Everybody makes it a little different. My friend Nita (who died 7 years ago today ) made the best ever, nice chunks of carrot, rutabaga, onion, potato...it was better than dessert, yum yum yum.

Fall food back in the day was meat loaf and baked potatoes. Our old house was so hot in the summer, you just couldn't turn on the oven. Then the kids would come home from school one afternoon, stop dead in their tracks and say, "Do I smell MEATLOAF??" It was time to celebrate.

Split pea and ham soup, with cornbread. Oh baby.