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Wednesday, July 21, 1999
I made deviled eggs tonight from two dozen eggs, none of which would peel decently. I just hate it when I get a batch of eggs that won't peel right. One of life's irritants is trying to peel an egg that won't peel and two dozen of them is very frustrating. Besides which it is very embarrassing to take deviled eggs that look like the surface of the moon. Today was the last day we could put in old year invoices. Tomorrow the system is down and then we can only do new year invoicing on Thursday. We have a New Years party on the day we're down since we'll take any excuse to eat. I love potlucks. It's so nice to eat all this stuff that I'll never cook myself. I can remember the church potlucks when I was a child. Fried chicken, fried in lard, which I still think makes the best tasting fried chicken but the last time I had some it was so rich I couldn't eat more than one piece. Whipped cream in everything that could have whipped cream, especially those jello salads. I loved those jello and whipped cream salads. I wasn't crazy about the jello and shredded carrot salads. They were ok but not my favorite. There were also more casseroles than any one person could try in one day. Green beans with almonds, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, sweet potatoes with little marshmallows and potato salad. Tossed salads were not a big item in potlucks in the 50s and 60s and were looked down on as rabbit food. The table, usually a large table, with the desserts was what all us kids kept our eye on. We liked the other food too but the cakes and pies were the best. No low fat here. German chocolate cake, angel food cake, apple pie, strawberry pie, chocolate creme pie, chocolate cake, white cake, lots of butter frosting. Everything was enough to raise your cholesterol just by looking at it, not that people worried too much about cholesterol and looking substantial was not looked on with such horror as now. My those church women could cook. They didn't smoke and they didn't drink and they didn't talk about sex and few of them worked so this was a major part of their self esteem. My generation of women did not have it easy. Many of us had to marry these guys who grew up on this great cooking. I can think of a few guys I knew who were very nice and just as cute as could be but I always felt sorry for whoever they married because their mother was a wonderful cook. My brothers were lucky. My mother could cook a good meal but it just wasn't her major emphasis, in fact, it wasn't usually even a minor emphasis. My mother was a basic fill em up cook. She did have some recipes that I still remember fondly such as lamb curry, but nothing spectacular. This meant that my brothers could appreciate their wives more. I have left my son the same legacy. We'll have great food tomorrow but, while it won't be low calorie, it'll look downright dietetic compared to the potlucks I remember. I often wonder why everyone didn't drop dead from heart attacks. The adults that were eating all this stuff are from my parents generation which is the longest living generation yet. It sometimes makes you wonder.
Biked - 8 miles
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