Tuesday, August 31, 2010

There is a neat blog that posts questions for "Flashback Friday". It's here if you want to see it for yourself. So here is my contribution to one of her flashbacks, only I'm doing it on Tuesday because I have to work on Friday and won't have time to play in the Blogosphere. Her questions are in Italics. My answers aren't.

FOOD
What were meals like when you were growing up?
I remember that Mom always made a roast beef, ‘taters & gravy, and a Jell-O salad for Sunday dinner. It made the most wonderful aroma to come wafting out of the kitchen to greet us when we got home from church.
Did your mom (or dad) cook (and was it from scratch or from a box?)
Mom cooked, using very few, if any convenience foods. I considered it a special treat when I was able to talk her into buying Rice-A-Roni. I used to love the stuff, but I hardly ever buy it now. I remember she made bacon and eggs for breakfast almost every day and only had cereal once in a while. I don’t remember for sure, but I’ll bet my older sisters helped her a lot in the kitchen. When she was working at a job and Dad had to cook, he would make bacon, eggs, and toast for dinner.
or did your family eat out much of the time? I don’t remember all of us going out to eat together very much, but I’m the youngest of six, so I doubt we did it very often. We used to pile in the car and drive the three miles into town once in a while to get ice cream at a tiny little Dairy Queen. When the other five were grown up and on their own, I remember once going out to eat with Mom & Dad at a place called the Green Lantern in Decatur, NE. They had the best onions rings I’d ever eaten (until my son started making them a few years ago.) The Green Lantern burned down a few years ago, but they rebuilt it.
Did you eat together as a family or was everyone on a different schedule?
I think we mostly ate together as a family, until extra-curricular school activities got in the way.
What did you call meals? (Dinner vs. supper, lunch, etc.)
It was (and still is) breakfast, dinner and supper. Lunch was a snack in the middle of the afternoon, between dinner and supper.
What were some of your favorite things that your parent fixed?
Mom made the best chicken and home made noodles on the planet.
What did you dislike and vow never to fix once you grew up?
I didn’t like liver when I was young, but I like it now.
Did your family have any food traditions, things that were a must on certain occasions (such as Sunday dinners or holiday meals)?
We had oyster stew on New Year’s Eve and ham on New Year’s Day. The usual turkey, etc. on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Did your parent teach you to cook or did you wing it once you were grown?
I learned a lot of basic cooking skills from Mom, just by watching her. She always made meat, potatoes and a vegetable and I still consider that to be a square meal. Over the years, I’ve learned to cook a lot of different types of foods. I do a lot more international cuisines than Mom did. And my husband likes to have a lettuce salad. I don’t remember having salads much growing up.
How similar or different are your family's eating habits today than when you grew up?
We’ve always had a TV in sight and on while we eat. That’s one thing I would do differently if I had it to do over again. My kids pretty much grew up on mac & cheese and peanut butter & jelly. They had cereal for breakfast most of the time, tho they would have liked pancakes every day. I hardly ever took the time to make them a cooked breakfast, but now I wish I had. As I remember it, they preferred ‘fast food’ to home cooking for dinner & supper. I would be interested to hear their side of it.

4 comments:

Jim said...

This is a fun meme, isn't it? But they are long and take more than average time to write.
I haven't decided about this Friday or not. We just got home from a week off (off of being retired at home, it was retired in Canada) and I have quite a bit of 'catching up' to do.
I also have to say what happened with the green grasshopper.

Did you like the Green Lantern? We have never been there, I think folks may have been a couple of times for something special.
We have been to the Marina, Pop-n-Docs, for catfish a few times. It isn't Southern fried but it's pretty good. They eyes look at you while you eat it.
We have TV at the kitchen table too.
..
..

Janell said...

Jim; yes, it's fun. I appreciate the inspiration. I haven't been to the new Green Lantern, yet, tho I've been threatening to make the hubby take me there. I hear it's just as good as the old one. I think I'd lke the Marina - I like to order fish when I'm out 'cuz I don't have it at home much.

Sue said...

You have the basics right on target being meat, potatoes, and a veggie. Veggie usually corn as we froze bunches of it. Dessert was usually canned fruit. On Sunday we might bring home ice cream which lasted only 1 meal.
My favorite of Mom's was homemade noodles with either beef or chicken.

Janell said...

Sue; the noodles were definitely the BEST!