Dinner Time

This is the third installment of Mom Before Mom from Carla at All of Me…Now.

Prompt #3: What was your favorite home cooked meal as a kid? Did you help make it? How did it make you feel? Share the scents and sights and flavors.

Let’s see, my favorite home cooked meal? There were two things that were my favorite. One was my nanny’s “beef stew” (I put it in quotes because my husband doesn’t consider it stew because it’s not brown) and her meat stuffing served on Thanksgiving. Both of these delicious dishes are served with homemade cranberry sauce on top.

Growing up, my mom, sister and I lived with my grandparents and my grandmother did all the cooking. You could watch her cook, but you really couldn’t help (sometimes you could put stuff in a pot, but that’s the extent of it). Both of these dishes only came around only once a year (the stew twice if we were lucky). The rest of the year there was a set schedule for meals. Monday was chicken, Tuesday was pork chops, Wednesday beef of some sort, Thursday was spaghetti night, Friday was fish, Saturday was hot dogs and Sunday was a toss up. Every week, same thing; my grandfather was not big on switching things up.

I remember getting so excited when my sister and I found out I was stew night. When we would eat it, we would put cranberry sauce right in it and mix it up so it turned pink. My husband is completely grossed out by this. Oh it tastes so good. I remember when I asked her for the recipe she didn’t have measurements, so I had to estimate everything.

The stuffing is only made on Thanksgiving and boy is it time consuming. I’ve never made it, but in high school I had to sit there and right down all the instructions while my mom made it with my grandmother (she was really old by then) so there would finally be a written copy. When my mom makes it now, she uses the one I wrote.

My husband looks forward to this stuffing (unlike the stew) every year. Just like the stew, it’s best with the cranberry on top.

I have thought about writing a post about the stew, but I’ve decided that I don’t want anyone outside the family to have the recipe. I haven’t made it in quite a while, but after writing this I feel it may be time. The only problem is even though making cranberry sauce is a very simple process; I still can’t seem to get it right.