Eating at My Mind

A few days ago I made wilted dandelion greens, bacon, onions in gravy made from the fat of the bacon. It was one of the meals I loved that my mom Sybil Miner Beck made. I always enjoyed it. She served it over mashed potatoes, not the box kind that now often graces out tables. Mom would cook the potatoes and believe it or not, my dad, Carl would mash those potatoes until they were velvety smooth with lots of butter. He couldn’t or wouldn’t cook, but he was the mashed potato king. It was rare that I could find the smallest lump.

I don’t know why my rendition wasn’t up to my mom’s recipe, but it fell short. One thing I didn’t get the mixture sour enough, but I did make a fair rendition of non-lumpy gravy. My dad would have been ashamed of my mashed potatoes. I checked several the potatoes as they cooked and thought they were done. They weren’t and I had lumps galore.

Another dish my mom would serve was a mixture of fried loose sausage, added cooked noodles and sauerkraut. The mixture was served over mashed potatoes. I only make it occasionally, because it makes a huge batch. I’ll make it if I’m going to a dinner at church where I can have others help to eat it, otherwise, I have to eat it for a week. I don’t do the real mashed potatoes, I use the boxed dehydrated potatoes so I can keep the lumps out of them.

Often Mom would make “Poodlies” as my sister Kathy calls them. It consists of cooked macaroni, melted butter, and home canned tomato juice, heavily salted. It never took long to throw it together and because we liked it, she served it for many our lunches at home. I can capture a close flavor to Mom’s recipe, but not quite. When I cook a favorite, I make it as a trip to the past. It’s a mouthwatering journey in my mind, thinking of those flavors and the memories that Mom’s recipes stir up. I’m not sure if my recipes are missing something or whether my mind holds an unachievable standard.