Posted on 06/12/2006 10:25:30 AM PDT by 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?
halusky, like grandma made.
Ja jadat halusky!
Sounds good! That would sure beat trying to fry the damn things ;)
I like that West Coast style Monte Cristo, save for cilantro. Years ago, I ate something with too much of it, and can't stand the stuff.
Yeah, cilantro's an ingredient you either love or hate. I keep some on hand b/c some recipes really improve with an addition of its ineffable flavor. I freeze the fresh cilantro bunches in ziploks---and take out what I need. Lasts forever.
Shakey's Pizza in Puyallup for special occasions. We would watch silent movies, watch the guys fling the dough and put the toppings on.. I remember it as being good pizza but we moved out of that when I was 11 so what do I know?!
The drive-in. No clue what it was called, but it was where my mom took my brother and I for lunch on shopping day. Cotton candy at the fair. Hotdogs at the game when I would get to go with my dad and grandpa. The buffet my dad's parents would take us to - Royal Fork, I think it was. No clue if the food was good but the memories are! Same with the cafeteria at UPS in Tacoma in the 70's. Good memories.
My Grandma's chicken casserole, homemade noodles and doughnuts.. My other Grandma's crab salad (that no one in the family can make, no one got the recipe before she died) My great-grandma's mincemeat cookies, raisin cake and Tang. Corn on the cob from my great-grandpa's garden. Cherries from his orchard, made better by reading under the trees and reaching up to pick the fruit:)
Making pizza with my mom and dad, my mom's cookies and my dad's pies. Decorating cookies with them. Easter eggs and the resulting deviled eggs. Lots of good memories, all of which were made good by the people and events at the time.
Most of these things are regulars in my house now, so the memories will be passed down for another generation.
I've been hearing about fried green tomatoes, but I've never seen them in the store. Same with blood oranges. Has any normal person EVER seen a blood orange in their grocery store???
I'm going to grow chives and parsley, and see how long they last with the ravenous hordes of cottontail bunnies. What I don't give away/what survives, will be frozen.
There are so many great ideas on this thread :)
Oh yes, I've seen blood oranges and eaten them. Granted, these seasonal items are usually carried by gourmet markets, or world-class supermarkets that are in some residential areas.
I think green tomatoes have to be from your own home garden. Otherwise, the Whistle Stop Cafe - just don't eat the BBQ.
I like things made from tomatillos, especially Cilantro Sauce Julia, which is a green dipping salsa on the table at a local Mexican restaurant, Ninfa's.
I love cilantro, but the first time I brought it home from the grocery, it smelled up my fridge and everything in it. I snip it now and freeze it, but like it best fresh - especially in sauce for fish tacos or just in big bunches in my homemade soft tacos - white flour tortillas, garlicky oniony stewed chicken white meat pieces, guacamole, jack cheese, sour cream and lots of cilantro.
My store has blood oranges. When I was a Martha aficionado, I used them sometimes - but don't see anything special about them. Hate the color of the juice, so don't use them anymore.
Meyer lemons are another "good thing" that are somewhat scarce. You can use the entire lemon, peel and all, but again, they weren't worth the premium price, IMO.
What a great thread. I've really enjoyed reading about all your favorite foods and restaurants.
I teach cooking classes. I'm doing a series of classes now on "Fashionable Food", which covers food trends over the past several decades. My students loved the following recipe, from the 1950's.
FRUIT COCKTAIL CAKE
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten until light
2 cups fruit cocktail with juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Mix first four ingredients into a large bowl. Add the egg, fruit cocktail and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into an 8x12-inch buttered and floured pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven until cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan. When cool, sprinkle with a mixture of 1/4 cup powdered sugar, mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Serve with ice cream or lightly sweetened whipped cream.
(this cake is almost more like a pudding than a cake. Very dense and moist.)
You can easily grow chives and parsley indoors on your windowsill.
Some people grow chives indoors by planting and tending an inner scallion stalk (green part).
Oh, I remember making that - it's goood! What a fun job you must have. Do you have the book about American "company food" from the 1950s and 60s? I loved it. Can't think of the name, but will look for it. Mine's in storage right now.
Thinking of fruit cocktail reminds me of two more "grandmother" favorites. One was a fruit salad she would make with fruit cocktail, real whipped cream, fresh orange segments, coconut, pecans and mini-marshmallows. I still get hungry for it sometimes, but make it with CoolWhip and also add blueberries and bananas. Thank heavens for the "extra cherries" fruit cocktail they make nowadays - I always wanted more cherries in grandmother's fruit salad.
Also, she used to make an extra-wonderful dessert pudding which we all called Nesselrode Pudding, but wasn't really the authentic nesselrode. It was a baked vanilla custard with halved maraschino cherries, pecans, whipped cream and vanilla wafer crumbs swirled into it. I've lost the recipe a dozen times and don't have it now, either. That was my very very favorite dessert for many years, but didn't get to have it very often.
Oh, found the name of the fun book -- "American Gourmet" by the Sterns. It has a subtitle with the word "swank" in it, lol. Amazon doesn't seem to care much for it - but I loved it. One of the recipes from it I did one night for company because it was so easy - mushrooms stuffed with thawed-out Stouffer's Spinach Souffle mixed with crumbled bacon, pecan bits and cheddar cheese, then baked till bubbly. My guests gobbled them so fast I didn't get any!
Finlly got a chance to fix myself the baked MC for din-din tonight - it was great! Thanks again.
What an excellent thread. What a great way to produce good vibes; a rare event nowadays.
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