Bena Mae’s Kitchen: Is it memory loss or brain overlaod?

Since I think about memory loss more and more as I get older, I was glad to read that experts disagree on whether short-term memory declines with age in healthy individuals. They go on to say that it is not loss of memory as much as a problem of distraction which can occur at any age at any time.
Whew! What a relief. No longer will I think of my short term memory loss as an affliction of aging. I can think of it as a distraction when I’m looking all over the house for my reading glasses only to find them hanging from a chain around my neck.
I look at these little bumps in the road in this way. I tell myself that if my brain were an 87 year-old computer, it would have imploded years ago from all the stuff that has been stored in it. Makes sense to me, so why should I get rattled or paranoid from a little break down now and then.
I find that the best way of dealing with this is to find the humor in it. And human nature is the best way in which to find it. Like the elderly fellow who was brought home to his daughter in a police car.
“We found him wandering in the park” the policeman said. “He said he had forgotten the way home.”
“I hadn’t forgotten where I live,” the man told his daughter after the policeman left. I was just too tired to walk home.” Now this was creative,, ingenious, you might say. Nothing wrong with this old fellow’s mind
I’ve written before of the ultimate embarrassment of forgetting a friend’s name when attempting to introduce her to another person. I stand there and pray to the Almighty to give me a name, the name of the person who has been my friend for years. But the name doesn’t come. So I stand there and squirm and sweat and wiggle my way out of it. I think this is called “brain blot” which has happened to many of us at one time or another.
It reminds me of one of my favorite stories about the brain deserting our mind in a social situation.
The story is about two polite elderly ladies who had known each other since they were little girls. It was their habit to meet up and play a little bridge every Friday night.
One such evening when their gentlemen partners were discussing the ways of the world, one of the ladies speaks suddenly to her friend. “My dear, I am frightfully embarrassed to ask this, as it may hurt your feelings, but you know I cannot remember your name.
She blushes and a little tear comes to her eye as she watches her friend go through all sorts of horrific emotions at what she had just said.
“How soon do you need to know?” her friend said.

Good and filling and perfect for a potluck

Preacher’s Macaroni Casserole

1 lb ground beef
2 celery stalks, finely diced
2 large onions, finely diced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tomato soup
1 1/4 cup water
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp lawry’s seasoning salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
8 oz macaroni noodles, cooked until al dente and drained
Shredded cheese (we like a combination of sharp cheddar and mozzarella)

Brown the ground beef with the finely diced onions and celery, drain. Add the cream of mushroom, tomato soup, water, chili powder, lawry’s, garlic powder and cook over low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the sauce is simmering, boil the noodles, until 2 minute less than the lowest cook time on the box, remember you will bake this dish and the noodles will continue cooking. After the sauce has cooked for 20 minutes and you have drained the noodles, combine everything in a pam sprayed 13×9 pan and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and stir, sprinkle with cheese and put back in oven for 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melting and casserole is bubbly.
To make one, freeze one: Split the casserole into 2 (9×9) pans and bake one the same way as the instructions above, the other, cover and allow to cool completely, then place it in the freezer. Do not cover it with cheese yet. When you are ready to bake it: The night before remove the casserole from the freezer and put it in the refrigerator to thaw over night. The next day, bake the casserole, covered, for 20 minutes. Remove cover and stir, top with shredded cheese and bake for 10 more minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.