Family Food Weirdness

Dear Liza,

Thinking about Thanksgiving makes me think first about family, of course…..and then food. I guess every family has its own food peculiarities.

For example, my brothers had very different tastes. Your great-uncle Jim was such a fussy eater that he just about lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a long time. For whatever reason, nothing else tasted good to him. The doctor assured Momma he wouldn’t starve, though, so she let it go… and eventually, he started eating regular food again.

Elder brother Tim was the opposite. He ate everything, usually piled all together with gravy on top. When he went into the Marines they thought he was too scrawny, so he got double rations until he bulked up. He sure loved that!
Later, when he was stationed in South Korea, he taught a survival course showing fellows what they could live on in the woods.

My Dad loved mostly plain farm food, like roast beef and potatoes, but somewhere in his background he had fallen in love with bratwurst and sauerkraut. I hated the stuff! When I would come home from school and make that ‘eeew, sauerkraut’ face, Momma would shrug her shoulders and say, “You know where the peanut butter is.”

My Dad, your great grandpa Lowell, usually didn’t cook. In the fifties, that was definitely wifey work. But long before I came along, when he had convinced Momma to spend her weekends camping in various wildernesses, Dad had agreed to be the outdoor chef. He used the cast iron pots (that I still use) to make fried eggs and hash browns for breakfast and all sorts of yummy things for dinner… Dutch oven chili, fried fish, pork chops and mashed potatoes, and even desserts like baked apples or blackberry cobbler. He was a genius.

His one failing was his curried eggs. Made from cardboard-tasting freeze-dried eggs, these led us all right back to the peanut butter jar. Except Tim. He loved them.

Enjoy your holiday food and family. See you soon.

Love,

Grandma Judy