Reminiscing and Dinner and a Movie

My cousin Meghan has a thing for Granma. She thinks that the old lady can do no wrong! Well, she probably can't, but Meghan has put her on such a pedestal and Meghan acts like she knows everything that Granma does. At Thanksgiving dinner this year, Aunt Linda started talking about a casserole that Granma used to make that she calls Dinner in a Dish. Uncle Doug mentioned several time that he hates it because she uses peas in it, but talking about Dinner in a Dish brought up other memories.

Granma did a lot of cooking and canning when Granpa was still alive and they were still in the big house with her garden in the back. She would buy tons of corn and then everyone who could would gather and cook the corn and then cut it off the cob and put it in bags to freeze it. Some aunts reminisced about their fond memories of this, but Uncle Doug and I agreed that it was a huge pain in the butt and not one of the more pleasant jobs. Not that I actually did any of the work, but it just didn't appeal to me to help with the work when I was a wee one of 12. Or whatever.

Granma also used to make homemade strawberry jelly. It was wonderful! That is one thing that I miss. My sister has tried to duplicate the jelly, but from what I can remember she never had luck with the first few batches and I haven't tried any recently to know if it's gotten better. But she wouldn't be able to duplicate the efforts of at least 3 adult women slicing, cleaning, cooking and canning truckloads of strawberries in one day.

And, yes, I stand by my measurements here. There were tons of corn to be shucked, cleaned, cooked, shaved off the cob and stuffed in a freezer bag or container and truckloads of strawberries and it all had to be done in a day. Or at least it always seemed like it all had to be done in a day.

*Sigh* Good times.

So, Meghan was upset because she didn't remember Granma's jelly. She had never had Dinner in a Dish. She has been deprived of these wonderful Granma creations. I think that she was on the verge of tears.

Then, we got together again for brunch early in December and I am sure that Dinner in a Dish was brought up again to be flaunted in front of Meghan. Then, we got together for Christmas and it was the same thing. "Oh, Mom, this leftover turkey would be wonderful for Dinner in a Dish," teased Aunt Linda. Again, Meghan sulked. (Not really, but doesn't it make for a good story so far?) All the teasing aside, it was a good Christmas meal!

Granma got some movie tickets for Christmas and her birthday and she treated some family members and me to Marley and Me with dinner to follow. Since I had to work at the shop, I hurried to the theater once we closed so that I could get a drink to help keep this nasty cough that I have developed under control for the movie. I thought the movie was pretty good!

After the movie, Granma waited for us all to gather outside of the theater and then informed us that we would be going back to Linda's house because she had dinner ready. "What'd you make?" someone hollered from the back of the crowd. (Really there was a crowd of 12 of us all together.)

Granma just smiled and said, "Dinner in a Dish."



Here's Meghan trying it.


"Granma, this is goo-oood!"

She said that she would need to get a bigger helping, but she never went back for it. Hmmmm....

And here's me with my little Spud-ly! Can you believe that it took 3 shots to get a good picture?



Claire was there with her friend, but they were hiding in the bathroom all night so I didn't get any shots of her.

And here is another one of Spencer. We told him that we get the best shots of him when he doesn't pose because he 'over-poses.'