In the summer, mother would make what she called a “cold plate”: Sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, bell pepper slices, and either potato cakes or sometimes fried potatoes. If my dad insisted on meat, she might fry some thick slices of baloney. Sometimes a hot leaf lettuce salad, made with cider vinegar, sugar, and bacon grease with diced cooked bacon, piping hot, poured over the lettuce, with some diced onion. I sometimes make pan fried corn fritters instead of the potatoes, if we don’t have corn on the cob. It’s good year round now, but 40 years ago, corn wasn’t fit to eat if you couldn’t get it to the table within 24 hours after picking it; otherwise, it would turn to starch and be tough and tasteless. I guess genetic engineering isn’t such a bad thing, when used on corn. And STRAWBERRIES! Real biscuit shortcake, still warm, split and buttered, then sugared sliced strawberries, left to sit til lots of juice was formed, poured over both layers of shortcake, then topped with real whipped cream. Yum! It’s a good thing I’ve already had my lunch!
I have fond memories of my mom making strawberry shortcake like that. She used Bisquick for the shortcakes but I swear they just don’t taste the same when I make them. Could be they changed the ingredients in the mix.
We get great strawberries and sweet corn here in Tampa but I am having a real problem finding any good peaches so far this year. Got a few from Trader Joes at 89 cents A PIECE!, but they were awful. Those from California weren’t any better. I really miss Carolina peaches! They’re my favorite fruit, too.