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Beau Wann, Jr.
Good Thursday Morrow mine waltripians..."I hope this letter finds you well ! The boys are doing fine, but uncle Ed lost his job due to a slow down at the round house. He has another lead at the Union Pacific as a baggage handler and porter, and is pretty sure he can work his way up to conductor in a reasonable amount of time...Meanwhile aunt Mini is keeping busy baking pies and cakes for the Coffee Cup Restaurant down on 3rd street and is taking in laundry. I swear that woman can do most anything. Maybe she ought to try working for the railroad instead of uncle Ed ! ! ! Just kidding ha ha ! ! !...."
Remember the days of paper and ink letters, commonly called "snail mail" now days. Thats generally how one would start off I suppose. If it was just a newsy letter, the family would all gather around while "mama" would read it to us. No TV back then. I would be visualizing each word like "union pacific" and "conductor" etc...I really could see all those nouns and names as clearly as I see this screen...well maybe a little more clear back in tthe day rather than now. Sight has gotten blurry as well as sound. But thats ok, I still have my memory...sorta...I guess thats gotten blurry as well...I still like food, that hasnt gotten blurry. Just what I CAN eat has blurred somewhat.
I had two Uncles, Bubs and Uncle Clyde, commonly called "Son", that worked for the RR. I think it was Southern Pacific. They both worked the mail car. Dianes Grandfather was a mechanic on the Union Pacific. Working on those locomotives, now thats what I call A MECHANIC ! ! ! ! I never met him, but I hear tell he could work on and fix anything. Thats something that could never be said about me. I can work on it, but fixing it was a whole other thing! ! ! Sometimes a guy just likes to get his hands greasy...now days, not so much cause I generally cant find the borax soap to get the grease off. Instead I get finger prints on the cabinet doors and paper towel rack and sink etc...About half way through washing my hands, I find I need my glasses to see if my hands are getting clean. Then I go traipse about the house with wet soapy hands, looking for my glasses, getting clumps of borax and hand soap all over everything.
Diane can tell when I've had my hands in grease or oil, (something about changing your own oil that makes a man feel good about himself) because of the greasy trail I leave. I try to clean it up before she comes home, but generally forget this spot, or that spot. When she comes in the door, she says, "change oil in the lawnmower"?
For the longest time, I thought she was psychic or clairevoyant..."how did you know I changed oil in the lawnmower?'" I would ask..."oh, I just had a feeling you did" she would exclaim. Didnt know I left a trail of clues as wide as a bleeding elephant in the snow. I caught on howsomever. Nothing slow about me, cept maybe my brain.
I DID IT! ! ! I FINALLY DID IT!! ! ! !Yup, I tackled the culinary task of making my moms "cornpone pie"...
Any of youse youtes ever heard of it, or had it???? I have never found anyone that has. Yet, I hear people on TV shows exclaim that something is "cornpone", meaning "hillbilly", or "country". Yet not a soul has ever heard of or had cornpone pie! ! ! ! Wonder why that is. It has to be a "southern dish"! The ingredients are pretty much found in any region of the country! Stewed tomatoes, ground beef, onion, chili powder, and cornbread mix. I made my first last night, and it exceeded my expectations. It was a little dry, but nothing that couldnt be corrected.
The beef I used came from Grolczks, and is supposed to be 90-10, (90percent round, and 10 percent chuck)
but, when I cooked it up, there was absolutely no grease at all in the meat or pan. And what flavor the meat had ! ! ! ! Just required a little salt and pepper. I even omitted the onion! I generally dont cook with onion, so that if there are leftovers, and we dont want them, I can safely give the dogs the scraps. Onion is deadly to animals. gives em hemoglobin problems.
You cook the beef, then add stewed tomatoes, I strain out the seeds, then a little chili powder, and some kidney beans, drained. Let that cook for a few mins, oh bout 10 or 20 mins or so, no hurry, then put ingredients in a pyrex bowl, preferrably one with a lid so you can cover it when you put it in the "icebox". (I still use that term instead of refrigerator). Before your beef is done, you can make up the cornbread mix, 3 cups of mix, and one and a half cup of water, stir till you get the lumps out, then set aside, letting it rest.
Once your beef and other ingredients are thorougly cooked, pour into pyrex bowl, packing it down fairly tight. Then pour your cornbread mixture over it and put in the oven, that you already had heating at 375 greedees.
The cornbread mix says to cook for 30 mins, but I found it took 45. No matter, it is great.
I love to cook, especially if it turns out good! ! ! But really love to cook, because I love to eat ! ! ! ! I have however modified my behavior from the olden days...I eat to live, rather than live to eat...
The Marie Callender cornbread mix, comes in a 5 pound package from Costco. It already has milk and eggs in it, so all you need is water. I have found storing it in the icebox keeps it fresher longer. Plus storing the cooked cornbread in the icebox makes it last longer too. It will go bad if left outside the icebox for more than a day or two. "Bad", meaning it sorta tastes different, and I WONT EAT IT. Wont hurt you, just not very palatable, for me anyway.
Ok, this was gonna be a short note, and you see how thats worked out.
meet ya at the climbin tree, or outside the kitchen door...
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