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Yes!

My mom was a Navy wife who did a lot of entertaining, and she was an amazing cook. She had this weird ability to have just enough food to feed everyone, even if people showed up unexpectedly. And she cooked things for us as kids ranging from peppered steaks in flaming brandy to deep fried whole smelts with only the head missing.

Heh, when she ate, she would pirate things from our plates. She used to broil chicken wings, and they came out with the tips of the wings crispy and crunchy...she would eat all the tips off before she gave them to us, or if she missed them, she would lift it from our plate and crunch off the tip before handing it back to us! We would despairingly cry “Mooooooooom!!!”

She had all kinds of things that we kids would really get grossed out by. She would eat raw hamburger as she was making food. She used to eat pickled pigs feet. To this day...there are few things that seem grosser to me than that! (Though I suspect they probably taste kind of good once you get past the concept.

My mom cooked some strange stuff. She served us tripe in red sauce one time when I was a kid living at the Naval Base in Yokouska, Japan.

As a kid, there are few foods more alien looking than tripe. It looked like they peeled off an alien’s skin and sliced it into strips, boiled it to a rubbery consistency, then served it in a red broth that looked exactly like blood. We looked at my mother as if she were mad...as the Blue Danube china tureen came around the table.

Not a single one of us touched it. My mom was so pissed!

But my favorite Mom cooking story took place later in her life...I was out of the Navy and in college, living at home and a sister and brother of mine were still there.

As the five of us sat down at the dinner table, she and my dad were having a fight. There were ill feelings in the air, not really a pleasant environment at all. My dad was an alcoholic who had not yet recovered in those days, he was French, Irish and Scottish ancestry, a very quiet drunk.

My mom was Italian and Armenian. VERY loud, vocal, emotional and hot tempered, putting up with my dad’s alcoholism. Two polar opposites. So the arguments were pretty much one way, with my dad just sipping his drink...

Anyway, my mom is making the dinner, banging the crap out of the pots and pans, making spinach and rice, a family favorite. Very tasty, rice and spinach sauteed together in garlic and olive oil.

She is still steaming mad, and me, my dad, my brother, and my sister are sitting around the table when she comes over with the tureen of spinach and rice and slams it down angrily on the table. We all help ourselves and as I take my very first bite...

Crunch.

This is completely disgusting. The food has sand in it. I look up, and everyone has momentarly paused after crunching on the sand with their first bite, just like me. We all look at each other, not moving, and my father is still slowly chewing with an audible crunching sound. (Hehehe...I think he may have been concerned that if he had complained, she might have brained him with the frying pan!)

My mom had been so upset she forgot to wash the spinach, and boy, was it dirty!

She looked at all of us and said “What? EAT! YOU HEARD ME! EAT!”

So we all took another mouthful...Crunch...Crunch...Crunch....you could actually HEAR it.

She sat down, took a mouthful, and...Crunch...

She looked up at everyone who was just meekly looking back at her, and said “OH FOR GOD’S SAKE!” And jumped up, grabbed the tureen and threw the whole thing, tureen and all in the trash.

Then she just statrted to giggle, and it turned into a roaring laugh, after which we were all laughing, even my dad...:)

The infamous Spinach and Rice Dinner...