When I first moved to Fort White I was in for a big shock. Even though I grew up a small town girl, I had adopted a town mentality. Eat out. Shop. Go "out" every Saturday night. Then I lived in cities previous to our move to Fort White: Louisville, Nashville, and Savannah. Once again, eat out, shop, go out every Saturday night. Well, lo and behold, at 29 years of age I found myself in a rural community with two children and hardly any services that I needed. That is, unless I needed a tire changed or automotive parts, and, oh yes, I could even buy gasoline and a snack in Fort White at a convenience store.
All parts of the above paragraph are a story unto themselves; but today I will focus on the "not going out on Saturday nights". Instead I will focus on staying home night after night and learning to cook. Now my way of cooking up until this point had been open a can of food and heat it or stick it in the oven to bake. There! You just had my whole experience of cooking. And I mustn't forget this part. No salt! Somehow when my mother had a goiter operation when I was at an impressionable age, I heard the word 'salt' and decided that was the culprit of her getting her throat slashed from ear to ear. Gross, isn't it? But that's how I perceived it back then. So I've had to re-learn how to add salt to my food even though it is still not enough for Truett's taste.
Well, after moving to Fort White I learned to cook, but that's not admitting that I do it now. I made meatloaf, country fried steak, and eggplant casserole...and more. I even baked pies and cakes and canned grape jelly. Then somehow after Merry Jennifer left for college in 1991 and Clay was no longer interested in being around his parents, my cooking became a matter of what was convenient to eat. Like I mentioned before, open it, throw it in a pan and cook it.
Now because we have my nephew's wife and her daughter with us for several days, I've begun to cook again. For instance, tonight I cooked one of my favorite dishes from the '70's. Eggplant Casserole. After I finally had it in the oven to bake I remembered why I stopped home cooking. Time! It took me twenty minutes to peel the darn eggplant because their skins are so tough. Then dip, dip, fry, layer, layer and after thirty more minutes it was ready to bake. And I had Truett's help, but still,that is WAY too much time to prepare a meal! I also cooked white acre peas yesterday that will be served with tonight's meal.
For dessert I made a peach cobbler, but I cheated. I bought the cobbler dry ingredients and mixed the rest with it. Ummm! It smells so good. But, once again, my legs are tired after standing at the sink peeling thick fuzzy skin off of a dozen peaches. I will tell you that after I eat tonight's supper it will be all worth the effort. And if this storm blows on out, after dinner we may go for an evening swim.