"What's for Supper?"
When I was very young, still living on the farm, Mom always cooked big breakfasts in the morning and dinners at noon, and a lighter supper in the evening. A few years later, when we no longer lived on the farm, our noon meal became smaller and supper became the biggest meal of the day.
If I asked "What's for supper?" Mom always had one answer: "Meat, potatoes, and vegetables." She told the truth; we always had some type of meat, often fried, as the main dish, with potatoes, boiled, baked, fried, or mashed, and a can of vegetables. On a good day, I might get to choose which kind of vegetable can to open for supper--green beans or wax (yellow) beans, big white butter beans or green baby limas, pork and beans, corn, peas, beets, or mixed vegetables. (The best, least mushy mixed vegetables were the ones that were separated in the can, with a circular piece of white paper sandwiched between each layer.) Jello salad was a regular addition to our supper. Dad always insisted on having a slice of white bread and butter with his meal. In the summer time, we added fresh produce to our meals. We savored those freshly picked tomatoes and sweet corn that Dad grew in his garden. Once in a while, Mom would open a can of peaches or pears for dessert, or she would cook some chocolate or butterscotch pudding on the stovetop, and serve it in footed dessert dishes with a little half-and-half (cream) puddled on top. Except for applesauce spice cake, which Mom baked fairly often, cakes and pies were usually saved for birthdays and holidays.
Mom served several things that I have never made for my family. I have no desire to fix ring baloney, normally served with fried potatoes. I have never opened a can of tuna and a can of salmon, and served them side by side on a plate, still in the shape of the cans they came in, to be eaten cold with fried potatoes and salad. I've never served cold pork and beans, straight from the can.
Since Dad was an avid hunter, we often ate wild game. I liked the pheasant, turkey, and quail, but I could do without the duck and goose and venison. Since Bill is not a hunter, I don't serve any game, other than some occasional fresh-caught fish.
When we ate lunch at home, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese (we called it toasted cheese), or minced ham (baloney) sandwiches, were served with home-canned pickles and a few potato chips. Sandwiches of any kind were always spread with butter, never mayonnaise. In the winter, we often ate canned Campbell's soup, or homemade bean soup, and soda crackers. Sometimes, Mom fixed breakfast for lunch--pancakes or waffles, or eggs and toast. Tuna and noodle casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese were my favorites. However, after we moved to the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk, we often ate lunch at one of the four or five nearby cafes, especially on school days, when we had to stick to a time schedule. When we moved to Fairbury, we were able to eat lunch at school for the first time. When school was out for the summer, we usually ate lunch in the Mary-Etta Cafe.
Although we often ate lunch in the cafe, we made a point of eating breakfast and supper, and Sunday dinner, together in our apartment whenever possible. Family meals are so important!
Sunday dinner was always roast beef or pork, or sometimes chicken, served with cooked carrots and potatoes and gravy, and a canned vegetable. We usually had a salad of some kind with our Sunday dinner. In addition, Mom often made brown-and-serve dinner rolls, served with butter and homemade jelly. We might have dessert on Sundays, too, applesauce spice cake, or apple crisp, or my favorite strawberry short cake.
I was a teenager before I ever ate some foods that we eat frequently now. I remember eating spaghetti for the first time at my friend, Denise's, slumber party. I was in high school when a group of friends helped make tacos at Roger's house. I remember eating rice for the first time as a teenager, when our friends from Iran served it for dinner at their house. I'm sure I didn't eat Asian food of any kind until I was in college.
One thing we never ate at home was hamburgers, because we could get them in the cafe anytime we wanted them. To this day, I don't think Mom ever makes hamburgers at home. But, she does make spaghetti and tacos occasionally now.
