Part of my “Tastes Of Home” series. This painting honors my Mom and her mother and the love they showed through food. If I had to make a choice of last meal, one of the many (there’s not just one) would be a ham sandwich and fixings meal the day after Christmas and Easter. My Grandmother made homemade potato salad for the holidays. Real simple – red potatoes (or, as she pronounced it, PEE ta tos), chopped eggs, chopped celery, and Hellmann’s mayo – plenty of salt and pepper. The best! My grandmother would give a mason jar to our family, and then she would make up a separate, special mason jar just for me, she knew I loved it so much. I knew I was loved. She would also make homemade horseradish, pickled in red beet juice. Awesome on a leftover ham sandwich on marble rye with Swiss cheese. The horseradish stained the top sandwich layer a neon magenta. The plate would also include ring bologna (a Berks County staple) with Pilsudski mustard, slices of kielbasa and other meats, Good’s potato chips, red beet eggs, a cheese assortment (Munster a must), assorted pickles and olives, an A-Treat grapefruit soda, and sand tart cookies for dessert. My Dad always got a laugh out of my giant spread of food. In 2023 over the Holidays, I casually mentioned Grandmom’s potato salad to my Mom – a few days later, she showed up at my house with a potato salad container. Food is love. I’ve tried to make the potato salad on my own, but it never tastes as good as when someone makes it for me.
