Some of the stuff we eat

When I was checking my tomato plants a couple days ago I came across a nice big green tomato that had a small peck or hole on the side -- probably from a worm. I went ahead and picked it, planning on frying me up some green tomatoes. So yesterday for breakfast I sliced the tomato up and coated it in Andy's fish seasoning and flour and fried them in vegetable oil. Then fried up two eggs and a couple slices of bulloney and two pieces of toast. Toss in a couple cups of Kenyan coffee and some cantalope and that is a pretty fine breakfast. Probably way too many fried foods for many, and I don't do this all the time, but it was good.

But this was how we grew up back in Nebraska. We didn't have fried green tomatoes, which are probably a southern dish. But we did have ham or bacon along with eggs most every day. Now and then Mom and Dad would toss in half a grapefruit, but not very often. Normally it was eggs and a piece of pork and biscuits or toast. They would make pancakes now and then. Hardly ever made waffles. Hardly ever had hash browns. Hash browns are one of my favorites, especially with some ketchup on them. But we always had ham or pork at breakfast. Always.

But any meal where I grew up had some type of meat. Mom and Dad raised their own beef and pork along with a whole bunch of chickens so there was always meat in the freezer. We did our own butchering so the critters never left our place. Seemed like Mom and Dad had several freezers which always seemed packed with meat or frozen corn. Dad usually planted a mess of sweet corn so the freezer had a bunch of corn cut off the cob and frozen in quart bags.

One of Mom's favorites was to put a big roast, say 8 or 9 pounds, in a pretty big roaster. Mom would add potatoes and carrots and onions and let this whole thing cook together. Always was good. I can't remember her putting cabbage in the roaster but I'm sure she did. Cabbage cooked along with a roast like this is just awesome. One of my sisters and I have talked about cooking cabbage along with a beef roast so I'm sure Mom did. I would imagine she cooked the roast alone for a while before adding he vegies. But I don't remember.

I remember going down in the cellar and the basement and there would be shelves of canned beef. Mom would can beef in quart jars probably seasoned with salt and pepper. Meat is fairly easy to can in a pressure cooker. It just takes quite a while under pressure. If my memory is right it takes like 45 minutes under 15 or 20 pounds of pressure. Get a Ball canning book and read up on cannng beef. I know it's pretty awesome to dump a quart jar of canned meat and one is ready to eat. A friend of ours said they canned some potatoes, onions and carrots up with their meat. Almost like a meal in a jar.

Always in the spring when the lakes were cold we'd go to some bullhead lake and catch a mess of bullheads. After skinning the bullheads Mom would dip them in flower and fry them in lard. There isn't much better then a yellow bullhead caught in a Sandhill lake dipped in flower and fried in lard till it's crispy. But it has to be crispy but not too crispy because we always left the bones in the bullheads when we skinned them.

In the spring Dad would order a whole mess of baby chickens and raise them up. Some would become egg layers but a bunch was destined to be fried chicken. Mom or Dad would either pull the heads off the chickens or chop it off. Then they'd dip the chicken in boiling water which would make the chicken easier to pick the feathers off it. Once free of feathers Mom would hold the chicken over the gas kitchen stove and singe the last few remaining bits and pieces of feathers. If you have ever smelled this it's a smell that stays with you till death.

Chickens raised like this had an awesome taste when fried up in an old cast iron skillet fried in lard..

One of our family's favorite meals is a big cast iron pot full of sausage gravy and a bunch of Marge's home made biscuits. Usually at the same time we have some scrambled eggs,. Some in our family don't like peppers so scrambled eggs for the family doesn't have peppers. But when I make scrambled eggs I usually add a good helping of peppers we have cut up and also some onion. We like mild seasoned sausage to make into gravy.

Probably Marge and my favorite meal is a good grilled steak, a baked potato and a vegetable or two. By the time we eat in the evening it's late so Marge puts our steaks in the toaster oven. But when we are wanting some good gravy she will fry the steaks. A meal fit for a king. I'd have to call this country cooking.