!!!!
    I tried to help Mamaw out one day and fix the soup beans for her.....well, I missed the lesson on washing and sorting them. After they had been cooking for a while, Mamaw asked me if I had washed them and took out the rocks ....and I was like ummm, no. I remember feeling like such a failure when she said, well, we can't eat them now. From that day, I have always rinsed and looked for rocks in my beans. And every time I do, I think of her. However, I don't know if I've ever come across more than one rock in all the beans I've rinsed! I'm kinda disappointed when I never find any....and still wonder to this day if those beans still would have been fine to eat!

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  2. I didn't wash them one day and mine tasted like dirt. We had to spit them out. However, I have ever found a rock in my beans. The closest I came too wss just a rotten bean. I feel like I really need to find a rock in them one day just to prove Mamaw really knew what she was talking about. Ha!

    Dad read this post on mom's phone and he started crying.... awwww....

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    1. His eyes were only burning I'm sure! :).

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    2. As matter of fact, he did say something like that. I can't remember what it was exactly though. Maybe it was burning. lol

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    3. Yeah same thing happened when I moved out. Those burning eyes will get ya everytime. Lol

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