“Don’t put all my stew in at once,” was the frequent request to Nana.
Fond memories reach back to dinner (about 4pm Nana time), spent with my brother and cousins, sitting at Nana’s table, waiting on a feed of stew. Excruciatingly hot, we required the assistance of two bowls to eat our feed of stew, one huge bowl and one wee one.
The huge bowl dawned a farmyard scene in pink and white, which started the familiar, comforting experience of eating stew. The wee bowl was insignificant, only to the fact that it was the cooling aid.
About 3 spoonsful of the piping hot stew (too hot to eat) was placed in the wee bowl, to let it cool down for eating, and be used to dip soda bread slabs. At the same time, methodology was applied in the huge bowl, circulated stew up the side edges, turning and folding to let out the steaming heat, resulting in cooler stew, ready for placement and consumption in the wee bowl.
Eventually the familiar farm scene became visible at the bottom of the huge bowl, and the end of the hot stew was near.
“Nana, can I have another few wee spoonful’s please, and pass me another slice of soda bread while I’m waiting!”
