Tuesday, November 20, 2007

FOOD

It's Thanksgiving this week, and of course our thoughts turn to food. My family has their favorites that they like every year - in fact every year I ask around if they want something different, but they always want the same things - Turkey (of course), cornbread stuffing, gravy, broccoli-rice casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pink stuff (do you know what pink stuff is?), black olives, rolls, pumpkin pie, pecan pie.

This made me think about myself as a child and I wondered what the things I remembered as my favorites back then. I think my all-time favorite thing to eat when I was young was a hamburger from Broncos Drive-in Restaurant. We didn't get them often, but I thought they were the best thing I had ever put in my mouth. I also thought the hamburgers at the elementary school cafeteria were great. Some other things that Mom actually made that were favorites of mine: Eggnog, Rice pudding, Steamed Carrot Pudding at Christmas with lemon sauce, hamburgers and hot dogs we used to cook down at Fontenelle Park or in our backyard, oatmeal, macaroni and tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob, chicken soup with homemade noodles, chicken enchilada, cherry cheesecake, Dad's homemade fudge, Mom's homemade peach jam.

Things Mom cooked that I didn't like: Spice cake, Thanksgiving stuffing, pizza, tamale pie, melted cheese sandwiches (she didn't grill them, just put a hunk of cheese on bread and put it in the oven), sour kraut with hot dogs, or beans and hot dogs. I always hated it whenever I would get up in the morning and Mom would tell us we were out of milk. She would cook pancakes but then we had to eat them with no milk to wash them down. Hated that. I hated even worse when dad would go out of town and sometimes we would go 2 or 3 days without milk. Hated that too. I also didn't like the Christmas candy dad would get. He loved hard candy and would buy ribbon candy and different "minty" hard candy, some hard candy with kind of gel filling. I never liked peppermint candy canes we got for Christmas. Mom's mince pie wasn't my favorite either.

Some favorite things at my Grandmothers were: dutch oven mutton, bread and milk with fresh onions and icicle radishes from the garden, Grandma's brown cake, hot cracked wheat cereal, a slice of homemade bread with homemade butter and homemade jam - put in a bowl with fresh cream poured over the top, sprinkled with sugar. My great aunt used to make the best pies in the world! My favorites were rubarb and sour cream raisin. I used to save my money so every year I could go to her cafe and order a piece of sour cream raisin pie on Pioneer Day.

I'm sure I had more favorites and more non-favorites, but these were what I could think of at the moment.

5 comments:

Delirious said...

It's odd when I talk to people about what food they liked growing up because I don't remember liking much. I wasn't a picky eater, it just wasn't that good. lol I did like macaroni and tomatoes, I liked the,I think they were called chalupas. I think I just learned to eat whether I liked the food or not.
I always loved mashed potatoes. I think Mom rarely mashed them, just boiled them cut in quarters. I used to trade for them at school. I also liked the cobbler the school cafeteria made, and the rolls.
I never liked Grandma's brown cake, to me it was heavy and dry. Everyone else really likes it, but I never was a fan. I did like bread and milk with raisins in it, cheese, bell peppers, and radishes on the side. I loved trout with Grandpa's Twister sauce on it.
My husband still laughs when I borrow Mom's phrase "doctor it up" when talking about seasoning food. :)

Keira said...

Sorry Mom but some of that stuff sounds completely gross...bread and milk with onions and radishes? tamale pie? steamed carrot pudding with lemon sauce? I think my favorite things you made are cookie bars, brownies, broccoli-rice casserole and pizza. I also still love Inside Stories chocolate zuchhini cake even though I haven't had it in years. :o)

Inklings said...

Okay, I have to admit I didn't like ANYTHING Mom made growing up, and the things I do like are things she started making after I left home. There is a reason I weighed 103 pounds when I left home. I didn't even know there was such a thing as spaghetti sauce until I went to college. Mom's spaghetti when I lived at home was cooked spaghetti with browned hamburger on top and ketchup. I am not making this up.
And I didn't think Grandma could cook either, although I do like to eat a bowl of bread and milk with green onions and cheese every now and then. Sticks saved you younger ones, because he started doing the coooking for Mom and even taught her some things about the time he turned 12. I think we all became good cooks out of rebellion. :0)Oh yeah, and if any of you relate any of this to mom, you are so dead.

Amber said...

okay the stuff i liked that you made are cookie bars, DEFINITELY your pumpkin cookies, homemade mac n cheese, those ring cakes with pudding filling on the inside, however i never liked your pizza or your spaghetti - maybe i'm just not a hamburger meat fan lol - i think you are a better cook now than you are when i was younger though but maybe it's just that you can afford better ingredients lol

Keira said...

She didn't use hamburger meat on the pizza, she used sausage and I don't remember any meat in the spaghetti sauce.