I remember spending the night at a friend’s house in high school, I’ll call her Brenda. It was a slumber party and there was tons of junk food in her house. My house never had junk food. My parents were food freaks–everything was low-fat, non-fat, no-flavor food that tasted like cardboard (I mean really, who wants to eat plain popcorn with no butter, flavor or salt? Yuck.).
Brenda brought out a tub of sour cream (*REAL sour cream) and Ruffles potato chips and everyone dove in.
I’d never had real sour cream. Ever. Only non-fat products were allowed in the house. I wasn’t even a real fan of sour cream (oh how times have changed) but tasting the real sour cream full of fat and calories was like magic in my mouth. I was hooked. I wanted to eat it all the time.
That began the love affair of sour cream that has never left my life. I’m okay with that. Now? I eat light sour cream.
Another memory that popped into my head was about breakfast….er, sort of. My best friend in elementary school lived with her sister and mom in a house that had no rules. They could eat and do whatever they wanted. If they wanted soda and potato chips for dinner? Sure, that’s ok. I remember spending a lot of time at her house. She introduced me to a combination of food that just sounds vile now as an adult.
This friend, I’ll call her Rebecca, toasted an Eggo Waffle and then smeared thick chocolate cake frosting on the waffle.
Oh my god. SUGAR OVERDOSE. No wonder I was on the path towards diabetes.
It’s funny how certain memories pop into your head. And it’s even funnier how your opinions change over time. 7 years ago? I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about those childhood memories. Now? I cringe at what I was doing to my body. Gross.
What a long way I’ve come.
QUESTION: What is a food memory you have, both negative and positive ones?
Brie @ Brie Fit
My mom baked and sold cakes out of our house when I was little, before my dad died. She would set me up at a table to watch her bake and toss me little nibbles–she’d pipe buttercream frosting onto my finger to lick off, and would let me lick the bowl and scrape the bits of cake off the waxed paper from between layers when she was done with it.
On the one hand, I love remembering my mom that way–doing something she loved with me–but on the other, it makes me sad because food was a big way she expressed her love to me when i was little, and that’s never good.
Lisa Eirene
That’s a really nice memory. I have similar memories with my mom baking cookies, or helping my grandma bake cakes and I got the frosting. My grandpa also baked bread and I loved the smell of it.
Lesley
Being rom Louisiana, I have a million food memories. Monday night round steak with rice and gravy. Roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy. Fried catfish and fried shrimp. My Dad fries so well that it doesn’t even seem greasy. Oh, it is, but it is magical. I refuse to eat fried seafood from anyone other than my Dad now. If I’m going to splurge, it better be the best. Thank goodness, I only have it a few times a year now when I go home.
My Louisiana family always had (has) loads of sour cream, too. I don’t even like it that much, but it’s a nice creamy consistency. My husband and I have made the gradual (not on purpose, but necessity when we didn’t have sour cream) to fat free greek yogurt. We use it in place of any recipe calling for sour cream —dips, enchiladas, with tacos, whatever. And, frankly, the food turns out so much better! My husband made Martha Stewart’s Green Chile enchiladas (chicken, green chiles and spinach), but we used corn tortillas and greek yogurt. Actually better than the “correct” recipe.
Lisa Eirene
Ooooh that food sounds delicious! Having tried done Southwestern food and BBQ on vacation here in Arizona I can see how those would be happy memories!
blackhuff
My mother was a SAHM. She always cooked us meals with 2 vegetables, 1 meat and rice or pap (maize cooked in water). One of the vegetables always had potato and onion in it and the other one cooked in a lot of sugar. Those were the days, I thought until I became more conscious about what healthy eating really was. I don’t blame my mother for serving food like this because that was how our tradition was. That is how her mother cooked food to them and that is what she did for us.
Lisa Eirene
That sounds like great eating!!
Marilyn @ Lipgloss and Spandex
Ohhh I have so many food memories! I love food. The “cheesy noodles” and freezer cookies and Cornish pasties that my grandma makes, and the Vietnamese curry that my mom makes… And I went to college in the South, so I miss grits and hushpuppies and collard greens a lot!
