Sandwiches, Sunday Chicken, and Treats from Mom's Kitchen

Radish sandwiches, fried bologna sandwiches, and sugar sandwiches. Pork chop gravy on bread, Sauerkraut over mashed potatoes. Chicken and homemade noodles over mashed potatoes. Dipping bent-over peanut butter sandwiches in cocoa Mom made from scratch. Taking the salt shaker out and eating veggies right out of the garden. Dipping cookies in Daddy’s coffee. Being scared to death of the pressure cooker. Dad’s saying, “The more white bread the quicker your dead.” Fried chicken every Sunday Mom pounding meat to make Swiss steak. Popcorn made on the stove in a pan that had a built-in stirer. Mom’s homemade vegetable soup with the secret ingredient of rutabaga. Sour cream coffee cake, and cherry pie. When I was very small, I remember seeing rabbits tacked to the clothes-line pole outside so Daddy could skin them. Mom would fry one up and someone would always say, “Eat it! It tastes exactly like chicken!” It never tasted like chicken to me. I can also remember adding coloring to oleo and squeezing it until it was all yellow. Then I think we put it into a form of some kind. We would hover around Mom when she cooked hoping for the edges cut off of the jelly roll cake before she rolled it up. Or, we’d beg for a piece of raw potato or the heart of the cabbage.