Here's a recipe that won't win any contests. It's a recipe for simple honest food that satisfies the belly, comforts cold limbs, and most people like - including people under twelve. The recipe is probably as old as the hills. And if you're old enough, you've probably made some version of it or another. I found it in my battered, old recipe box and the bottom of the recipe card reads 'From the kitchen of ... Mom.'
Yes, my mom made this recipe for Pork Chops and Green Beans regularly when I was growing up. And I know why. The recipe is easy plus fool-proof. Whether it's made ahead of time or served late, it'll taste pretty much the same, which means good in many respects. True, if kept warm too long, a wrinkled skin will form over the casserole's top. But a quick stir eliminates that. So let's not worry about wrinkles.
So is it a casserole? You could call it that. The pork chops and string beans all cook together in a creamy, soupy sauce. But it lacks the starch filler common to casseroles. So I generally serve it with rice. Mom accompanied it with baked potato. But a simple hard roll will do just as well.
Is it bland? Usually, but if I were cooking only for me and my friends who love spicy food I'd substitute chilies for thyme. However, it's seasoned enough that nobody complains and most come back for seconds. All of which make it a very congenial food to bring to pot-lucks. It travels well and won't mind sitting or being kept warm in a crock-pot.
Pot-lucks were on my mind this weekend because our church was having a pot-luck lunch to kick-off the fall season. No, I didn't bring pork chops and string beans - it was hot out so I brought a pepper salad. But the idea of a pot-luck joined my other ruminations about giving and sharing. If you're interested and have got the time, click on 'continue reading...', otherwise, click here for the recipe for pork chops and green beans.
Although pot-luck suppers frequent church basements, the practice doesn't belong to a single religious group. This summer my husband brought a dish-to-pass to his Buddhist sanga's picnic.
No one culture can claim invention of the pot-luck. The old European folk-tale, Stone Soup, was essentially a pot-luck. Our American First Thanksgiving was a pot-luck. As different as the Pilgrims and the Native Americans were, they each contributed food to a common table without much discussion about it. I've brought a dish-to-pass to barn dances in rural Vermont, weddings in urban South-side Chicago, and Hmong infant-naming ceremonies in Colorado.
Pot-lucks only differ among economic classes in scale. Yes, ultra-rich folks contribute expensive wines to their hosts' dinner. But often instead of a dish-to-pass, they just pass the whole party - this month it's at my club, next month, yours. Years ago I went to a pot-luck party in which the lot of us were dirt poor. None-the-less, everyone brought food to share. It happened however, that everyone's food was potatoes. Yes, we passed potato casseroles, potato salads, and bags of potato chips. We all acknowledged that that was our lamest pot-luck ever, but still, we all had a good time.
And our culture doesn't just pass food, we pass everything. Just look at our team sports; most require skilled passing of something. Fast, accurate throwing wins a baseball game. Football quarterbacks get more money than their teammates because of their passing. Soccer players are always passing the ball somewhere - to a teammate or into the goal. Yep, it's like playing hot-potato. Get stuck holding on to it and you lose the game.
In fact, that's just what happened this week to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They couldn't pass money to banks in the form of buying mortgages. The whole credit industry was freezing up. It looked like soon nobody would be able to borrow money to build or buy anything new. The U.S. economy was in peril, - even the global economy. What happened? The Fed said to Freddie and Fannie CEO's "You're out of the game!" And the Federal Reserve passed a whole lot of money into these organizations to keep goods, services, and money flowing from one hand to the next.
But resource passing isn't only on a global scale. In our small communities of friends and family we're continually passing around furniture we're tired of, or clothes and toys our kids have out-grown. These get passed-down from one sibling to the next, and from one generation to the next. We parents pass on to our children our things, our money, our habits, and our ideas, - some wise, some otherwise. And psychologists have a great time sorting it all out.
Epidemiologists track the passing of diseases among populations. Biologists study the passing of traits across generations. Chemists observe how energy passes from one molecule to another; physicists from one particle to another. Yes, the world as we know it depends upon passing. Only stasis would mean the end of the universe, and I can't even imagine what that would look like.
So, join the fun. Pass it on. Keep it moving. Whether it's pork chops or pepper salad, bring a dish-to-pass and receive good times in return.
And now I'll pass on some links to great food to share:
Party Time Wisconsin Cheese and Sausage Tray
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Grandma Olesen's Carrot Cake by O & H Bakery
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Wisconsin Gourmet Sampler Gift Basket
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Quality Candy Cashew Connection Gift Tin
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Receive $5.00 off the purchase of any Wisconsinmade.com product by entering this offer code with your order: FBLOG908. Offer expires October 1, 2008.
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