What is your favorite "memory food" ?

Happyflowerlady

Happyflowerlady

Vagabond Flowerchild
Location
Northern Alabama
We all have at least one of these.
Not necessarily our all-time favorite food ( though it might be), but this is a food that forever brings back the memory of a certain time in your life when you eat it. It might be a special food that you only had at your Grandmothers when you were little, something you ate only for Christmas that you loved, or even a romantic anniversary dinner with your spouse.


For me, it is a can of pork and beans . Yep, plain old can of pork and beans.
We never had beans at home, mom didn't much like them, and never cooked a bean the whole time I was growing up.
But we used to go on weekend fishing/camping trips, which I absolutely loved . Mom would make fried chicken and potato salad, and also brought along a large can of pork and beans, which were only ever called "Fishin' Beans" , since that was the only time we ate them.
I loved Fishin' Beans !


Anytime I pick up a can of these beans in the store, it brings back the wonderful childhood memories of those camping trips and the picnic-style meals we had.
 

My mother would make homemade potato pancakes that we'd eat with a mix of cottage cheese and sour cream, that's a good memory food for me. :sentimental:
 
My mum used to make Jam rolly pollies,they were lovely, also Golden syrup dumplings
 
Can't remember anything my Mother cooked as she walked out on us , but Dear old Dad bless his cotton socks would cook Chops , Peas & Potatoes or Steak, Peas & Potatoes, i took over when old enough and cooked more variety
 
This was a tough one for me, as my Mom was always cooking something, seemingly around the clock. I guess I'd have to say that Saturday morning pancakes were my favorite as a kid, with tons of butter and syrup. Fueled me up for the day's mischief. :eek:

The most memorable meal, though, was one we never ate.

I was about 7 years old and Mom was making chicken paprika for the extended family - aunts, uncles, grandparents, you name it. They were all gathered in the kitchen shooting the breeze.

At one point she was prepping the veggies in the sink and I took a peek into the bubbling pot of little Foghorn Leghorns ... lo and behold the paprika was swimming. :uncomfortableness:

With all of the innocence and tact of a 7-year-old I loudly said "Mom, why is the paprika swimming?"



Did you ever see the part in the movie Titanic when people finally realize the ship is going down? Yeah, that's what the kitchen looked like after my proclamation.



Turns out some kind of little critters decided to shack up in the paprika can and were treated to an impromptu hot-tub session. Needless to say we ordered Chinese that night ... :playful:
 
Home made yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls. Whenever I pass a bakery and that smell hits me, instant transformation back into a 10 year old coming home from school smelling that bread when I came in the door.
 
Made a mess of it, trying again. why can't I get rid of the 'attachment'??? aaaaaargh

siiigh.

Golden syrup dumplings
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Yessss!
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Best thing about winter. But why was it only our mothers who could cook them? They look but don't taste the same the same now. Can you still buy 'real' suet at the butchers? I never think to ask, and that powdered packet crap just doesn't cut it.

cinnamon rolls.
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Coincidence, I'm just embarking on the bread making journey, never made it in my life before. I'm cheesed off with buying it and throwing 2/3rds of it in the bin when it goes green in a couple of days. Lurrrrrve those cinnamon rolls so if I master the art I'm going to try making those. They can't be worse than some I've bought in cake shops lately.
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The two biggies for nostalgia hits are Gramma (Pumpkin) Pies and Novel Apple pudding. Grandma's pies, and Mum's pudding. I have a lot more success with the pudding and still make that quite often. And scoff the lot on my own over 2 days.

Here's one I prepared earlier.....
 

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Many things come to mind, like homemade cheese, which would sit in it's netting on the porch and drip all day, but very favorite is my Grandma's pierogi. It's a Russian, Polish stuffed dumpling made of dough, and stuffed with potato, cheese or sauerkraut ... boiled or fried in butter with onions.


 
Bee said:
Steak and kidney pudding...............no wonder I have always had a weight problem.:D
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My Gran mother was from Bristol in the U.K. & she made a mean steak & kidney pie, Apple & rhubarb pie
as did my Mum. All made on a old Cast iron wood burning oven.....YUMMY:adoration:
 
My mother used to make the steak and kidney pies as well Gdad, also apple pies and apple puddings.:)
 
I am pretty sure that my mother was actually a pretty good cook, as well; but by the time I was old enough to remember that kind of thing, mom and Grandpa Bailey were running the little neighborhood grocery store. She had customers from 8AM-7PM, and no time to really prepare a meal, or make things like pies.

We lived in an older house that did not have a stove, so everything we cooked had to be made in the electric frying pan, or the electric cooking pot ( similar to a crock pot).
In the summer, we ate chicken or hamburger, with boiled potatoes and salad. In the winter, we ate hamburger stew, and added a new can of some vegetable to it every day, until it was gone; and then we made more stew.
My mom and dad both worked, so often it was me that started the dinners, but basically, whoever was in the kitchen first, started the meals.

When I grew up and got married, I felt obligated to let my intended know that all I could cook was stew, fried chicken, and make potato salad.
I guess he didn't care, at least he happily consumed a lot of fried chicken dinners without any complaint....
 
Maybe not every weekend, but it seems like it now in my memories, I'd go to my grandma's and have sour dough pancakes. It was always said that the sour dough starter that Grandma had was from her mother, and she just kept it going for decades. Don't know if that is true, but whatever the truth was of the magical "sour dough starter " those were the best damn pancakes in the world.
 
What they call sourdough down here is a far cry from the best I ever tasted. It was in Skagway Alaska and a local bakery had been using their 'starter' for a century or so. It was fantastic! Spoiled me for life as have never tasted sourdough anywhere near that good since.
 
Diwundrin said:
What they call sourdough down here is a far cry from the best I ever tasted. It was in Skagway Alaska and a local bakery had been using their 'starter' for a century or so. It was fantastic! Spoiled me for life as have never tasted sourdough anywhere near that good since.
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Once you have had the real deal, everything else pales in comparison.
Same goes for my grandma's cookies, she made the best molassas cookies in the world.
 
I can remember my Mom making us a ...... mamaliga ....
I still make for myself today upon occasion.. My dear wife won't even look at it because she doesn't know what it is and wasn't brought up on that kind of food.. I told her that in New Zealand (where she comes from) they missed all the good things in life like enjoying a good dish of mamaliga....

I eat it with sour cream and cottage cheese..

In my opinion, died and gone to heaven........................
 
This is a great thread, love the memory sharing. Without question, for me it was my mom's fried chicken and blackberry cobbler. I don't cook either one. I live alone and just won't go to that much trouble for myself.
 

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