My mom’s memory is being slowly erased by Alzheimer’s and it hurts. She had the bacon-grease pot for frying, and a little container for storing leftover lipsticks–all mixed together in one anonymous shade and probably filled with bacteria, and a jar where she would put leftover soap chips. Memories of her canned chipped beef sandwiches and salmon loaf made from canned salmon still make me pukey. But she also made great chicken teriyaki, a cheap lasagne to die for, and corned beef hash from scratch….

So, because the vegetables were so tasteless, one of those boxes more than fed four of us, leaving leftovers. She would wrap the remaining 5 lima beans, 2 Brussels sprouts, 7 green beans and one tablespoon of corn in little foil packets. My mother called it “grab bag.” My brother and I called it “garbage night.” One night she would reheat them and we would each grab a “packet.” What amused me as I looked back in it as an adult, I think the cost of the foil was more than the cost of the vegetables!