Grama's Potato Bowl

Here goes, I’m taking the plunge yet again and am determined to complete my challenge to write something every day for the month of October for NaBloPoMo. I know, I know, those of you have followed me through my fits and starts in the past know that I generally let life get in the way of my writing somewhere about a third of the way through…halfway if I try really hard. But this time is going to be different. This time I’m setting the stage for the next phase of my life. Being a full-time writer. Yes, after working in the same office for over nine years I am ‘retiring’ with my husband and taking up writing full time. There is something romantic and exciting about telling your friends you are “taking a year off to travel and write” but that is exactly what I have planned. So to get myself started in being disciplined enough to sit down at my keyboard every day, I decided to sign up for the October NaBloPoMo challenge.

Today’s prompt asks me to talk about my family’s most beloved dish. My first thoughts ran to holiday family dinners and all of the delicious dishes spread out across the tablecloth but then I began to think of the dishes themselves. The turkey platter that my husband bought me when we were first married, the ‘silver’ gravy boat that was a gift from our girls, the remainder of a crystal salad set that my parents gave us long ago and all of the other special items that come out of the cupboards for a special meal. Of these, the most special for me is the yellowy green Depression Glass bowl that is heaped with mashed potatoes, just as it always was on my grandmother’s table. It isn’t fancy, just a simple fluted bowl that she likely purchased at the five and dime or received as a free gift after collecting stamps at the local A&P. The specialness of this bowl isn’t in it monetary value, no it is in the memories of all the happy times, the family gatherings where this simple bit of glass held pride of place.

These dinners weren’t fancy, just good solid home cooking. Grama would have been busy for days, baking pies and cookies and making some of her creamy chocolate fudge (the kind that melts in your mouth the minute it touches your tongue). Her little kitchen would be a hub of frantic energy as she asked 'us girls' to peel some apples or get ingredients from the pantry. We loved spending time with her there as she talked to us about holidays of her childhood and of her brothers talking her into making them an extra batch of sweets, hoping my great-grandmother wouldn’t notice the missing sugar. These are the stories that I cherish now and share with my daughters and grandson. The stories that help them to know what it was like to grow up on a farm in the prairies at the turn of the century.

As I set the table for Thanksgiving dinner this year, I will smile as I remember those special times spent with my family and look forward to making new ones.

Yes, I would have to say that Grama’s potato bowl is one of my family’s most beloved dishes.