Slumgullion

To prepare for the blizzard of 2012, I hurried to the grocery store last night to pick up needed supplies. The essentials included: Original Moose Tracks ice cream (churned with only half the fat which means I eat twice as much); muffins, milk, prescriptions for Scott, and a few more vegetables to throw in with left over crock pot roast beef.

My cooking has never been much to brag about. I was raised in a family that was all about meat and potatoes and a father that added ketchup to everything. In fact, the first "grown up" date I had in college at a very nice restaurant, I asked for ketchup to put on my steak - much to the surprise of my date who wondered out loud about my choice. (We did keep dating, much to my surprise).

My cooking has always been put on the back burner, so to speak. My daughters would say, "And she left it there too long!" So on this dark and snowy night, I pulled out the left over roast beef, added left over, fresh steamed (well that's what the microwave-proof bag said) vegetables, more vegetables from the store and popped all that into the microwave again. No ketchup added quite yet; I save that for topping once the dish is served. I refer to the dish as slumgullion.

My dad used to use that word for some of my mom's cooking and I always thought he made it up. Being curious, I did an internet search to see if there really was such a word. There is! The recipe got its name from two words put together, "slum" which was an English word for mud, and "gullion" which was a term that miners used for a pit. So far that description fits some of my mom's and my dishes perfectly!

But last night, I asked Scott if he'd ever heard of slumgullion. His response - typically Scott - "It's Italian for needs salt!" www.BonnieKingPhotography.com