So, I went to the Cobden Farmers Market this morning, which is just a couple of Old guys selling veggies out of the back of their trucks. ( I use the term Old guys most respectfully!) There, I bought a box of tomatoes for $5. ALOT of tomatoes…mostly the not so pretty ones. At any rate, I was thinking about making some stewed tomatoes…and that thought made me think of my mother.

My mother wasn’t the best cook in the world, but we got by. We would have fish sticks or fish squares maybe once a week. Really the only kind of fish we ever had (unless we were at Grandpa and Grandma’s and they fried up some fish.) (But I digress…) Along with the fish, we always had Kraft Mac ‘N Cheese dinner, and stewed tomatoes. And lots of bread and butter, because as Mom said, if the fish has bones in it, the bread and butter will keep you from choking on the bone. (I’m pretty sure there is no scientific evidence for this.)

Another one of my mother’s tried and true recipes, was Spaghetti with meat sauce. Sauce being plain old tomato sauce, but her secret ingredient was a couple of dashes of Worcestershire sauce. (!) This too was served with bread. Wonder bread cut on the diagonal with butter spread on it, sprinkled with garlic salt, and browned under the broiler. Also, fried potatoes. We never had spaghetti that we didn’t have fried potatoes.

We also ate pancakes for dinner a lot, with homemade white syrup. Mom would take a cup of sugar and a half a cup of water and cook it until it was thickened. Top those pancakes with a generous (one small) pat of Blue Bonnet margarine and homemade syrup, and BAM! Cheap dinner.(No wonder I hated pancakes for many years afterwards.)

Occasionally, we would have canned soup for dinner. Ned and Phil would split a can of tomato soup, Mom and I would split a can of chicken noodle soup, and Dad would get a can of either split pea or bean soup. Along with the soup we would have bologna sandwiches…made on white Wonder bread, of course.

The best meal though…was Sunday morning breakfast. Fried eggs, bacon, toast, biscuits (canned) and gravy. It wasn’t the food so much…it was that we all sat down together. Even after the first two grandkids came along. We would all be at Mom and Dad’s for Sunday breakfast.