Sentimental Sunday…

I am reminded today about the truly good cooks I have learned from. We had Robert over for dinner and he chose chicken fried steak for his birthday dinner. I learned from the best - Gramma Dorothy - she takes the prize for chicken fried steak. I remember when I was dating Grumpy, long long ago, feeling a bit worried that I wouldn't be up to par with her cooking. Some of the many things we call our favorites still from the kitchen of Gramma Dorothy are of course, chicken fried steak, swiss steak, homemade macaroni and cheese, pineapple and cheese jello salad, BBQ pork, stacked enchiladas, and many more. Nana is also a hard act to follow in the kitchen. She just seemed to know what would work together. A huge tradition from my Dad's side of the family is chocolate cake served in a glass with milk poured over the top and eaten with a spoon. It took Nana a while to get used to that when she married pop, but that's how we all grew up eating chocolate cake. It is definitely a family fav. Again - that was on Robert's dinner list tonight. I remember eating cake for breakfast many times growing up. She always figured it was there to eat, but we all tried to save the last piece for Papa. Nana made green chile to die for along with sunday pot roast, any kind of pie, fried chicken, turkey dinner - it's all about the dressing - and so many other wonderful foods that are family traditions. I have been guilty of thinking there was something wrong with us that everything we do seems to include food. I remember her telling me that family traditions do have a lot of food involved; probably because we plan our get togethers around dinner time because everyone has to eat, so they might as well come do it together. I am thankful for the food, the memories of the food, the food prep and all the memories associated with that and the happy wonderful family traditions that have resulted because of the family getting together to simply eat and converse. Yes, we do many things together as a family, and most of them include some kind of food. It seems to work for us, and I am glad we are a family of great cooks and have fun learning from each other as well. I define a great cook as anyone not afraid to try new stuff, keep the good learned from it and remember what didn't work so as not to do it again. Of course it goes without saying that the food involved is savory, healthy (most of the time) and shared. 

Chicken Fried Steak, mashed potatoes (which I forgot until the last minute), chicken gravy, candied carrots, french cut green beans, taffy apple cookie pizza and Chocolate cake and milk. (I forgot the salad completely) It's hell getting old, I can't remember anything. 

Good times.