Memories

In Frances Mayes’ most recent book, A Place in the World, Finding the Meaning of Home, she devotes a chapter to The Taste of Memory. She poses these questions to her friends, “What’s your most memorable food from home? What comforts, revives and provokes memories?”

So in this week when food is uppermost in our minds, I asked my family members which foods evoked their memories of home. My question opened a floodgate of reminiscences including one for a “hot dish” of dubious origins. The first words are from my great niece, followed by my three nephews and my niece. My daughter and husband get the last words.

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“This seems like a good blog for the orange and celery jello ring to shine.”

“Orange Jello with chopped celery – we would have this dish every Thanksgiving. Mom would make it the night before in a ring mold (jello on the bottom, celery on the top), and then flip it over on top of lettuce at dinner.  Looks beautiful.  Everyone took a little serving, and then it would slowly melt during dinner.  Dad continued the tradition after Mom died.  Finally one of us asked if anyone liked it, and Dad said he didn’t but he made it because we liked it.  That was the last year Dad made it for Thanksgiving.  😬 I bought a mold and make it for Thanksgiving every few years to keep the tradition going.” 

“Mom served the canned cranberry jelly. As a kid I really thought the ridges that reflected the can’s shape were a fancy part of Thanksgiving dinner preparation. Also, it was literally plopped on a little glass dish that I now have at my home. Served Triscuit crackers and cheese on it last night😊. My teeth ache just thinking about that canned magic….”

“Cranberry jelly from the can in the shape of the can wiggling on the table brings back the jitters for me.”

“Grandma Tooley’s hot dish – macaroni, ground beef and Mexican corn. Probably a quick improvisation of the three handiest things available. My memory is of the corn and a little black pepper flavor. Most of all I can still visualize the large, yellow, patterned pan that it was made in. My memory is being eye-level with the pan. I could smell it, but could not see it until it was served. Later as an adult I found mom’s recipe box. About one in three recipes started with “brown 1 or 2 pounds of ground beef” 😂 Feeding us all required budgeting and cooking for 12… and a referee was needed to control portions on the first serving round. I still recall mom telling one of us to put some mashed potatoes back in the serving bowl😂.”

“And in regards to Grandma Tooley’s hot dish, I still make it except I use ground turkey, a can of chopped tomatoes, and a box of macaroni & cheese. I remember one time telling Grandma about this dish (the original version) and she responded that she never had made it and had no idea where it came from. I liked it a lot when growing up. It was one of my mom and dad’s go-to dishes. I can even remember the pan she used to make it. It was always a challenge to eat as the corn and ground beef would fall off the fork. And you could only get one macaroni noodle at a time on the fork. So maybe it was some conspiracy by our parents to make us eat slower.”

“I grew up thinking fish grew up to be square patties. And then one summer we learned to fish. We caught a bunch of little bluegills. My Mom wanted us to throw them back, but we insisted on keeping them and getting to eat them. So our Dad spent one evening cleaning and filleting all these little bluegills that my mom then proceeded to bread and pan fry. Craig, Jim, John and I ate all of them while our parents ate something else.”

“Let’s see…my grandmother on my dad’s side moved to America from Italy. Her food was divine! Our family favorite was her meatballs (secret ingredient, believe it or not, was raisins ?!?) My mom’s folks had a regular rotation of “ham steak”. This included a topping of canned peach or canned pineapple rings. I thought it tasted like candy. Liver and onions was on the regular rotation as well as pork and sauerkraut. I might actually enjoy these things today (if I chose meat), but at that time it was such a bummer! The clean plate goals were real and those were very long dinner events for my brother and I.”

“I have a few memories, too – not Thanksgiving. Powder Sugar mini donuts on Halloween, homemade ice cream from that crazy hand crank maker on birthdays in the summer. And, corn on the cob with a side of cottage cheese. I loved it when the butter and salt and pepper on the plate mixed in the cottage cheese. Delicious. No one I know eats that combo and people tell me it’s weird. They are missing out!”

“Food Memories – My Mom regularly made Scalloped Potatoes in a large clear glass Pyrex dish – delicious! Unfortunately another regular was liver and onions because the liver was supposed to be good for us – ugh! And every New Years’ Eve we had oyster stew, the butter and milk soup was delicious! The challenge was those oysters. The best option for oysters was a quick swallow w/o any chewing.”

Raising Frances Mayes’ question to family and friends around the Thanksgiving table might induce delectable conversation. Bon Appetite!

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