A trip down memory lane: What food makes you smile?
Recalling certain foods or eating with significant others sometimes evokes an emotion that takes you back to other parts of your life. Food is not only fuel but substance for our soul. I smile when I recall cooking for & with my children (30+ years ago). Not only the homemade from scratch meals, but those boxes of Kraft mac/cheese & Betty Crocker blueberry muffins :) What foods or food related celebrations send you back in time?
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26 Comments:
banana pudding
sawyerriley at 1:15PM on 10/22/07
Tootsie Rolls!
srhcb at 1:53PM on 10/22/07
Anton Berg chocolates remind me of living in Denmark as a teenager. At the time I hated them, but now I get regular cravings.
caley at 1:58PM on 10/22/07
Katz's pastrami sandwich. Whenever I have one, I'm there with my parents, my grandmother and favorite great-aunt and uncle, all long gone. The sandwich doesn't need any help, but I'm sure my memories add something.
Lippy at 2:01PM on 10/22/07
Monday morning (had been my day off) pancake breakfast with thick sliced bacon, fried eggs and Mrs Butterworth's maple syrup knit three generations of my family together and created undying memories...
czken at 2:07PM on 10/22/07
Pastina cooked in chicken broth with a beaten egg added while the broth boils--finished off with butter and lots of parmesan once the mixture thickens. Delicious! My mother always made it for me when I had a bad cold as a kid. I made it for my daughter who is now 23 and still loves it.
ciaobella at 3:00PM on 10/22/07
String bean bake, made with Campbells cream of mushroom soup, and Durkee fried onions. Two years ago, my son(who is now 32) requested it for Thanksgiving, because years ago his grandmother(who was a mediocre cook) always made it for holidays. So n ow, it is becoming a modern tradition.
Mich23 at 3:22PM on 10/22/07
Jiffy muffins. After college graduation, I and three other girls worked as graduate interns at the college equestrian center for a year. We lived in a big old farm house, the pay was zilch, so we lived on lots of Jiffy muffins and coffee. I still smile when I see those little boxes in the store.
ride&cook at 5:00PM on 10/22/07
The smell of a pasta dinner. The sauce the meatballs the locatelli cheese.
When I smell that I just get ever so happy. Baking bread too. Any kind of bread even hot bagels.
JerzeeTomato at 5:25PM on 10/22/07
Rice pudding with orange zest, made with milk, brown rice, and cardamom. I liked the rice pudding better without the orange zest, but nothing made me happier after a bad day than coming into a warm kitchen and sitting down to a big bowl full of soft mountains of rice and custard. Mom's recipe never fails to make me a little happier.
Christina at 6:21PM on 10/22/07
Baked custard. Yorkshire pudding. Fresh-squeezed orange juice (I don't really drink it, but I love the smell). Borscht with sour cream. Pumpkin pie. Spaghetti carbonara.
I haven't eaten any of these (except pumpkin pie) in close to 20 years!
emily20008 at 6:27PM on 10/22/07
Angelina's Spaghetti House in Stockton, Calif. It has always been a place for family get-togethers and a favorite restaurant of ours, family-run. Their sauces and frozen raviolis are in select Stockton/Lodi-area grocery stores. The restaurant's goodness extended to my husband and his family last year at our wedding rehearsal dinner.
misseditor at 7:42PM on 10/22/07
vanilla carvel cones.
mojay at 7:54PM on 10/22/07
Gingerbread Men (and women)! My mother used to make them with me whenever we had a snow day. We would listen to motown records and decorate the warm cookies! Just the smell of molassas and ginger is enough to send me back.
eatnutmeg at 8:32AM on 10/23/07
Hot fudge sundaes at a local restaurant I frequented in my childhood. They make their own ice cream and they served the sundaes in a metal parfait dish. You could get a free one on your birthday but I got one almost every time we went. All the right combinations of tastes and texture...I don't know if they are still as good as I remember because I can't stand their food and avoid going there. They do have good pumpkin cookies and donuts but their menu items are crap.
AuntJone at 11:57AM on 10/23/07
Mexican food. My mom would do the full dinner every Sunday when I was a kid, two different kinds of enchiladas, spanish rice, frijoles, hot fresh sopaipillas dripping with honey, and natillas for dessert. Other things: green chile stew, litle flat prune pies, rice with hot milk and cinnamon sugar, my dad making his special "snack" lunch because he couldn't cook: (we would eat on divided trays like you get from a cafeteria), different kinds of lunch meat, cheese cubes, club crackers, grapes, apples slices, carrot sticks and celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log).
elderberry44 at 12:56PM on 10/23/07
Sliced bananas with milk and sugar.....my grandmother made this all the time when we were growing up....it's my go-to comfort food!
Scrambled eggs cooked with lots of butter in a cast iron pan is another one. It has to be a cast iron pan too....it really does make a difference in the flavor.
I'm with you on the Kraft Mac n' Cheese too JEP. I love homemade mac n'cheese, but every once in awhile I have to break out the box.
mepolo at 1:01PM on 10/23/07
cupcakes!
sassysprite at 1:32PM on 10/23/07
Spreading left-over mashed potatoes over a slice of buttered bread... Mesquite smoked BBQ ribs, brisket, and sausage... an obnoxiously large chicken fried steak smothered in white gravy and a side of fried okra... pecan pie...
plasticspoontraveller at 1:38PM on 10/23/07
chocolate chip pancakes...my favorite when i was younger...thanks mom!
lanaberry at 4:05PM on 10/23/07
My mother's three layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting with nuts in the frosting not in the cake. She was making carrot cake before it became so popular. I can remember when I was in grammer school and for bake sale she used to make a homemade carrot cake while most other parents made boxed cakes. Staff members of the bake sale used to fight over who would get to buy the cake. Her cake never made it to the table for sale. I didn't think it was fair but I guess it was a compliment. My mother has since passed away and I thank her for leaving me the recipe. Love you mom.
sweetthang1018 at 9:36PM on 10/23/07
Peanut Butter and Marshmallow Sandwiches - aka the "Fluffernutter"
krispychikin at 10:02PM on 10/23/07
Thanks for sharing your memories :)
JEP at 5:47AM on 10/24/07
Grilled Lobster, My best friend and I went on a cruise to the Bahamas and took one of the excursions to go snorkeling. After hours of snorkeling we were starving and they were selling grilled lobsters. You sat on the beach and ate them with your bare hands. OMG SO GOOD! Was it the beautiful beach, that we were starving from hours of swimming or was the lobster that superb? Don't know don't care just love the memory!
Sindy at 9:53AM on 10/24/07
Eating spicy ramen reminds me of times I had with my best friend who used to cook that for us. We'd eat together and chat...I was always the slow one, and the one who needed a fork because I failed at chopsticks. I miss that so much.
stumbler02 at 3:56PM on 10/24/07
I just recently remembered this snack my mom used to make us kids, and I've promised my grand-kids I'd make it for them. Saltine crackers spread with peanut butter and a marshmallow. Broil until marshmallow is as dark as you like it. Kind of an indoor s'mores I guess, without the chocolate. I'm going to go make some now. I haven't had one in oh, thirty years or so.
daintymorsel at 7:25PM on 10/29/07