My Mom’s Spaghetti…

Thanks to Butterfly*Blessings for that wonderful Eryssa gif!

My mom used to make the best American spaghetti. I say American spaghetti because it was very
American. I have no idea how the Italians really make it. My mom’s spaghetti
had meatballs that were like little round meatloaves. They were plump and juicy and moist, bursting
with flavor. She made them into healthy
sized balls and rolled them in flour then browned them… mmmm, they were
good. But, better than anything was her
garlic bread.

She’d use the big wide Italian loaves for her garlic bread
then she’d soften the butter and mix it with garlic powder and chopped
garlic. Somehow she knew just the right
amount to use. With a fork she’d stir it
all together then butter up that fresh bread generously. The oven would be bursting with heat and
she’d pop the bread in there to toast while the garlic butter would melt into
the pores and seep deep into the bread itself so that by the time we were ready
to eat, we could tear off big slabs of bread dripping with this delicious warm
garlic butter. *Sigh* It was memorable. No wonder I grew up chubby.

My mom also made some killer hot chocolate. That was back in the days when you just
bought the Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa in the black box My parents were good about putting a square meal on the
table for dinner. And we always sat at the table together for dinner. The
conversation was generally not unpleasant if I remember correctly. We kids didn’t eat breakfast and we were
given money for school lunches (which I, personally, skipped then used the
money to do more fun things with) but dinner was always healthy and good.

My mom also made a good lasagna but I guess it was a big
pain in the butt to make so she didn’t bake it often.

My mom was a teacher so she was a full-time worker back in
the days before it was fashionable to be such.
She was really quite an independent woman. Although I grew up rather disliking her
because I felt she was a phony and a gossip, there was much I learned from her
and she really wasn’t half bad as a mom.
I find this doubly true when I look around and compare her to many moms
I COULD have had. I also have to add she
has improved with age and she’s a pretty great mom now. A couple of visits ago I told her that
parenting doesn’t stop when a kid turns 18 and, as far as I was concerned, she
was still mothering me now and was doing a great job of it. I wonder sometimes if my dad’s fathering
would have also improved if he had been given the chance to grow old.