Thursday, October 2, 2008

Country cooking

I attended a funeral today and the wake afterward was nothing but home cooked food at the local church. People in the community and church brought their signature dishes to celebrate the passing of a life. Some of the people did not know the individual, but still prepared a dish. The dishes were amazing - green beans and "taters" (real green beans from the summer harvest), every casserole you could imagine, green bean, squash, hashbrown and the amazing thing, fried chicken. The desserts were amazing. It's been awhile since I had seen a dessert not in a clear plastic container from Kroger. These were in tupperware containers. They ranged from coconut creme, chocolate and lemon pies to homemade italian cream cakes. My mouth dropped seeing all the food and I had no problem digging into the food.

Unfortunately, I have attended 2 funerals within the past 3 weeks. Each had this spread of food from heaven. I began to think about when I get older and my friends get older, and when we start to grow old and die. We are the generation of "Kroger plastic containers". When I am asked to bring something to the funeral home, I have never made it myself. I go to Lee's Famous Recipe "Chicken House" and buy some chicken. When I am asked to bring something to work, I go to Kroger and buy a cookie, cake or something in a plastic container. I seldom cook a dish. My friends are all the same. We even discussed this at one of the wakes. While we were barely taking breaths engulfing the food, we would pause long enough to say, "How come we don't cook like this?"

I thought about that question for a few days. I think its because they have to cook each night after soccer practice, softball practice and it is a chore not a hobby. These people cooking at the wakes, they were homemakers! Cooking became an art to them. To my generation it's a chore and we would rather go out to eat. I personally have no excuse. I have no kids so I should come home every night and cook. But why when I can have a 99 cent burrito!!

I hope that in 50 years, I can be one of those people who bring the covered dish to the wake and everyone is amazed at how good it tastes. But I fear, it will be the container of baked beans that I bring now to all social events!!

1 comment:

Ace Nova said...

This is a very good entry!!! I love the imagery and the thought behind the Kroger generation (I love that pun!!!) Maybe you should think about a career change. PS: Sorry about the deaths in your family.

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