My Ratatouille Moment

Last night we had cabbage burgers for dinner. They are basically cabbage, onions, and ground beef baked into a roll.( simple food for a simple person) I took one of the leftovers for lunch. They have been one of my favorite foods since I was a kid. I don’t get to have them very often, Steven won’t try them and they are pretty labor intensive to make. My mother used to make the filling but would just give us hamburger buns to put it on, kind of like a sloppy joe. But it wasn’t the same as when Grandma made them. They just are better baked into a fresh golden brown roll.

Like I said I took a leftover burger to work for lunch. I carfeully placed my golden brown beauty into the microwave, carefully warming it just enough to make it hot but not so much as to make the bread rubbery. I sat down at my table anticipating the first bite when my friend Dan says” What kind of sandwich is that?” I said back”This?, This is a trip to grandma’s house.” He looked dumbfounded so explained that my grandmother used to make them and what they were made of. It was delicious and I have another one for tomorrow.

After lunch I started to think about my grandparents. I remembered one camping trip when we were camping with My grandparents, the Pepmeirs, and the Horsts ( I was told they were cousins but to my mom everyone was a cousin). They were all about my grandparents age. All very nice people. I remembered that the women made the burgers on that trip, I remember waiting for the sandwiches to rise so they could bake. (We all had campers with ovens.) When they were done we ate them around the campfire. I remember on that trip I caught a two and a half pound walleye( imagine a trout with teeth) from my grandpa’s boat. The first time I had ever fished from the boat. I caught the biggest fish that day after being told by the older more experienced fishermen that I was doing it wrong.

 It was about then that I remembered a scene from the movie Ratatouille. The food critic was eating the dish that the rat chef prepared for him. It turned out to be his favorite food from his childhood. He immediately flashed back to his childhood and had a warm fuzzy moment remembering his mom. That is pretty much what I was doing. Remembering the past because of the food I had eaten. It was my warm fuzzy moment. Thanks Pearl for making me remember grandma’s cabbage burgers.

P.S. We need to take Allie camping so we can make her cabbage burgers and I can tell her about the time I caught a five and a half pound walleye from my grandpa’s boat.