We are home from our almost six weeks of wandering through 11 states, 8 national parks, and 14 state parks. It was wonderful, but oh, my, is it ever good to be home! As I was looking through our photos, it struck me how many different things we ate, but more specifically, how many things I eat (and love!) now that I didn’t even know existed when I was growing up (or even when we were raising our kids.)
I grew up on a farm and we ate the produce of our land. Beef, pork, potatoes, dairy, and vegetables. We ate a lot of casseroles and scalloped potatoes and creamed vegetables. We had bread with every meal (usually homemade), and dessert after every meal! On the rare occasions my mom hadn’t baked something for dessert, she would make frosting to spread on graham crackers.
Just a few of the wonderful things I’d never tasted (or even heard of) until I was grown: guacamole, pomegranates, mangoes, pesto, hummus, spinach and artichoke hearts dip (mmmm!) Even yogurt and bagels…I don’t think I even knew about them until I was in high school, and I tried my first bagel as a newlywed living in New York. (But oh, what a place to discover bagels!)
Of course, the reverse is true too: There are foods I ate as a kid that I rarely or never eat now: bulgar, Cream of Wheat, all kinds of sweet cold cereal, Jell-o, mush (what my mom called fried, leftover oatmeal), fried potatoes and potato cakes, which were mashed potato patties fried in butter. (Are you seeing a theme? Is it any wonder I struggle to keep my weight down!?)
What new foods have you discovered and enjoyed as an adult? What foods did you eat as a child that you almost never eat now? Final question: Is this post making you hungry? 😉
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I loved reading about your food explorations! When we moved to Texas from Virginia in 1978, we tried chicken fried steak, guacamole, fajitas, tacos, sopapillas, etc. Traveling to Louisiana on vacations from Texas, we tried gumbo, shrimp creole, beignets, etc. Life is so much more interesting with a variety of foods!
So true, Suzanne! And all those foods you named are things I NEVER tried as a child, but love now!
Oh my goodness. Frosting on graham crackers. We did that too. Often, we colored the frosting so it would be blue or pink between the two brown graham crackers. What a “sweet” memory.
Have you had finger steaks? They were invented here in Idaho. Trouble is, not every place that puts them on the menu does a great job with them. But when they are good, yum. Of course, full of fats but still . . .
I’ve never heard of finger steaks! I’m almost scared to ask what’s in them! LOL!
And yes! We used food coloring to dye our frosting. We tried all combinations, with lavender being a favorite! 🙂
Love the mention of steak fingers. I made those all the time when the kids were growing up. Strips of tenderized beef dredged lightly in flour and spices and then fried to a crisp! Some folks like them served with hot/tangy sauce, but I always made gravy for ours, along with buttermilk biscuits! Add to that mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn, along with a pie for dessert, and that was standard Alexander fare years ago. I have no idea why my husband is diabetic. : }
LOVED following your adventures this trip. And that includes all the yummy food. I loved, too, all the “tricks of the trade” of RV life you shared along the way. Very interesting!
Well, now, I’m HUNGRY! Those actually sound yummy! The whole meal!
I only ‘discovered’ pizza once I’d started work, one of the girls shared a recipe & we all bought pizza trays (& fancy cutters, both of which I still use); the only pasta we had heard of was spaghetti; yoghurt hadn’t reached NZ; nobody ate Chinese, or Indian, or Italian… The males in my family were highly suspicious when I first served a meal on rice – that’s only for puddings! Sour cream, cottage cheese, cream cheese – not in our shops (note : not supermarkets – they didn’t exist.) I remember when KFC arrived, such a novelty! Our most exotic fruit was a banana… (kiwifruit were still Chinese gooseberries.)
Yes, I can relate to a lot of that, although we DID get a Pizza Hut in our town when I was in high school. Oh, and here’s something we DID eat: fondu. It was a big deal for a while!
My mother was from
Spanish decent so we ate a lot of black beans and rice, Picadillo, boliche, plantains, palomilla steak, ropa vieja…. But I don’t eat any of It anymore since my mom passed away. I can never make it as good as she did.
Things that were new to me… chicken and dumplings, venison, salmon, fried chicken. If you haven’t guessed I married a southern boy who came from a big family 😊
Oh, I love that, Jocelyn! We ate lots of fried chicken in Kansas and I even remember my mom, grandmother and great-grandmother butchering chickens and singeing off the feathers over a plate of burning alcohol! (That expression “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” is VERY accurate!)
I love that picture of us four…and the memories that go along with it. I never even thought to serve you Knoephla Soup!! I make it from scratch. Funny story, the first time I made it I tried to cut-the-calories by not using much butter and substituted skim milk for the cream. Bad idea. My sister looked at it and said, “This looks like dirty dishwater.” It did…and it didn’t taste much better. I’ve perfected it since. Next time…
I think I like what you served us a lot better! (Although I’m sure your Knoephla Soup would have been much better than the diner’s. I love those memories too. Our time with you and Lorren was truly one of the highlights of the trip for me! We need a repeat!!
Oh my! The food you ate growing up sounds almost just like mine! Beef, potatoes, vegetables, (creamed on holidays),jello, and bread at every dinner. I rarely serve bread at dinner, vegetables are fresh or frozen instead of canned. I NEVER had a salad until college, nor Mexican food. There are too many changes in my food choices to list!
A fun, nostalgic post! Thank you.
Oh yes! Also, frosting in graham and saltine crackers! We always had chocolate frosting! You are the first person I’ve EVER heard that had them! How funny!
Oh, the BAGELS! Back when we lived in NJ, my office always had real, Brooklyn-boiled bagels in the cafeteria. When we moved back to IL, they were one of the few things I missed. Then lo and behold, a NJ-style bagel place (NOT Einstein’s or another chain) opened up here a year ago and it’s only 5 minutes away! Happy dance! What dish do I not miss at all from the old days? Liver and onions. Period.
Time for lunch …
MMMMM. Liver and onions was and still is one of my absolute favorite meals. You can imagine the reaction our friends had when asked if they’d like to stay to dinner when kids. They always asked what we were having… can’t imagine why! LOL
Welcome home from your magnificent trip. Two of three conferences down and writing my proposal, I’m incredibly late catching up with mail but your delightful foodie experience made me laugh. I remember my mom singing a “nonsense song” about peanut butter bagels and gold fish stew — then in college I discovered bagels are real much to my amazement! Who knew we grew up organic with meat hunted or fished, produce from our enormous garden or picked at surrounding farms. Life just keeps handing out surprises. I’m in SC this week. Just yesterday I had fried green tomato eggs Benedict!