It’s amazing the crazy sugary things that we eat when we’re kids. I cringe just thinking about some of the crap I ate!
Lisa Eirene
I had hushpuppies for the very first time this weekend! Yum! I’ve been missing out.
LIsa
I remember having mac n cheese out of the Kraft blue box when I was younger and LOVED IT. I actually had it as an adult a few years ago and was amazed at just how bad it tasted!
Lisa Eirene
Isn’t that nuts? I thought Blue Box was good too…mmm not so much…,
Coco
I remember making “milk” with friends across the street: we stirred so much sugar into a glass of water that it looked like milk. I’m not sure if we ever drank a whole glass!
A fond memory was my mom taking me to a sandwich shop after school on Fridays (I was in kindergarted with a 1/2 day on Fridays) and getting a PB & J sandwich on thick, soft white bread with a thick layer of PB and a thick layer of grape jelly! I can still remember sitting in our booth, unwrapping the cellophane (they must have made the sandwiches in the morning), and licking a gob of PB off the wrapper. 😛
Lisa Eirene
Ooooh PB&J! On white bread! I can’t remember the last time I had white bread.
Kristin
I have so many memories of the things my Norwegian grandmother used to make us, both traditional foods and Americanized versions (not that Norwegians are very exotic). My sister and I (and my parents too) loved Norwegian pancakes (some call them Swedish pancakes), very thin pancakes with butter and sugar, rolled up. Then there’s the Christmas cookies and lefse, not to forget lutefisk … Of course we were all constantly on diets, so there was plenty of disordered behavior too. BTW, the waffles with frosting? I would totally eat that. (Waffles with Nutella, anyone?)
Lisa Eirene
You had me at Nutella……..!
Kendall
Your “chocolate frosting and waffles” memory, triggered an even weirder food combo from my past. When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, I went to a friend’s house and we dipped store brand Doritos in chocolate frosting. I remember it being a really tasty, addictive combination. Something about the salty-spicy-sweet worked! I never re-created the experience, so it might have been my little kid palate. Also, I had to walk home from school every day in middle school. It was honestly a pretty long hike, so instead I would go to a friend’s house and call my dad to pick me up later. At her house, we would toast REALLY big, thick cinnamon raisin bagels and slather them with butter. Bagels were not a food I grew up eating, nor that I particularly liked. But it was a ritual kind of thing. Looking back now at all the calories I daily traded in for exercise, I am a little ticked at twelve-year-old me!
A positive food memory….the beef stew my mom just made! It’s full of rutabagas and carrots and so delicious with a homemade dumpling on top! I had two bowls!
Lisa Eirene
Wow-Doritos and chocolate frosting. I’m not sure if I’d like that… 🙂
marie
It was a babysitter who introduced me to bacon!
Lisa Eirene
….and it was “happily ever after….” : D
Nikki
Hmmmmm, I remember my mom made french toast with our Mickey Mouse toast cutter, my dad’s special spagetti sauce (lots of brown sugar) and lots of fajitas. DOn’t know why, but we seemed to eat those a bunch. I also remember faking sick so my brother and I could stay home and make and eat entire batches of chocolate chip cookie dough……yea, ick. But that was one of the only times we ever worked together towards something growing up, so I guess that’s some kind of positive, right?
Lisa Eirene
Mmm now I want cookie dough!
Your dad made spaghetti sauce with brown sugar? That sounds interesting….
Lisa
I wouldn’t call it a negative food memory, just the beginning of unhealthy habits….Dunkin’ Donuts used to make these giant cookies and mom used to buy them, we discovered they were best served from the freezer, or the “normal” serving of icecream = 3 – 4 full scoops PLUS chocolate sauce. Mom was always on a diet and now has Type 2 diabetes.
Positive food memories – mom encouraging eating veggies and fixing healthy meals and now passing that on to my kids. They are not very picky eaters and like most veggies.
Lisa Eirene
I’m lucky in that I’ve always liked veggies and salads. It’s the cheese and dressing that gets me!!