Food Memories

[ClothesHorse]

Not sure where this should go-

I grew up eating a lot of brown beans (pintos with a bit of ham for flavor).
Simple, filling, and cheap. Four kids in the house with one income. And it was very tasty.

Dad used to tell us kids, that when he was a kid Ma would make several batches of beans daily. One for early lunch, one for late lunch, and often one for dinner-- depression you know. No one ever left her house hungry, no worker was ever not fed.

As a kid sometimes I'd get tired of all the beans, now I remember the tough times they lived through- and I enjoy my beans just a little more with memories of my dad (recently gone), and the love of my family history.

I posted all this just to ask you all- What are the food memories that you have? Do they track you back to a particular time? Particular Person? Particular Holiday?

All the best,

CH

 

[Caity Lynn]

Klondike bars, peanuts and strawberries and chlorine.

My grandfather and I would sit on the tailgate of his pickup in the garage and shell and eat peanuts, I wasn't strong enough to shell them, so he's shell them for me, or I'd use my teeth to crack them. To this day I still occasionally put a shell in my mouth to suck on because of that salty flavor. lol

and in the summer he and I would sit on lawn chairs in the driveway and eat Klondike bars.

also, the strawberry patch was right behind the pool, so as my brother and I would swim, my Grandfather would' be picking strawberries and would toss them into the pool for us to swim for. Strawberries and chlorine water lol. good times.

 

[Cherry_Bombb]

Mmmm.... Sweet almond cookies, peppermint candy and stone oven bread!

My great grandmother had a friend at church who would make these almond cookies that were crackled on the top and had a yellow powder on top. Every Sunday and Wednesday my great grandmother would come home from church with 2 of these cookies for me. I knew she had passed away when my great grandmother started coming home from church with donut holes instead. I've never been able to find the recipe.

My great grandfather would have a crystal jar on the bookcase next to his rocking chair and it was always full of these florescent pink peppermint candies. You can find bags of them still- 2 for $1 at any convenience store. They're cheap but so good....

The town I grew up in still had a bread delivery service up until I was about 10 or so. (I'm only 26) Mr. Veslack's Bakery. It was outstanding! He had fresh baked bread daily and would deliver it personally to all of his customers at around 3pm each day. I remember my great grandmother wanting his recipe but was really bummed to find out that he didn't know it! He'd been mixing the dough by hand for over 60 years and didn't remember. He just knew how many bags or boxes of each ingredient went into the mixer. Oh but the bread was so good! Hard and crusty on the outside, soft on the inside- and great as a meal with just butter!

 

[AmateisGal]

One of my fondest memories is staying at my grandparents' farm (which was just down the road from our farm) and going out to the garden with my grandmother and picking fresh strawberries. We'd bring them inside, wash them, cut them up, and sprinkle sugar on them. They were such a delicious summer treat!

 

[Foofoogal]

At home Mama's homemade rolls, big Lima beans. So much other good food mama made. Ham and dressing, eggplant casserole etc.
At movies and out and about was chico sticks, Boston Baked Beans, Nehi Grape, Orange Crush and little tiny bottles of coke.

Welcome from a newbie to Arkansas from Texas.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Toasted cheese sandwiches at the Newberry's Lunch Counter. 35 cents for a perfect combination of buttery grease and cheesy crust oozing out the edges. The only toasted cheese that ever approached the standard of excellence set by my grandmother.

My grandmother's lard-fried doughnuts. Even the odd bits of dough that fell in the fryer were worth eating.

Root beer popsicles from Sid's Market, a little hole in the wall grocery store that was the only place that sold them. Best nickel's worth anywhere, even if I did have to share with my cousin.

Government-surplus canned luncheon meat. More spammy than Spam, if such a thing is possible.

Cain's Sweet Pickled Cauliflower. The only thing I liked at childhood Thanksgiving dinners.

Macaroni and cheese loaf. If you have to ask, you'll never understand.

 

[Big Man]

Peppermint stick candy ...

Often times on Sunday afternoons we would visit with my great aunts Ada and Laura. Both were widows and lived together in the little community of Sugar Hill, NC. My fondest memory of those visits is remembering my great aunt Laura always telling me, "honey, look in the kitchen cabinet and get you a peppermint stick."

My great aunt Laura died over 40 years ago, but the memory is as clear as if it were yesterday.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I'm not a big candy eater today, but I do remember as a really little kid enjoying "Chuckles" jelly-candy squares. My dad gave them to us as a treat.
I usually sat on the front porch and tried to eat them slow, so they would last longer than the ones my brother got!!

 

[MrNewportCustom]

The way my father cooked a T-bone steak. Fast, simple and memorably delicious!


Lee

 

[cufflinkmaniac]

When I was little, I would spend the night with my grandparents every Friday night and my Nana (until she passed away) would make snickerdoodles almost every time. Man were they good! I haven't enjoyed a real snickerdoodle in ten years. My aunt does a valiant job, but nothing can beat Nana's. She also made wonderful baked beans and coleslaw. She could cook almost anything, but these were my favorites. My Dad was also a great cook. He could make some mean enchiladas. Oddly, my favorite thing that Dad made me was a glass of Nestle chocolate milk almost every morning before he went to work. It was our tradition.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

Oh yeah! My father's sauerkraut. Neither before nor since have I found sauerkraut as good as my fathers. It was always crispy and its taste was perfection. Store-bought is always soggy and limp.

