Each Thursday I share the stories of a new Real (Experienced) Mom and this week you are really in for a treat, as I am carrying out our latest mom’s interview for a few days.
Yesterday I shared the first post from Valerie, a mom to five (now) grown men. If you missed it, please consider clicking back and spending a few moments getting to know an amazing lady.
Today she shares a bit about food and her family…
What were some of your family’s favorite meals that you served? Would you mind sharing any of those recipes?
Meals were a big deal. Food was huge is quantity and importance.
I realized that even though we love variety, we also love structure. Wednesday was always soup night during the school year. A big kettle of soup and a steaming sink of sudsy water. This made for easy preparation and few dishes between school and Wednesday night at church. Sunday was mainly oven meals or spaghetti. Saturday my husband gave me time to myself and said don’t come home until nap time. He made waffles every Saturday for years. I had a simplified version of once a month cooking that involved cooking 20-25 pounds of hamburger at a time. I would make chili, lasagna, taco meat, etc. I baked four loaves of bread every day (Wow, this sounds like a lot looking back!) and Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were my cinnamon roll ministry. I would bake rolls for us and a pan or two to give away. Everyone got to take turns picking some one to give rolls to. It was a sense of adventure to surprise people with food.
We maybe went out to a restaurant once a month with all the kids.
Are there any particular foods that your grown children now ask for at family gatherings? Would you mind sharing those recipes and any story behind the dish?
The things my guys ask for most when the come home are cinnamon rolls, pizza snakes and gramma bread.
Pizza snakes are made like cinnamon rolls but with cheese, spices and meat rolled up in the dough. Instead of cutting into slices before baking, it is baked whole. We have made the dough in letters, numbers and shapes for different occasions. The best was the starship Enterprise for a Star Trek night.
Gramma bread is dough about the size of a bun, flatted out with three slits (yes three and always three) cut in it, It is then fried in a hot skillet in about 1 tbsp of shortening. They rise quickly in the hot frypan and get golden where it touches the pan. The shortening isn’t very much (they are not deep fried) but you do have to add some for each batch. My gramma made these as did her gramma. The reason was on bread baking day the first loaves weren’t ready for the first meal, so this was a way to have bread when the men came in from the field. We served it hot with butter and salt. No, you can’t put jelly on it, it’s just not done.
That sure sounds like a lot of delicious food to me… And what a wonderful idea to surprise a friend with homemade cinnamon rolls! I was just sharing this with my own mom who once had someone drop by with a delicious homemade pizza… just because. Wow! How nice!!
Check back tomorrow to learn about Valerie’s family traditions…
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