Middle Aged Memories
Comments
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Good grief....my brain thought was and my fingers typed wasn't. They don't call me "slow" for nuthin!
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You're faster than I am!
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When I was a kid this was the only way my Mother could get me to eat fruit.
I remember picking out all the cherries and leaving the rest!!
Fruit cocktail in a can.
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SlowDeep - we should have been at the same table & we could have been sharing. I didn't like the cherries.
Another food note - my 45 year old son accuses me of serving only Iceberg lettuce when he was growing up. Well for heaven's sake - if you weren't on a farm that was all you could buy in the stores.
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I LOVED fruit cocktail.
I didn't know lettuce was anything but iceberg for YEARS!
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Same here - I didn't know there were other kinds of lettuce either.
My Mom sure made a great Italian salad with the iceberg though.
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SlowDeepBreaths--I
remember that fruit cocktail, still love it, and still go for the
cherries!Iceberg lettuce was
the only lettuce I even knew until I was an adult!Times have changed.0 -
At Dad's house, if a salad was made, it was iceberg lettuce, maybe some tomatoes, with Wishbone Italian dressing dumped on top. At Mom's house, it was mixed greens with avocado, nuts, fruit, whatever was fresh, and homemade dressing.
Growing up, dinner at Dad's was hot dogs or spaghetti with Wonder bread with chunks of butter in it! Or peanut butter...lots of peanut butter. Until he remarried. Then it was overcooked beef (cheapest cuts), white potatoes, and iceberg lettuce "salad."
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staynsane, That sounds like my dream food when I was a kid. Spaghetti, hot dogs, Wonder Bread and peanut butter. I didn't like "good" food when I was young. Oh yeah, and tons of Lipton Noodle Soup with lots of Locatelli Romano Cheese. No wonder I'm so unhealthy as an adult!!
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My dad gave me a grilled cheese (white bread) with a dill pickle. His other specialty was that chipped beef business, in Campbell's mushroom soup. Spaghetti-Ohs from the can once in a while. I liked when I saw him open a can, so I could be sure what I was getting, because he was tricky. He was the kind of guy that would pass off ground venison as "a hamburger" when one bite would make me gag and cry.
My mom was not a wiz in the kitchen, but she did expose me to avocado, artichokes and asparagus at an early age. Yes, we had the big old heads of iceberg lettuce, but once in a while had Bibb or romaine too. Speaking of your green leafy vegetables...We also had a green called rapini, which I never see anymore. Where did it all go, I wonder?
Favorite food as a child? Probably pizza. Several neighborhood pizzarias to choose from, all good, not like the nasty chain places of our present times. I also made the frozen Appian Way individual pizzas at home. Those were kind of nasty, but in their own signature nasty taste way that you could actually come to like. (You know, like how it was with space food sticks.)
(Memories gang, I'm posting lots less these days, but have enjoyed this thread greatly. Keep it going!)
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Remember the chip beef that was in bags that you boiled then cut them open and put them on bread..I think my Dad called it S--t on a shingle.
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Loral - Stauffers still makes that chipped beef & I still like it.
I still love Lipton Noodle Soup. We make it with 1/2 water & 1/2 milk. My favorite childhood food was either a) Chinese or b) steak and macaroni w/butter. My Dad traveled a lot when I was young and when he was gone we could have breakfast food for dinner - waffles or french toast. Even though I was raised in Northern California, the veggies were mostly canned in the late 1950s. Oh that horrid slimy canned asparagus. Of course now fresh is one of my favorites. And you're right Eli, I had forgotten Mother occasionally served butter lettuce or bibb lettuce for "ladies luncheons" - under the molded jello salad. Remember those? LOL.
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the molded jello salads with the fruit cocktail inside!
my Mom made the chipped beef stuff with "meat" that was in a glass jar I think and some white sauce she probably made from scratch perhaps. Hated that stuff!!!!
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I guess I've become a food snob, because the pictures of chipped beef, Wonder bread, and thoughts of canned pasta, etc., turn my stomach! I hated canned everything when growing up! Probably my all-time worst: stewed tomatoes, Manwich gunk, and Eli's beloved Spaghetti-ohs. I'll also add my stepmother's ground up overcooked beef roast sandwich mixture to the list! And Spam.
One thing that brings a smile to my face today is the thought of peanut butter and sweet pickle sandwiches. Dad loved them! At the time, I thought it was the grossest thing you could consider eating. Now I get it. And I eat peanut butter, banana and honey on toast quite frequently.
Dad is turning 80 next week and we are celebrating Saturday. I should probably pick up some pb & sp!
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Elimar, so glad we flushed you out with talk of food!!
My Mom would make rapini (she called it broccoli rabe) every Christmas Eve with Shrimp. I hated it as a kid. My sister carried on the tradition, although it's not so easy to get here in CA.
We never had the chipped beef stuff. My Mom did make this tenderloin thing in the pressure cooker. She would buy it all wrapped up in netting. I'm not sure if it was pork or beef. I loved it though - she used to put spinach in it too. I loved the pressure cooker, but I was a little afraid of it. I looked for that kind of meat in the grocery store now, but could never find it. Wish I had gotten the recipe.
