rainy wednesday

  Mama has been an excellent cook for as long as I can remember and all her food tastes good, even if i don't like it.  She knows how to stir up food for anybody. and we're not talking boxed lasagna or frozen dinners.  No ma'am.  My mama makes it from scratch and positively blushed and gave herself a stern talking to when she bought a cookie cake from kroger's bakery for daddy's birthday, (this was a small  after party. let it be known, she prepared steaks and baked apples --which was his special request -- for his actual birthday).  Mama knows how to cook ANYTHING and one time on a Saturday she found out THE WHOLE CHURCH  was coming to lunch the next day.  Didn't phase her.  She just got to work peeling potatoes and carrots, scampering around the pantry, digging in freezers and we fed our church next day.  Ok ok.  You get  the point. My Mama is impressively resourceful, awesome  and is an amazing cook.
So.... you'd think I'd have no problem picking up her trail -- right???  haaa!! wrong.   I totally thought that cooking super tasty meals for a ton of people would be a breeze....not really.  See, I always suspected this particular fear.  Could see it looming from time to time and I'd give it a sideways glance -- edgy.  I would rather pretend it wasn't there and that when I had to cook for whoever - BOOM!  The ease and instinctive knowledge of how to bring it all together would attach itself to me.  But alas! I wasn't born with that super - power and i realized it after an apparition I had while conversing with my friend Lizer.  She was telling me about her in-laws coming and how she cooked a meal for them and it was very good - I'm sure.  But then I had an unshakable mental image of my completely freezing at that point.  I could imagine my husband coming in and saying ' Oh btw, darling, the ole Parental Units are coming tomorrow for dinner, so why don't you be a good hag and fix something especially delish?'  He'd walk out (just as most husbands who've given a happy command would) and I'd stare wide-eyed at this. Blank.  'What should I fix?'   I can see me greeting my in-laws and presenting them with broiled hot dogs and fried bologna with heaps of white potatoes drizzled with catchup, and having the faintest inkling that I should, perhaps, have served something different?  but, not being sure of that.  Well, I'm determined to shave off the percentage of that happening.  Hence, the beginning of a true blue cookbook.  I have three recipes in it already, one of which I'll give you.  It's positively scrumptious and caramel is much easier to make than I had suspected.  So here, brew some coffee or tea, try some yummy applespice cake! and have yourself a good day, especially if it's a rainy one.