PEAS PORRIDGE HOT

We no longer make a campfire to cook a boiling pot of grub like they do in the old movies somewhere out on the lonesome prairie. We don't move our chuck wagon ahead to where the crew will rest for the night. In all the western movies I have watched in my lifetime, I have never heard the trail boss say, "Go ahead about 10 miles and set up the wagon". Maybe the wagon doesn't go ahead but if not, then how can the beans be ready when the herders drive the cattle in? And how do they make the biscuits. And, how many times are those beans reheated? And how could they have apple pie or dumplings when there wasn't an apple tree in site?

I giggled on Monday when I put a chuck roast in a cooking bag along with a package of beef stew seasoning--a cup of water added-- and slipped it into the over for supper. Veggies to be added later.. Why, you ask? Because roast was the traditional Monday meal at childhood house. And every Monday, mother would say, "Don't spill on the table cloth" Mother changed the table cloth on Monday morning before the roast beef and it will never be known if daddy spilled gravy on purpose.

I thought about my folks on Tuesday when we had hot roast beef sandwiches with gravy and beef left over from the night before. I just needed to do mashed potatoes. I thought about them because daddy didn't like left overs. He didn't like casseroles, either, but that is another story.

And I thought about Swanson Pot Pies last night when I was assembling the last of the beef and gravy, adding carrots, onions, and celery into a pie crust. I smiled to think this $7 piece of beef, suitable only for wet cooking, had fed us three meals.

And now, as I write, I am having the last piece for breakfast.

Left overs
Leftovers
Leftovers

Peas porridge hot.

e