Text 17756, 133 rader
Skriven 2014-10-04 17:05:50 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
  Kommentar till text 17663 av NANCY BACKUS (1:123/140)
Ärende: Sunday dinners
======================
Hi Nancy,

 NB>  NB>> Probably not that many crumbs... and every so often the car
 NB> needed  NB>> cleaning out anyway... more likely with a whisk broom,
 NB> though... ;)

 RH> That's probably what my dad used to clean our family car with too but
 RH> Steve uses a vaccuum cleaner. I don't recall too many times when we
 RH> ate in the car when I was growing up tho.

 NB> I don't think that car vacs were a common item back then... and the
 NB> cord on the cannister vac probably didn't reach that far, either..  ;)

Steve just uses a heavy duty (orange) extention cord with the vaccuum to
reach the car. He does have a little car vac kit but more often prefers
the heavier suction power of the house vac.

 RH> I couldn't say; our portions seemed small at the time. Dad was/is a
 RH> meat and potatoes eater and figuring the cost of meat to feed 7 people
 RH> on one not so big income, he probably stretched the portions as far as
 RH> he could. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the roast beefs actually
 RH> went for 3 meals.

 NB> We had similar upbringings, with similar issues... main difference
 NB> being that my Daddy wasn't big on potatoes... rice and veggies were
 NB> more common at our house.

Dad will do rice with Chinese food but not as a sub for potatoes unless
there's absolutely no way to get any potatoes. Some years ago, he and
Mom realised on Sunday afternoon that they were out of potatoes (before
time to start fixing them for dinner). As I understand, they had to try
several places in the greater M'ville area before they found any. (IIRC,
the local store wasn't open by the time they realised they needed
potatoes.) Mom could have just cooked up rice, but it wouldn't have been
appreciated.


 NB>  NB>> We didn't get seconds on meat... and rarely on anything else...
 NB> meat  NB>> got put away, and everything else got dished out first time
 NB> round...  NB>> Daddy served all the plates from his end of the table..
 NB> rarely did we  NB>> get to dish out our own portions...

 RH> I'm sure Mom & Dad portioned out for us until we were old enough to
 RH> dish up our own. I think they let us take our own as a time saver, so
 RH> all of us would be eating while the food was at serving temperature.

 NB> I'm talking right up till we left on our own... and we'd still be
 NB> portioned out when we came home for a visit..   (G)   Of course, there
 NB> were also little ones still at home for a very long time... ;)   Daddy
 NB> didn't catch on to the fact that teenagers needed more food until my
 NB> first brother reached that age... I was married before then, and when
 NB> we'd come over to eat there, I'd always have to feed Richard either
 NB> before or afterwards, as he was never served enough to fill him...  ;)

We never had a problem with amounts of sides to the meat but I think Mom
cooked more potatoes in proportion to the other vegetable. There was
usually enough, but not overly so, of the second one but pretty much all
you could eat on potatoes. My younger brother always had a big appetite,
even as a young kid, so Mom made sure she had enough potatoes cooked to
fill him, as well as the rest of us. If there were visitors, more
potatoes were cooked and meat was portioned out in smaller amounts to us
kids.

 NB>  NB>> We could make requests as he was serving (particularly
 NB> no-thank-you  NB>> portioning, if appropriate), but that was about it.
 NB>  Whoever was
 NB>  NB>> cooking might be helping him dish out things like the salad or
 NB>  NB>> equivalent...

 RH> We had to take a proper serving, no "no thank you" portioning allowed.
 RH> The only thing we were allowed to turn down was dessert.

 NB> I suspect you had more food on the table... certainly a few less

Coould be, Dad put in gardens for years and Mom canned a lot. That
helped stretch the food $$.

 NB> mouths to feed.  :)  Dessert was also always portioned out, usually
 NB> ice cream and cookies, except for birthdays, when there was
 cake... :)

Our desserts ranged from jello to cake (a 13x9 sheet would last 3 meals)
to pies to ice cream (rare when I was growing up, more common after I
left home) to lots of watermelon in the summer. Birthday cake if there
was a birthday, but never with ice cream. Lunch dessert was always a
cookie and a piece of candy. At Christmas time, we could have 2 cookies
since Mom baked a good sized variety and, by the time I was in college,
they started allowing 2 cookies. Some years ago they switched to all
store bought cookies.

 RH> I changed a
 RH> lot of my eating habits when I went to college, then got married.

 NB> I changed my eating habits bit by bit when I went to college... I was
 NB> still ostensibly living at home, so meals there were no different...
 NB> and meals eating at school were rather catch-as-catch-can for a while.
 NB>  When Richard moved out of the dorms into an apartment, I started
 NB> cooking
 NB> meals for the two of us there... finding that I also needed to change
 NB> some of my cooking habits...  I was used to cooking for 10... I had to
 NB> cut it in half to cook for 2...  (G)

I had to learn how to cook for 2 after cooking for 6 or 7 so I know what
you mean. It was more like cutting a recipe into quarter size or eating
the same thing for several meals. (G)

 NB>  RH>> It also gave you a chance to talk without the time taken away in
 NB> the  RH>> kitchen for your last minute prep work.
 NB>  NB>> That too... Although, had we happened to be having people over,
 NB>  NB>> visiting tended to happen in the kitchen during prep anyway...

 RH> It would have been hard in the kitchen at my folks house. The one here
 RH> isn't too much better but the house we're buying has one that is a lot
 RH> more condusive to poeple visiting while food is being prepped/served.

 NB> All you mostly need is a chair somewhat out of the way... or a similar
 NB> piece of wall, for those that can stand for longer periods of time...
 NB> :)

Can't really do it in M'ville, easier here because we have the eat in
kitchen but still, sitting person has to stay out of the way of the
fridge being opened, etc.

---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... Gone crazy, be back later. leave a message at the Beep!

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