I had never eaten veal or anything seasoned with bay leaf prior to the time I was invited to dinner at Grandma Zimmerman's house.

Since Grandpa was a butcher they always had the best cuts of meat. I always thought it was odd that most evenings Grandma wouldn't start cooking dinner until Grandpa came home from the butcher shop with the meat.

Grandma was Irish-English and Grandpa was German, and this was often reflected in their meals.

For the stew:
Dip pieces of stew meat (1 1/2 pounds of either veal or beef) in flour to which salt and pepper have been added.

Brown in hot fat. Add a bay leaf and several slices of onion. Add hot water to cover, and put a lid on the pan.

Simmer on very low heat until the meat is tender, adding extra hot water if it boils low.
Allow at least a couple of hours. Then add pieces of carrot, celery, onion, and potatoes and simmer until done.

Remove the meat and vegetables to a serving bowl with a slotted spoon, and thicken the remaining liquid in the pan with a mixture of 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup water.

Add it slowly until you have a nice gravy-like consistency. It might not take all the flour and water mixture.

Check for seasoning and add salt or pepper if necessary. Stir gravy with a wire whisk, and, if you are really lucky, you won't have any lumps in the gravy.

Pour this over the stew and serve.

It's nice to have crusty hard rolls to serve with the stew.
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Another dish the Zimmerman family enjoyed was boiled pork hocks.

Grandpa would bring home pork hocks with a lot of meat on them. They were boiled in salted water until very tender and then left to cool.

The meat was then sliced thin and served cold with a sweet-hot mustard.

Grandma Zim was a very good cook and I'm sorry I don't have more of her recipes.

At one time, Grandpa Zim and his father owned butchershops in Butte, Boulder, and Alhambra.

He then worked 25 years at the Union Market on 6th Avenue in Helena and, before retiring, spent another 11 years at Hennessy's Grocery Store which was located on the corner of 11th and Last Chance Gulch.