When I was young, I never heard anyone talk about cholesterol levels or avoiding fatty foods...in fact, my dad could never understand why I would actually cut the fat from my meat. "Isn't that the best part?" he would say. Honestly, when I think back on what was normal daily fare when growing up ... well, it wouldn't pass the test now.
Some of you will remember (or maybe still have) -
...Bread and gravy. The day after having a roast, Mom would cut up the leftover roast into the gravy and would serve it on white bread. Whole grain or wheat bread wasn't on our radar.
...Poop on a Shingle (It has other more graphic names.) I hated this stuff - browned hamburger in a gravy with peas and served on toast. I ate it, of course, because if you didn't eat what was served, you didn't eat, but it was hard. Honestly, who thought up a dish like this one?
....Prettles. I
could never get these down. I think they are beef and pork remnants
mixed with pinhead oats. They are browned and then at our house, some
ate them on top of bread with strawberry jam. None of us kids liked
them, as I remember.
...Hotdogs in casings. Compliments of Spenglers, Napoleon, usually
...Bread and milk. Our usual bedtime snack, this was white bread torn up, layered with a spoonful or two of white sugar and covered with whole milk. You don't want to know the nutritional statistics on this one.
...Potatoes. Fried, boiled or mashed.
...Homegrown meat. Pork or beef or chicken. I think my sister became a vegetarian the day that Dad announced we were eating Ike (or Mike,) one of the calves he raised. Somehow it pretty much ruined dinner for all of us that day. I also remember the time my mom went out to butcher a chicken and we were allowed to watch for the first (and only) time. I think we were all traumatized to see our mom wielding an ax and secondly, to see that chicken run around headless for what seemed like the longest time. That put the damper on chicken eating for awhile.
Guess we were farm pansies or at least I was!
I hope you'll email me or comment on some of your childhood food memories - positive or negative.
4 comments:
DianneJanuary 23, 2009 at 10:08 PMJennie wrote: "I remember eating prettles too growing up but thought they were good and never realized what they were or where they came from. I don't think I want any more:) Another thing I remember was spreading toast with bacon grease topped with a little sugar. Remember Sunday afternoons when families visited one another with no warning. Probably didn't have telephones to call ahead... Mom would always have jello, cold meat sandwiches, potato chips and maybe cake on hand...that was our usual Sunday PM meal. We always had a big Sunday noon meal: roast or FRIED chicken, potatoes, gravy, vegetable, bread/butter, and maybe pie. Always ready to eat when we walked in the house after church. How times have changed!"ReplyDelete- Does anyone else remember Grandpa Elling saying, "Go down to the basement and pick a pop!"? What a treat--we didn't get "pop" at home. My favorite was Red Faygo. But he and Aunt Kate had crates of so many flavors. Cream soda was my second choice. :DReplyDelete
Their basement on Park Street was a little bit of heaven to a kid! - I remember going to the basement for pop, too! I would go for the orange, usually. What a treat!ReplyDelete*This post originally appeared on Elling Family News on January 15, 2009.
