Food and Drinks
I am the oldest of my parents' 6 children, and my father was the youngest of 10 children- my dad's mother had 6 boys and 4 girls. By the time I came along, my Grandma Mohney was done with baking and cooking. When I stayed with her, we ate sandwiches, Raviolis, cereal, etc. So not one homemade food item stands out! I don't recall her making much from scratch. I did, however, get my love of Life cereal, apricots straight from the can, and Chef Boyardee ravioli from her! Oh and wintergreen candy and buttermints!
However, I do know that at one time, she was a great baker. My dad loved his mom's peanut butter cookies! Until....one day, he snuck and ate a whole tray of hot peanut butter cookies. He got really sick and to this day, doesn't like the smell of them. We were not allowed to bake them in the house unless he was on the road for several days- and they had to be eaten and the house aired out before he came home!
We did have peanut butter in the house but I never saw him eat any of it!
I used to pack lunches for all 6 of us kids, and for my dad. His sandwiches HAD to be white bread, spread with butter on both sides, mayonnaise, lunch meat and cheese. No chicken, egg or tuna salad... Ours were frequently peanut butter and jelly or bologna and cheese!
When dad was at home, meals were meat, potatoes, and vegetables, with bread and butter. Once in a while, spaghetti (and he had to add sugar to the sauce!) or Johnny Marzetti (pretty much spaghetti but made with macaroni instead of spaghetti.
When he was on the road, we ate chili, tacos, enchiladas, pizza, Chinese (all made at home of course! Back in the 60s and 70s, there was no running for fast food, especially not with 6 kids on a truck driver's salary. ) Those were our dinners. Lunch was soup and grilled cheese, hot dogs on white bread with macaroni and cheese, leftovers, etc.
Breakfast was often oatmeal with raisins and buttered toast, dry cereal, Ralston or cream of wheat. Mom also used to make corn meal mush, chill and slice it, and then fry it up, serving it with syrup.
A lot of meals were venison because my dad was a hunter and so were my brothers as they got old enough. Occasionally there was a turkey or a goose (plucking those geese were no fun!) Venison steak with mushrooms, mashed potatoes and gravy was a favorite! Venison also replaced hamburger in many meals. With venison roast, mom served her homemade chutney- tomatoes, peppers, onions canned and kept in the root cellar. We ended up with 2 upright freezers one year when my dad and brothers all got deer on opening day. Dad and the boys did all the butchering. I got to help with the wrapping up and grinding. Dad always sent some of it off to be made into jerky and sausage. He and my mom had beautiful deerskin jackets made one year.
In the summer, we had lots of fresh fish, caught by who ever went with dad that day (and we had to clean them too.) Trout, Walleye, Perch were our favorites.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter meals were always at our house. My mother cooked all day. We tore up bread and dried it for stuffing. There was always a turkey with sage stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, corn or corn pudding, green beans or peas, cranberry sauce and/or whole cranberries, and mom's cranberry relish (process cranberries with an orange in the food processor, add sugar and chill.) Rolls or biscuits with butter also. Homemade apple and pumpkin pies and usually a third kind of pie were there for after dinner.
Christmas also included cookies of all kinds- sugar cookies, raisin cookies, snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, chocolate cookies with coffee icing, ginger or molasses cookies, pecan tarts, and tiny cheesecakes. Christmas, a few times, include homemade taffy- yes, we actually had taffy pulls. And we made hard tack candy. I also recall some pretty special cakes when mom decided to take a cake decorating class.
New Year's Eve was the night we got to finish the Christmas goodies and drink some more of mom's punch. (Cranberry Juice, 7-up, Sprite or Ginger Ale mixed in her punch bowl and topped with scoops of rainbow sherbet.) New Year's Day was almost always Venison steak dinner with some extra stuff- cheeseballs or special crackers and dips, sometimes Chex Mix.
I don't remember when the orange jello dessert came into play but it was called "Shaun's Dessert" because my son loved it so much. And from a very young age, he could make it himself. (1 container of Cool Whip, 1 can of mandarin oranges (drained), 1 can of crushed pineapple (drained), 1 large container of large curd cottage cheese, add 2 small boxes of jello gelatin (the dry powder). We used strawberry-banana and orange. Mix and it's ready to go!) Shaun's kids still call it "dad's dessert," but I haven't been able to bring myself to make it since he passed away.
One meal that my mom came up with was our favorite: Pinwheels (a double batch of Bisquick biscuits- rolled the dough out on 2 cookie sheets. Fry some hamburger and drain well. Spread Ketchup and mustard on the dough, add the hamburger. Roll up and slice (like you would cinnamon rolls). and then bake at 350 until golden brown. I still make them today.
And I mentioned the root cellar- we had a true root cellar with an old well (and infrequent reptilian visitors!). It was lined with shelves full of canned fruits and vegetables. Until my mother started working outside the home, we always had a garden and canned everything! Corn, beans, tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, pears, peaches, apples, jellies and jams of every kind. I even remember sauerkraut a year or two. And once there was some wine making going on in that basement!
The couple we bought our home (12892 Springfield Road) from the Brubakers and Mr. Brubaker had planted trees and berries of every kind. We had blackberries, red and white raspberries, red cherries and white ones, pears, apples, peaches, and different varieties of each. He spliced one type of apple tree to another so we would sometimes have 2 types of fruit on the same tree. Every spring, asparagus popped up in the back yard and I remember some rhubarb too. There was always squash -especially zucchini, and cucumbers as well. Pickles were made and canned.
Picnics were frequent on Saturdays for all of us but dad. He seldom joined us and never on our bird watching forays into Mill Creek Park and Poland Woods. Sandwiches, potato or macaroni salad, apples or bananas, occasionally a bag of chips. Lots of cookouts with hamburgers and hot dogs, potato and macaroni salad were held in our front yard. I don't remember my dad cooking- mom always managed the grill and the kitchen.
Sunday mornings were generally pancakes or eggs and toast. We (mom and the kids) didn't eat pork but dad did, so he frequently had sausage or bacon.
My dad's father was evidently a pretty good cook. My cousin Louise wrote a paper about her memories of visiting her "Uncle Val and Aunt Margaret." In it, she mentions his cooking. He made a stew that she loved.
We visited my maternal grandmother frequently but she lived in a trailer with her 2nd husband and his mother. There was very little room (or patience) there for 6 noisy kids. I really don't recall ever eating anything other than maybe a cookie. My mom's father, sisters and brothers were scattered in Tennessee, California, South America, New Mexico, etc. When I did visit my aunts or they visited us, the food was vegetarian.
So my mother) [s the one who made my memories of good food and drinks.
Donna Evalyn Mohney
Published on my blog May 10, 2022
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