Weekday Rambler

My Momma, Elise, was a great cook!   She wasn't a gourmet cook by any rights, but she cooked every single day until her last few years.  She was good at it!  Her cooking was not particularly adventurous, nor did she use any exotic ingredients.  She grew up on a farm in rural Louisiana during the Great Depression and learned to use the food from the land.   As long as I can remember she tended some sort of garden.  It may have been 5 acres of vegetables, a blueberry patch or simply her roses.  She was a tiny thing and weighed 120 pounds dripping wet for her entire adulthood.  If that crept up at any point, she "dieted" until she was back at 120.   
She and my Daddy, Maxwell, were committed to feeding a family of six.  We four children never went hungry as they had in childhood.  My Daddy worked, but it was contract work and sometimes there was no work.  Feeding us was a priority, so they worked diligently to make sure there was not just enough, but plenty.  I can remember …

We are in quarantine, so…. I started cooking!  We learned how to order groceries online and have them delivered to us.  We began using “touch free” grocery pick up.  I joined some cooking groups online.  I dug out cookbooks that I hadn’t touched in years.   Luckily, it’s the time of year for harvest and good availability of south Louisiana fresh fruits and vegetables.  My refrigerator and freezer have never been so full.  It’s become habit to make each evening very special with a cocktail hour and a sit down dinner.  There is nothing better than sitting down together to enjoy home cooked food.  It's my favorite part of the day!   
I decided to dig in and make the best of it!  What else was there to do?  My Momma used to quote the adage: “When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.”  Sounds cheesy, but that attitude has always been my mantra.  I don’t have lemons, but I do have lots of groceries including fresh tomatoes, cantaloupes, peppers and other fresh vegetables, some goo…