Mom's Hospitality and Cooking

Here's a list of things Kati and Kari and I remember Mom cooking, serving, and/or entertaining with, in no particular order but starting early and working forward.

Kati remembered that Mom always dished up the food in the kitchen and served it to us on plates at the table.
This is probably why I always feel at least a bit odd when passing dishes around at family events with the Zarubins - I never know what direction to pass in, etc.

* skillet lasagna (in pre-wedding tape letter made for Dad (in 1971?) - Mom describes planning to have her friend Kay over for dinner and making a new recipe for skillet lasagna.

Here is a recipe for skillet lasagna that is from the America's Test Kitchen New Family Cookbook.
It's probably a lot healthier than the one Mom made, but it's easy and I like it!

* dandelion wine (I vaguely remember hearing her talk about this or someone joking about it).

* Coffee (there is a recipe somewhere for "Diane's Send Em Home Quick Coffee") - which involves alcohol

* Chocolate cake with chocolate frosting - which was one of my birthday favorites

* lefse (to the uninitiated, this is like a really thin potato pancake or a tortilla - eaten usually with butter and sugar)

* apple pie

* cookies of all kinds - I remember most clearly chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies

Kati says:

"To go along with hospitality, I remember that she didn't really bring the food to the table and have us serve ourselves, unless it was Thanksgiving or Christmas or something (I distinctly remember being told about my eyes being too big for my stomach at a holiday). She put all of the empty plates on the kitchen counter (she must have kept her counters clear enough to do this) and then she assembled the plates there and brought them out to the table. I think that is really classy. I remember when dad had to start taking some kind of pill with supper and mom came out of the kitchen with his plate with only the pill!

I don't remember a lot of supper foods. I remember steak because I didn't like it (it was really thin and dry) and I remember giving my fat to Kari because she liked it. I think that I don't remember more interesting foods because we were still little and she was trying to feed us stuff that we would eat. I remember bologna and yellow mustard on white bread for lunch. I loved it! I remember a lot of Kool-aid that was consumed. I remember how she would laugh because her wig would melt a little every time she opened the oven door. I remember roasted chicken with skin that was really tasty. I remember tuna sandwiches and I remember that Grandpa made the same kind of tuna sandwiches when we stayed with him in Minot in his little apartment. So it is probably a Ruggy thing to make tuna sandwiches."

Kari said:
"Sometimes I think that one of the reasons why I'm so into cooking and entertaining is because that's something that I can have in common with Mom-- I can't wait until I can make lefse and krumkake. "