Living Large In Our Little House

Sometimes I just have to have a lit­tle of mom’s home cook­ing although it isn’t pos­si­ble to have some of my mother’s dishes made by her hands. I do have some of the recipes that will always be rem­i­nis­cent of home.
I’m a typ­i­cal American Heinz 57, 1/8 to ¼ cup of Native American, at least ¼ German with a dash of Irish, Scottish and Patriot (one side traces back to “Mad” Anthony Wayne from the Revolutionary War) thrown in.
When peo­ple hear my last name, most peo­ple iden­tify me with being at least part Native American, but it is my mother’s German blood that I iden­tify most with cul­tur­ally. It was at least my great-great grand­par­ents who immi­grated to the U.S., but when my mother was born, her pater­nal fam­ily still closely iden­ti­fied with their German roots. My grand­fa­ther was a very early union orga­nizer for meat pack­ers in the Back of the Yards area of Chicago’s South side and my mother attended St. Martini’s Lutheran Church and School in the South side’s German community.

She heard German at her grandparent’s home and she stud­ied the lan­guage, among other things, at St. Martini’s until the sec­ond grade. That’s when her father died within 6 weeks of being diag­nosed with can­cer at age 28.
It was the height of the Depression and my grand­mother took Mom to live with her extended fam­ily on a farm in Harrisonville, Mo., where she was almost com­pletely cut off from her pater­nal extended fam­ily. She did retain enough of her German her­itage that our fam­ily still cel­e­brated Christmas on December 24^th , and we were chris­tened in the Lutheran Church. Perhaps best of all, Mom had a cou­ple of recipes from her early child­hood.
One of the best things about fall and win­ter is the com­fort food and last week, I dug out my crock-pot. I decided my first dish of the sea­son would be sauer­kraut and ribs, one of those recipes my mother retained in honor of her German her­itage. Mom made it in a pot, leav­ing it sim­mer on the stove for hours. There was no mis­tak­ing the smell of the kraut when I came home from school. I knew what we were hav­ing as soon as I hit the front door!
I found the recipe as a crock pot dish in my favorite cook­book, “Fix-it and Forget-it Cookbook: Feasting with your Slow Cooker.”
Yesterday, I walked home from the Belle Writer’s Studio and could smell the odor long before I hit the deck lead­ing to The Little House. I felt like a school­girl again, com­ing home ready to tell my mom about my day. She may be gone, but I have the mem­o­ries, the great bear plates she bought me for Christmas the year we built The Little House and the kraut and ribs to feast upon.
Truly a taste of her­itage and home.

Recipe for Sauerkraut and Ribs

Take about 5–6 bone­less pork ribs and sear them in a skil­let. We use plenty of ground pep­per (decid­edly not German – Germans con­sider pep­per an insult, a sign you don’t like the food!) While you’re sear­ing the ribs, peel and dice about 7–8 small-medium pota­toes. Empty a bag or jar of refrig­er­ated kraut into a colan­der and drain. We wash the kraut off with water so it has a milder fla­vor. Put the kraut in a crock-pot, place the pota­toes on the kraut and add the meat to the top. Put in about ¼-1/2 cup of water just enough to cover the bot­tom. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for about 4 hours. Serve with but­ter on the potatoes.