Hey everybody who insanely follows my blog because you obviously need massive therapy and I have a drug emanating from the page that assimilates you without your knowledge !!

Go check out my guest post over at the blog “Dinners, Dishes And Desserts”, usually hosted by the lovely Erin . She’s on vacation right now and asked me to do a post for her but I’m not going to tell you what it is; you have to go over there and look. Nanananananaaaaaaaaa!!! Her blog is wonderful anyway so go check. Go! Shoo! Nothing to see here! Move along!

Go Here To See It

You always knew when she was somewhere up ahead. Traffic would be crawling at a snails pace and there would be a lot of cussing and horn blowing. Yet… the cussing was rarely directed at her nor was the horn blowing. It was at any “newbie” drivers who seemed to be getting frustrated at her slow progress and didn’t understand why this old woman was allowed such a free rein on the roads.

She had to have been at least 80 years old. This tiny Korean woman was as much a part of the bases family as any soldier. Nobody seemed to know if she was somebodies mama-san or housekeeper or just one of the many Koreans who had come here years before and become forgotten.

She didn’t seem to understand or care that the sidewalks were for human traffic and the roads for vehicles. She walked straight down the middle of the lane of traffic that was heading in the direction she was going, pushing her heavy beat up shopping cart in front of her. When there was a stop sign, she would stand there as if she too were a car, waiting for her turn to go. If a light turned red before she could finish crossing, she would simply stand in the middle of the road and wait as traffic would carefully go around her, soldiers greeting her with “hi mama-san; how are you today?” as they passed, most handing her folded up money or a small sack of groceries they had bought for just this purpose. Periodically she would just stop and sit down in the road to rest.

Inevitably, when she would sit down, the driver stuck behind her would offer to give her a lift to wherever she was going. Her response never varied. She would stand up, brush herself off with an inate dignity few humans can match and would wave both hands disdainfully at the offer saying, “go way marykin; go way. I walk goodly.”

Yet in her cart, sticking out, was a faded American Flag wrapped in plastic. If it rained, she would quickly pull it out and protect it under her clothing, hunched over to make sure no water hit her obviously precious burden.

At 5pm, every night, all traffic would come to a standstill as evening reveille was blown and the flags were taken down for the night. Soldiers all over base would get out of their cars or come to a standstill wherever they were and salute until it was done. Mama-san was no exception but her routine was known to have brought more than one soldier to tears.

Every night, as the sounds wafted through the air, she would get out her flag and lay it gently on the top of the shopping cart. She would then stand as straight as her aged body would let her and raise a trembling hand to her forehead in a salute as tears streamed down her face and the other hand softly stroked her plastic wrapped treasure. When it was over, she would tuck her flag back into place, wipe her eyes and continue her seemingly never ending walk.

She was found dead one day, flag in her arms, sitting upright in front of the Post Exchange when the staff got there in the morning. There were no identifying papers found in her cart or on her person. The soldiers of the base created a fund to give her a funeral and a proper burial. At her funeral, it was standing room only for this little old Korean lady known only as mama-san. Her dignity and her love for what was assumed was some long dead American soldier had won her a spot in the hearts of an entire military base. In a cemetery in Mannheim Germany is a tombstone that simply says “Mama-San; she was one of ours”

She has a place in my memory today, over twenty years later. Rest in peace mama san.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. To all the people out there who have lost a loved one because they willingly served our country, thank you for YOUR sacrifices. God Bless.

Once upon a time, a beautiful, kind, loving, magnificent, day dreaming mother was going to make a wonderful Turkey Noodle Soup for her family. She cooked the stock for hours; it being made from roasted turkey with a lovely brown skin. She added veggies and simmered it until it was just begging for a spoon to be dipped in it. It was grand grand soup. Then, in an attempt to be a better mother, she decided to throw some frozen Spinach in this incredible soup to give it even more nutritional value, all because she wanted her growing children to continue growing so that they could become adults, get wonderful jobs and support her in the style she wasn’t accustomed to into mature happy adulthood. She merrily opened the Spinach, humming all the while and tipped the bag over the pot of gently simmering turkey goodness.  Then, in a fit of suicidal temper, the bag of Spinach fell from her hands straight into the soup pot. All the depressed little green leaves ended their lives in the lovely moms soup pot. She tried and tried to get all of the Spinach out, but it decided to breed before its final death throes and nothing the dear sweet kind mother could do stopped what had been a beautiful soup from becoming a waste land of green goop.

Moral of this story- Forget trying to give your children nutritionally sound meals. Let them eat Cheetos and Twinkies.

make sure you do it right. Use a cup like mine and it gives you a great excuse to eat more cookies… or pastries…or chocolate…or….well, you get the point 😀

Hey there blogging world. Welcome to the first post of my new blog. Who am I? My name is Janet. I’m a half sane (ok, there are some who would say I’m exaggerating my sanity but we’ll ignore them) wife and mother in Kentucky. I have six kids ranging from 25 down to 2 and a half (I was six when I had my first; honest.) and five grand kids (will you believe me if I say I became a grandmother at oh, sayyyyy, 25? No huh?) and I have started this blog as a way to cook and share what I cook with anyone crazy enough to be interested.

I have been told for years “Janet, you need to go to culinary school and become a chef” or “you need to open a bakery/restaurant/food store” or a number of other things (including many that have nothing to do with a food blog, weren’t very nice and I won’t repeat them 😛 ). I always said no because I didn’t want to work for someone else and make what they said I had to make. What can I say? I’m ornery rebellious that way. I like cooking what appeals to me on any given day or what people ask me (nicely and preferably with a pleading tone) to cook.

So what will you find here in the future? I have to say it will be a little bit of everything. I can and do cook everything from homey country style foods to baked goods of all kinds to foods that are a bit pricier and a little more “high falutin'”. Having six kids (only three left at home but since 2 are teen boys, they eat enough for three times their number) I tend to cook in large amounts (Whadda you mean you don’t need twelve pounds of lasagna?!) but in here, I will try to either make sure the recipes are easily scaled down or are just so darn good you won’t mind eating them for a week or two day or two.

What won’t you find? Liver. You will never find liver in my blog. If I had my way, it would be illegal to sell liver; maybe even to have one in your body though that may be a hard law to get passed.  Ok, beyond not finding liver, you will never find someone who minds your questions. I’ve helped a lot of people learn to cook everything from yeast breads to a lemony herbed roast chicken to cinnamon buns to cookies to a Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter/4th of July dinner to the basics like cooking rice to making crispy bacon to making oatmeal that isn’t the consistency of wallpaper paste with the flavor of a gym sock. You’d be surprised how many people want to cook better but are still scared to take on even the basics. But, you name it; I’ve probably cooked it. Ummm, except for liver. Did I mention that?

Well, now that I’ve hopefully given you a little info about me (I did mention that I hate liver, right?) I’ll let you get on with your lives. I hope to see you back here soon. I don’t bite… I promise.