As a little girl, I grew up in a garden family and enjoyed all the vegetables we grew and harvested and then gathered around the table and ate as a family. The time planting, weeding, tending the garden, then snapping beans, shelling peas, picking tomatoes, and silking corn as a family has greatly impacted my love for vegetables. I have such good memories surrounding our garden and vegetables and my family. I have re-done three kitchens in our almost 32 years with the exact same vegetable knobs on my cabinets of tomatoes, corn, pea pods, and peppers because the love I experienced from our family gardening together have had such a positive impact on me. Then I married into a garden family and enjoyed a special-to-me-season when *Walter*, as we would call The Salesman’s dad, would deliver garden veggies to our home when we lived close to them. Little did *Walter* know he was the forerunner for all these grocery delivery services before it was popular. Now that we live in Tennessee and tried gardening that one time…oh my goodness, do you all remember how the tractor and the tilling up the garden involved a new – whatever all those pipes in the field that do all the underground stuff were hit – it was awful. My little plan to recreate my childhood family garden turned into “Lora, *we* (The Salesman really meant you) aren’t doing that.” And you know for our almost 32 years, outside his vetoing names I’d picked for the children, I don’t think he’s told me no but those three times – two for the children and one for the garden. Oh, it was bad. So, for the years when we lived in the country, I had a city garden. I did container gardening in that big ole country yard that had to have all the underground stuff replaced because of my desire to till up the land for a garden.
And you all, there are times when I really miss the fresh garden goodies. But, I also realize that I have such fond memories that are tied with my heartstrings to the people that my childhood garden involved. It may be that the new potatoes and peas that my mama would combine in one dutch oven and cook together tasted so good to me because we’d planted them together, tended them together, harvested them together, washed them together and enjoyed the delicious smells coming from the kitchen as mama prepared them until we sat in those yellow swivel chairs and enjoyed them, together. I don’t have the people that made my childhood garden such a good memory to me. I don’t have the dad that tilled and worked so hard after his regular job so that we could enjoy the fruit of his labor. I don’t have my mama who canned and froze vegetables so we could enjoy them throughout the year. And then this last week, my together partner in marriage, nearly tilled up his time on earth with a heart blockage. So, is it any wonder that I wanted comfort foods and comfort foods to me are garden vegetables? And, it was as if the Lord himself sent messages to my friends, they just started sharing their garden goodies with us this week. The veggies came at a wonderful time because I was worn out from not only The Salesman’s health scare; but from some added unnecessary stress surrounding those events that I’m not ready to talk about yet. So after needed and necessary rest, I put an apron on and searched the internet for “quick and easy garden green beans recipe” and decided to go with this recipe for Garlicky Skillet Green Beans and saute them! Though this is not the way I grew up eating green beans, nor the way my in-loves prepare them, it was quick and easy and delicious and most importantly, The Salesman ate all of them that I prepared.
I also searched for a healthier alternative for one of my all time favorites: squash casserole. I found a recipe at Mrs. Criddles Kitchen for Yellow Squash Casserole and I followed the recipe almost exactly, with the exception that I did not add the optional carrots. And, since I’d been given yellow squash and zucchini, I added both varieties to the casserole. And when Mrs. Criddle gave the option for Trim Healthy Mama Gentle Sweet or Trim Healthy Mama Super Sweet, I went with Gentle Sweet. And her serving suggestion that this will feed 8 people may be correct for people who don’t have their memories tied up with a childhood family garden / spouse who had a heart blockage / a young woman who was missing her mama and daddy. I am hoping to get 6 servings from the pan of deliciousness. Mrs. Criddle has come up with a tasty alternative to the squash casserole that does not include crackers or bread crumbs. I served the green beans and squash casserole with lima beans and Smack-Your-Lips Black-Eyed peas because I was missing my family and thankful to be sitting with The Salesman enjoying the garden goodness that had been given to us, together.
I hope to be back to regular scheduled programming as a Trim Healthy Mama next week.
Enjoy!
