Mama's Pasta Salad

In the summertime, Mama makes two different cold salads that we all love. One is her potato salad (and that one is just her special recipe that only she can make correctly). The other is her Pasta Salad. In honor of Mama, on Mother's Day this year, I want to share her recipe with you. Here is the recipe:

Mama's Pasta Salad

1 Box Tri-Colored Rotini Pasta, boiled for 10 minutes in salted water. Drain and pour cold water over it until noodles are cool. Set aside.

In a big mixing bowl, mix together:

2 small containers marinated artichokes, drained (reserving the liquid)

1/2 each, chopped red, green and yellow bell peppers

1/2 cup chopped green onion

2 cans drained slices olives

1 cup sliced, drained, marinated mushroom

Mix the veggies together and then add the cooked pasta. Then pour on a goodly bit of Zesty Italian Dressing and the juice from the marinated artichoke. Best if you let it sit a few hours or overnight. You might want to add a bit more dressing if it gets dry. Yumm!

Our Life in Mexico - 1968

About 6 months after we got to the Yerba Buena Compound in Chiapas, Mexico, Mama was asked to be the Dean of Women and we moved into La Casa Grande (The Big House). This was the largest Living Quarters on the compound. The downstairs consisted of three different parts.

The kitchen, where Mama cooked for all the students, as well as our family, was on one side, our apartment was on the other side, and in the middle, there was a very large room that served as the Dining Hall. It fit six long tables in it for everyone to eat mess style. In the wall between the kitchen and dining room, was a huge (you could actually stand inside of it) fireplace. On the opposite wall were the stairs that led up to to girls' dorm oratory. When we first arrived, the church was still being built, so church services were held in this dining room, too. On Saturday night, after sundown, we would push all the tables to the sides and put the chairs and benches in a circle, and Daddy would MC parlor-type games, where everyone could join in.

Our family's apartment, on the other side of the dining room, had two doors. From the far door, you entered into the small Livingroom. Through a door on the far side of that, in the back corner, was mom and dad's bedroom. A hallway took you past the bathroom and into my two littlest brothers' bedroom. Then you went out into the hallway that divided the apartment into two parts.

The apartment door nearest to the main entry to Casa Grande, was just beyond the stairs that went up to the girls' dorm. It was usually kept locked. When you did enter into the hallway from that end, to the left was a very large Bodega, where all the Difficult to Obtain foodstuffs were stored (powdered milk, sugar, spices, tin canned goods, etc.). To the right, was the oldest brother's room, then the room I shared with my sister, and at the end of the hallway was our bathroom. To the left of that, was the door to the younger boys' room.

Around two complete sides of La Casa Grande, there ran a covered porch with a cement floor. This was very necessary, as Chiapas had a solid 3 months of rainy season every year. The far side of the dining room had two big Dutch doors that went out to a covered patio.

Here was a place to run the antiquated washing machine, complete with a ringer and two metal rinsing tubs, and a covered area for hanging the wash when it was too wet to use the clothes lines. Out the kitchen door was a place for the girls to peel potatoes and do other jobs that took more space than the kitchen had to offer.

With five very inquisitive, precocious and vivacious kids around, it wasn't long before the locals knew about us. We were in a land of Mayan descendants. A bunch of towheaded kids that were as tall or taller than most native adults, really stood out. And we are all gregarious and fearless. We all made lots of friends; not only the students, but the local farmers and

their families who helped working in the many gardens, the machine shop and the laundry.

Once we were given the coati by one of the locals, and word got around that the boys really liked animals, we managed to accumulate a small zoo of creatures. Besides the coati and our collie, Rex, we acquired mice, frogs, an injured deer that the natives wanted to eat,

a couple of parrots, a very ugly possum (until I insisted the boys get rid of that!). And my sister somehow or another got a Cat!

Easy Potato Patties

When I was a little girl, this was one of my most favorite things Mama mad us for breakfast. We called them potato patties, and we only got them if there were left-over mashed potatoes. Needless to say, as I grew up and helped more in the

kitchen, I was very willing to peel way more potatoes than we could eat at one sitting (That's a Lot of Potatoes!).

To make 4 potato patties, mix 2 cups of mashed potatoes with 1 beaten egg, in a bowl. In a frying pan, melt about 1/3 a cube of butter and break into it 2 slices of stale bread. When the bread pieces begin to toast, drop spoonfuls of mashed potato mixture over them, dividing evenly. With 2 forks, move all the toasting bread around the patties, onto the top of the patty. After a few minutes, move the patties around so that the outside edges are in the center of the pan, allowing all the patty to brown evenly on one side. The most challenging part of this entire process is knowing when the side you cannot see, is brown and toasty. Carefully flip the patty over, remembering that it all goes into your tummy, no matter what a mess you just made! (LOL!) It does get easier with practice. When the bottom is as toasted as the top, slide from the pan onto your plate. Add a couple of fried eggs to your plate. Top the patties with ketchup, if you like. Enjoy!