Childhood food memories.

[JoAnn L.]

We use to eat raw potatoes and sprinkle them with salt.

Mom would take left over pie crust and sprinkle it with sugar and cimmanon and bake it. What a treat.

She would brown a pound of ground beef with celery and onion. Then she would put in salt, pepper and oregano. Then she would add a can of tomatoes and cook this til the veg. were tender. This was put on top of mashed potatoes. Yum.

For Saturday lunch we would have a frosted cherry pastry cut in half and in the center we would put a slice of bologna.(I don't think I could eat that anymore).

My cousin and I would walk along the railroad tracks ( we were about 10 years old ) to go fishing in the Mississippi. We would take bologna sandwiches and Kool-aid for lunch. It would sit in the hot sun all morning and then we ate it (without washing our hands) after putting worms on our fishing hooks. UGH!

Mom would make liver and onions and you couldn't leave the table until you ate it. I would cut it in little tiny pieces and mix it in my mashed potatoes in order to get it down....
How about you, anything special from your childhood.

 

[pdswife]

The first thought that always comes to mind when asked this question is

Grandma's homemade chocolate pudding
we'd eat it as soon as it was cool enough to toss in our mouths. Oh boy was it good.
Some times she'd top it with a little cream and we'd
all think that we were in heaven. What I wouldn't give for
a bowl of that pudding now.

 

[vagriller]

Mom would make liver and onions and you couldn't leave the table until you ate it. I would cut it in little tiny pieces and mix it in my mashed potatoes in order to get it down....

Same here. (Anyone eating right now ignore the next sentence!) My brother once in a stroke of brilliance hurled on his plate and was excused from his plate of liver. I on the other hand had to continue eating mine until it was gone, even after witnessing the hurling incident. We used to discreetly drop ours on the floor so the cat would eat it as well. BTW it was deer or elk liver, never beef.

 

[TATTRAT]

I used to Loooooove raclette for breakfast. My mom would always amke it on Sunday mornings with either gruyere or, well, raclette, lots of gherkins, some boiled potatoes, and corned meats.

 

[rickell]

hot dogs

My dad would cook once in every now and then he liked to boil
hot dogs in this catchup sauce he made, they were really good.

My dad also did not like any store bought taco shells so we had
to fry our own when we had tacos. I did not like doing that cause
I always would get burnt.

Chili loved it then and still do today.

I discovered prime rib. My Mom would always make a big diner for
our family Christmas party. One year she made a prime rib. There are
10 kids in my family. This year she bought way to much meat, we had
alot of left overs. Being young I really did not eat much meat not knowing
what I was missing. Anyway after eating the left overs for the first time
I discovered what I was missing. I remember that meat like it was yesterday yummmmm.

Creamed chipped beef on toast

tomatoes with salt.

 

[abjcooking]

I was a picky eater. My mom never forced me to eat, she just made us take at least 1 bite of each item on the plate.

For breakfast I usually got cerial, cinnamon toast, or cream of wheat.

For lunch it was usually sandwiches that my mom cut out with cookie cutters, mac and cheese, hot dogs rolled in crescents with cheese or toast with american cheese ketchup and bacon. On occations I would have a cheeseburger with mayo, but it was usually too much and I would only eat several bites out of the center. I never ate crust on anything so it was usually cut off.

Snacks would be rainbow jellow, bananas dipped in raw jellow of different colors, watermelon, cheese fish crackers, or ants on a log (celery with peanut butter and raisins)

For dinner we would usually have some sort of casserole, spaghetti, and we ate a lot of chicken. We would always have a green salad or pears with mayo and american cheese. My boyfriend still thinks that is disgusting, but I still eat it occasionally.

 

[FryBoy]

My mother's cookies and pies.
Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts.
Grilling steaks on the patio.
Tuna casserole (the kind with Cream of Mushroom soup and crushed potato chips).
Tacos & enchiladas (my mother was Canadian but loved Mexican food).
Fresh abalone and lobster caught be me and my father (we lived in San Diego)

My father finally stopped trying to force me to eat my veggies after one very unfortunate episode involving beets. Suffice it to say they still trigger my gag reflex!

 

[vagriller]

My mom used to make french bread pizza that I loved! Very simple, but good. Sometimes it's the simple things.

My wife remembers boiled fish for breakfast. Her grandfather had a house on the beach and they would catch croaker and boil them right up. Also her family would have creamed turkey on toast the morning after a holiday meal. Wow am I glad I married into this family!

 

[sattie]

We lived on the poor side of town and one pot meals was very common in our household.... some of the things I can remember are:

Bean and bacon stew.... cooked all day on the stove top whilest we sneak samples throughout the day.

On a rare occasion we got to have oyster stew.... when I was little, I would eat the broth and omit the oysters. It was not until I was in my teens that I actually started to eat the oysters. But that buttery milky broth was great!

Pot roast with potatos, cabbage, carrots, onion and occasionally my mom would do it with bow tie pasta.... another sampeling favorite... a cup of roast broth was a real treat!

Mom also use to do the liver and onions bit... was not a fav of mine as well as the meat loaf.... hated it then and still hate it to this day!

Fried green beans w/bacon, fried cabbage w/bacon, fried green tomatos... yes, we were the poster children of health!!!!

Bread Pudding....... ahhhh now that was good!!!!

Sauerkraut and dumplings.... odd combo but was really good... I loved the dumplings!

