I don’t know if The Commander is canning in this pic or just cooking something. This is the shabby little kitchen in the shabby little bungalow I grew up in on Superior Street in Sault Ste. Siberia. She has utensils in a big apple juice can (on the stove) and you can see the broom closet behind her. That’s where Gertrude lived. Gertrude was a little cartoon woman taped to the inside of the door. She was an exhausted “suburban housewife” 🐽 collapsed on her ironing board. I have looked high and low for that cartoon but she must’ve thrown it out and The Google hasn’t been any help so, to honor Gertrude, I named my stove after her.

It wasn’t until I encountered this photooo a few years ago that I remembered our white cabinets had RED interiors. Not sure if The Comm painted them or if they came that way when the parents bought the place but I kind of like the idea. I do remember the floor was red patterned linoleum with the bathroom floor being green of the same pattern. If you embiggen, on the left side of the bottom shelf of that open cupboard, you can probably see wooden salt and pepper shakers. I have those. I have probably 5-6 other salt/pepper shakers but those are the ones I use. I wish I had the apron even though I don’t use aprons.

I am not sure The Comm liked that house all that much. I think my dad bought it without much consultation. But it had a big beautiful yard and nice neighbors and Stinkin’ Lincoln (my elementary school) was across the street. The Comm made it our home.

So here is my mouse in my own bee-yoo-ty-ful recently renovated kitchen. No linoleum for me! This pic is from a few years ago and she was using my kitchen to can about ten gazillion tomatoes. Her apartment kitchen at the time was a bit small for that size operation.

I am a decent cook as long as I stick to basics, meaning things I throw together without thinking too yard hard (yard?). I used to try fancier things and bake, etc., but we never finish any kind of baked goods except maybe chocolate chip cookies and I just can’t be bothered any more. Needless to say, I did NOT contribute to the flour shortage in the early COVID days. And I do not can, outside of some teenage experiments with my cousins and our Piedy/Mc friends in the summer at the moomincabin.

The Comm did not have a large canning repertoire, at least not by the time she was a busy mom and teacher, etc. She grew up on a multi-generational farm in the Detroit area and I think her family canned a LOT of stuff (a Burger King eventually replaced her childhood home). Later on, she mainly canned tomatoes and strawberry jam (freezer jam in her later years). I benefited from big jars of tomatoes every year and would dutifully save and return the jars so as to get MORE! I can’t remember at what point she stopped doing that. It was okay (of course) but I miss her canned tomatoes.

This year my mouse couldn’t use the Landfill Chitchen for canning because pandemic but also she now has a nice kitchen of her own and therefore doesn’t need mine. I miss her canning sessions but I’m guessing I may reap a couple jars of tomatoes and maybe even some pizza sauce. I’m ordering it from Amazon now, although the sauce I get from Amazon is actually pretty dern good sauce!

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