FORGOTTEN 3-Ingredient Farm Suppers No One Makes Anymore

Three ingredients. That was the whole supper — and my mother put one on the table for eleven people more nights than she did anything else. I'm Otis. I grew up on a hundred and sixty acres outside Cedar Rapids, and my mother's name was Ruth, and I never once saw her measure anything. She had potatoes, an onion, and a spoon of bacon grease, and that was supper, and everybody went to bed full. This is 25 of them, counted down. What went in, what it cost, and what happened to it. Watch for number 15 (a supper made from the tomatoes that never ripened), number 6 (a pie made out of water — I'm not being cute), and number 1, which isn't really a recipe at all. It's what my father ate standing at the kitchen counter every night of his life after the milking. And about halfway down I explain what actually took these suppers away, because it wasn't the supermarket. It was something that happened to the farm itself. Two safety notes that are in the video and worth repeating: rhubarb LEAVES contain oxalic acid and are genuinely toxic — stalks only, always. And if you're canning tomatoes today, modern varieties run lower in acid than the old ones, so follow the USDA's tested recipe and add the bottled lemon juice or citric acid. I'm not a chef and I'm not a doctor. I'm a man who grew up on the wrong side of that kitchen door, watching. What's the three-ingredient supper from your family? Tell me the dish and tell me who made it. The one that comes up most is the one I do next.