My Dad's brisket that was smoked all day beginning at 6am!!!!

Lastly..... mom would make fried haddock (I believe it was haddock). She would take a package of saltine crakers and mash them up with a rolling pin and dip the fish into it and fry them... probably one of the best meals we would have.

Wow, what great memories that brings back! I sure do miss my mom and dad!

 

[mudbug]

As the oldest of ten kids, I remember:

We always had a plate of bread and a stick of margarine on the table and iceberg lettuce salad-sometimes with tomatoes and sometimes not. Bottled French dressing for us kids, oil and vinegar in separate cruets for the parents.

Often had fruit cocktail for dessert, and fought over who got the cherry.

Never had to have liver cuz Dad hated it. But we did have to have lima beans.

Only whoever was the youngest drank milk with dinner. The rest of us had water.

 

[vagriller]

Only whoever was the youngest drank milk with dinner. The rest of us had water.

Why was that?

 

[mudbug]

Milk was expensive? Dunno. I've always liked water, though. We didn't have to eat our Cheerios with water.

 

[allioop108]

As a child whenever we used to visit my maternal grandmother she would always insist on giving us her home remedies for keeping us healthy, (raw radishes, aloe leaves, stuff like that). We kids could never really take the taste of those things. However when she prepared the aloe leaves, grandma would peel the skin off the leaf, blend the fleshy part and then add condensed milk to take away the bitter taste. We used to love the sweet taste of the condensed milk and after eating the aloe we used to like to drink the plain condensed milk right from the can.

Same grandmother would fix us cream of wheat for breakfast with cinnamon sticks. We used to love to suck on the sticks like it was candy.

Another memory was that of my aunt who would always fix us homemade pancakes for breakfast. I always thought they tasted better than pancakes made from store bought mix.

My mom always made the store brand pancakes but sometimes when we were out of syrup she would make a homemade syrup which again I loved so much more than the store bought syrup.

Always loved when mom made cakes and stuff and we got to lick the bowls afterwards.

Lastly this is not what would be considered a normal food memory as kids when we would do arts and crafts at home mom used to make a homemade glue. Somehow I learned that it was made from common edible ingrediants (flour being one) and asked to taste it. Well that became the end of arts and crafts since I started eating the glue instead, don't ask, it had a taste that appealed to me.

Allen
allioop108@aol.com

 

[sattie]

OH, I forgot one! SOS!!!

 

[VeraBlue]

I think the fact that we post here

is proof that childhood food memories are still foremost in our culinary thoughts.

I remember that Saturday evening was always steak or lamb chops. Sunday dinner was at 2pm, with macaroni with meatballs & sausage, a roast of some kind, vegetables, and italian pastries for dessert. Then, about 7pm we'd have hot roast sandwiches. During the week, we'd have chicken, pork, fish and more macaroni. By the time Friday came around, the cupboard was bare and we'd either be eating potatoes and eggs, pasta fagioli or peppers and eggs. As you can see, Dad got paid on Friday night, haha.

My mother was the queen of opening a can, say beets or 'french cut green beans' and adding oil and vinegar to it. She baked frozen french fries until the ice crystals melted but you could still taste the cardboard box they came from. She would make dinner in the afternoon and leave it on the counter until dinner time so we could all eat in a clean kitchen. She never understood the concept of letting steak or a roast set for a short time so the juices were reabsorbed into the flesh. She used a serated knife to cut everything.

But she made the best mashed potatoes in the world, and we loved to put some on the fork and then dip that into the corn.

 

[kadesma]

Uhm, I remember my grandmothers pasties, how anytime we had pasta pesto there was a bowl of red ripe chopped tomatoes to put over the top, my dad and his before McDonalds big burger, cooked in a cast iron skillet with salt, then piled high with tomato, onion, lettuce and bacon, my mom's cakes and pies and her homemade frostings,my grandpas garden where you could pick corn,green beans,red onion, and have a great dinner with them, my aunts anchovie dip,and of course, my girl friend and I eating my dad's avocado dip slathered on french bread and topped with thin sliced salami and our drink of choice, Squirt This was always consumed at my house as her mom, was not to fond of our lunch choice There are so many more that time has chased to the back of my mind..But I'm enjoying this thread and everyones remberances

kadesma

 

[sparrowgrass]

I was just thinking about this yesterday, when I stopped at the fruit stand for some peaches.

I grew up outside Chicago, and each year, we would drive down to visit my mom's family down here in Southeast Missouri.

About 10 miles before we got to Grandma's house we came to Pioneer Orchard in Jackson, and we always bought a bushel of peaches fresh off the tree, a big watermelon and a couple of cantaloupes.

Those peaches would sit on the front porch at Grandma's, and we were allowed to eat all we want, and we did. Fruit wasn't something that was in unlimited supply when we were at home, and sometimes the effects of those peaches were . . . drastic. And, at that time, Grandma didn't have indoor plumbing, so we really did get the "backdoor trots" --out the backdoor, across the garden, and into the "little house".

Anyhow, forty some years and many moves later, I feel like I am back home, still buying peaches at the Pioneer Orchard market. They have changed some, from an open shed to an airconditioned building, and they no longer raise all their own fruit, but the peaches are still good.

And I still have to be careful not to make a pig of myself when they come ripe, but, goodness, it is hard to restrain myself.