Day 187 – The Simple Life

July 5, 2016 – My Granny thought anything beyond salt and pepper was “spicy” 🙂

Her cooking was simple and straightforward, but she was of Scottish decent, so it also really wasn’t fantastic.

Meat was cooked until it was shoe leather.

Vegetables were cooked until they were, well, ….unappetizing.

And my Grandma, she was of British decent….so the veggies and meat weren’t really all that much better up at the orchard compared to down at the farm.

But, oh, could they bake!

It’s really small wonder that I pretty much hated food until I learned to cook for myself. Up until then I only ingested carrots or peas if they were raw, and I considered potatoes and corn the only vegetable protein worthy of eating … if heated through. I wasn’t a fan of pork, despised beef, liver was (and still is) completely rejected. I would eat chicken, and any fish that was placed in front of me would be devoured without looking up.

Chicken noodle soup and tomato soup were acceptable, but I would only ingest the broth from vegetable beef soup.

If there was a speck of spinach in any dish, it was inedible.

To me, carrots and peas came out of the ground or off the vine. Fruit came straight off the tree or was canned at home. From a produce perspective I was spoiled rotten, how could I not be, my Granny and Grandad had a farm and Grandma and Grandpa had a huge fruit orchard complete with several kinds of cherries (Bings, Sams, Lamberts, and the unofficial “White House Cherries”), apples, plums, pears, currants, and I seem to recall a peach tree, or maybe we just bought those from someone else. And then there were the strawberries and the raspberries. Down the road were my Great Aunt and Uncle who also had an orchard and a fabulous raspberry patch.

Eggs came from under the chicken – I loved collecting those – or from the neighbours. I’d take the pea pods, left over after a family shelling spree, down the road to the Weidinger’s and feed them to the goats, leave the egg shells from those we’d bought previously (to be fed back to the chickens), and take home a dozen or two fresh eggs collected that morning.

I’d help Grandad milk the cows and enjoy the fresh heavy cream that would collect at the top overnight, and hope the bull didn’t chase me up the hill.

Food was simple, but I knew where it came from.

Nowadays I eat a little more than I used to 🙂

And although salt and pepper may be simple and traditional, they are still a foundation for all things yummy.

Salt and Pepper go together…..like….

……Like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong
Remembered forever
As shoo-bop sha wadda wadda yippity boom de boom
Chang chang changitty chang sha-bop
That’s the way it should be
Wah-oooh, yeah!

116 Photos in 2016 – 46. Tradition / traditional