Then, too I had trouble with the cookbooks. As I studied the recipes, I discovered the fateful word MEANWHILE. I was supposed to separate eggs, then beat them, MEANWHILE stirring something constantly. I was to melt butter, blend in flour and gradually add milk. MEANWHILE dicing or peeling something, and not forgetting to test the cake in the oven with a clean broomstraw. MEANWHILE I was theoretically tossing the salad.
The most important lesson I learned was not to get in a panic when I saw MEANWHILE staring at me.
~ What Cooks at Stillmeadow, by Gladys Taber (1958),(found in Leonard Louis Levinson’s 1965 Complete Book of Pickles and Relishes)
Rock Bottom Homestead 