How patient are you? Think about it.



Back in the olden days, I saw many instances of patience. Things were calmer back then. We were not in such a hurry. Everything we did took much longer, so we learned patience from having to wait. It took a lot more time to chop wood, start the fire in the heating stove or the range than it does to turn on a simple burner or adjust a thermostat.

Nowadays, we expect heat or cold instantly. We expect light to appear the instant we flip on the switch. We even have automatic switches or clap-on devices.

We expect a car to start and be ready to back out of the garage the second we turn the key. I remember when we had to crank a car to start it. We thought it was quick then because it was much faster than hitching up a team of horses.

We had to develop patience back then. We made our own bread instead of buying it. We churned our own butter. Now, the butter is at our fingertips in the refrigerator. We don’t even like to bend over to get food from the freezer. We want upright freezers so it is quicker to get the frozen food.

Microwaves have made baking and making candy so quick. We used to spend an afternoon making fudge out of cream, cocoa and sugar, cooking it, then beating it; now we make it in our microwave. Aunt Bill’s Brown Candy that used to wear out the strongest person with the stirring and beating now can be done in the microwave. Have we lost some of the joy of cooking along the way?

My mother had endless patience. It would have been much easier and faster to sew our dresses herself than to take the time to teach each of us sisters the art of sewing. She calmly stood by to prevent our sewing sleeves in upside down or making other mistakes and then having to rip them out. I never can recall that she raised her voice and told us how wrong we were. She just quietly, calmly showed us until we finally learned on our own.

That same patient mother taught us to cook, make bread, dress chickens, churn butter, can vegetables, fruits and jellies, clean house, do laundry and everything required for homemaking. Patience is something each person has to acquire for himself. We have to develop it. We were not born with patience!

Way before Mother’s time, my grandparents had the patience of Job. Every drop of water they used had to be carried from a spring or pulled from a dug well. Every chip of wood to start a stove had to be gathered before anything could be heated. Game had to be hunted and vegetables gathered before food was prepared. Now if we want food, we can cook it out of a box or get takeout.

We are used to appliances that instantly cook something. Waffles used to be such a treat because we had to heat the waffle iron and beat the batter. Now we have an electric baker and we use mixes or even faster: we used frozen waffles in our toasters. There is something to be said for those old, crispy waffles that our grandmas and mothers made.

Maybe money has taken the place of patience. We buy bread instead of baking it from scratch. We purchase already prepared foods that require only heating. Might it be because of our impatience family meal time has lost some of it’s joy and appreciation?

Patience is one of the fruits of the spirit. But to enjoy that fruit we have to harvest it and make it our own. Our Sunday school teacher, Don, related the story of his praying for patience. The Lord sent him 10 opportunities to practice. That is a funny joke ... or is it? We all want patience, but we want it NOW. I have found almost everything worth having is worth waiting for and working for.

Our friend, Orie, called the other day about making homemade tomato soup. He was freezing tomatoes for soup this winter. Boy, that sounded good, so I whipped up a meal of soup. Of course, I used canned tomatoes, but it was good.



Tomato Soup

16 ounce can chopped, seasoned tomatoes

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon soda

1 or 2 cups milk (depending on how thick you want soup)

Cook flour and butter until blended in sauce pan. Stir in tomatoes and sugar and cook until thickened. Add soda and heated milk. Season as necessary using salt, pepper, basil, etc. With this I served saltine crackers and this old time favorite recipe that is perfect for autumn (or anytime).



Old Fashioned Apple Crisp

4 cups peeled, sliced tart apples (I used Gala)

1 cup chopped dates or raisins

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped nuts



Combine apples and raisins in 8x8 baking dish. Mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter until crumbly. Add nuts and sprinkle over apples. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes until apples are tender. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!



Send your comments to: Peggy Goodrich, Food For Thought, P.O. Box 1192, Enid, OK 73702.