Picture of the Day 12/1/09 and Blog- Winding Down

[MikeF9]

Tuesday December 1, 2009
Picture of the Day

The Tuesday special is back at Steeple Market.

WINDING DOWN
Welcome to the month of December.
Where the heck has the year gone?
And no telling what will happen in the next 31 days.

One little note about how much I have missed Steeple Market.
I was looking around the store Monday, trying to figure what to have for lunch. I wanted something hot.
I thought of something, and went back to the deli. I asked Pierre if I could buy a small container of mashed potatoes. Just so happened, I was watching him finish making some.
He sold me a small container, and I bought a package of boil-in-a-bag chipped beef gravy.
I haven't had dried beef gravy on mashed potatoes since the store burned.
Boy, did that taste good.
Sometimes they used to have leftover mashed potatoes for sale, or if I catch them at the right time, I can buy fresh. Usually, it all goes into the meal specials.

[Henry]

Actually when Steeple first reopened, Maryann was hungry for dried beef gravy and mashed potatoes, so I went down to Steeple to get some.  Couldn't find it on the shelf, so asked Rob Mahoney if he had any.  It was one of the things they had not remembered to stock.  He immediately called his supplier so he could catch the morning delivery and had it there the next morning.  They now stock the Hormel Dried Beef in the little glass jars.

I break it up in pieces and fry it slightly in a little butter then add my milk and thickening to make my milk gravy.  I also boil about four eggs and slice them up and put them in the gravy with salt & pepper after the gravy is done.  Makes for a great supper.

Once in a great while Marion Eastman will have it down at the Senior Luncheon and she will have it on cornbread.  Hamburg gravy isn't bad either.  One of the old time meals my mother and Maryann's mother used to make.

By the way, the little glass containers that Hormel Dried Beef comes in are still the same today as they were years ago.  Mother used to save them and we used them as juice glasses.

[MikeF9]

When Mom made dried beef gravy, she used to boil eggs, and Dad would mix them in himself.
The boil-in-a-bag is just as good as homemade.
And yes, we used to use the jars for glasses, too.

[Henry]

I usually make more than we can eat at one meal - Maryann doesn't do leftovers, but I do and potatoes & dried beef gravy zap very well in the microwave.

A little touch to hamburg gravy on potatoes that Maryann uses (I don't) is a spoonful or two of grape jelly on top of the gravy and potatoes in your plate.