vittles - 2

The reason I write about past events is because future ones are too hard to see clearly. The reason I write about other things is sometimes not very clear either.

Back to combination foods, my Dad also had a knack for making dressing - which would be combined or even cooked with chicken or turkey. This product was a hodgepodge of various items, was very tasty and greatly popular in the family clan. In fact, Mom always let him make the dressing because she liked it better than her own.

Another combo item stamped into my memory banks by viewing my father's consumption thereof, was cornbread and buttermilk. This concoction was constructed by starting with a large glass - two thirds full - of thick buttermilk - the kind that leaves a road map coating inside the glass after you drink it - then crumble a hunk of cornbread into that to finish filling the glass.

After mixing, the resulting mush was eaten with a spoon - slowly - so as to savor each sour/tart mouthful.

This reminds of the nursery rhyme that had little Miss Muffett sitting on a tuffet - a low stool - eating her curds and whey. What she was eating was coagulated milk and the liquid that separated from it. This product could be eaten as food or cheese could be made from it.

The point is that this was either an early form of yogurt or very thick buttermilk. The rhyme didn't mention it, but she almost had to have an early form of cornbread crumbled up in it - how else could she eat that stuff?

From a famous children's book comes the duo of green eggs and ham. A couple of questions came to my mind at the thought of this. The first one - was it just the eggs that were green - or the ham also? Since I couldn't remember, I checked it out on the web and came up with a picture from the book that showed these items. The ham was indeed green but only the yolks of the eggs looked that color.

Since this book is not in my possession, I'm at a loss as to how these food items got that way - in fact that was my next question and concern. If it was a somewhat harmless food dye this would be one thing, but if it came about through some weird fermentation process, this might be detrimental to the digestive processes and would explain why the dude in the book was so un-anxious to eat the stuff.

A two-part meal spoken of in scripture is the bread and fish with which Jesus fed thousands on at least two occasions. Any explanation as to how God changed the molecular structure of these items of sustenance to expand and feed that many people would not be well understood by me - at least not in this life.

Through supposition I have reached some conclusions concerning these foods. The fish almost had to have been broiled or roasted, since this was a common method of preparation, but also since I just can't see Jesus serving greasy fish to the crowd. The bread must have been made with all natural ingredients, whole grain flour and cold pressed olive oil. God always supplies needs in the best way. ec