I don't call it Gravy.
To me, Gravy is frivolity. As in, "it's all just gravy"...
My Mom's sauce on the other hand, is legendary. It's why countless men have fallen in love with her (also her amazing looks have helped). But when Mom made sauce, it was one of those truly selfless acts that inspired you to follow her into battle.
For most of my adult life, I have been afraid to try and be like her. For years I absolutely REFUSED to make pancakes. So many missed opportunities! All that "emotional baggage" I was carrying. My mother, you see, was an amazing cook. Well- I assume she still is, but we don't eat at her house- we eat at my house!
Mom made the fluffiest softest pancakes in the world, so I never dared to try and be like her. This was a point of contention in my first marriage! He wanted me to make pancakes and I adamantly refused. I NEVER made her sauce but once while he and I were together.
But now that I have my own house, a desire to establish traditions...especially those centered around food, has become a passion of mine. I guess it's the homesteading thing? I mean, if you are wanting to return to the old ways, more from the land and less from the store, you would resort to those ways of people from generations past.
I enjoy reguiling my family with stories of how my Papa, an old Italian with a love of wine, would dig a hole and bake a big pot of beans in it in the backyard. He would shoot a rabbit, prepare it in the sauce or stew...sometimes instead of a rabbit it might be a pheasant. This was how I was raised. I learned to hunt and shoot at around age 5. I was always at the fishing hole. Most of what we ate was fish or rabbit or chicken from the nearby farm. It was not until my later teen years that mom even shopped from the regular grocery store- back then it was Almacs. They had Green Stamps!
We got our eggs from the farm down the lane, and we grew our own vegetables, herbs and fruit. That was the way it was done.
At school I would eat school food...I enjoyed the diversity. Mom also baked a LOT. She enjoys her sweets. My mother, unlike me, is thin as a rail...always has been. However, she eats like a lumberjack! It's surprisingly cute. She loves gamey meats like venison and hearty fresh water fish like Trout. I literally hate ALL OF THAT. I will not eat Venison, I despise most fish for dinner unless it is baked scrod or fried up with a thick batter (Fish and Chips).
Mom's sweets were always a treat though. On our birthdays, we would get a double chocolate cake from scratch and beautifully frosted. Simple. No frills. No flowery decorations- just a delicious cake, lovingly made. Mom also made cream puffs at Easter. I hated those but everyone else really loved them. It's funny how I despised so much of the food...yet have such fond memories of it nonetheless. I made myself puke once when I was around 14 years old because I hated what mom had made for supper and was still hungry after the meal was done. My sisters and I were responsible for the evening dishes you see...and mom had made stuffed mushrooms (delicious), the only part of the meal I had enjoyed. The greasy remaining bits of stuffing sat on the cookie sheet and I kept nibbling at it while I cleaned up...this turned my stomach and I puked for hours that night. Now I cannot eat stuffed mushrooms anymore and actually enjoy them. The mushy texture of mushrooms still to this day turns me off.
Mom made fruited desserts in the summer with the berries we harvested and the fresh fruit pies from the apples and pears and plums we grew. Those were amazing. The extra was converted into jams, jellies and preserves...another project I utterly despised as a kid but wished I had more patience for now. You see, back then I was more interested in sitting in the trees and writing or dreaming up stories. I would read or write for hours. I also was very interested in music, popular music on the radio but also playing various musical instruments. Eventually, musical instruments would envelope my full attention from ages 11 to around 25 years old...after which I became a mother myself and lost much interest in those solitary activities.
On Christmas, Mom and Dad would host HUGE parties. In fact, Christmas, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Halloween were HUGE affairs for many many years. My parents had a large "2nd" living room in one of our homes. Mom would paint every wall for each seasonal theme. On Christmas, all four walls would be a mural of trees and snowmen. On Halloween, spooky trees and werewolves with witches. For the Memorial Days and Labor Days, it was always an outdoor event with a live Pig that we would raise for several months and then it would become the central character for the Pig Roast. Many of you have thought that my love of Soy Bacon is weird...this is where it comes from.
When I became an adult, I formed poor eating habits as a result of my dislike of the childhood food memories. I snacked excessively on processed food...a sort of rebellion I suppose.
Later, in my thirties, I went to vegetarianism and raw dieting. That lasted about 6 years, with a break of about a year while I was pregnant with Lex. That boy sent me into a hamburger eating spiral around my 2nd trimester. It took a while to break that habit! By the time I met Jamie, and we were making a go of it...I knew I did not want to be preparing two sets of meals for the rest of my life, so I reverted back to eating meat.
Making Mom's Sauce is a tradition now. It should be done more often than it is...but I don't always have the time to commit to it. It was more practical to spend a day cooking and baking back when we lived way out in the country and would be snowed-in for days. But life just isn't that way anymore. So I make her sauce when I can...and we all love it.
The experience of making Mom's sauce, starts early in the day. Personally...I like to use the opportunity to clean out my refrigerator while pulling every possible usable ingredient from within it. I assemble all the items along with my freshly wiped down cooking surface and clean wooden cutting board. Today I broke in my new Dutch Oven pot that I love...today it was a Sauce Pot.
After preparing the sauce, I let Alex add the sugar. His reward is a platter of cheese, pepperoni and honey wheat bread for a treat. Thanks Mom for inspiring this wonderful tradition!
I make her proud. That is MY legacy.
~Namaste
Lilac
photos of today's cooking:
amc
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