Finally I can change the daily weather report. It is cloudy and breezy, and the air is so damp it almost feels like rain which is actually predicted for tonight. The rain may even be heavy at times. I’m hoping.

When I go out for dinner, I usually order a cheeseburger unless it is a seafood restaurant or an expensive restaurant which would never offer a cheeseburger except as a slider appetizer. I like pepper Jack cheese and mayonnaise on my cheeseburger. Mostly I choose regular fries unless the onion rings are the thin ones then I order the onion rings. I seldom salt my food as I want to taste it, not the salt, but I do salt French fries and onion rings. I don’t know why.

I like pudding. My favorite is chocolate but I also like tapioca. My mother used to make tapioca a lot as my father loved it. I seldom make it so I put the tapioca on my shopping list.

Foods have a shelf-life, a use by date, but they also come and go. Some foods quietly disappear off the grocery shelves while other foods lose their popularity. Deviled ham is one of the latter. My mother used to buy the small cans with the smiling red devil on the front. She’d mix the ham with stuff like relish and mustard. I ate it, but I always thought the undoctored right from the can ham looked like cat food. I was never a Jello fan maybe because I hate the consistency of Jello, and any molded Jello with fruit hanging produced nightmares. When I was a kid, I used to suck the Jello through my teeth. Now the mere thought of doing that gives me the chills. I gag at the mere mention of a tuna casserole. It didn’t even look good with all those peas swimming in the sauce.

Spam is still around, and I know Spam is really popular in Hawaii where Hawaiians eat an average of four cans of SPAM per person per year, more than in any other place on Earth. I just can’t figure out why. My father liked it, and my sister ate it. My other sister’s in-laws in Colorado once served it for dinner. They baked the block of whatever it is with cloves stuck in. I think they called it a roast ham. I was never good at opening the Spam can with the key. The cover would roll wrong as I moved the key and more often than not I’d slice my finger.

My mother used to make a shrimp dip for her parties. The shrimp came in a cocktail type sauce in a glass jar which could be saved and used for juice. All that needed to be added was cream cheese and maybe some ketchup. Once we put all the ingredients in a blender rather than mixing them by hand. I took off the blender cover to check but forgot to turn the blender off. Shrimp dip was all over me, the kitchen counter and cabinets.

My mother also made Swedish meatballs for her parties. I still make them. Cocktail weenies were big. My mother always served them in her fondue pot. They’d be swimming in a mix of jelly and barbecue sauce.

All this talk of food has made me hungry. It’s time for lunch! I’m thinking a grilled cheese sandwich. That never goes out of style in the food world.