Lovin' From the Oven

As I brush off the shame of my last post and the sorry way I've been feeding my family, I've gotta write a few things about my Mom. She is an absolute master of the kitchen, tirelessly making delicious dinners for her family for over 40 years. So if you haven't read this, go back and read about the pitiful dinners I've been serving, then come right back here to read about my Mom.

When I was growing up, I could usually find my Mom in the kitchen or at her sewing machine. I didn't spend much time sewing with her - I've been known to staple and hot glue a costume together. But I did help out in the kitchen. See, I know how to cook - I've just been choosing not to. I got to brown the ground beef and stir things "until it gets thick". Mom made everything from scratch. Except one thing, and I'll get to that later.

I suppose she was cooking with an economical flair; all we knew was that it was delicious. We had meat loaf, tacos, Salisbury steaks, ground beef and gravy over mashed potatoes, sloppy joes, hamburgers, spaghetti and lasagna (that's not cheap!), lots and lots of casseroles.

Chicken was more expensive - and she bought whole chickens that she had to cut up. 2 breasts, 2 thighs, (watch the ads!) 2 legs and 2 wings - that would feed our family. I remember watching her take out the little bag of giblets and toss them in the garbage. My kids have never even seen anything except chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, and enhanced with 8% chicken broth.

She made oven-fried chicken. I liked the drumsticks. We ate the skin! Another chicken meal - and this was strictly Sunday dinner fare - was Chicken Divan. For this she bought chicken breasts. There was the broccoli, the chicken, the creamy, tangy sauce and a bright orange line of melted cheddar down the center. It was her best casserole. I asked for it every year for my birthday dinner.

Pot roast was another Sunday dinner, complete with potatoes, carrots and onions, cooked in a pressure cooker. Does anyone out there even have a pressure cooker? Do you know what it is? Occasionally we had pork chops. They were dredged in flour and pan-fried in oil. Bone-in, so we all gnawed and gnawed our way through dinner.

She took a community education class on Chinese cooking, bought a wok and made us stir frys and sweet and sour dishes.

Hot dogs, fish sticks, homemade pizza, stew, chili, homemade soups and tuna dishes. Oh, the tuna dishes!

I remember Hot Tuna Sandwiches. Basically, tuna salad with celery (no pickles) and chunks of Velveeta, tucked into a hot dog bun, wrapped in foil and heated in the oven. The creaminess, the slight crunch of the celery, the smell of the tuna...mmmmmm.

There was also Tuna Ala King with Cheesy Pinwheels. A white sauce (homemade!!) mixed with tuna and peas in the bottom of the 9x13 casserole dish. Then she rolled out homemade biscuit dough into a rectangle and sprinkled grated cheddar cheese all over it, rolled it up and sliced it, placed the pinwheels on the tuna gravy and baked it. I would have helped by grating the cheese. Most of my cheese is bought already grated.

Now the last tuna dish is the one thing that she didn't make entirely from scratch. Tuna Casserole. My Mom's tuna casserole was the bomb. And so simple - make up a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, fold in a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of tuna. Spread it out in a casserole dish, and if you really love the people you are cooking for, put some buttered breadcrumbs or some crushed potato chips on top and bake it until it's all nice and bubbly and crunchy on top. My whole family loved this dish and if I remember, so did Valerie, my college roommate.

Every meal had a side dish or two - potatoes or rice, rolls (from scratch, people!), canned corn or green beans, frozen peas, sliced apples or applesauce, fruit cocktail with coconut, and jello salads. I bet my Mom made a jello salad 3-4 times a week. And I'm not talking just mandarin oranges dumped in orange jello - there were layers, and Cool Whip toppings, and sliced strawberries and bananas, sometimes nuts.

We ate iceberg lettuce salads - with cut up tomatoes. We had Catalina and Italian dressing. Later, Ranch dressing became all the rage and she made it from a mix, using buttermilk.

She made cookies and cakes, rice krispy treats, peanut butter bars, fruit pies (!), and my favorite (served with my Chicken Divan birthday meal), Cherry-o Cream Cheese Pie. It's the graham cracker crust filled with the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice mixture, topped with cherry pie filling.

Leftovers were for my Dad to take in his lunch to work - 'cause my Mom made his lunch every single day. I think she still does.

It was all from scratch. She didn't have a microwave. Vegetables and salads didn't come pre-cut or washed - she cut carrot sticks for us. She cut up chickens! She made her own granola and grated her own cheese. It was all homemade - have I said that enough? I am in awe when I think about her doing that 7 days a week. Occasionally she and my Dad would have a date night, and they'd go out, but for the most part, she cooked a big dinner every night of the week. I never heard her say she didn't have time, or she was too tired, or complain in any way.


I can picture the meals that we ate - the specific, rarely changing combinations of main dish, sides, even what color Jello salad went with each meal. I can see the Pyrex 9x13 pans, the square, white Corningware serving dishes, the white Corelle plates that we ate off of. We set the table with placemats and ate family style. We prayed before every meal.

Some things have changed since I was a little girl, helping my Mom in the kitchen. No more casseroles, except for lasagna and sometimes Chicken Divan. She buys boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and pork loin roasts instead of fatty, bony chops. Salads are made with romaine and have poppy seed dressings and dried cranberries and pecans. No tuna dishes, no hot dogs, fish sticks, or Jello salads. Ever. I bet my Mom made her last Jello salad over 20 years ago.

They eat grilled, lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables. The homemade rolls are still on the table and so are the desserts. Everything is still from scratch, labor intensive and delicious. And I think they eat out at least once a week.

Thanks, Mom. Thanks for all the yumminess and the teaching and the time spent with me in the kitchen. I remember it being a very happy place - at least until it was time for me to complain about doing the dishes. Sorry about that. Thanks for letting me help. Thank you for your home-cooked love.

I need to do better in my own home, with my family. These memories are priceless.