Let's talk about food!

So, this post might explain a lot about who I am.  I've reminisced about grade school, family, friends, etc.  Now, I will talk about my love affair with food.

My Grandma Horn was a phenomenal cook!  There were no shortcuts, no microwaves.  She had three meals each day.  She and my uncle sat down at the kitchen table for each meal.  It was never just sandwiches, either.  She cooked fresh meals or reheated leftovers on the stove.  We did often have cereal for breakfast, though.  Rice Krispies with lots of sugar and fresh cream.  Yes.  I said cream.  Heavy cream.  Don't judge.  It was heavenly!  They had a dairy farm, so the milk and cream were always super fresh. When I'm feeling really indulgent, I still will buy some heavy cream to put on Rice Krispies.  Grandma was faithful in keeping me supplied with my absolute favorite of hers for lunch.  Macaroni and meat with fresh tomato sauce.  Elbow macaroni, fresh ground beef, and fresh tomato sauce.  YUM!  I've tried and tried to replicate it, but I've never gotten it quite right.  Hers was special.  While I'm confessing some strange eating habits, I will tell you that I loved to scrape the sides of the ice cream box.  You know the sticky, gooey stuff that sticks to the sides?  Yeah.  I loved it!  I will admit that it was weird.  It grosses me out now.

My mom also had a knack for cooking.  I could never list all of my favorites that she made.  And many of the things I remember fondly were boxed foods.  Sadly, they just don't make them anymore!  For starters, let's talk about what we called dumplings.  They were actually a wide egg noodle in a chicken flavoring.  Yellow.  Yummy.  Again, I've tried to recreate these using egg noodles and chicken bouillon cubes.  It's good but not as good.

Then, there was this taco casserole thing with chips on top.  I loved it.  It came in a box.  The chips would turn all chewy in the baking process.  Mmmm.

My mom only used packaged brown gravy for one meal.  It was a loaf of meat with mashed potatoes.  It wasn't meatloaf.  It was a frozen loaf of fresh ground beef, cooked like a roast in the oven.  She would slice it up and serve it with mashed potatoes and packaged brown gravy.  I've yet to try this one.  I just can't bring myself to stick a frozen cylinder of beef in a roasting pan.

A favorite of mine was my mom's meatballs.  She rarely made them.  Occasionally, she would make them with spaghetti, but I preferred them just plain.  She'd make a batch of fried meatballs, and we'd eat them with fondue forks.  It was fun.  I actually made meatballs for supper tonight, which is what brought about these food memories.  Mine are almost as good as hers, not quite.

One last yummy memory of my childhood is lemon strudel cake.  It was a super moist lemon bundt cake with crunchy bits of lemony goodness in the center of each piece.  I've found a wonderful lemon bundt cake recipe, but it's missing those crunchy treasures.

So, to summarize, these are just a few of the reasons that I love food today.  I have such fond memories of happy times around the table.  Thanks, Mom and Grandma, for being such wonderful cooks!