I’m convinced that I’m from a line of special-agent, super heroes. As my mind thought back to my childhood, as it often does, it drifted to food. As fresh a memory as one created moments ago I thought back to the days spent at home in Birmingham, Alabama and with family in Montgomery, Alabama. My mother, grandmothers, great-grandmother, godmother, aunts and other caretakers took care of my relatives and me. They really took care of us. Tending to houses full of children, working full-time jobs, taking care of husbands, other people’s children and themselves, and making sure we never, ever, ever went without a meal that left a lasting memory was the norm. I often ask myself not, how’d they do that.

I fondly remembered one of my favorite meals: Salmon croquettes, white rice, English peas, canned Hungry Jack biscuits and Kool-Aid. With an active and growing family of five it baffles me to no end…