Alas, Mater grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth and a maid in the kitchen, so she never really learned to cook well, despite buying hundreds of cookbooks and subscribing to several excellent magazines.  Nor did she have a big appetite. She was able “to get by” on most meals…but I do remember one meal my sophomore year of college….came home to two 1/4 inch slices of ham, each about the size of a half dollar that seemed to have been cooked about 3 days along with 2-3 TBS of peas that must have been left over from before I went off to college, and some mash potato “mix” that reminded me of kindergarten paste.  I have to admit that after that meal, I was actually longing for college refectory meals.
 
Actually tho…..her codfish cakes, although probably soaked in lard or oil to be cooked, were quite tasty.at least the coating. The bake beans that all good Brahmins had with them came out of a can, along with the brown bread