Fixin supper

Pinto beans, cornbread, collard greens and pan fried pork steak tonight. Don’t get too excited about bad, bad pan fried pork. I used a zero-calorie non-stick spray and cut off some of the fat. Not all, because if you’re having greens and cornbread with your pork, a little fried fat is OK.

(I had to step away from this machine for a couple of minutes. The oven timer went off, hinting that the cornbread was probably done. It was. So were the pork steaks. The frijoles have been done for a while, as have the greens. Supper will be served as soon as my wife gets home from work. The time is 6:44. She puts in 9 to 12-hour days, generally.)

Priscilla sometimes joins in conversations when she hears people talking about their ethnic food, as though one group can lay claim to certain foods.

“It’s not ethnic,” she says. “It’s being poor. I grew up on cornbread, greens and pork. I have eaten squirrel stew and squirrel dumplings and had to watch out for lead shot. I have eaten raccoon and I have eaten possum.”

Mostly, those foods were when she visited older relatives, grandparents, aunts and uncles. Mrs. R., though, did fix squirrel recipes when Mr. R. shot some and brought them home.

I had squirrel stew one time. I was six. An aunt told me to watch for lead shot.

My mother fixed coon one time. That made my list of worst food ever eaten. The list has two – raccoon and chicken a la king.

Chicken a la king I was served three times during a year in Korea. The first time, it was good. The second and third times caused great displeasure in the ranks. Prevailing opinion was the cooks let Korean KPs fix the second and third batches. Supporting evidence was the overwhelming amount of garlic, more than in kimche.

I hope Priscilla gets home soon. I’m hungry.

(She got home as I was editing another post. A good meal was had by both of us.)