Growing up in South Alabama, we often found a dish called Refrigerator Stew on our table. Times were very lean in our household. Both parents had to work two jobs in order for our family to make it. This left the oldest (that was me) to watch the younger kids when we were out of school. Our mother was a seamstress for a factory and then at home she also took in sewing work. Our father was a city police officer and a bank guard. He only had Saturdays off from both jobs. Our mother worked six days a week and tried to take Sundays off. During these days or afternoons they had off we spent it in the garden raising our own food.
After working so hard for our food, it would have been a shame to waste it in anyway. But after two nights of leftovers it was pretty rough to handle it again. Our mother would mix all the leftovers together in a huge pot then add tomatoes and onions for a big pot of stew. She would fry up some cornbread or serve saltine crackers with it. We always had sweet tea made in the sun to drink.
One day the leftovers in our refrigerator were L
ima beans, summer squash and boiled potatoes. We were out of tomatoes, but were had plenty of onions and a huge block of Velveeta cheese. She whipped this altogether in a casserole dish and popped it in the oven until the onions were transparent. She topped this with some of the cheese she had reserved for the top. It was so cheesy.
When my father called home to find out if he needed to come home for lunch that day or just skip lunch, my mother informed him that there was enough for him to come home. He was he was debating on just grabbing a coke and a pack of cheese crackers, but decided to ask what she had cooked for lunch. She couldn’t explain her creation to him so she just called it “Sleazy Cheesy”. Naturally, my father was curious has to what this was, so he turned his cruiser around and headed home to investigate this meal his wife had prepared.
Sleazy Cheesy is delicious and can still be found on our table even today. It is often served with cathead biscuits or fried cornbread and iced sweet tea.
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