Freeper Kitchen: Share Your Food Memories

[HungarianGypsy]

I was reading Reminisce Magazine yesterday. For some reason that magazine always makes me hungry. So, what were the best foods you remember as a kid?

[mplsconservative]

I'd love the recipe! That's kind of you. :)

I'm sure there are lots of Freepers who are hungry for homemade ice cream after reading this thread. I just had a brownie to help out my sweet tooth. It didn't help with the ice cream craving, however.

[gcruse]

Had to make do with vanilla yogurt here, but it calmed the craving. LOL

[kenth]

ping

[SoothingDave]

I saw an ice cream maker in a catalog that was in the shape of a ball. Instead of hand cranking, you just toss it around until it's nice and creamy.

(Or just buy an electric one with the high tech freezer chamber like I did. No ice or salt needed, just freeze the chamber real good before you want to make it.)

SD

[mplsconservative]

Well at least it was vanilla flavored. I think that must be the key. There's a can of Redi-Whip in the fridge that seems to be calling my name. I'm shameless! :>)

[warchild9]

When I was a kid, every year at the Mullet Festival regatta in Swansboro, NC, various civic groups would set up deep friers for hush puppies and catfish: cut in half a 55-gallon drum and melt lard in it over an open flame. Deep fry the goodies. Enjoy the hardening of the arteries. YUMMMMIE!

I'm a vegetarian, now, but that doesn't ruin the memories.

[mplsconservative]

I've got a little Jack Russell that loves chasing a ball around. Maybe he could get some exercise and make ice cream at the same time. LOL

The electric one sounds like a neat gizmo to have on hand. I'd probably gain 10 pounds though, if I could make ice cream that easily.

[Rte66]

Umm, I'm too embarrassed to ask which kind of Karo - do most people know there are "varieties"? LOL - clear or golden? IOW, "light" or "dark"? I only keep clear in my pantry and use molasses for anything "dark."

The only way I found out it was honey in the school PB was that one time they forgot to mix them and they put honey on one slice of bread and PB on the other, so I *saw* it in my sandwich, little foodie sleuth that I am, lol.

[kenth]

cut in half a 55-gallon drum and melt lard in it over an open flame. Deep fry the goodies. Enjoy the hardening of the arteries.

Heh... Besides the lard, who knows what chemicals were in the drums before they cut it in half to fry catfish. Then again, we used to be able to eat raw cookie dough, lick the cake batter bowl, etc. before eggs were "dangerous". We just didn't worry about a lot of stuff back then.

[warchild9]

They always assured my mother that the drums were cleaned out real good, I'm certain. Perhaps the leftover chemicals added that special tang...mmmm...

[SoothingDave]

The electric one sounds like a neat gizmo to have on hand. I'd probably gain 10 pounds though, if I could make ice cream that easily.

It makes about a quart or so. And you have to freeze the chamber for at least 24 hours before you start. And if you make a good recipe like French vanilla, you have to cook it and then let the batter chill overnight.

So, at most, you could probably only make it three times a week.

SD

[MotleyGirl70]

Ever had a 'Bread, Butter and Sugar' sandwich when you were a kid?

How about a butter, sugar from Pixie Stix, Captain Crunch cereal sandwich--and a Coke to wash it down.

[pies]

My Mom's milk gravy and fried potateos.....yummy! I also loved to make sugar bread...put sugar on bread and drip water on it from the faucet, then eat.....very bad for the teeth, but as a kid, I loved it.

[mrs. a]

Fish sticks and Tater Tots!

[pies]

Had to add another....milk toast....my Mom would heat milk, add salt, pepper, and butter; then tear up the toast in a bowl and pour the hot milk over it. It was considered "sick food". I still crave it when not feeling well.

[BlueAngel]

Oh, I loved Prince's drive-inn, too.

This place was called Price's and it was on Bellaire, I believe, not too far from St. Vincent's Catholic Church.

[BlueAngel]

Yeah, the drive-inns are gone but they did open a real cute 50's Prince's Hambuger place off of Katy Freeway and Bunker Hill. Still great hamburgers and fish burgers!

[grellis]

Frankenberry.

My Sicilian grandmother used her excess pizza dough to make a fried bread called "Wushdede." No member of the family has any idea how the word is spelled, just how it is pronounced (rhymes with push-pay-thee). The dough would be shaped into round rods, each about six inches long, fried until golden, then shaken (while piping hot) in a bag of granulated sugar. Soooo good.

Sadly, the dialect of Sicilian which my grandmother spoke is pretty much a dead language. I never pass a Sicilian or Italian bakery without stopping in to see if they have ever heard of the bread. No luck in twenty years of asking.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"So, what were the best foods you remember as a kid?"

I was blessed to have both of my Grandmas (and one Great) until I was 26 and 43, so I had my Grandmas a long time.

My Grandma Anita was an awesome cook. She could make a feast out of a potato, I swear.

I would say my best memories were of eating at her house with my teenaged uncles and aunt, (my Mom is the oldest and is 14 years older than her siblings, so my aunts and uncles are less than 10 years older than me) feeling so grown up to be included in their hi-jinx, and eating Grandma's homemade bread, steamed cauliflower with burnt butter topping, any veggie from her garden, her homemade pickles were to die for, a roasted chicken she had raised, killed and dressed herself, and of course no meal was complete without one of her apple or pumpkin or berry pies. With coffee, of course! When I was with her we had coffee morning, noon and night...with lots of milk and sugar. Mom was not always happy when she picked up her hyper chatterbox at the end of the day/weekend, LOL!

I developed my love of simple, wholesome foods from her, for sure. She also showed me how to stretch a meal and to always make enough for leftovers for lunch the next day, and she was the one that inspired me to be a Chicken Farmer. "There's no more useful critter on the planet than a chicken, Honey." ;)

Now, my Grandma on my Dad's side was the other end of the spectrum. (Envision Shirley McLaine from "Terms of Endearment.") Grandmother Edith ("Do not call me 'Grandma!') hated to cook, and was just lousy at it. But she was my "rich" Grandmother, so my food memories of her were of the times she took me out to eat at fancy restaurants, taught me all I needed to know about a wine list, reminded me to keep my elbows off the table and to use the correct cutlery, not to be afraid of Escargot, and she bought me my first string of real pearls to wear when we girls "dressed up and went out."

I was blessed. I had the best of both worlds when it came to Grandmas and food. :)

P.S. I married a Chef. Go figure! (And amazingly, I don't weigh 300 lbs. either, LOL!)

[grellis]

Spellcheck your tagline, then maybe work off some of your zealotry in a soup kitchen or something.

If God hadn't wanted food to taste good, He wouldn't have given us oregano, basil, thyme, bay leaves, dill, ginger, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cooking sherry...