52 Ancestors Challenge Week 19: "Food & Drink" - Strange Favorites

This topic brings to mind a few things; my grandpa Earle's strange favorite foods, my family's bread stuffing recipe, liverwurst and jelly sandwiches, and poutine.

I know what you're thinking, how are you can you just sneak liverwurst and jelly sandwiches into a list like that and not start off with discussing that disgusting concoction first. Well, I can because it's my blog. You'll just have to wait for that monstrosity because first I have to tell you about my grandpa's weird meals.

Grandpa Earle's Strange Favorite Foods

Grandpa Earle enjoyed burning his bread over the gas stove. Oh, how awful. It must have tasted like gas, right? I don't know for sure. I am not brave enough to try it. He would take a fork, pierce a piece of white bread from the side and stand there toasting his bread over the stove. 

He also enjoyed himself a bowl of salt-less Saltines in milk. He'd eat it like serial. I thought, why on earth is he eating that when we have shredded wheat, corn flakes, and rice crispies for him to choose from. He loved it!

Bread Stuffing

Grandpa Earle also enjoyed a post-Thanksgiving bread stuffing sandwich. Yes, that is correct a bread stuffing sandwiches. Talk about carb overload. 

First I should say though that my family's bread stuffing is amazing. It is simple recipe of stale white bread moistened with plain old water, butter, onions, salt, pepper, and thyme. That's it. It is a recipe that has been passed down from my great-great grandmother, Agnes Frances Gray-Sauer (October 27, 1871 - December 30, 1941). She is the pretty lady in the center of this picture. 

Agnes was born in New York of Irish descent. Her husband, William George Sauer (February 11, 1870 - December 23, 1932)  was also born in New York but of German stock. I'm not sure if Agnes got this recipe from her mother or her mother-in-law but I have had two older women tell me that they have a similar recipe. One woman was Irish and the other's mother was from Germany. Either way, it is freaking delicious and I know my second cousin, Kelly, makes it for her Thanksgiving dinners as well. Cousin Kelly calls it her grandma's recipe. Her grandma and my grandma were sisters, dishing up the same recipe. Grandma told me it was the stuffing her grandma made so for Kelly and I that would be great-great grandma's recipe. Again, pretty Ms. Agnes above.

Grandpa Earle would cut off a thick slice of that stuffing and put in between two slices of bread, sometimes with turkey or cranberry sauce, but usually just on its own. Now that I could get on board with. Liverwurst sandwiches however, not my bag. 

Liverwurst & Grape Jelly Sandwiches

My dad loves liverwurst. I can't even bring myself to look at it. To each his own though. That is until we talk about Cousin Ernst. His real first name is Tom but my dad just calls him Ernst, which was his last name.

I don't know where Cousin Ernst is or even if he is still with us but Cousin Ernst is my father's second cousin. Ernst's mother, Flora Lou Childres-Ernst (October 3, 1926 - March 14, 2010), lovingly called Aunt Sis, was my grandpa Earle's first cousin. Their mothers, Ethel Losee-Earle (February 14, 1896 - May 27, 1960) and Marion Losee-Childres (July 1900 - December 3, 1949) were the only sisters among their parents' six children.

There was a brief time when Cousin Ernst lived with my grandparents and my dad when dad was in his teens. One story that stands out, of course, is that Cousin Ernst like liverwurst and grape jelly sandwiches. Oh. My. God. I can't. Ugh. 

Poutine

Now, it's not a road trip unless Cousin Kelly and Cousin Pete and I are chowing down on some poutine. 

If you are not familiar with the dish, here on Long Island it is similar to what we call Disco Fries; French fries with cheese and gravy. Oh it's so good. Poutine emerged from Quebec and there they use cheese curds and brown gravy. The dish has really become a symbol of Québécois culture and the province of Quebec itself, but man, we have eaten it all over Canada. Some of the best I've had was at the Canadian Potato Museum & Antique Farm Machinery Museum in Prince Edward Island. Yeah, I've been to the Potato Museum.