The View From Mrs. Sundberg's Window

"Like a Firefly on a Hot Summer Night"

November 25, 2003

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Listened to the show on Saturday and it was not bad. I was about a mile from home when the show began, and I sat in the pickup down in the garage until Mr. Keillor started singing his train song. That's when I grabbed two bags of groceries and ran up the basement steps to the kitchen. The house was strangely quiet and I remembered Mr. Sundberg had planned on taking the kids over to the lutefisk dinner at the church down the street so I turned the radio up loud.

Rosie Flores, bless her heart, sang such a lovely song called "Single Rose" while I put away groceries in the pantry. I used to have a system for putting away groceries, but that all went to pot once the kids learned to walk. Now I make sure the cans are all on one shelf, and the Oreos and PopTarts are up high. Mr. Sundberg gave me a rose once. It was yellow, and he gave it to me on the very same day I first made my Great Aunt Wanda's Cream Corn Casserole.

Now some might argue it should be called Cream Corn Hotdish (it's baked in a casserole) but Cream Corn Casserole kind of rolls on off the tongue and I like it better. Anyway, I made it for a church potluck the first autumn Mr. Sundberg and I were married. Words can't describe the look on his face when he put a spoonful of that cream corn in his mouth. He lit up like a firefly on a hot summer night; he must have had three or four helpings. That night, he came home from night class and stood in the doorway in his red flannel shirt and Levi's with a bottle of wine in one hand and one yellow rose in the other.

I went a little crazy Saturday in the vegetable aisle. Corn was on sale—five cans for two dollars. So I bought ten cans (which will make five cream corn casseroles) and put them all in one bag, which is what I dropped on my right foot as Jim talked about going on a marriage encounter weekend while Barb painted the kitchen yellow.

Seems marriage encounter weekends are a bit silly. They could be avoided. Seems if Jim had picked up a paintbrush and helped Barb paint the kitchen, they'd have their own little marriage encounter right there. I plan on having one this week. We're going to my in-laws' for Thanksgiving dinner, and my husband will be making the Cream Corn Casserole. I've re-copied the recipe for him, and it should be no trouble at all:

Cream Corn Casserole
1 pkg. Jiffy corn bread mix
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sour cream
1 egg

Mix above ingredients, and add 1 can cream corn and 1 can whole corn (drained). Bake at 350 for about an hour, or until it's light brown and doesn't jiggle. (You can add peppers and onions, but then the kids probably won't touch it.)
I saved that rose for a while. I sprayed it with Hair Net hair spray and hung it upside down in the pantry to dry out. For years it sat on a shelf in the buffet next to the silver olive plate from Mr. Sundberg's grandmother. After a while it just fell apart and I threw it away during a spring cleaning. Some things just don't keep.

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