One of the things that my parents required of us when we were children, was that we eat everything on our plates. Most times this was not a problem, but once a week Mom would make chili soup.
Now I have had a lot of chili made by other people, and have found a recipe that we all love, but the chili soup I was subjected to as a child makes me shudder still whenever I think of it
Mom would start by frying hamburger with onions and then dump in a pint of kidney beans and a quart of tomato juice and water. Then to top it off she would pour in brown sugar. If being a sickly sweet, tomatoey, salty, thin watery mess wasn't bad enough those kidney beans totally pushed it over the limit of endurance. I would rather have skipped a meal than to eat it, but eat it I had to.
Somewhere along the line I learned to pick out the beans and swallow them like pills, which helped a lot but I still had to eat the soup.
One day I was once again sitting at the table alone trying to choke down the soup. Mom, John, and David went to get the mail and were gone for quite a while. Once they got in John excitedly told me how there had been a huge snake by the mailbox and Mom got the hoe to kill it. She took a mighty swing and chopped it's head right off, they then watched in amazement as a bewildered frog hopped out and sat there blinking at them. I'm sure thanking them for freeing it from the the horror it had been experiencing.
I didn't think it was fair, that I had to be in the house choking down nasty soup, while they had been outside freeing frogs.
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The in-law in the previous post is sitting on the right, he has slightly graying hair. My husband is sitting next to him and then his brothers Vernon, Melvin, and Mervin.
I thought you were going to say after they came inside, as if the soup wasn't making you sick enough, hearing about the chopped off head made you lose what soup you did manage to eat before that! I still pick the beans out of chili, by the way, even though I know they're full of protein.
ReplyDeleteI guessed correctly which was the brother-in-law - do I get a prize, like a trip somewhere?? Open-ended tickets to someplace beautiful would be fine - I'm not picky. I know what you're thinking - a free wheeltrip ride down the driveway, right?? I'll take it! :) Take care, girl ~
Never had chili soup but had chili. Mom (in-law) makes the best chili!
ReplyDeleteI'm super phobic when it comes to snakes - can't even look at a photograph so I would be moving out of my house if a snake shows up somewhere closeby.
Thanks for the visit and have a great week!
We have a lady in our church who makes a chili soup similar to what your mom did. It is so awful sweet! She loves to give people meals when a need arises, but oh...
ReplyDeleteI do not think I could ever kill a snake. Thankfully, we have not seen any around here, but we do have a fake one by our back door that has thrown some of our guests for a loop.
I can remember my mother chili and it was on the watery side but we always put crackers in it. I liked it I suppose. I really can't make chili that good so I buy mine in a can. lol We really like the Stagg brand. I buy it at Sams Club. This chili is thicker but I have to add some water to it so that my crackers will soak up the juice! That's the way I like it.
ReplyDeleteAs for snakes I will go off the road in my truck to hit one! hehehe I usually get it to! It is a little scary, but my kids found a snake skin in our yard two days ago.
I almost guessed the one with the slighly grey hair but his facial features looked like the one on the far left so I thought it must be the one with the plate.
Hugs,
Angela
Okay, I was afraid you were going to say your Mother cooked the snake and used it the next round of chili soup. "Shudder"
ReplyDeleteYou really did miss out, those rotten kidney beans....I hate kidney beans too and spent many childhood dinners sitting at the table til' bed time because I could not get those kidney beans down. I eat my chili without kidney beans now because I make it myself!
ReplyDeleteFreeing frogs is much better than eating beans! That's a great story. The bane of my childhood was canned peas.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for stopping by my blog! I have enjoyed your blog too. I love this virtual world where I can meet people I otherwise would never have... I will definitely look in again!
ReplyDeleteI am really enjoying your blog, thanks so much! It never fails to amaze me how mothers take on things like snakes when their childrens welfare is at stake. A true lioness protecting her cubs. We have the second most venomous snake in the world here in our neck of the woods...South Australia. My husband and I in hindsight rather foolishly sent it off to greener pastures (ie lights out!), given how deadly it is. I ended up standing in a plant urn brandishing a shovel, and feeling not a little vulnerable! So, maybe eating beans might be a better option for me too. PS: I'm up for the freewheel trip down the driveway prize (great suggestion imPerfect Housewife)too, afterall, there's only a paltry airfare from Australia to the US to consider. :)
ReplyDelete