It is interesting how food plays an important part of our lives. Take for example our friend, Barb. Barb was a former neighbor. DH knew her years before I did since she would frequent the bookmobile he worked on. Anyway, after she was widowed, I would invite her to Thanksgiving. For a number of years she didn't attend, but made other plans with friends because she had no local family. Then she started accepting our invites. She admitted a few years ago the reason she came (besides the company) was my cornbread. She said the turkey, potatoes, and green beans were fine, but it was the homemade cornbread she liked the best. Barb died this weekend. She was 88 and when she came for dinner on Memorial Day, she was telling us how she couldn't believe she had lived that long. She gave up smoking over twenty years ago and it probably helped quite a bit. But she also went and exercised some. She kept social and kept her mind alert. And other than some arthritis, she got was slower, but still got around and did things. I just chuckle over the comment about the cornbread.
Well, I posted a photo of her on Facebook (see below) with my husband at a Thanksgiving meal. One of the guys from church commented on it and of all the food on the table, the thing he commented on was the cornbread. He wanted to know if I made it and was it Jiffy or homemade. I told him it was homemade, baked in a cast iron skillet. We discussed this at some point and then I made the offer to teach him some Sunday afternoon when he isn't golfing.
All of this just because of cornbread. Too funny.
Cornbread
August 7th, 2017 at 05:50 pm
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My dad, age 84, commented to me once that as you get older there are fewer and fewer things you can do. Enjoying a good meal is one of the few things he CAN still do, and he does enjoy his food. The thing I have observed about my father is that he relishes everything, though some of his favorites include soft-shelled crab, anything with balsamic vinegar and seafood in general. He likes to try new things; the other day we were at a new restaurant and once he saw rabbit on the menu, he had to try it.
Some of my fondest childhood memories revolve around the food my Slavic grandmother used to make for us, with love. (I say Slavic becus while she told me she was born in Czechoslovakia, multiple documents I've found on Ancestry indicate the family came from Austria or Hungary, so who knows?) Just seeing red cherries in the supermarket, or macadamia nuts or strawberry shortcake, brussel sprouts or even spare ribs sends me into spasms of rhapsodic memories.
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Cornbread....one of the foods I miss most from my mom's kitchen is her cornbread stuffing during the holidays. She made cornbread throughout the year and would save a piece from each batch. At holiday time, she would pull out that bag from the freezer and crumble up the cornbread and make stuffing. It was amazing. Thank you for your memory, which reminded me of my mom's.... XO
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Thrifty Ray, was a sweet memory of your mom and a cool tradition.
Petunia, we were amazed at how well she looked at 88 too. She still drove, was very mentally alert and other than some arthritis that started to make her move slower, she did really well.
VS_Ozgirl, thanks for your kind comment.
Deejay, thanks for your comment; I thought the same thing about Gramma Ray's story ... great minds!
Patientsaver, it is amazing how food plays such an important part of our lives.
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