NativeMarine, Thanks for the pictures! It's difficult to find Locatelli Romano here in CA - but there is a little deli in Temecula that sells it. I just love the taste of that cheese and use it in my homemade sauce/gravy.
Never had PB with sweet pickles. Have had it with dill pickles though. All this talk of food is making me hungry!
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My Dad made PB & Mayo YUKK PB & Syrup ok. My Favs PB & BrownSugar or PowderedSugar, PB& Sweet or even BETTER DILL Pickles!!! Too bad so many kids are allergic to such a great food as PNUT BUTTER.
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That's the SOS Native....made my stomach turn just looking at it!
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Never had that, and oh so thankful.
When dad was in charge of making something for us it was usually "pizza bread", a slice of sandwich bread topped with tomato sauce and a sprinkle of oregano and grated cheddar cheese under the broiler until the cheese melted. He also like making us the treat we affectionately called "Crispie Critters" which was saltine crackers prepared the same way. (Although they received the name crispie because of the times they were placed to close to the broiler and they might have come out black-ish.
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When my Dad had to cook he made pancakes. Funny, I don't remember him ever making anything else except hamburgers. He did grill chicken but only after Mother had prepared & marinated the birds.
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It's always so amusing to hear about the "Dad" concoctions.
Someone should write a recipe book. LOL
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Slow Deep- you really don't need a recipe book for most "dad concoctions." The basic ingredients include bacon, hot dogs, a can of beans, peanut butter, butter and white bread. And, if you're lucky, S'mores for dessert!
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hahaha staynsane, that's what would make it so funny. All the things they can do with those few ingredients.
My Dad NEVER cooked or made anything when I was a kid - my mom did it all. He started cooking once I was in my teens. He was fascinated with the microwave. I remember when I was in high school, my friends would come over and he would offer to cook them a chicken. LOL My friends still remember that. They said most parents would offer you something to drink, but your Dad offered to cook us a chicken.
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My DM was a pretty good cook but 1950s-1960s in El Paso, Albuquerque were not hotbeds of fresh vegies. They did have a decent garden for a while in Alb. She belonged to the Doubleday Book Club and I inherited a ton of her CBs from that era. I never remember having canned spaghetti Os even camping; prob. not something I would have eaten. I also don't remember having spag. of any kind. More fried chicken, tough round steak, canned English peas (her fav.), enchiladas. We moved to Hawaii when I was in 4th grade. I guess she learned to make scratch tortillas though I have found they were available canned. Yeech. But whatever, the enchiladas remained basically the same from Alb. to Hawaii. I don't remember her cooking changing a whole lot there. Had to have enchiladas to watch Bonanza.
She made s--t on a shingle for my stepdad #2 but I was long gone from home. The only thing I've ever used it for is a pretty good chicken dish where you wrap chicken breasts with it and smother stuff with sour cream/canned soup. Buffet dish but NOT if you're watching your salt intake. I have 5# (what was I thinking) pkg of thighs in freezer. Maybe I might make some if it can dig out the recipe.
DH will not touch whole wheat bread so he eats the fluffy stuff. Brought home a deli sandwich from groc. the other day. A kinda grainy bread but he actually liked it. Maybe there's hope but not much. He just made a "grilled" cheese with white bread. Toast, butter, sliced cheese, nuked in micro.
Was in WallyWorld yest. Nice looking man picked up the commercial size jar of PB. I wondered just how many kids he was feeding. Now I understand the giant cans of cheese queso. It IS football season but that much PB. Gag.
The only thing I ever remember my dad making was grilled stuff. I doubt he even knew how to use a toaster. PTL my mother was never sick, never in hospital. We would have starved - well except for PB&J. I don't think you could even buy wheat bread then. My DM always made 2 pies on Saturday morning - chocolate and another kind that I think must have varied maybe by season. Scratch crust of course. Making me hungry.
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luvmygoats, we never ate wheat bread growing up. I never knew it existed. I eat it now because it's supposed to be better for you. But, I am definitely a white bread gal. When I was a kid I used to squeeze it in a ball and eat it. I still do that occasionally. Especially the Hawaiian rolls. But, I try not to eat them too often.
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Do you remember making whistles out of Milk Dud boxes? Or other candy boxes for that matter. I am sure my mother was pleased when they got too moist from saliva to be able to whistle. Halloween was a boom time for candy box whistles.
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It's funny how we made toys out of such simple things.
I remember making whistles!!
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DH sent me on a hunt for Circus Peanuts. Lady stocking the candy aisle asked me if I had checked the nut aisle. She certainly looked of age to know what Circus Peanuts are and that they are not nuts. Yeech - not my choice of candy. No luck but I did get his orange slices. Brach's mandarin orange slices are very strong flavored. He likes them. Keep hubby happy.
I don't remember making whistles with Milk Dud boxes. I couldn't do the thing with a blade of grass either. Just barely able to whistle at all.
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LMG, my DH loves orange slices too!
I was very good with a blade of grass. Can't whistle too well otherwise.
I can also do an excellent hand cup whistle.
ahhhh...the many talents......
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