Tuesday 4~ Foody Questions

This picture reminds me of my mother in her 
kitchen...her mixer looked a lot like that too!

Foody Questions

Welcome to Toni's Tuesday 4..
Can we talk about food ?


1. What was your favorite suppertime meal when you were a kid or a teen? How about fav breakfast and lunch while you're at it.

I'm trying to remember...that was such a LONG time ago! LOL.  My mother was an excellent cook, but she also worked a full time job from the time I entered first grade. (I was the baby of the family).  So anything she cooked had to be done after 5:00 p.m. No such thing as Crock Pots back then.  I remember her Salisbury Steaks and Mashed Potatoes and gravy, and we probably had green peas for a vegetable.  Her salisbury steaks were really like hamburgers with onions and egg/bread mixed up like you would for a meat loaf. She would brown them in her electric skillet, which she used for almost every meal, Drain off the grease, and then add water and cover them and let them simmer until done, then make the gravy with the pan dippings. Her mashed potatoes were always good, and she used frozen peas, never canned unless they were those little LeSeur peas once in a while.  I still like to make this meal, but hubby prefers green beans instead of the peas.  Oh, and my mother used to make us "salads" of things like canned pears with cottage cheese or also a pear half with a dollop of "Miracle Whip" and some shredded cheese on top, on a bed of lettuce.   Or we'd have canned peaches or fruit cocktail or some other kind of fruit. Tossed salads were rare back then, but sometimes we'd get a wedge of lettuce with homemade French Dressing (Miracle Whip mixed with Ketchup). My mother always used Miracle Whip instead of mayonnaise.  I never had mayonnaise until I met my husband, and he did not like Miracle Whip, so I switched to mayonnaise.

Here's a picture of my mother in her kitchen, cooking up one of her wonderful meals!

Do you see the mixer in the corner?  Isn't this a lot like the picture of that young woman above in her kitchen? Just maybe a little more modern.

Breakfast when I was growing up was usually cereal because we didn't have time to cook breakfast before school.  Pancakes and eggs, bacon, etc., would be a special treat sometimes on the weekends, or sometimes for supper!  

Lunch...well, of course I ate in the school cafeteria, and we had really good "home-cooked" meals back then, with home made yeast rolls that you could smell baking when we walked down the walkway to the cafeteria.  I remember spaghetti probably more than anything else at school.  At home for lunch we would have sandwiches like ham salad or egg salad or peanut butter and banana. (I never remember having jelly with my peanut butter when I was growing up).  

 
2. How about now? What is your favorite dinnertime meal? And for breakfast and lunchtime?j

Dinnertime now?  Favorite?  Hmmm, I like to keep it simple...hubby likes one-pot meals, like different kinds of meat or chicken/rice or noodles (he doesn't realize it takes two pots to do that usually, plus a vegetable or salad).   Or soups or stews with beef or chicken, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, etc. 

For lunch I usually have a tossed salad with lettuce and fresh spinach and some shredded cheese and maybe some deli ham or chicken if I have any left over. I also usually eat an apple with my lunch.  

Breakfast, we rotate things around. I don't eat cereal nowadays. I don't like milk.  I sometimes eat yogurt with granola and fresh fruit like strawberries or blueberries in season. I cook eggs and toast and grits or make omelettes and sometimes we have sausage or ham or "Spam" with our eggs/toast. Hubby likes biscuits or waffles once in a while. I try to avoid anything with syrup or jelly anymore. I can't eat the sweets, but occasionally I will splurge and have pancakes or waffles or french toast, but I have to have a good helping of eggs or meat to balance out the starches.


3. How has your taste in food changed over the years.

I've learned to like a lot of new things over the years that we never had when I was a kid at home.  Things like Mexican food, Pizza, Lasagna, and seafood.  And I eat a lot more salads now.  And I can't eat hardly any sweets anymore.  I rarely want to eat dessert, and if I do, I regret it usually.


