Vacation: Food for Thought

Did I mention the Minton family enjoys gathering around food? In light of that, our menus at the cabin ran the gamut. On Thursday night Rose dipped into her Italian heritage to serve spaghetti with homemade meat sauce. Excellent! Bob tried to get Italian bread from the local bakery but settled for French bread baked especially for us at his request.

For our breakfasts we had the traditional scrambled eggs and pork sausage. Sides included fresh peaches, watermelon, grapes, toast, and Densell’s famous banana-nut bread. Barbara Frank brought a jar of fig jam. Thomas and I brought our appetites!

Friday’s evening meal was fried fish (fresh water bass), French fries, hush puppies, and coleslaw by Chef Frank. Sides included a squash casserole made by Rose. She also fried a few of the squash for Densell by special request. Jeanie had enough forethought to bring a large bottle of Heinz catchup for this meal.

Our noon meals were catch-as-catch-can--sandwiches and left-overs.

Saturday’s fare was chicken-fried venison, another Frank Minton specialty, this time from bullet to buffet--harvested on his deer lease in east Texas. Sides: mashed potatoes (peeled by the two Barbaras), gravy, biscuits, salad, and corn on the cob.


Frank said the secret to processing venison so that it doesn't have a wild taste is the speed with which it is dressed. The quicker the skin is removed the less wild the taste. Whatever his secret, our meat tasted more like beef steak than any venison I have previously eaten. I watched him press the flour into the raw meat, then dip it in buttermilk and put it back into the flour. Then more flour was pressed into it before it went into the hot grease producing a delicious crust.


Did I mention that Jeanie brought pecan pies made from pecans grown on the tree in their backyard? In addition to four (4!) pecan pies Jeanie also bought an angel food cake—delicious with the fresh peaches and Cool Whip. As we gathered the bounty on the side table continued to grow. Bob and Rose brought the corn and squash from a friend’s garden in Tucson. So, you see, we did not go hungry. As Bob quotes his late father-in-law as saying: “If enough is enough, then too much is just right!”


Perhaps I should add that I did help with the clean-up each meal. Sometimes I set the table. And I did bring a hearty appetite and gratitude. (Reading through this makes me realize how little I actually contributed to the meals. And I don't even have a photo of my work because I was the photographer!)


Journal Entry Saturday, August 8, 2010:
Tomorrow morning we will all leave to go our various directions. Breakfast is still up for discussion. Will we eat a bite here or will we all fill our traveling mugs with coffee and make our way to the Alpine Bakery for cinnamon rolls and donuts? The bakery opens at 6:00 a.m. But whether we eat here or on the road, we will have a brief devotion and communion together before we depart.

On Thursday night, before our first meal together, Bob called us all to circle up so we could bless the food and express our collective thanks for everyone arriving safely, he said: "The Minton siblings have had the good fortune of being raised in the Christian faith and we have had the wisdom to select excellent spouses." To which I added a resounding, "Amen!"