Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Food Memories

The night before last two storms roared through my town, one right after the other.  They brought wind and rain and lightning strikes that caused a fire in  a garage and another in a house.  Thankfully nobody was injured.  And thankfully, the storms brought our heat wave temperatures down to a tolerable level.

So what does one do when it is cool enough to run the oven?  In this house, one bakes cookies.

I dug out two of my cookie mixes, stirred them up and after I put the second batch into the oven I called my son who is also my next door neighbor and said, "There be cookies."  He replied, "I'll be right over."

We sat and talked of many things and I was reminded of when my kids were young children.  They delighted in sneaking cookie dough from the bowl whenever I was baking cookies.  I would fuss at them as Mom's are prone to do and they would think they were getting away with putting one over on Mom.  In reality, I had a hard time keeping a straight face and I always stirred up extra dough, knowing what would happen.

Later that evening I heard the sound of my son's key in the lock of my apartment door.  He soon stuck his head through the doorway of the living room and followed with a big strawberry malt made with fresh strawberries.  He knows how I dearly love ice cream in any form and it was a real treat as well as a nice surprise.

I was reminded of a time when the kids were small.  If we would visit my parents of a morning, my Dad would fix my kids chocolate malts for breakfast.  Mother would always fuss at Dad, telling him that chocolate malts were not a proper breakfast.  Dad would always counter by telling her the malts were healthy because he used Carnation Instant Breakfast Mix for the flavoring and ice cream was, after all, a dairy product that was good for kids.  And the kids would listen to them and grin, knowing that the next time they visited in a morning, they would again be treated to chocolate malts for breakfast.

The other day my son surprised me with a bag of fresh cherries.  I love cherries.  I have been nibbling on them, using every bit of my will power to keep from eating them all at once.

I was reminded of a time when Dad needed to travel for his job from our home in west central Minnesota to the capitol city of St. Paul, a journey of 100 plus miles.  Sometimes he would look at me and ask, "Do you want to go for a ride, Sis?"  (He often called me 'Sis.')  When those trips occurred in the summertime, Dad would stop at a roadside fruit stand on the way and buy a paper sack full of cherries.  The trip would then proceed while we ate cherries from the sack, spitting the pits out the open car windows.  I was never allowed to spit cherry pits out the window when Mother was in the car, for it wasn't lady like and she had high hopes of making a lady out of me.  But with Dad, I could get away with most anything that wasn't really bad or illegal.

It is funny how certain foods can trigger memories.  Potato salad reminds me of family picnics at the lake.  Gingersnap cookies remind me of visiting relatives on hot summer days, eating Mom's freshly baked gingersnaps and drinking ice cold lemonade on the wide front porch of our house.  Pancakes remind me of a time of eating little else for a week because that was all we had.

Lot of things trigger memories, but different foods seem to do it more for me.  There are good memories and some that are not so good.  The good memories mostly of times past when life was much more simple.  And the less than good memories remind me to keep adding to my food stash because I never want to go through another time like that.

9 comments:

  1. Is it just me, or do we think more about food in our old age? - lol

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    1. Taste is about the only sense still working at this point...

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    2. Gorges...Nope, it isn't just you. We aren't spending so much time any more chasing rainbows or trying to keep up with the Jones's.

      And what Pete said. Taste still works. Everything else - not so much!!

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  2. I just found your blog about a month ago and interested in your huge shopping trips and food preserving. My husband and I live on 3 acres. We have 5 grown children and 17 grandchildren. I don't do much canning anymore but your posts had me go out and buy a 4 lb bag of pinto beans. It's a start I guess

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    1. Good for you, Anon...Anything at all that we can put away for lean times is a good thing. People get car insurance and house insurance and health insurance. For me, putting food back is just food insurance. Due to health issues I don't can as much as I once did, but am saving toward two Sam's Club trips a year where I can stock up on those things I have to purchase. It doesn't matter so much on the methods but more on putting away enough to feed those we will need to feed in emergency situations.

      You have 17 grands? Wow!! You are truly blessed. I have 6 and they are the joy of my life, along with my 4 adult kids and their spouses. God has been good to both of us. :)

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    2. I have 17 grands ranging in age from 1 to 34 years. My youngest child and oldest child are 18 years apart.

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    3. Anon...I did things a bit differently - my kids from youngest to oldest are just a little over 6 years apart. My grands range from 11 years to 25 years. I look around and wonder where the time went. :)

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  3. You spit out cheery seeds?? Now I know why that stretch of hwy has cherry trees...Good smells can trigger fond memories. Fresh corn dogs fairs, hot butter popcorn, family movie nights. fresh baked C Chip cookies tall glass of fresh milk..etc,

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    1. Yep, Rob...The cherry trees are all my fault. :)
      I hadn't thought about food smells triggering memories, but you are right. The aroma of a beef roast cooking in the oven reminds me of Sunday dinner at Grandma's house. The smell of molasses brings memories of the molasses taffy Dad would make around Christmas time. Lots of good memories.

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