(This one is after Diane di Prima’s
“Prevailing Foods at Times” from
her book Dinner and Nightmares.)
Mom gave birth to four children in
three years. It might take a beat
for you to realize, then, that there
were twins, who were two years
younger than me. Then, a year
later, came my sister. I had the
place and all of the family’s att
ention to myself for nearly two
years, that’s it. All this is to say
that when it came time for supper
(which, in Arkansas, is what other
folks call dinner), it was every
kid to him or herself. After first help
ings were served, there were rarely
seconds for anyone. And there were
only a few regular suppertime meals
that my mother would prepare for us
for our family evening meals. They
were something like this:
kid to him or herself. After first help
ings were served, there were rarely
seconds for anyone. And there were
only a few regular suppertime meals
that my mother would prepare for us
for our family evening meals. They
were something like this:
- Hamburgers (my dad raised a few cattle, so we always had a freezer full of beef) and French fries (from frozen sometimes, but most often from our garden’s potatoes)
- Tuna casserole (this was my least favorite of regular meals – it had cream of mushroom soup in it – Campbell’s condensed, of course)
- Fish sticks (frozen) with French fries (see above) or macaroni and cheese (Kraft from the blue box) and probably some green beans – I think these came from cans, but they could have been from either our garden or my paternal grandparents’ garden
- Beef stew that sat in the Crockpot all day with potatoes and carrots
- Fried catfish and hush puppies – this was one of my favorites, but it would require that someone went fishing and had some luck that day, and I despised fishing, a common pastime of my dad’s and his parents on weekends.
- Breakfast for dinner – fried or scrambled eggs, toast, milk, maybe a hashbrown (from frozen) and bacon or ham. (It’s possible I’m misremembering this one, but I’ve always loved breakfast for dinner.
- Sandwiches (usually baloney, sometimes cold ham) and potato chips (usually Lay’s regular)
- Sloppy Joe’s – which was also one of my least favorite regular meals.
- Chili with beef (or sometimes deer) and beans with saltine crackers.
- Pizza from a frozen box
- Pork chops or pork steaks of some sort, pan fried, usually with macaroni and cheese and green beans.
- Salmon patties - made from canned salmon with added saltine crumbs and egg, fried in a pan.
of the meals we’d have on a regular basis,
but I can add that we’d occasionally have as
side dishes okra (fried or boiled – the latter
of which only me and my mom would eat),
black-eyed peas, pinto beans, green beans,
sauerkraut (again, only my mother and I ate
this), and there would quite often be corn
bread – oh, and we’d also have hot dogs
for supper pretty regularly.
