How to impress your mother-in-law

Each night, Susan will ask me what I want for breakfast. I had mentioned recently that I didn't like eggs much, whereas she does. That surprised her but now she's worried about what I haven't enjoyed. Last night was the discussion how she gets up to cook me breakfast and then packs me a huge lunch (this was the only request I made of her when we got married because for years I watched my dad rummage for something/anything to eat/pack because my mom didn't do this for him). And then she has to spend the day planning and making dinner. And we wondered how food controls our thoughts.

I remember my mom had this large cupboard. It was hinged to fall downward, at waist level and in our home it was filled with dry milk/powdered milk.
We would use the scoop to bring out a measure of the milk and then added a gallon of water. No, it wasn't nice-tasting milk but it was all we had. It tasted like chalk or variations thereof.

Years later when we had more money perhaps (or maybe this was just my mother's quirky way to economize) we graduated to Carnation dry milk in a box. That was high class. That was name brand! It didn't taste much better but it was more palatable. It did help to pour it over the mush we'd have almost every day. We were also given canned milk (evaporated) to pour over our mush.

For a real treat, in concert with my older siblings, we'd steal away with a can of sweetened condensed milk, sharing it to the full, slurping it straight til it was gone...and then we'd pass out in ecstasy.

In 1971, while visiting my future wife in Ohio, there was this tall, slender glass of ice cold milk at my place setting at the table. I put it to my lips. It was like heavenly choirs singing. I glugged it right down, and slammed the slender glass down hard on the table. My to-be mother-in-law was startled and before she even sat down saw that my glass was empty. She had offered me more and then I realized, "ohoh...faux pas". I looked around as if to say, "the cold mug made me do it!"

French Onion Soup and the cemetery

Today Susan and I went to Hollo's Papercraft store in Brunswick, OH. We stopped at Petiti's Garden Center while making our way back to the turnpike. I could have purchased something of every kind there. We did buy 3 clematis...1 white, 1 red, and 2 purple....2 Bellisima in pink and red. and finally a Bleeding Heart. Pam and Ken Barlow had given Susan a Bleeding Heart plant when Bonpapa died but it didn't survive well OR it's surviving now with the new owners. This new plant will replace the old one and Bonpapa will continue to be kept alive in our hearts. I seem to remember the Barlows giving us an hydrangea plant when Gunner died and that we did transfer up here. Hopefully it will grow this year as well.

We had planned at eating in the MapleSide Inn but it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays so we continued on home and ate at the Applebee's at the mall in Elyria.

Mom ordered the Oriental Chicken Salad but when I saw the French Onion soup with the French Dip Roast Beef Sandwich I knew what I wanted. And it was very good. But I remember the first time I ever had French Onion Soup. It was the first time I had been out to my mom's newly acquired cemetery, I was about 14. I think it was in late summer and we had to turn off the water/sprinkling system. As we drove in we noticed a car was parked near the office. Two love birds were necking in the car and my mom stopped that activity quickly. But then she took me to a restaurant on the west side of the old Pasco Bridge. And that's when I had the soup. It is still enjoyable.

The 2nd time I went to the cemetery, my folks said I needed to mow the lawn...which had grown very tall. . .with a PUSH MOWER, no less. About 4 acres of lawn! I made it once around and nearly collapsed. That's when my folks said, "Well, it looks like we need to buy a riding mower."

Thank goodness! I was going to be the one who mowed the lawns and dug the graves and moved the sprinkling system (don't live in a desert) several times a day.

But the soup was good then and today as well. Last night Mom made me Macaroons, dipped in chocolate. They were better than the one I bought at Presti's Saturday when we were in Little Italy. Daphne came down today and she ate one and agreed. Well, she did say they were better than in any store but I am not sure she's ever had one at Presti's. Mom used the Alton Brown procedure....I sure do like Alton Brown. I might have to blog about him and the rib eye steaks Mom cooked on Sunday.