Bomb'n Belle

An example of WWII-era plane art! From Sarge's archives.

Note: I have posted this photo before, of Sarge's dear cousin Andrew, and thought it was a fitting re-post for today's Sepia Saturday theme. Andrew, a Technical Sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps (later became the Air Force), circa 1944. Rattlesden RAF Airfield, England. The plane with the wonderful art, a B-17 G, was later shot down over Belgium, although the pilot survived.

Tsu Zetik far Maydelehs (Too Rich for Little Girls)

"...And they asked me in to dinner, to get the beauty of it hot"

My grandmother and a chicken: as was the wont of that generation, no bit went unexploited. Chewy heart, tender liver--fried with onions, the smell of it hot and golden. Neck--boiled in a soup, the bone like a strand of coral pieces, sucked, industriously, for every last hiding morsel. The carcass--picked smooth.

And the fat. The fat had its own calling: to become grebenes, the cracklings. My grandma offered me and my sister just one little irregular bit apiece. I don't remember the texture or the taste, or whether I liked it, but I like to think I did.

Grandma Eva's Jewish cookbook, on my bookshelf now, worn to fragments

a recipe for chicken fat cracklings, should you want to make them

for more memory posts, visit the Sepia Saturday blog