Meals That Take You Back

I've just noticed a disturbing theme in my blogs of late. They are all focused on the past, sorta like someone who is losing their mind due to senility lives forever in World War II...and there you have it. I have successfully self-diagnosed, except that I wasn't alive then. Oh well, I might as well go with it for the moment.

My guess is that I'm not the only one who when eating something or even just going through a menu is briefly flashed back to their childhood by certain foods or meals. Here are just a few examples that do it for me.

Creamed peas, my favorite vegetable still, was best prepared by Grammie. She knew exactly how I liked them, with just the right amount of sugar mixed into the cream. They were and are like a dessert to me. I realize very few people though share my love of these.

Macaroni and cheese, one of my favorites now but irony of ironies, I disliked when I was little. The irony being my father worked at the Tillamook County Cheese Factory. You know how it is, too much of a good thing.

What I did like though was toasted cheese sandwiches served with tomato soup. That remains a favorite meal to this day and I believe I have successfully passed it on to my girls as well. I remember Kara coming home from college for a weekend and she asked me if we could have that on the phone before she even got in the house.

Homemade ice cream meant me and/or my sister sitting on top of the crank to make it easier for my dad to keep turning it (everything was manual in those days of course). The head rushes haven't changed either with each scrumptious bite you take.

Caramel apples, sno-cones, corn dogs and cotton candy continue to be carnival favorites and none of their ingredients have changed one iota in 50 years.

Oatmeal or cream of wheat will always remind me of breakfast at Grammie's house and those will always be good memories; especially since I stayed there so frequently.

Fried chicken was the only meal we ever had at my paternal grandmother's because they raised chickens. Unless of course it was the fall when we had turkey because then they had baby turkeys in the chicken barn. I'll never forget a bunch of us cousins walking through the barn with Grandpa and all the little chicks scattering before us. That was my first lesson in the cruelty of nature because you would see little dead or dying chicks who had been singled out by the others and pecked to pieces. I also remember watching Grandpa walk through the thousands of chicks, he was huge to me and walked very slowly, which was always a challenge for us kids who wanted to be running, skipping, jumping and generally rough-housing every minute of the day. He always reminded me of an elephant, the way he lumbered back and forth, leading us baby elephants through the chicken jungle. Who says I don't have imagination?

Our neighbors in Tillamook made homemade root beer. They would store it tipped on their garage wall and I remember every once in awhile, a bottle would simply explode. Us kids thought that was cool but of course we didn't have to clean it up. It was a loss though because it tasted so good when you drank it. A & W Root Beer came the closest to the actual taste as I recall.

One of the favorite school lunches we had growing up was "pig in a blanket", a little hot dog wrapped in dough that was baked. Yum! Haven't had one of those in years but they're still around.

Every Sunday night was my dad's night to cook. That meant we would be eating pancakes since that's all he ever cooked. The question always was, what kind of pancakes. This is where my dad got creative, the only time I remember that happening. One night we had orange pancakes (he stirred orange juice into the batter), another night we had banana pancakes and another alternative I remember were chocolate pancakes. Of course you can guess which version was our favorite. I have to admit they were all pretty tasty, especially after you smothered them in homemade, warm maple syrup. Mother always put jelly on her pancakes, we all thought that was a huge waste of good food. And to this day, breakfast for dinner is preferable.

The one thing I remember that never went over well, and continues to be offered in lame restaurants today is liver and onions. If you have to serve something with onions to drown the flavor of the meat, that should be your clue that it's a foul dish. And I believe that to this day.

Enjoy your next childhood meal!