Friday, September 09, 2005

Tag, I'm it! My Food Memories

I was tagged by Barbara, at Wino's And Foodies for a new 'meme', called, Childhood Food Memories!
I bet you think because I live in France that I grew up with foie gras and escargot on my morning toast! You are in for a surprise, I was a picky kid. I never wanted to eat at anybody else's house but my mom's and grandma's!
My mom made some great home-cooked meals! Whenever I need comfort food, I go back to beef stew, meat loaf, BBQ'd chicken, all those great meals from mom!

Get ready to go on trip down memory lane with me!


1) Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks
One of my favorite meals was served on a Friday! Remember those 'Fish on Friday' days? We would have Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks, french fries, lots of ketchup and Mott's apple sauce. That was always a treat for me! (I think this applesauce gene was passed to Clay. It was Compote de Pomme that he loved, but no meal was complete for Clay without 'SAUCE')


2) Velveeta Cheese Sandwiches on White Bread!
Another childhood favorite is Velveeta cheese sandwiches. Thick slices of Velveeta on white bread with lashings of Miracle Whip on top. Sometimes, when I was feeling creative, I would crunch up some potato chips on top, other days there might be some sweet-pickle slices on top of the cheese. (do you think I can demo this at my next cooking class?)

3) White Castle Hamburgers

Come on now folks, you have to recognize this fellow! This Belly Bomber, or Slider is from White Castle Hamburgers. We lived in Dayton and would drive to Cincy to see Grandma and Grandpa on Sundays......My dad would always time the arrival around lunch, so we could brings sacks of White Castles to eat for lunch. I could eat 4, and my sisters and I always knew how many we ordered and would have to have the correct amount of boxes of hamburgers in front of us before we would start to eat. (I had such fun introducing Clay, my Paris born son, to the joys of a Belly Bomber)

4) Hershey's Chocolate Syrup

No special evening was complete without what my mom would call a Party! Vanilla Ice Cream and Hershey's Syrup poured on top. I would let the ice cream melt down a little and then mix it together, this was my Party! Hey, life was easy back then! You can imagine how happy I was to find Hershey's Syrup in my local Auchon in Plaisir!

5) Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Country Gravy!

Ok......this is my favorite memory. Plus, it is one of the first things I learned how to cook when I moved to Dallas to fly for Braniff. Fried Chicken!! My mom always prepared this, but it seems as we got older, while in High School, my dad would make the chicken, and mom was in charge of the potatoes and gravy!! Dad did like to cook and had his favorites of things he liked to prepare.
We always had to have mashed potatoes and lots of Cream gravy with the chicken! Green beans on the side with a spoonful of bacon grease for flavor. This was real living.
To this day, when I want comfort food and on a chilly fall evening, I prepare this meal!

Now you know what shaped me! What great food memories I have.

Now....Who shall I tag?

Nic, from BakingSheet
Dr. Biggles, from Meathenge
Shuna, from Eggbeater
I'm interested in what food shaped these guys & gals. This trio makes for some very inspiring reading in the world of Bloggs!

8 comments:

Michèle said...

Hi Melissa, great post! The velveeta with crumbled potato chips made me laugh.. And is it bad that I actually thought those fish sticks looked good?
And I must say that "compote de pomme" sounds much better than 'applesauce'. I may have to use that :)

Mona said...

Wow, that is too funny. I caught a co-worker (30-something year old male) eating velveeta squished between 2 pieces of wonder bread and laughed out loud. My mom used to eat that all the time and I would be grossed out. My dad and I just Wednesday night made black and white milk shakes with that very tin of chocolate syrup. And lastly, I had never had White Castle until a couple weeks ago at work. I think I had 3 burgers and 3 chicken patties-delish! Thanks for sharing...I 've asked someone before with no response..what is a "meme"?

Anonymous said...

As I read, tears began to flow. Great meme. Send it on down.

Guy said...

Hey, nice action there and thanks for the tag. I'm already sort of working on it.
Hope your weekend goes well!

Kelly said...

Hi Melissa, I followed the link on Winos and Foodies and found your blog! What fun food memories :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for playing Melissa. Great memories. Would you believe it - I crewed on 737's for Air NZ years ago.

Banlieue Blog said...

Michele, I'm sure any French friend you have would die laughing if we even mention Velveeta!! But there are times when the craving hits!

Mona, I'm jealous that you can go out and get a White Castle when you want!! I haven't tried the Chicken sandwich tho! Try this link for ALL your blog-speak needs. I had to search out what a MEME too, was a while back!
http://www.blogherald.com/2005/04/07/
understanding-blog-speak

Anonymous, thanks for commenting! I wonder which of my entries made you
well up with tears? Do share!

Biggles, can't wait to see what you are going to write? hmmmm..could it be something about MEAT?

Kelly, Your post made me laugh, esp the one about your mom and Sweetened Condensed Milk!

Barbara, I had so much fun thinking of those items. At first I thought I better think of 'foodie' things, but those weren't in my memories!
I knew we had something in common! You were a sky-goddess!! Wasn't it fun??

Anonymous said...

Great food memories! I have never tasted Velveeta or White Castle burgers...would you believe I have only seen these things in movies?! :)