In our home, it was unheard of for one of us to be absent from a meal—it occurred only when we were sick and in bed. It was in the evening, around the kitchen table, that we shared what was going on in school, with questions coming mostly from Ma as to whether we were keeping up with our homework, whether we were listening to and obeying the teacher, and how we were getting along with our schoolmates. Pa talked about farm work to be done. If it was autumn and we were in school, he talked about what had to be done the coming weekend. In summer, he outlined what he had planned for the next day—making hay, hoeing potatoes, shocking grain, or whatever was happening on the farm at that time of the year.
Herman holding baby Jerry
We boys had our assigned chores, starting at a very young age. They included everything from carrying in water from the pump house to feeding the chickens and gathering eggs, carrying in wood, and taking out the ashes from our wood-burning stoves. When we were old enough to do barn chores, around six or seven, we helped with feeding calves, carrying in straw from the straw stack, throwing down hay from the haymow, and milking. If one of us had been shirking our everyday chores, Pa usually mentioned this privately rather than at the table, with a stern warning to do better.
Like our other daily meals, suppers varied considerably with the seasons. They were simple and largely centered on food fresh from the garden or, during the cold months, on food that Ma had canned and preserved during the summer and fall. We always had a bin of potatoes and another of rutabagas on the dirt floor under the house, plus many heads of cabbage, onions, and carrots, all of which appeared often on our table. The big crock of sauerkraut that sat in the pantry from fall until spring also figured into many meals. We butchered our own pork, so we had a ready supply of chops, bacon, and ham. During the fall hunting season, many of our meals featured squirrel and rabbit, and sometimes venison, if the deer hunt had been successful. On winter’s most challenging days, we knew after trudging home from school in waist-deep snow that Ma would have something special waiting for us for supper, usually homemade vegetable soup with thick slices of freshly baked bread and her homemade jam.
We ate a lot of ring bologna when I was a kid, and every butcher shop we knew sold it. Ring bologna is made from a finely ground mixture of pork and beef, with a few spices added. The meat is stuffed into a casing about an inch and a half in diameter and is formed into a circle or ring. The ring resembles a horseshoe with heavy white twine tying the two ends together. The sausage is smoked and ready to eat without any further preparation, but the flavor is enhanced by frying or boiling. We ate it both ways, cooked and fried or simply sliced onto crackers or a piece of bread. When we traveled someplace and needed to pack a lunch, slices of ring bologna on saltine crackers was Pa’s favorite.
RING BOLOGNA AND NAVY BEANS
2 cups dried navy beans
¼ cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons dark molasses
¼ cup ketchup
⅓ cup chopped onions
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
⅓ to ½ pound bacon, cooked and diced (optional)
1 ring bologna, sliced
Wash beans and removed any damaged ones. Place beans in a large bowl, cover with 4–6 cups of water, and soak overnight at room temperature.
Rinse and drain beans. Put them in a large pan and add enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Put beans and liquid in a 2-quart casserole. Add remaining ingredients, except the ring bologna, and combine well. Cover and bake until beans are tender and flavors are blended, about 6 hours. In the last hour of cooking, add the bologna slices to the beans. Remove the cover for the last 30 minutes.
1 package (12 ounces) egg noodles
1 onion
1 green pepper, cut fine
1 tablespoon fat
1 pound ground beef
2 cups vegetable soup (canned or homemade)
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Using package directions as your guide, boil the noodles in salted water until half done; drain and set aside. Fry the onion and pepper in the fat in a large skillet. Add the ground beef and cook until it loses its red color. Add soup and cooked noodles. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Put in a 1½-quart casserole dish and bake for 1 hour.
Note: Leftover meats can be ground and used in place of the ground beef.
Macaroni with Ham Hotdish
2 cups cooked elbow noodles
2 cups minced ham
2 cups creamed corn
1 cup bread crumbs
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a baking dish with butter. Arrange cooked noodles, ham, and corn in alternating layers in the baking dish. Cover with bread crumbs and dot with butter. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bake until crumbs are brown, 20 to 30 minutes.
6–7 medium potatoes
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste
2–4 cups milk
1 onion, chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash, pare, and cut potatoes in ¼-inch slices. Heat 3 tablespoons butter in skillet until melted. Mix in flour, salt, and pepper. Stir constantly over low heat until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and add enough milk to make a creamy white sauce. Return to the heat and stir constantly until boiling; boil for 1 minute.
Put a layer of potatoes in buttered baking dish or shallow pan. Add a layer of white sauce and some of the onion. Repeat with another layer of potatoes, white sauce, and onion. Repeat layering. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dot with remaining 1 tablespoon butter. Cover and bake for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake until potatoes are soft and golden brown, about 1 hour.
1 can (16 ounces) green beans, drained
1 can (16 ounces) yellow beans, drained
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (16 ounces) garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
¾ cup sugar
⅔ cup white vinegar
⅓ cup oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Mix all the beans with onion and green pepper in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk sugar, vinegar, oil, salt, and pepper. Pour over the bean mixture. Lightly stir all ingredients together. Refrigerate. Tastes even better the next day.
2 medium potatoes
2 medium rutabagas
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
4 eggs, beaten
¼ cup milk
¼ cup butter, melted, or drippings
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Peel potatoes and rutabagas. Grate them and let sit in a bit of water.
Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Take out half of the flour mixture and set aside. Blend the beaten eggs into the flour mixture remaining in the bowl. Add the milk and butter and stir.
Drain the potatoes and rutabagas. Add the other half of the dry flour mixture to the potatoes and rutabagas and stir. Add the floured vegetables to the egg and milk mixture. Place in a greased 1-quart casserole. Bake for 1 hour.
3 pounds meaty beef chuck bones
4 onions, chopped
1 small head of cabbage, cut up
3 ribs of celery, chopped
1 can (16 ounces) tomatoes (Eleanor would have used her own canned tomatoes.)
1 can (10 ounces) tomato soup
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon sugar
4 medium potatoes, cut up
1 cup canned peas
Salt and pepper to taste
Place meat bones and onions in a large pot or soup kettle. Add enough cold water to cover. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer. Cook slowly for 2 hours.
Remove the meat from the bones and skim off the fat. Set meat aside. Add cabbage, celery, tomatoes, soup, bay leaf, and sugar to the pot. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
Return the meat to the pot along with the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Add the peas and simmer another 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.