Dessert then cheese....

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I just went over this post. Fun Read. But in second thought, my mother served good size helpings. No room for dessert. Gingerbread with whipped cream was for when my mother and I would sit at the kitchen table playing cards. We would have a cup of tea with it. Two or three times a week, my mother would bake something for us. When she didn't feel like it, then toast and cocoa was just fine. :angel:

Addie,

Your post reminded me of being young and broke.

When I was starting out I rarely invited people over for dinner, unless you count spaghetti.

The invitation was usually for cake and coffee or just coffee! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
Addie,

Your post reminded me of being young and broke.

When I was starting out I rarely invited people over for dinner, unless you count spaghetti.

The invitation was usually for cake and coffee or just coffee! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:

I think every young couple should start out broke. It will give them some great memories to tell their kids. You sit there going through the Sears catalog making a mental wish list. Just to have two matching cups was a big deal. They went to the company. You made the excuse you preferred your favorite cup. :angel:
 
I think every young couple should start out broke. It will give them some great memories to tell their kids. You sit there going through the Sears catalog making a mental wish list. Just to have two matching cups was a big deal. They went to the company. You made the excuse you preferred your favorite cup. :angel:
My first home in 1972 was completely furnished with other people's cast-offs including the bed, I had cutlery and china and cooking pots and pans and equipment handed down from my parents and grandparents, a sofa and armchairs chairs that had belonged to my parents, dining room furniture c. 1930 from my Aunt and at one stage I counted up the offers of chairs - it came to 23 chairs so I had to politely decline most of them! I had my grandmother's old gas cooker which she had bought in 1950 (and which was the best cooker I've ever used!) and my uncle made me a room-sized "rag rug" made from old knitted sweaters un-ravelled and hooked onto a hessian background in a design of big splashy flowers on a beige tweedy sort of background - I loved it and it finally gave up the ghost a couple of years ago having moved house with me several times over the years.

I still have some of those original items of furniture in my home now. They are well made and attractive and anything modern that I could replace them with would not have half the quality or the memories that they have.
 
I think every young couple should start out broke. It will give them some great memories to tell their kids. You sit there going through the Sears catalog making a mental wish list. Just to have two matching cups was a big deal. They went to the company. You made the excuse you preferred your favorite cup. :angel:
The wedding present lists that couples come up with these days are frightening. An acquaintance was telling me that her grandson's list had a washing machine, a matching fridge AND freezer (as one gift), a 40 inch screen television, a coffee machine costing over £900 (yes, I did say NINE hundred pounds - approximately $1400!) and the list went on. Whatever happened to lists with salt and pepper sets, towels, tablecloths and "a nice blue vase" on them?
 
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When I started kindergarten in 1951, we lived in a tiny apartment in a converted air base hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

My 59 year old sister still uses the kitchen table that our mother changed her diapers on, and it was bought at a second hand store back then. My first Sunday suit and dress shoes were bought at the Goodwill store. No complaints though - life was good for a kid growing up in 1950's Small Town, Minnesota. There never seemed to be a shortage of fun things to do.
 
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In the early 60's I went to a wedding. The couple had received more than $3,000.00 in cash. And then there were the gifts. A complete living room set. Everything you could ask for in the kitchen. I gave them a set of all cotton sheets with red roses on them. The card read, "May you sleep on a bed of roses forever." The bride started to cry. She told everyone who would listen about those sheets. When I got the thank you note, she told me that my gift of all the ones they had received, had the most meaning for her.

About five years later she wrote to me telling me that the set had finally wore out. But she had saved one of the pillow cases. She also told me that every time she bought a new set of sheets, she made sure they had roses on them. A simple gift, so much meaning to it. :angel:
 
Desert was generally rare, but that made it something special and appreciated. I remember loving hot, cooked pudding (Jello brand) and pouring a little cold milk in. I've loved that feeling of hot and cold co-existing in my mouth for as long as I can remember. Ice cream was always stirred into a soft-serve consistency, and I was always scolded for playing with my ice cream. I will teach my grandkids how to turn a bowl of hard ice cream to a bowl of soft serve.

It's not that I never had pie, or sticky buns, or cake, or cookies. They just were rare, and truly enjoyed when gotten. It was the same in my house, with my kids. Desert wasn't a regular thing, but when it was served, it was really good.

As for cheese, I never really have thought of it as desert. I have used it as part of a meal, but then, it has to be the right cheese for the particular meal. Usually, I purchase really good cheese. Due to its price, and the fact that really good cheese is rare where I live, it's like desert. DW eats Kraft cheese slices and crackers daily. Me, I want stuff that Kraft just doesn't and can't make. I cut a little slice off, make sure it's left to sit and become room temperature, then take a bite and roll it around in my mouth, slowly chewing and letting every bit of flavor wash over my tongue. I concentrate on the flavors, recognizing the salt, sour, bitter, and sweet components, and how they mingle to make the whole flavor. I concentrate on what's going on in the back of my nose, the aroma. I'm concentrating on the texture, whether it's creamy, or crumbly, how moist or dry it is, whether there is the little mineral crunch, etc. Then again, that's how I experience most foods, including whole milk. When you concentrate on tasting everything that food has to offer, it really makes that eating experience sensual, that is, it briefly takes over your senses, and becomes your whole world, even if it's only for ten seconds or so.

Can you tell that I enjoy what I eat?:) And you you know why I love to cook from scratch. Then, I can make it taste the way I want it to taste.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
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When I lived in Denmark, a fancy sit down supper would often have a cheese platter with fruit instead of dessert. Sometimes there would be a dessert and if people stayed long enough, the cheese and crackers and rolls came out.
 
For our family, a fancy sit down dinner meant that the family lace tablecloth came out. If something got spilled on it, it was hand washed. My sister ended up with it and now her daughter has it.

Then one year I crocheted a table cloth for my daughter. She still has it, but is afraid to use it anymore. It is more than 25 years old. It is nice to pass down something that has family meaning. :angel:
 

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