Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Just a couple of random thoughts

My granddaughters stayed later than usual last night, so their parents could have a "date night".  On these occasions, I fix their supper.  It's always something simple, since Cliff's at work.  I had planned to fix one of their favorite meals, Campbells tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Unfortunately I found myself out of tomato soup, just before time to eat.  They'd have done fine with grilled cheese alone, no problem with that; and that's what they'd have gotten, except that a conversation from back around 1963 came to mind.

I was nineteen years old, listening to a couple of co-workers at National Bellas Hess talking.  One lady had just gotten charge of three step-children, and was finding it hard to go home and cook a full meal for hungry children after working hard all day at our minimum-wage job.  The other lady asked her if she'd ever fixed hamburger and beans.  "No," she replied.  "How do I make that?"

So she got her instructions:  brown some hamburger, then add a can or two of pork-and-beans(or however many, depending on how much hamburger you have) and heat it up.

I remember the lady with the step-kids telling us, the next day, "Those kids ate and ate and ate!"

I lived alone in an apartment, and tried this for myself soon afterward.  Not bad, although I added a little ketchup and brown sugar.  I made it for my kids, years later, when pressed for something easy and quick.  And as my old co-worker had said, "... they ate and ate and ate."

As luck would have it last night, I had about a half-pound of thawed ground pork in the refrigerator; so I browned it and added the beans.

Yep, in legendary fashion, the girls ate and ate and... well, you get the picture.  A memory from my past provided supper last night.  And I don't even remember the lady's name who first shared the recipe.

Now on a different subject:  for those of you who saw, and enjoyed, "Walk The Line", if you'd like to have some of the gaps in the story cleared up, as I did, read "Cash", the autobiography, co-written with Patrick Carr.  It's well-done, and answers many of the questions the movie left me asking.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice story.  Some of my mother's recipes handed down to me are what she called 'depression recipes'.  They are all simple and made in similar fashion.  I guess necessity is the mother of invention after all.

Anonymous said...

I have a few of those "emergency meals" in my head as well.  When we were in Mexico, we really had to have an imagination to feed all those kids at the end of the month :)  Blessings, Penny http://journals.aol.com/firestormkids04/FromHeretoThere

Anonymous said...

I'll have to remember that recipe for a quick dinner fix. Nice that you gave your grand-daughters parents a chance for a date night! So important these days :)

betty

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big hamburger person, but that sounds like something my kids would have liked when they were little.

I have yet to see Walk the Line, but do plan to.  Hopefully BEfore it hits the video stores!

Jackie

Anonymous said...

LOL That's what my Mom called "Poor Man's Supper" when I was a kid... and she added the ketchup and brown sugar as well... Oh yeah, and we ate, and ate, and ate.  <g>
http://journals.aol.com/astaryth/AdventuresofanEclecticMind
http://adventuresofaneclecticmind.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I don't know how she does it? My Frieda can whip up a meal in 15 minutues and I'll think it grand. But then again, she's been conditioning me for nearly 5 decades.
Fernan

Anonymous said...

I am going to have to try that.  Tonight I made a big batch of Chicken ala King and I will freeze more than half of it for later meals.  It works out great and all that cooking and the mess that comes with it is over.
Dianne

Anonymous said...

You know soemtimes the most simple meal is th ebest one ! Especially if "Grandma" made it !
love ya,
Carlene

Anonymous said...

I'll have to try that!!

Anonymous said...

I think I'll get the biography before I see the movie...Cash is the man!

Anonymous said...

Can't go wrong with any kind of beans! Thanx for sharing. rich

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the dinner idea. Sounds good, quick and easy. I think I'd add the ketchup too though and maybe a little bell pepper.

I want to get that book. I loved the movie so I think reading the book might make me understand the movie and the man better.

Have a great day hun.

-Raven