4. What's for supper at your house tonight?

Well, I am writing this on Monday night, and we had chili for supper.  Here's a picture of the leftovers: 

And we'll probably have more of it tomorrow night...sometimes I like to put it over lettuce and tortilla chips with some shredded cheese and make it like a taco salad, except it's chili instead of taco seasoning. Still pretty much the same thing. Or we will have chili dogs (hot dogs with chili on top).  

I didn't get around to doing a Monday post. It was a busy day. We went to the grocery store in the morning and then we had Bible Study in the afternoon, and then I made this chili.  Plus I am continuing the little walk across the street twice a day to feed the neighborhood cats  at my neighbor's house.  That may become a regular thing as I don't see her being able to keep it up. Eventually we may have to lead the cats over here to our house for feeding time, but one thing at a time. 

We had a nice weekend...nothing too major.  Our youngest son Scott came over yesterday after we got home from church and had lunch with us and got to use our new washing machine to get his laundry caught up!  He was pretty pleased with it too! LOL. Then he left and went back home over an hour's drive and realized he'd left his cell phone here.  We had found it, but had no way to contact him to let him know we had it. (He doesn't have a computer...just his phone!) Thankfully he had another old phone at home that he could turn on and connect it with his wifi and send us a message on Messenger. Couldn't call us, but we got the message and told him that his phone was here. He said he'd be back to get it today when he got off work.  Poor guy, had to drive another hour + to get here. Thankfully he works early hours and gets off by noon usually, so he didn't have to fight too much rush hour traffic.  We were at Bible study when he got here so we didn't get to see him, but that's okay. He'll be back on Friday because we plan to celebrate my hubby's birthday here on Friday with the family. My sister and her hubby are driving up almost two hours to be here, and then they will go back home that evening. I invited them to spend the night, but sometimes that's harder than just driving home.  I may just go ahead and prepare the guest room just in case they change their minds.  Oh, and Tuesday, today! (the 11th) is their 59th Wedding Anniversary, so we will be wishing them a Happy Anniversary too!!  

Just to change the mood a bit...it's time to gather "Fairy Bouquets" again from the yard:

I love to gather these delicate little purple wildflowers now before we have to start mowing the grass again, because once that happens, they will be gone.

And the Carolina Jessamine vine is starting to bloom again along the fence row and in the tree tops.

Oh, and I discovered something unusual happening in our yard:

What on earth?  

Oh! It really IS a Gnome Home!

And it looks like it is inhabited!

And this fella is ready to welcome us to come in and sit a spell...

Oh! What fun!! 

"Gnome Sweet Gnome"....LOL.

Looks like the Woodpeckers may have been helping to build some more rooms in this "Gnome Home".

This looks mysterious and interesting...I wonder where that crevice leads to?  Wouldn't you like to be tiny enough to find out?  

So fascinating to discover this little place out there in "Fairyland"!  I expect there will be more activities and adventures there in the future. We'll have to wait and see.

I love this verse:

Isaiah 55:12  NKJV

12 “For you shall go out with joy,

And be led out with peace;

The mountains and the hills

Shall break forth into singing before you,

And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Can't you just picture that in your mind?  When we follow the Lord, we do have joy and peace, and we cn actually feel the joy of all of God's Creation around us breaking forth into singing...and yes, even the trees of the field shall clap their hands!

These are some of the verses that precede that passage above, to give it more clarity:

"6 Seek the Lord while He may be found,

Call upon Him while He is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way,

And the unrighteous man his thoughts;

Let him return to the Lord,

And He will have mercy on him;

And to our God,

For He will abundantly pardon.

8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

So are My ways higher than your ways,

And My thoughts than your thoughts.

10“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,

And do not return there,

But water the earth,

And make it bring forth and bud,

That it may give seed to the sower

And bread to the eater,

11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;

It shall not return to Me void,

But it shall accomplish what I please,

And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Some wonderful words to ponder as we settle down for the day and rest of the week.  Read them and then look for the ways God's Word is being accomplished  in and around you as you go through your days.  You may be amazed!!

Okay, friends, that's all for this post.  If you want to join in for the "Tuesday 4 Foody Questions",  click HERE and go see what good things are cooking with our other friends.  Be Blessed my friends!!