Sometimes my husband and I talk, fret, about things that might happen in the future of our children when we go Home, as there is so many useful sage we will take with us that they have not learned in their lives.
I had a course in high school where I was taught to cook (we first made shrimp cocktail), sew (I sewed a blue sailor dress compete with large collar), and we were taught to sew on buttons, iron, with starch and how to sprinkle down the clothes to be ironed, and many more things that girls would need as they became women and wives in the future. Where is that class now? It seems computers and technology took the place of common chores.
Sure you say, women in today’s world are not these type of women. The kind that sews their own clothes or cooks a meal from scratch, and we have dry cleaners to do our ironing. You are correct. But what happens if you pop a button on a pair of jeans, rip a seam in a pair of too-tight pants, or need to get the wrinkles out of a garment. Ladies, the dryer does not always solve this problem.
I'm not taking down to the modern women of today's world, I am just being honest and asking simple questions. People today need to know the basics — men and women. Sure there are air fryers that make a meal oh so simple, but where's the pride and self-respect in that? I love starting from scratch with a piece off meat and sprinkling a little of this and a little of that and ending with something I made myself. Who makes biscuits anymore? You can buy the Pillsbury frozen, and they taste just as good, sometimes, mine are pretty good.
When my boys were small I made all their little jumpsuits on an electric Singer sewing machine. I felt like Giorgio Armani as he turned out his creations. I felt pride in my work. I made several of my outfits and sewed up rips and tears and sewed on buttons with no problem. We were just beginning our lives and were not plentiful of money, and I needed to know how to bargain shop for groceries and then know how to turn out a meal with it all beginning from the basic ingredients. I could do that.
I've been canning pickles and salsa and putting peas and butter beans in the freezer for two weeks now, and I feel a great accomplishment in knowing that I have these to enjoy this winter when the weather is cold and no fresh veggies are to be had. I learned this from my mother and grandmother many years ago by standing on my little box in the kitchen to reach the stove and helping in the preparation.
I still don't own an air fryer or any fast cooking machines. I do have a good mixer, a food chopper, electric fryer, and the basics but I do enjoy beginning from the basics and ending with a slow cooked meal. I don't know how I would have felt about this when I was in the working class of women and had to hurry home from the office and have a meal on the table within the hour as my husband and children were ready to eat. I would probably have bought all the extra helpful gadgets that would have helped me cope.
But, now at this time in my life I love to cook and bake, so I am going to take the slower course of cooking, cleaning, baking and “sewing on buttons.”
Of course you have to have cornbread with all vegetables. I love this "corny cornbread" that I make.
1 cup of self-rising meal
1/2 cup of self-rising flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup of creamed corn
3/4 cup of buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter melted in a salt iron skillet
Mix meal, flour, sugar well and add egg, creamed corn, 3/4 cup of buttermilk and about 1/2 of the butter, and pour the rest into the buttered skillet. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.
