Thursday January 21, 2010
I remember when……………..
Food was something that you not only ate, but something from which memories were made.
When I was a little boy, I’m not sure of my age then, but I was small, no older than 5 or 6 I would guess, I saw Momma come from the house carrying a brown paper bag (what we called a poke), and head down towards the road behind the house. There was a weed, or what I thought was a weed that grew on the fence line down there, and she picked some of those weeds and put them in the poke. Early that same evening we ate some of the best something I can recall ever eating at that time in my life. There was some really tasty meat, some beans or maybe it was blackeye peas, and this other something that was dark green. I remember being told that I had to eat some of all of it, even the green stuff. The meat it turns out was chicken, however it was baked, and not fried. I thought then that the only way a person ate chicken was fried chicken. And the green stuff, (poke salad), turns out it was pretty doggone good. And the beans, or blackeyes, or field peas, or whatever it was also was very good. I’m sure that there was either biscuits or cornbread or maybe even both. But what I remember most was that all of it was just real good, I mean really good.
The next day I remember getting me a brown paper bag and off outside I went. I didn’t know what to get, so I just picked anything green and put it in that bag. I knew only one thing, I wanted another dinner like the one we had the day before. And if my Momma could pick green stuff from outside and come up with that dinner then she should be able to do the same thing with whatever I put in my poke right? Makes perfect sense to a 5 or
6 year old county bumpkin little boy. As it turns out, clover, tall grass, and broadleaf weeds can’t necessarily be eaten. Thus begin my learning of food. And at the same time, my understanding of how that food also makes memories. I’m 52 years old now, and I’ve never forgotten that meal or the laugh of my Momma when I handed her that bag of weeds and told her I wanted something like what we had the night before.
My daughter loves for her Dad to cook for her sometimes, and I do. She loves it when I fry chicken and make gravy and biscuits. There have been times that all I would cook is just the chicken, gravy and biscuits and call it a meal. I remember once her staying with me the entire time that I was cooking. When it came time to make the gravy I started sort of playing a little bit and acting like a cooking show host. I was explaining every step of the way what I was doing and how to do it. I had taken some of the grease from the chicken and I put flour in it. I started explaining that to make good cream gravy that you first had to make a good rue. I remember stirring the flour and grease together and pointing out how pasty it should get. When the rue was just right, I reached for the milk and slowly started pouring it in, holding back just slightly waiting to see how it would thicken up. If it is too thick of course, you just pour in a little more milk. Well the gravy turned out perfect, the biscuits came from the oven just as the last chicken was finished frying, and we plated our food up and gorged our self on fried chicken, gravy and biscuits.
Now she couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 years old at that time. But very recently (she’s 18 now), we were getting ready to eat a family dinner at my sisters’ house and something was said about gravy. I spoke up and said something about Ashley knowing how to make gravy, that I had showed her once. Then I looked at her and said “right?” She smiled and answered, “yes, I do, you have to make a good rue first”. And as simple a thing as that was, I smiled real big because I knew that those few minutes spent with her that day was also a memory that we had made together that she will keep all of her life. Turns out now that I know the gravy wasn’t the best thing we made that day, instead it was the memory of the time we spent making it.
So grab that kid or grandkid or your spouse or your best friend. And don’t go out to eat.
Instead run to the kitchen. Make something. Make anything. But remember that what you’re making more than anything else is a memory…………..
Chicken soup for the soul………….
More to come………
Gary
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The People Speak
Tuesday January 19, 2010
I wish to call upon and quote directly from one of the single most important documents that are the very foundation of our country and remain today just as true and as pertinent as it was at its original inception. From The Declaration of Independence delivered in the Congress of the United States on July 4, 1776, I quote the following:
“......We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security……”
Today, WE THE PEOPLE have once again spoken. Their voice I hope is heard loud and clear. Their message, I hope delivered in a concise manner and understood by all elected officials that WE THE PEOPLE can and will exercise our right and obligation to replace those that do not best represent the people that ultimately put them into their honored position.
WE THE PEOPLE have spoken loudly and clearly in the State of Massachusetts. They send a message to President Barrack Obama that his socialist agenda is not received well even in what is the most liberal state in the union behind only California. I hope that all of our elected leaders heed well the message being sent.
Recently, WE THE PEOPLE spoke similarly in New Jersey. Their voice was heard in Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania. WE THE PEOPLE have spoken clearly and concisely and yet it seems that President Obama and his socialist regime does not hear the message being sent. I hope that with this victory today that he and the people in his administration sit up and take notice. We can and we will exercise our right and obligation to replace those that fail to represent the people that place them there.
More to come………
Gary
I wish to call upon and quote directly from one of the single most important documents that are the very foundation of our country and remain today just as true and as pertinent as it was at its original inception. From The Declaration of Independence delivered in the Congress of the United States on July 4, 1776, I quote the following:
“......We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security……”
Today, WE THE PEOPLE have once again spoken. Their voice I hope is heard loud and clear. Their message, I hope delivered in a concise manner and understood by all elected officials that WE THE PEOPLE can and will exercise our right and obligation to replace those that do not best represent the people that ultimately put them into their honored position.
WE THE PEOPLE have spoken loudly and clearly in the State of Massachusetts. They send a message to President Barrack Obama that his socialist agenda is not received well even in what is the most liberal state in the union behind only California. I hope that all of our elected leaders heed well the message being sent.
Recently, WE THE PEOPLE spoke similarly in New Jersey. Their voice was heard in Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania. WE THE PEOPLE have spoken clearly and concisely and yet it seems that President Obama and his socialist regime does not hear the message being sent. I hope that with this victory today that he and the people in his administration sit up and take notice. We can and we will exercise our right and obligation to replace those that fail to represent the people that place them there.
More to come………
Gary
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