When I was a young Mother and raising the children, I would get so bogged down with keeping the house up and the home running smoothly.
One late afternoon, after a particularly trying day, our son Jimmy called unexpectedly from the airport to have his Dad come pick him up for a surprise leave from the Navy. Of course, all Jimmy's brothers and sisters got so excited and wanted to go with Papa to pick Jimmy up.
I was left with all the messes of the day and baby Mary. I didn't know where to start. I called Mary L., one of the older women in my life. She gave me such valuable information. She said, "Well, Connie just get a meal started because Jimmy will be hungry. Make something simple, like a casserole. Then clean off the table and make it look nice for company. If you have time, clean the living room. But always make sure you have food on the stove and a nice place to welcome the family." And this was such good advice, and I have always remembered that.
Our girl Mary always says, "Mom, why do you start lunch at 9:00 in the morning?" Well, ya know, I always feel that to have a meal on the stove is like home insurance. You are prepared for the unexpected.
With little ones, they need a set time to eat lunch and then a quiet few hours for naps. But often, when the children are young, you have to do a lot of thinking ahead to make up for the natural interruptions of the day.
Jim has a lot of different hours now with this new job. So, sometimes our family meal is at noon, and sometmes in the evening. Like today, Mary will be gone all day helping her grandma, so I will just eat a sandwich for lunch. But later, I will fix a big meal for Jim for supper. But to have a meal on the stove makes you feel so peaceful. Then you are free to do the cleaning and won't be interrupted to have to switch gears.
And, ya know, Jello was always such a handy thing for me to make for the kids in the summer. It's easy to get out and have with a meal. Also, apple sauce kept cold to have with a a meal is so easy to have. So you may have a simple casserole on the stove and maybe homemade muffins and then some jello -- that makes a nice meal.
I used to make a lot of casseroles. One I made was this. You just pat ground beef in the bottom of a pan and bake it most of the way and drain it. Then put a can of green beans, drained, over this. Then a can of mushroom soup, and then mashed potatoes on top. Then just bake it at 350
