Food and Issues

I was reading a great blog post on Leite's Culinaria - it's one of my favorite places to find recipes and information about one of my most favorite activities - cooking and baking. I originally started reading a post about TV dinners - those frozen foil wrapped staples of 1970's childhood. We rarely had these dinners when we were growing up - but, oh, how I loved them. I always wanted the "Thanksgiving meal" - compressed turkey slices, watery fake gravy, reconstituted mashed potatoes and corn - or whatever dinner that came with the greatest meal component ever - the BROWNIE. 

That overcooked "chocolate flavored baked treat" was the best part of the entire meal.

We only got TV dinners when my mom went to the commissary for a two grocery cart shopping trip and she was too tired to cook the food she'd brought home. I LOVED those dinners, because we'd even be allowed to sit (!) in front of the tv (!!) and eat them (!!!!) I can assure you, that was a rarity.

My mom and her sisters made all of the bread when she was growing up. She grew up without a lot of money. They had cornbread for dinner and biscuits for breakfast, usually served with butter and sugar and jelly. To get a loaf of white bread, right off the shelf when it was soft and squishy, was one of their favorite things to do - and they rarely did it. So when they were able to - it was a real treat. My mom still talks about this.

Once, I had a terrific migraine and puked for hours. The last thing I'd had before I got sick was a cherry flavored lollipop - and to this day, I cannot eat anything cherry flavored.

When I was young - and still, really, to this day - I despised beets. My mom and dad would give me beets on my plate and I'd turn up my nose. I think that it became a power struggle - they'd force me to eat them and I'd refuse - and I really didn't even want to eat the rest of the food, because, you know, the BEET JUICE would get all over the other food. But there I'd sit, until past my bedtime. I'd choke them down, half the time they'd come back up and I'd get a new serving. Sometimes I'd even get those same beets served cold - and congealed!! - the next morning for breakfast.

One of my kids can't stand beef - because the juices remind the child of blood and there's no way in the world that food is getting into that stomach. No way, no how.

My grandpa always had circus peanuts - which weren't peanuts at all but orange peanut shaped candy fluff. My other grandpa, and my dad, dropped peanuts into their soda and drank it. To this day, when I think of peanuts, I remember both of those stories.

It's really funny to me to think about the issues and memories that people have with food. What is a big deal and an issue to me is nothing to you, and your trauma makes me shake my head with puzzlement.

What are your food issues or memories, good or bad?

Comments

[Ami]

Hello! You might have written about this before, but how did you deal with food struggles when your children were younger? Mine are three and one and a half. It's difficult to get them to try new things, but my husband and I keep offering everything we eat to them. Most of the time, if I know I'm making something for dinner that they just won't try, I'll fix them something else. A lot of moms would say that is incredibly stupid, or, as someone has told me before, I'm being too nice. However, it's the path of least resistance at the end of the day that I don't want to turn into a bad. Does that make sense? The end of the day can already be stressful, and I don't want to add a power struggle to that at dinner. I guess my long-winded question is, at what age do I finally say, "Sorry kids, but THIS is what is for dinner." BTW, I TOTALLY agree about the beet juice! I think they are OK, but srsly! The juice gets all over everything! yack!

[Becki]

My Sitto (grandmother) always had the orange circus peanuts, as well as the little raspberry-shaped hard candies with the soft centers. And, I, too, coveted TV dinners, which I got about once a year when I had a non-family babysitter.

I have so many food memories I won't bore you with them all. But let me just say that my uncle owned a butcher shop, and my grandparents, with whom we lived, were immigrants, and I often came home to some verrry strange things bubbling away on the stove. Sheep's testicles, anyone? No? Calves' brains cooked up in Shake'n'Bake?

[patty]

Last time I had a stomach bug, I had last eaten chicken with bbq sauce. No more bbq sauce for me!
My grandmother used to always serve shrimp cocktail and Manhattan clam chowder during the summer. Still love both of these things.
My other grandmother used to make plum cake........a very white and sweet cake with fresh plums......never found her recipe and all of thepossible recipes I find include brown sugar. I really long for that cake.

[JMB]

My mother was a health food nut back in the 70s. White sugar/flour were the enemies in my house! To this day, I refuse to eat anything made with whole wheat flour, esp pancakes. We weren't allowed to have syrup so whole wheat pancakes were covered with honey. Barf. I don't really like whole wheat bread, but unlike one of my sisters who refuses to eat ANY whole wheat, I can tolerate it for a sandwich. We also weren't allowed to have Dannon flavored yogurt, only the plain stuff and cottage cheese and applesauce (homemade with no sugar!) was a staple in our house. I don't eat any of that stuff now, except for Greek yogurt and I always get the kind that has added fruit in it. Sorry mom!

[Sonja]

Oh boy!! Food = childhood memories galore!! Chipped "beef" on toast! Cheese and jelly sandwiches (which my mom refuses to admit she made)! And oh yes, TV dinners . . . My favorite memory is the last time my mom tried to get us to eat lima beans. All three of us kids refused to eat them. My dad finally said enough, nobody likes these, including me, and put them outside for the rabbits. Not even the rabbits would touch them!! (My kids love that story too). And if I had a dollar for every time I got a piece of roast beef that was all gristle and sat and chewed said gristle for a loooooong time before I finally had to run and spit it out . . . well, let's just say I'd have a lot of dollars. My parents are still big beef eaters but they like theirs practically mooing. Going to their house for a barbecue is challenging, at best. I almost always have to put my beef in the microwave to finish it off, something that they still appear to be baffled by!!