Bill's mom always said that she wasn't much of a cook, and it's true that she didn't cook a wide variety of meals, but her food was always delicious, even if it was somewhat different from the food I was used to. She had a set menu: meatloaf with baked potatoes and peas one night a week, liver and onions with fried potatoes and Harvard beets on Thursdays, hamburgers on Saturdays. and so on. Lunches in the Bauer house included a few things that the Vawsers never ate: fried pbj sandwiches and fried baloney come to mind, as well as garlic sausage sandwiches spread with grape jelly. And sandwiches in the Bauer house were always spread with Miracle Whip, never butter, margarine, or mayo!
I've come to believe that cooks in the fifties and sixties were so excited that food rationing from the World War II era was at an end, that they eagerly cooked and served many foods that were high in sugar and fat, which had been largely unavailable to the general population during the war years. I think of sugar bread, a common after-school snack for me, consisting of a slice of soft white bread, slathered with butter, and heavily sprinkled with white sugar. And, of course, we always had plenty of cookies on hand for snacks.
Today, our grocery stores are filled with a wide variety of foods that just weren't available when I was growing up. I think that TV programming on the Food Network has also contributed to our cooking innovations. Bill is an avid cook who loves to experiment with many recipes that he finds online and in new cookbooks. My cupboards seem to be overflowing with the spices he loves to use. We eat a large number of ethnic foods. I've experimented with many Asian and Mexican dishes, and I make Indian tacos from scratch. We make many kinds of homemade soup and bread, especially during the winter months. We always have fresh produce in our refrigerator.
People today are much more health conscious than they were fifty years ago--or, at least, we like to think so. I am sure that soda pop and chips didn't take up a whole aisle at the grocery store my Mom frequented when I was a child, and fast food was unheard of in Nebraska until I was a teenager. These days, we have to teach our preschoolers how to eat chicken legs, because their chicken usually comes in the form of deep fried nuggets.
My own children have been exposed to a much wider variety of foods than I was as a child. We enjoy many different ethnic foods. We have fresh fruits and vegetables for almost every meal. I serve whole grain bread most of the time. These days, when one of my children asks, "What's for supper?" I may say spaghetti or enchiladas or stir-fry or hamburgers--meals that my own mother never fixed for supper when I was growing up. But, once in a while, we have meat, potatoes, and vegetables from a can. We all love those Del Monte green baby limas!
If I asked "What's for supper?" Mom always had one answer: "Meat, potatoes, and vegetables." She told the truth; we always had some type of meat, often fried, as the main dish, with potatoes, boiled, baked, fried, or mashed, and a can of vegetables. On a good day, I might get to choose which kind of vegetable can to open for supper--green beans or wax (yellow) beans, big white butter beans or green baby limas, pork and beans, corn, peas, beets, or mixed vegetables. (The best, least mushy mixed vegetables were the ones that were separated in the can, with a circular piece of white paper sandwiched between each layer.) Jello salad was a regular addition to our supper. Dad always insisted on having a slice of white bread and butter with his meal. In the summer time, we added fresh produce to our meals. We savored those freshly picked tomatoes and sweet corn that Dad grew in his garden. Once in a while, Mom would open a can of peaches or pears for dessert, or she would cook some chocolate or butterscotch pudding on the stovetop, and serve it in footed dessert dishes with a little half-and-half (cream) puddled on top. Except for applesauce spice cake, which Mom baked fairly often, cakes and pies were usually saved for birthdays and holidays.
Mom served several things that I have never made for my family. I have no desire to fix ring baloney, normally served with fried potatoes. I have never opened a can of tuna and a can of salmon, and served them side by side on a plate, still in the shape of the cans they came in, to be eaten cold with fried potatoes and salad. I've never served cold pork and beans, straight from the can.
Since Dad was an avid hunter, we often ate wild game. I liked the pheasant, turkey, and quail, but I could do without the duck and goose and venison. Since Bill is not a hunter, I don't serve any game, other than some occasional fresh-caught fish.
