| Description |
Rzlmindtions of Life and Art desserts of any kind; no white bread, but the most delicious graham. It was mixed and set to rise at night, then in the morning a pan of biscuits were mixed out and when ready were baked just to a nice brown, and for my own special treat, they were wrapped in a cloth and the pan put on top that they might steam and soften up the crust. By the time my out-door work was done, milking, feeding or a little gardening, I would pull up my usual office chair, and uncover those rich brown biscuits, and with a large piece of golden butter, made from Brownie's cream, eat with a magnificent zest. There would be honey, per- haps, from our own bees. Such breakfasts we had. For thirty years we had that bread, and when she was not able, she taught us how to make it, Ruth and I, until we made it as good. There was never a noon meal - onlv lunch from whatever was handy. But the dinners ! During all her working hours she sang snatches of anything that came to her mind. Now to me it is everlasting silence, depressing and bleak. We often joked her, asking for a change. She would laugh and go at it the harder, always good natured and ready to jolly. At Sunday morning breakfasts all napkins were soiled and ready for the wash. I invariably folded mine up and put it in the ring, and she would have the laugh on me. Each Sunday now, I miss it. But it was dinner I started to tell about. One that was her own creation just for me, but no one ever sat down to the table that did not enjoy it. For over twenty years she prepared them when the articles were in season. It was "fried tomatoes." For twenty years I have studied and schemed to grow the earliest variety in the quickest way. I have had young plants in the window with ripe fruit on in June, two months earlier than the regular crop. She gathered them when they were just ripe enough to be solid, peeled them, cut them in slices and dipped the slices in flour. The ham was first fried and placed to one side and the big platter was covered with slices of toasted bread. Then the tomatoes were fried until crisp and placed generously over the 129 |
