Peggy’s prompt—simmer

My mother was the master of simmering. She made pot roasts, and boiled ham, and chicken, all in her oval dutch oven aluminum pot (let’s hope that the current science is right about aluminum NOT causing Alzheimer’s) where she brought the water in the pot to a boil, and then let the meat simmer for several hours. She also cooked green beans and lima beans this same way, but with a tablespoon of bacon grease thrown in. Simmering and frying were her specialties. Fried fish, fried chicken, fried bacon, all staples at our house. She wasn’t much for baking, except for cookies and “plain” cakes, although very occasionally we’d have a baked fish or baked macaroni and cheese or meatloaf. She didn’t broil. Didn’t sauté. Didn’t puree.

Her spices were salt and sometimes pepper. Sugar was for iced tea and cake icing. Butter (I mean oleomargarine) was used at the table, not in cooking. Salad dressing meant mayo with a little pickle juice. Bread meant sliced white loaf bread or sliced loaf brown (whole wheat) bread. She made cornbread in a small iron skillet, but seldom made biscuits (too much trouble.) Pancakes were a rare treat, but never waffles.

Potatoes were almost always mashed, although sometimes she fixed baked sweet potatoes to go with a ham. And perhaps a ham and sliced potato casserole with the left-over ham.

Vegetables were either fresh—raw or cooked—or from a can, never frozen, even after they became commonly available. We lived on corn, peas, and beans. And sometimes pickled beets.

Every meal was accompanied, if possible, by sliced tomatoes, pickles, olives (that I refused to eat), and celery sticks.

Dessert (at every dinner) was ice cream (usually Neopolitan—chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry in one store-brand box) or Jello with fruit cocktail mixed in, or a plain, un-iced, yellow cake made in a tube pan.

Despite the sameness to the menu, I loved my mother’s cooking, and of all the things I missed when I went off to college, the thing I missed the most was my mother’s meal of pot roast, mashed potatoes and pot “liquor”, field peas (a lost variety), and sliced tomatoes. Just writing the words brings back the taste to my mouth. Yum!