I miss family. You know, the every one sitting around the dinner table kind of family.  Before dinner, kids bustling about in and out of the house, mom yelling, “Just stay in or out! Not both!”  The pangs of hunger racking my guts so bad that I truly believe, “If I don’t eat soon I’ll die!” I yell out! Around dinner time when the meal is simmering, stewing or whatever it’s doing to produce its aroma aloft in the air seems to be a time of congregation around the kitchen.  My two older brothers and I are roaming around the half cooked meal like lions circling their next prey.  Being the youngest of three boys in our family meant that I was lucky if I was tossed a scrap of something ninety percent eaten by my older brothers.  Mom would chase us out of “her” kitchen with a wooden spoon bellowing, “Get outta here! It’s not ready yet,” with all the love she could muster! My mom’s dinners were so good that a lot of times my brothers and I would be perfectly willing to put up with a few swats from the dreaded wooden spoon for a bite of this, a nibble of that.  Actually laughing while mom beat our behinds with her wooden spoon.  It did sting but like I said, Mom’s cookin is Moms … [Read more...]