This is a classic in our house…the stories…not the recipes. lol. I can hardly say “Susie’s surprise” without laughing. And if you have my brother, sister, and or dad and I together, we can generally all start to giggle, at least a little, at the memories.
Let me start by saying my mom was a good cook. She cooked a lot of meals for all of us for a lot of years. Most of those very good meals left no imprint on my brain. I’m sorry mom.
The meals that will live forever (in infamy) are those called “Susie’s Surprise”. These were generally meals that came together as my mom tried to use up leftovers and clean out the fridge. Maybe mom’s downfall was that she could find a use for just about anything…including a montage of food.
I was particularly mindful of Susie’s Surprise yesterday as I excitedly planned meals to use our ham leftovers from Easter. I could make fried rice, mac-n-cheese and ham, split pea soup, quiche and navy bean soup. I look forward to each of those meals and consider each of them fairly normal in the food categories. I’m certain my mom made similar meals with left overs. Sadly, I don’t remember those.
I can’t even tell you all the weird Susie’s surprise concoctions she made. Just that they were weird. Really weird. Not like pot pie, or fried rice, or turkey soup….weird…like some odd combination of already combined foods (like casseroles) re-combined to be a “Surprise!” I do remember a salad with all kinds of things including tuna, olives, and kidney beans. I’m not even sure what else. None of us were thrilled to eat it and we definitely thought it was too weird to be shared with the neighbor. Sorry Ada.
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