She set the table with care, took pride in Haviland china, crystal stemware, sterling cutlery, monogrammed linens, yet on every occasion a carton of cottage cheese, cradled in a small, hand-painted bowl, graced the table. Her dark-chocolate pie, sans meringue, was judged to die for, and no one made better Waldorf salad or pimento cheese, but Spam sandwiches, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup, Minute rice and canned peas highlighted her basic fare. Though she always boiled cabbage and turnips for over an hour and reduced calf liver to the texture of shoe leather, she tolerated neither fish nor garlic in her cooking because they smell up the house. In later years when hosting her church circle, she offered Nilla Wafers and compotes of canned applesauce spiked with red hots. The cabinet in her last kitchen contained an array of spices — purchased fifty years earlier.