Food Made From Scratch . . .

My daughter, Shelby, is such a cutie!  We were friends with a wonderful woman from church and she happened to be the “BEST” cook.  (That was her last name, as well.)  I have posted here about her before.  We live in the house that we purchased from her and she moved only a few blocks away.

She often invited us over to her home for dinner.  That was always such a treat as she was always so happy (it was a bonus that she was a great cook).  She had a dog named Nipper that the children were always so happy to see, as well.  So . . . this one time we were there, Shelby came home and asked if I would please, please buy the kind of mashed potatoes that she made because they were the best that she had ever had.

I laughed so hard at this and called my friend right away and we both laughed.  You see, the potatoes were not a brand at all. They were real potatoes that were boiled and then peeled and mashed.  I was raised to cook this way, too, and used to when the children were smaller.  As time went on, my husband was awarded custody of his three children, one at a time,  so the family was large!  I did not have time nor did I feel like peeling that many potatoes to make enough for seven people.  Consequently, Shelby was used to having instant mashed potatoes.  Haha.  My poor deprived children missing out on that.  There were only three children at home when this happened, so I started cooking the way I was raised again and stopped using so much instant food.  My friend and I never forgot that and any time potatoes were mentioned around us we would laugh and ask each other what brand!  We laughed a lot together.

What brings this story to mind is Shelby.  She was at her Grandmother’s house (Grandmother by marriage).  Since Shelby cannot eat a lot right now due to stomach issues, her Grandmother decided to make her some rice pudding.  Shelby had never had that.  (She thought she had not, but we used to make that a lot, too.  Her Aunt Honey made it very often.) Her Grandmother asked Shelby if she knew how to make pudding from scratch.  (Keep in mind, that I used to make chocolate pudding, my mother’s recipe, all of the time.)  Shelby’s response to Grandma was, “Oh yes, you just open the box and follow the instructions!!!” (Just so no one thinks Shelby is lame, she does know what cooking from scratch is, she just was not thinking and answered too quickly.)

Shelby did have instant pudding when her father made it.  He is diabetic and always made the sugar free and just put it in a jar with the milk and shook it up.   This was quick and very easy, so it was served a lot. I asked Shelby if she remembered me making the chocolate pudding.  She said she thought she remembered me making something like that with corn starch.  Haha.  I never liked cakes when I was a child so for my birthday, my mother made me a chocolate pie.  I have that recipe and would always just make the filling.  Shelby should remember it as it made enough filling for seven pies!!  I never cut it down, I made it just that way.  We never seemed to have a problem eating it all up.  My husband always commented that he loved that type of pudding because it formed sort of a skim of pudding on top.  It is funny how people remember different things.

Shelby said she thought making it from scratch was opening the box and making it.  She said otherwise, she would have just bought those little containers of Jello pudding, the snack packs.  Haha!

My goal . . . show Shelby what homemade food really tastes like!  Just kidding, she does know.