My Mother always tried out new recipes to serve the family. Swedish pancakes, Ebelskiver, Springerle, Pilaf and countless breads to name just a few things she made. Why she even pasteurized milk and made butter. Because of the multicultural environment here in Fresno, Shish Kabob became a favorite family dinner. She would get the real lamb, cube it and marinate it for 24-48 hours. Then the meat, onions, tomatoes and bell peppers were placed on the skewer and cooked over an outdoor grill.
Rotating the spit skewers by hand was a painful and messy experience, so my Dad got creative. He decided to make an auto-rotating device set over the grill that slowly turned several skewers at a time. Small sprockets were welded over the end of each skewer and set in a rotating bicycle chain. The chain was driven by none other than a motor out of the clothes dryer that ran a set of chimes at the end of the drying cycle. The Tune? “How dry I am, how dry I am, nobody knows, how dry I am” by Irvin Berlin.
There is no end to the creativity of a man trying to make things easier and better. Endless are the possibilities to recycle and reuse our resources. I am thankful for the examples set by my parents to think outside the box and to practice frugality.
