Succotash

"My supper dish, my succotash wish."

-Dee Lite / Groove is in the Heart

It is the first day of vacation and my son and I were walking towards the beach when I realized that we traveled the very road of the "Succotash Incident."  I mentioned it to him and he immediately fired off questions.

What is succotash?

Succotash is lima beans and corn cooked up in the same dish.  Pretty simple stuff.   Of course, there are all kinds of fancy off-shoots of the idea, like throwing in peppers and tomatoes and spices and whatnot, but the basic concept is limas and corn.

What was the "Succotash Incident"?

The Succotash Incident occurred during my youth while the family was vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.  While sipping coffee and reading the paper in the early morning, my Uncle John suddenly decided that we would all be dining on succotash that night.  For the next ten hours of the day, no fifteen minute time period was allowed to pass without John bringing up succotash.  When words could not express his devotion to the subject he would then sing about succotash.

Finally, it came time to purchase lima beans and corn to prepare the dish.  John, his wife and I loaded up into a Griswold-like station wagon and he drove us towards the local market.  Unable to contain himself at the thought of feasting on succotash, he once again broke into the succotash song and began to swerve the car back and forth on Columbia Avenue, a sleepy road that runs through the picturesque beach town.

A very elderly man was walking on the shoulder and saw the approach of what amounted to a Boston Whaler on wheels being driven by a maniac.  A look of utter panic shot across the man's face and he dashed towards a split rail fence as quickly as he could to get as far away as possible and seek some semblance of protection from a man under the grip of succotash desires.
Most men would have gained their composure at that moment and realized that their rash behavior could inadvertently affect those around them.
John is not most men.
He just laughed. 

Looking back through the thirty years since the incident occurred, I walked by the spot today where I approximated the man stood.  I can only muster a feeble apology to him in reference to my uncle's actions on that day.

Because, hey.  Let's face it.

Succotash is pretty darn tasty. 

Strawberries

Henri Bonnet smiling as he eats strawberries at the British Embassy Birthday Party, 1951

-Life Magazine

With June comes strawberries, lord of the berry kingdom.  The family unit decided to take a page from my mother's book and we are making strawberry shortcake for dinner.  It will not be a side dish.  No way.  Like Jennifer Grey's character in the movie "Dirty Dancing" stated, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."  So tonight, strawberries will have the limelight on our dinner table, the one and only dish.

My favorite strawberry story dates back to my Uncle John's younger days growing up in the small Delaware town of Houston (pronounced how-ston, not hue-ston).  My grandfather and grandmother had quite the strawberry patch and Uncle John had been delegated the prime picker.  It was his duty to pick a certain number of quarts one day, but his strawberry picking task happen to fall on the same day of a little league game.  

Knowing that he would be late to the game if he picked the strawberries, he decided to fill the quart baskets with loose hay and straw and then he strategically placed large strawberries on top of the debris, creating the ruse that he had picked all of the quarts. he left them out and fled the scene of the crime to the baseball field.

It was about the third inning into the game when John saw his father Chester approaching the field.  His heart sank.  He knew the charade had been detected and his goose was cooked.

Of course, he was removed from the game and had to return to his home to complete his strawberry chores.  I am certain there is a moral in this story, but I entrust that task to the reader to discover.

So tonight, we here at the home of L & I raise our forks high with pierced berries and toast Uncle John and his half-hearted attempt to trick a family that loves strawberries.  It simply can not be done.

Son and wife do it the right way with whole milk, sugar, and biscuits.

I eat mine with high fiber, whole wheat sandwich thins and skim milk.

I am such a weenie.