[Joless]

I was a really picky eater and my Mum allowed it because she was forced to eat stuff as a child and swore she wouldn't do it to me. I appreciated it at the time, but it lead to a very limited palate as a grown up and until I started being brave and trying things, I missed out on so much. Now I see my (partner's) niece and nephew doing the exact same thing and feel so frustrated for them. These kids won't eat raspberries or pizza or stuff that really is good.

I used to not order dishes because I didn't like (or had never tried) one ingredient that was in it, and these were common things like onion, or tomato or mayonnaise, or the food was mixed up (stews, currys etc), or spicy or..... Then I started trusting chefs to make the best decisions and now I eat most things and am so glad I stopped being fussy.

[LizP]

Wow, that hit a nerve in my brain! My mom tried the "you'll sit at the table until you eat it" with Stouffer's stuffed cabbage. I never ate it. I went to bed hungry.

When my son was about 4 I made him eat something he didn't want (I forget what it was) and he threw it back up. I felt like such a piece of crap. Never again. It's not worth it.

Besides what they eat or won't eat as a kid has nothing to do with what they will eat as an adult. My stepson would barely touch a vegetable as a tween & teen. He's a vegan now.

[Amy]

Gravy bread....when mom passed last month I had 2 different people speak to me about her gravy bread. One was my nephew and one was the older sister of the boy who lived across the street who loved to eat lunch at my house when my mom would make us gravy bread.
It was the leftover beef roast gravy (and mom made the best dang gravy) over white bread. Usually on Monday's because we had roast beef every Sunday. I wish my gravy was as good as moms

[Elizabeth]

I loved so many things that my husband won't eat. I usually don't serve them unless he's not home, because it's hard to take a firm stance with the kids when DH won't eat what's served. Among my favorites - anything tuna, including creamed on toast, sandwiches, and casserole. True story - once when I had morning sickness and it seemed like the only thing I could possibly eat was creamed tuna, he made it for me, gagging the whole time.

[Elizabeth]

(cont) other favorites - various noodle/ground beef "hot dishes", soup, chili, sloppy joes made with Wheaties in the mix, and beef stroganoff. NON-favorites - I hated chicken for the longest time because I was always given a drumstick. Once I got ahold of the white meat (I was about 10) it was a revelation. I remember my mother hated cooked spinach because she once had the image of a dead bird in her mouth when she took a bite and couldn't shake it. So, I never had cooked greens of any sort growing up but I love them now.

[Megan]

Corn dog nuggets are the last thing I had before I came down with a dreadful stomach bug. No more of those!

I absolutely hate onions, especially cooked ones. Last year my friend made me a risotto and insisted it had to have onion, and I'm proud of myself for not only eating it but enjoying it. (I make a mean onion-free risotto, though.) Milk weirded me out when I was little. I sat at a table all afternoon in preschool one time when we had a substitute who didn't know I got water at lunch and insisted I drink my milk.

I've never liked cooked green peppers, maybe because they usually go with onions. I got over my childhood hatred of olives and pickles. I might even have a sip of milk every six months or so.

[Brandy]

My parents never forced me to eat anything. But, I remember my Mom's homemade birthday cakes - the doll ones made with a barbie in the middle. I remember her making catfish stew, which I hated and she'd eat for breakfast the next day. She had to take time off from work for a few months when I was sick and went on a baking spree. Homemade whoopie pies and bread and cookies. (And it irritated her that when she taught me to make bread mine came out fluffier. *g*)
Food issues now? My husband thinks way too much about food. My Son is the pickiest eater ever. I'm hoping he outgrows it.

[susan]

My "never eat again" is potato salad - after a bad case of food poisoning.

And my secret thing to eat that no one understands or even likes - cooked elbow macaroni swimming in warm milk with lots of butter, salt and pepper. It was my grams comfort food and I still love it today.

[Tara]

My favorite craptastic food is Suddenly Salad Bacon & Ranch Pasta Salad. It's completely devoid of anything nutritious, and I love it. Haven't touched it in months since I've been following a pseudo-paleo diet.

My dad would make the best beef stew. He died a few years ago, and my husband who does all the cooking just doesn't make it very often, so my daughter and I ask for it for our special birthday dinner every year, and it confounds my hubby to no end.

Certain foods may taste exquisite, but I will never know, because the name of the food turns me off - mushrooms, mussels, liver, among others. Also, I won't eat bivalves because the contents looks like snot to me.

[addy]

Candy bars - memories from childhood and I can't touch the things. Ick! Brussel sprouts - bleh! Why would you eat those things! My younger brother was forced to eat a plate of something he couldn't stand. We rallied around him and made it inedible for him - poured salt on it, crumbled one of dad's cigarettes on it, never had to sit through that again.
Loved Dad's "slum gully" - everything leftover in the fridge on Sunday afternoon. Made for some interesting dinners :)

[Katie]

I remember one St. Patty's Day my mom tried to be festive with dinner and put green food coloring in the mashed potatoes. No one touched them...other than my dad, who I'm pretty sure could eat just about anything without ANY issues!

Looking back it was a good attempt to be festive and at least it was memorable!

[kyooty]

Let me see something I really can not eat... hmmmmmmm (looks at waistline). I don't like peas unless they are the frozen ones which seem to taste sweeter and less mushy. Beef? I LOVE beef, ground beef, steak, roast beef? yummy! I didn't know what a tv dinner was until I married my hubbie. As a friend from Norway said Canada is very "from scratch" culturally when it comes to cooking. I can see why she would think that. My parents would tell the peas story a lot when I was a baby and they were feeding me mash potatoes with peas at my GM's house. My GM called me a spoiled bratt (lovingly of course) because I spit out the peas and ate the potatoes around it.
My useless food choice is Kraft Dinner. yes Mac and Cheese, totally sodium filled and fake cheese but it's a Canadian thing.

[kyooty]

oh and Cheese Whiz is another doozy.