1939…

The year my mom first tasted a MAID-RITE hamburger. She and a few of her girlfriends were coming home from their swimming lesson at the YMCA in Muscatine, Iowa. Enticing aromas teased the girls’ noses as they passed a walk-up window restaurant. One of the girls happened to have a bit of pocket change, so she paid a dime each for all of them to have their first MAID-RITEs.

Mom remembers the “juice” running down their arms as they giggled and devoured the delicious hamburgers invented by Fred Angell in1926.

Thus began an 83-year love affair between my mother and the loose-meat sandwiches generously smothered in a cabbage, onion, and pickle sauce.

I grew up eating those hamburgers, but I have to admit, I didn’t know their actual name was misspelled. Mom called them “MADE RIGHTS”, and that was all I knew about it until I traveled through Iowa one time as an adult.

“MAID-RITE? What? The whole franchise is misspelled?”

I couldn’t believe it. It hurt my author/editor soul, let me tell you!

Since then, I’ve come to terms with the fact that Mr. Angell was, to quote the MAID-RITE website, “quite a sandwich maker but not much of a speller.” Apparently, Mr. Angell invented the sandwiches and named them after a deliveryman’s comment that the sandwich was made right. Hmm.

That’s reasonable, isn’t it?

A Stark Disappointment

2008…

On a family road trip, Mom and I marched into one of the franchises in an Iowa mall grinning from ear to ear. We couldn’t wait to order a MAID-RITE made in THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. Passing up every other eating opportunity as we traveled across the country that day, we were starved and anticipatory.

After all, this was to be the first store-bought MAID-RITEs Mom had eaten since 1939. I had never eaten any but my mom’s.

Honest. I have to be honest and say that something drastic has happened to those MAID-RITEs since Mr. Angell first cranked them onto the streets via his four franchises by the end of the 1920s. The ones we tasted were… Dry. Cabbage-less. Tasteless. Disappointing.

I still see mom shaking her head as she sat across the table from me. We took a few bites and shoved the sandwiches to the side.

You’re About to Get Lucky  *because I’m sharing Mom’s recipe with you!*

Since 1939, Mom has served us MAID-RITES like the ones she first tasted – identical to the ones Mr. Angell used to sell. Since she also happens to be a fabulous cook, I have to believe her method and her recipe are PURE.

The last time Mom made MAID-RITES, I took a picture of my plate and used it as the profile pic for this blog. Now that’s a MAID-RITE made right! So right, I think Mr. Angell himself would give my mom a high-five after his first bite!

The only thing we’ve added to the mix over the years is a sprinkle of cheddar for the top. It’s a great addition and really adds flavor. If you want THE AUTHENTIC RECIPE for making these easy but incredibly yummy loose-meat sandwiches, CLICK HERE. 

You can’t go wrong when you go rite!

Ever had a MAID-RITE? We’d love to hear about it.

 

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Because I believe FUNNY is better than sackcloth and ashes . . .

 

Jane: “Hey, Marilyn, have you read Jodi Lea Stewart’s latest novel, The Accidental Road yet?

“Honey, I was her main consultant!” Love, Marilyn

~ The Accidental Road ~

First-place Historical Fiction, Adventure-Drama, winner in the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.

CLICK HERE

Kat’s almost-full-time job has become dodging the embarrassing tsunami of male attention aimed at her mother Ellie, a social butterfly who bears an uncanny resemblance to film star Marilyn Monroe. To add to Kat’s woes, her stepfather, Roy, has lately grown irrationally jealous of his beautiful wife. Kat buries her worries in movies and classical novels, but when Roy’s rants turn violent, she and Ellie plan an escape via Route 66 to the freedom of a new life in Las Vegas. Instead, they wind up in a small Arizona town crawling with the mafia. Trouble escalates when Ellie attracts the eye of a mafia Caporegime who, along with Roy, is determined to have her at any cost.

Just Released on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and anywhere novels are sold.

Jodi Lea Stewart is a fiction author who believes in and writes about the triumph of the human spirit through overcoming adversity. Her writing reflects her life beginning in Texas and Oklahoma, later moving as a youngster to an Arizona cattle ranch next door to the Navajo Nation, and, as a young adult, resuming in her native Texas. Growing up, she climbed petroglyph-etched boulders, bounced two feet in the air in the backend of pickups wrestling through washed-out terracotta roads, and rode horseback on the winds of her imagination through the arroyos and mountains of the Arizona high country. Her lifetime friendship with all nationalities, cowpunchers, and the southern gentry allows Jodi to write comfortably about anything in the Southwest, the South, and BEYOND.

 

What’s next from Jodi?

Another epic historical fiction novel that catapults the reader from Texas into Mexico, Argentina, China, British Hong Kong, and Italy and into the epicenter of another action human drama. Look for it in early 2023!

 

Other Recent AWARD-WINNING Publications by Jodi Lea Stewart

 

TRIUMPH, A NOVEL OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT is a 2021 International FIREBIRD First Place Multicultural Fiction Award Winner

If you loved To Kill a Mockingbird, and want a dramatic, different, and sometimes humorous version of New Orleans life, St. Louis, and Texas in the early to mid-century 1900s, wrapped up in beguiling plot twists and unforgettable characters, read TRIUMPH, a Novel of the Human Spirit by Jodi Lea Stewart.

TRIUMPH was a finalist in three categories in the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards contest, won a Readers’ Favorite with Reviewers, and is also a 2021 Firebird First Place Award Winner in Multicultural Fiction.

 

BLACKBERRY ROAD is an International CHANTICLEER First Place Multicultural Award Winner

Trouble sneaks in one Oklahoma afternoon in 1934 like an oily twister. A beloved neighbor is murdered, and a single piece of evidence sends the sheriff to arrest a black man who Biddy, a sharecropper’s daughter, knows is innocent. Hauntingly terrifying sounds seeping from the woods lead Biddy into even deeper mysteries and despair and finally into the shocking truths of that fateful summer.

“Beyond the humor and entertaining antics of the main character, Biddy Woodson, BLACKBERRY ROAD has depth and meaning as it explores stirring universal themes that we expect in great literature” ~ D.B. Jackson, acclaimed Historical and Western author

BLACKBERRY ROAD is engaging, entertaining, and a book that is sure to linger with you . . . the trip is well worth the time ~ Cyrus Webb, Host of ConversationsLIVE, president of Conversations Radio Network, tv show host, author, and Amazon top reviewer

 

Do you love stories set in Exotic Locations?

Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves trilogy will satisfy all your exotic-location cravings!

 

Author Note to YOU: Many folks, including some librarians, think this series is for kids only. Don’t believe it! Our feedback has proven over and over that most of the “Silki fans” are full-fledged adults . . . like you! There is an earlier version of these novels that leans a bit more toward younger audiences, but they, also, were not merely kid lit. The new, enriched series is for every age on the planet. Test me! ~ Jodi

 

Jodi Lea Stewart’s award-winning adventure-mystery trilogy, Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves, is set smack dab in the middle of the Navajo Nation, USA! Her stories feature unforgettable characters, mysteries at every turn, plot twists, humor, plenty of Native American lore & legends, a glossary of Native words, and surprise endings!