I remember a time when I worked at a car wash, and my boss asked me to go around the corner to Tony's Hofbrau and order his lunch, which included cold sauerkraut. He let me try it. I went home to put a jar of my fathers in the refrigerator. Dad asked me why (he had never considered the idea of cold sauerkraut) and I showed him the next day: It was the perfect way to end a hot day of working in the sun.


Lee

 

[davestlouis]

I have 2 memories:

1. spending the night at my grandfather's apartment...he lived down the block from a little Kroger store. We would walk to the store and buy a big can of peaches, then go back to Pop's place, dump the peaches in a pink plastic bowl and I'd eat them all.

2. Sunday morning, my dad would fry goetta. It's a Cincinnati delicacy, pin oats and pork made into a loaf of some sort, then sliced and thrown in a skillet...good stuff.

 

[High Pockets]

Okra frying in a cast iron skillet; 1950’s,….Grandma Phillips kitchen in San Antonio, Texas.
The night before last my wife fried up some fresh okra for dinner,....all I had to do was close my eyes and I was in Texas in 1956.

Corned beef boiling in a giant pot; 1950’s,…Grandma Robbins kitchen in New York City.
This aroma on Saint Patrick's day this very year transported me back to the same time period two thousand miles away

They say there is nothing like the sense of smell to trigger memories.
I can attest to the fact.

 

[Mr Zablosky]

When I was a kid it seemed most moms cooked some sort of cheap meat in an electric skillet. Right before dinner time the whole street had the smell coming from the kitchen vents. We knew we'd be called in soon after.

The mystery meat was fried in grease, kept in a can or short crock on the back of the stove that had been saved from previous fryings. Oh, yum!

 

[LordBest]

Feasting on dozens of natural oysters at an uncles wedding when I was five, and getting incredibly excited whenever my father prepared oysters kilpatrick and I would get one or two of them (It just is not the same today, something has changed with the Worcestershire sauce I think).
Wolfing down stuffed olives in vast amounts with my best friend over a decade ago. He was responsible for my addiction to olives, prior to him forcing one on me I had always avoided them.
My first genuine truffle experience. I was 20, not exactly a child, depending on who you ask. But the moment I popped that first spoon in my mouth I immediately understood what all the fuss was about, and that truffles are worth all the attention with not even trace amounts of hyperbole. Anyone says differently in my presence and its swords at dawn.

 

[DutchIndo]

I remember the old kid standby in the 60s, Bologna on Wonder Bread (Yeech !). This was usually washed down with copious amounts of Green Kool-Aid (Double Yeech !). Yesterday at work some of us "OGs" were talking Ice Cream. Who remembers "Long Johns" my favorite. These were cylindrical Orange and White Ice Cream on a stick. There also were 50/50 Bars, Rocket Pop (Red, White and Blue), Fudgesicles, Push ups (in a cardboard tube) and the the Popsicle. During the Summer we always knew the time the Ice Cream man would come. We would sit out front with our Quarter (Ice creams were a Dime) or if we were lucky .50 cents.

 

[Foofoogal]

Okra frying in a cast iron skillet

you and me both. Fresh fried okra and fried squash IMHO is the main reason to ever have a garden.

A tip on growing okra. It loves lots and lots of sun and when it gets very tall it will slow down producing. Cut the plant about in half and it will give you a whole second crop. The only downside to okra is it itches when you pick it. Wash your arms after or wear long sleeves picking. lol

 

[ladybrettashley]

Ain't no food like Granny food.

Well, of course there's my Granny's everything. We'd go to visit them for about a week every summer, and of course, she was of the sort where you were going to whither away if you didn't have at least thirds. It was never a problem for me and my brother, though! Chicken and dumplings, fried apples, cream corn, lima beans...and then there were the cans she'd send home with us! She made pickles so sweet the "sweet pickles" didn't do them justice; we called them "Granny pickles." There was always apple butter and "greasy beans" as well. She still does cook, but not the way she used to because it's getting a lot harder for her. My folks and brother say she made the best fried chicken in the world as well, but she stopped making that long enough ago that i don't remember it at all.

Then there is an entirely different category of food memory. Mandarin oranges still make me (and all of my cousins) think of my (other) Granny. That and Blue Bell Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, always out of a tin can. Talk about comfort food.

I used to think the peanut butter and marshmallow "fluff" sandwiches (on white bread) we'd get at my friend's house were the most amazing thing in the world. My house did not contain things like that! Which, now, i'm really grateful for

 

[MisterCairo]

On the positive side, I remember peanut butter and banana sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, and my mum's apple upsidedown cakes!

On the oh no, not again side, LIVER! To this day the smell of it cooking makes me gag. I'd chew it up a bit and, when no one was watching, drop it down for our dog, Tara, to scoff down!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I used to think the peanut butter and marshmallow "fluff" sandwiches (on white bread) we'd get at my friend's house were the most amazing thing in the world. My house did not contain things like that! Which, now, i'm really grateful for

Ahh, the Fluffernutter. A New England institution -- it's the official state sandwich of Massachusetts!