And my dear old Mom...

My dear old mom worked "outside the home", as they say today. (Back then, they said she worked.) We lost our Woman Friday (housekeeper/nanny/maid) when I was about ten or so, in 1972. Mom had a favorite trick on bad nights when everyone was standing around whimpering, "When's dinner going to be done?" She would always fry an onion in butter, as if the smell were proof that dinner was underway. (We were easily fooled.) NOTHING smells better than a half an onion in a couple of tablespoons of real butter, and she'd always use it sometime during dinner preparation. (It usually went into the cream-of-something-soup casserole du jour, to make it seem more like she really cooked.)

Dear old Mom got pretty good after a few years of it, and could whip up a pretty good dinner in the time it took for rice to cook. I remember her starting the rice with her coat still on! And you can't cook much in less than 20 minutes, so it worked out well. We had a lot of things in the freezer like stroganoff minus the sour cream and rice. I remember cooking all day Saturday to make it possible. Mom was a pioneer.

So, there you have it: use the smell of onions, gently sauteeing, as proof that you're cooking real food!

Have a great day, girls!

S.