Signature Dishes

I'm not known for my cooking.  In fact, I think I have posted on here that I am not very creative as a cook.  My daughter is, having the talent of putting together things in recipes of her own making.  My sister is, having many occasions to entertain folks in her home through the years.  Me?  I'm just a down-home country cook who was married to a meat-and-potatoes man who thought of casseroles as a side dish.  "That's a nice casserole, but where's the food?" 

What I learned about cooking came from my mother who spent her youth as a farm girl, and her married life feeding a husband that was raised during the Depression in a very poor family and never got enough to eat as a kid.  She didn't really teach me anything.  I just watched.  Of course, most of what I learned from her came from when I was a young wife and suddenly ran into cooking issues I didn't have answers for:  What is the secret to making gravy?  How do you cut up a chicken?  Is there a difference between self-rising flour and the regular stuff?  Sometimes my questions to her came AFTER I had already made a mistake.  Oops!

The very first meal I ever cooked was when I was a teenager--a senior, I think.  My mother was to be away on a health mercy mission at Mayo Clinic for her mother for a number of days.  She was to return on a Sunday.  She had instructed me to fix a pot roast before she got back.  Brown the meat, then put it in the oven for so long...then, an hour before it is done, add potatoes and carrots and onions.  Blah, blah.  I did.  When she walked in the house that day, exhausted from worry about my grandmother, she was overjoyed to smell the smells of an oven dinner almost done--and she didn't have to fix it!  I will never forget her feelings of relief at being home and fed.  I done good!  Unfortunately, I don't think I fixed another family meal until I became a married lady four years later.

Okay...so...that said, I will admit that I have SOME things that I am famous for.  My family likes my deviled eggs.  I also have a corn meal/corn recipe that goes over well in the fall.  My radio club seems to like my sloppy joes.  Personally, my all-time favorite is my own homemade potato salad.  You can buy potato salad everywhere, but I have yet to find any store-bought stuff that was even worth the price!  (The closest to homemade that I have ever found is served by The Coachman restaurant here in Plainfield.  Close...but no cigar.)

I only make potato salad once or twice a year.  It is labor intensive, and I love it so much that, if I make it, I can't stay away from it!  Boil the potatoes just enough that they are still firm.  Cool them and peel them.  Boil the eggs.  Cook them and peel them.  Chop the onion--lots of it--and some celery.  Make the dressing.  Mix it all together and let it sit.  (Potato salad is one of those dishes that is better the second day.  I always make it a day in advance.)  My sister and I argue about the dressing.  She just uses mayo.  I add mustard.  She swears that Mother didn't use mustard, and I insist that she did.  (Otherwise, how would I have know about it???)  In any case, it all tastes good to me, and no one I serve it to complains! 

Fourth of July was almost always celebrated at my grandparents' farm in rural Illinois.  It pleased my mother that virtually everything on the table, except the meat, was home grown.  Good stuff!  One dish that my mother made (that I couldn't convince my family to eat) was new potatoes and peas--a creamed dish that was excellent!  I might find a way to fix that this Fourth, just for me!  Of course, I was spoiled by home grown tomatoes and other delights that simply cannot be replicated at the grocery store.  When I lost my marriage, I lost my garden.  Still, memories of that good stuff works well to keep me fat.  I gain weight just thinking about it!