Grandma's Kitchen
...rying to replicate grandma because all my endeavors have failed. Grandma only cooked in black iron skillets and pots. The aroma of eggs and bacon would wake you up every morning; I can smell it so clearly today. Her sunny side up eggs was the best anywhere. They would be flawlessly shaped with a perfect yolk. She never overcooked them; you never saw crispy edges or hardened yolks. They literally looked like the sunshine, always picture perfect. Like eggs that you may see on a TV advertisement for Denny’s or IHOP. Even grandma’s Rice Crispy’s were excellent. Before Kellogg’s came out with Cocoa Rice Crispy’s, grandma was adding Cocoa or Nestle’s Quik to our cereal. Of course, grandma’s plan was to make sure that we drank the milk after eating all our cereal. That was never a problem since we loved chocolate milk anyway. After having thirteen children of her own she knew exactly how to get us to eat. For dinner, she would always bake sweet potatoes loaded with cinnamon, sugar, and butter, that was grandpa’s absolute favorite. She also made the best warm dinner rolls or “Granny rolls,” as I used to call them, with sweet butter dripping off the edges like pure gold. The best part of the dinner was her mouthwatering roast and gravy. It was phenomenal. The meat was always so tender and well browned. It would fall apart with the slightest touch of a fork. The gravy for the rice was thin and dark, almost black and bursting with such flavor. The flavor was one that could have won awards. I have never tasted anything like it again. To drink, grandma would always make us rootbeer. It was not just any kind of rootbeer; grandmas came from a jar, it was called Texjoy. All she had to do was add water to it. It was so good when she made it. She had the measurements down to an art. I never saw her using measuring cups. She would pour it into her ice cold pitcher and stir. That was it! She made it all look so easy. We always looked forward to having rootbeer at grandmas. I have actually bought the exact rootbeer but it does not come close to grandmas, no matter how hard I try. In fact, I will not even drink it anymore because it does not taste like grandmas did. Grandma eventually got sick and could not cook for us anymore. I could tell that it disappointed her to not be able to do for us like she used to do. Instead, grandpa would now do all the cooking and make the rootbeer. Grandpa did well, but nothing like grandma did. He never really had to because grandma was such a great cook. Before her sickness, she could whip somet...