When we ate lunch at home, peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese (we called it toasted cheese), or minced ham (baloney) sandwiches, were served with home-canned pickles and a few potato chips. Sandwiches of any kind were always spread with butter, never mayonnaise. In the winter, we often ate canned Campbell's soup, or homemade bean soup, and soda crackers. Sometimes, Mom fixed breakfast for lunch--pancakes or waffles, or eggs and toast. Tuna and noodle casserole and homemade macaroni and cheese were my favorites. However, after we moved to the Oxnard Hotel in Norfolk, we often ate lunch at one of the four or five nearby cafes, especially on school days, when we had to stick to a time schedule. When we moved to Fairbury, we were able to eat lunch at school for the first time. When school was out for the summer, we usually ate lunch in the Mary-Etta Cafe.
Although we often ate lunch in the cafe, we made a point of eating breakfast and supper, and Sunday dinner, together in our apartment whenever possible. Family meals are so important!
Sunday dinner was always roast beef or pork, or sometimes chicken, served with cooked carrots and potatoes and gravy, and a canned vegetable. We usually had a salad of some kind with our Sunday dinner. In addition, Mom often made brown-and-serve dinner rolls, served with butter and homemade jelly. We might have dessert on Sundays, too, applesauce spice cake, or apple crisp, or my favorite strawberry short cake.
I was a teenager before I ever ate some foods that we eat frequently now. I remember eating spaghetti for the first time at my friend, Denise's, slumber party. I was in high school when a group of friends helped make tacos at Roger's house. I remember eating rice for the first time as a teenager, when our friends from Iran served it for dinner at their house. I'm sure I didn't eat Asian food of any kind until I was in college.
One thing we never ate at home was hamburgers, because we could get them in the cafe anytime we wanted them. To this day, I don't think Mom ever makes hamburgers at home. But, she does make spaghetti and tacos occasionally now.
Bill's mom always said that she wasn't much of a cook, and it's true that she didn't cook a wide variety of meals, but her food was always delicious, even if it was somewhat different from the food I was used to. She had a set menu: meatloaf with baked potatoes and peas one night a week, liver and onions with fried potatoes and Harvard beets on Thursdays, hamburgers on Saturdays. and so on. Lunches in the Bauer house included a few things that the Vawsers never ate: fried pbj sandwiches and fried baloney come to mind, as well as garlic sausage sandwiches spread with grape jelly. And sandwiches in the Bauer house were always spread with Miracle Whip, never butter, margarine, or mayo!
I've come to believe that cooks in the fifties and sixties were so excited that food rationing from the World War II era was at an end, that they eagerly cooked and served many foods that were high in sugar and fat, which had been largely unavailable to the general population during the war years. I think of sugar bread, a common after-school snack for me, consisting of a slice of soft white bread, slathered with butter, and heavily sprinkled with white sugar. And, of course, we always had plenty of cookies on hand for snacks.
Today, our grocery stores are filled with a wide variety of foods that just weren't available when I was growing up. I think that TV programming on the Food Network has also contributed to our cooking innovations. Bill is an avid cook who loves to experiment with many recipes that he finds online and in new cookbooks. My cupboards seem to be overflowing with the spices he loves to use. We eat a large number of ethnic foods. I've experimented with many Asian and Mexican dishes, and I make Indian tacos from scratch. We make many kinds of homemade soup and bread, especially during the winter months. We always have fresh produce in our refrigerator.
People today are much more health conscious than they were fifty years ago--or, at least, we like to think so. I am sure that soda pop and chips didn't take up a whole aisle at the grocery store my Mom frequented when I was a child, and fast food was unheard of in Nebraska until I was a teenager. These days, we have to teach our preschoolers how to eat chicken legs, because their chicken usually comes in the form of deep fried nuggets.
My own children have been exposed to a much wider variety of foods than I was as a child. We enjoy many different ethnic foods. We have fresh fruits and vegetables for almost every meal. I serve whole grain bread most of the time. These days, when one of my children asks, "What's for supper?" I may say spaghetti or enchiladas or stir-fry or hamburgers--meals that my own mother never fixed for supper when I was growing up. But, once in a while, we have meat, potatoes, and vegetables from a can. We all love those Del Monte green baby limas!
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