What's for lunch?

By Rennie Phillips

Down through the years some of the best times have come with food. Didn't matter if it was Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter or just a potluck dinner or a creek bank picnic, food seems to gather us together and makes for a better time. I don't really know why but it just does. Kind of like visiting with a neighbor. We can visit and do pretty good but if you add a picnic table, maybe a snack like a cookie and something to drink like coffee or soda or even a beer this takes it to a whole different level.

Just a week ago or so I was visiting with an old friend at a fundraiser meal where I was eating chili and she was eating chicken soup. Judy commented that she missed the potluck dinners we used to have. I do too! There is just something about sitting down together and enjoying each other's company around food and drink.

A couple weeks ago the American Legion had a ham and bean meal. I'm not sure how many years I've been going but it's been a bunch of years. I always enjoy the ham and beans but I also enjoy the cornbread and I sure enjoy the coleslaw. I went through the line and got everything except my dessert. So I picked out a piece of cake that had a kind of gooey frosting on it and some coconut. Coconut is one of my favorites.

There was a spot open across from an older gentleman so I sat down to enjoy the ham and beans. We talked about the weather and about a mutual friend. We both agreed Monte is a good guy. Come to find out the older gentleman is a World War II vet. He had been drafted at 18 and sent off for eight or nine weeks of basic followed by 16 weeks or so of advanced training. From there he went on a 21-day boat ride to the Philippines. Japan had surrendered by the time he arrived in the Philippines so he was sent to Japan as part of the occupational force. The meal was good but nothing compared to visiting with the veteran.

About two months ago I went to a gardening seminar down in Bertrand, Missouri, and lunch was to be provided. I figured it would be some kind of sandwich and chips and a drink. We went through the greenhouses and looked at a bunch of different tomato plants. I'll bet there were at least 50 different kinds of tomatoes with all of them being grown in containers. It was a good worthwhile seminar.

When it came time for lunch I was pleasantly surprised. They had made four kinds of homemade soups. There was sweet potato soup, pumpkin soup, duck chili and hamburger chili. All of them were good but the sweet potato soup took top honors for me. Along with the soup they had several desserts and all kinds of veggies. Awesome lunch. The lunch just topped off the seminars. What was neat about the whole experience was that I got to make some new friends, try some different dishes and learn about some new tomatoes. Now Marge and I have to try and make the sweet potato soup. I'm not sure what our extended family will think of it but it will be fun finding out.

Normally in the fall I till up most of our outside garden and plant it to mainly turnips. I usually have some seed left over from the summer plantings that is getting old so I mix it with the turnip seed. This year I had some beet seed, rutabaga seed, winter radishes, collard seed and some turnip seed. I was counting on the turnip seed to grow and produce sweet tender mild turnips, but the surprise was the winter radishes. Got a good stand of radishes.

I tried to eat them like normal radishes and they weren't bad. But man they are hot, way too hot for me to enjoy. So I'd pull some of the radishes every day or so and feed the tops to our steers. But I Googled winter radishes and found out one can cook them. That I didn't know. So I boiled some with some turnips and found out they were pretty good. I was surprised. Now we'll have to cook some of the radishes alone.

May even try cooking them like rutabagas. Marge boils her rutabagas till tender and then she fries them in butter. If I had to guess I'll bet the radishes cooked like this will be pretty darn good. Now we experiment with our winter radishes. If they taste good you'll have to give them a try as well. I've got a good patch of turnips and radishes. One thing I noticed is that turnips tend to stay small if crowded but the radishes don't seem to care if they are crowded. I can easily find the bigger radishes but it's still hard finding decent-sized turnips.

One thing I wish we had here in Scott City is a community building. It would be fun during the winter to have a kind of carry-in dinner every now and then with everyone bringing in some kind of ethnic meal that they grew up with or one that they are known for. Brad mentioned about a year ago that he'd made some sauerkraut soup. That I'd like to try. Sounds kind of German to me. I think it would be fun to sit down with Brad and get the history about the soup. I grew up in Nebraska where they had plenty of beef and pork, good home-grown spuds and plenty of green beans and corn. These would probably go with sauerkraut soup, especially if Brad would make some good corn bread. When Clarence was still alive he would have a fish fry out at the Cement Lakes. That was always fun. We always enjoyed visiting.

As we go into the Thanksgiving and Christmas season all of us should be a little more thankful for our family and friends. Maybe look for a reason to gather and enjoy each other's company around some good food and drinks or just a batch of no-bake cookies. Gifts are OK and I enjoy a gift as much as the next guy, but family and friends are way more valuable. Give a friend you haven't seen in a while a call and meet at one of the area diners for a meal. Or if you are a coffee "snob" like me, meet for a cup of coffee. That one cup may turn into two.