Hello and welcome to the Museum of Me. It's the second Friday in August and time for a new installment. This month we ask the important question: What foods do you eat now that you couldn’t have imagined eating as a child?
This becomes a bit easier to answer if I tell you that I was born in 1957 so I grew up eating typical foods of the late 1950s and 1960s. My mother was not a very inventive cook, so our usual meals included meatloaf, boiled hotdogs, spaghetti with Ragu, tuna noodle casserole, pizza from the Chef Boyardee pizza kit, fish (but only in the form of fish sticks), and an awful concoction of ground hamburger on French bread called Supper on a Bread Slice. The hamburger was sometimes not cooked very well but the French bread was burned and hard as a rock; my father loved this recipe but not my sister and I. Vegetables were often served with Cheez Whiz on top and bread was always Wonder Bread.
Pillsbury brought out crescent rolls in a tube in 1965, and we entered a new, fancier era of food in our house. We thought that wrapping these around hotdogs was the epitome of fine dining. Imagine my surprise when I learned that these were called pigs in a blanket and had been prepared long before Pillsbury came out with crescent rolls in a can.
In The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson says that his family "did not eat cream cheese, sour cream, garlic, mayonnaise, onions, corned beef, pastrami, salami, or foreign food of any type, except French toast, and soups not blessed by Campbell’s and only a very few of those. All other foods of all types — curries, enchiladas, tofu, bagels, sushi, couscous, yogurt, kale, Parma ham, any cheese that was not a vivid bright yellow and shiny enough to see your reflection in — had either not yet been invented or was yet unknown to us." That was my family, too.
When I was in high school, I had several friends who had been raised in crunchy granola families, and they introduced me to yogurt, tofu, whole wheat bread, and granola itself. I was surprised yet again to learn that broccoli could be eaten raw or steamed and did not have to have Cheez Whiz poured on it.
So the answer to the original question about what foods I eat now that I couldn’t have imagined eating as a child is just about everything. My food horizons could only be expanded as I grew up and lived in different places. I have been introduced to spicy food and now regularly make tacos and enchiladas. We have a freezer full of venison, wild turkey, and fish. I always have yogurt in the refrigerator but no Cheez Whiz. I don't like kale but that's because it tastes like grass. I love pad thai and tikka masala. I don't always serve adventurous meals but that's because John hates spices and like plain meat, potatoes, and vegetables. I save my more adventurous eating for meals that I have with Ryan as I know that chorizo-stuffed pork loin is just going to be wasted on John.
So how about you? I'd love to hear about your childhood meals and whether they've changed over the years. We'll be back on the second Friday of September with a brand-new installation. Thank you for visiting The Museum of Me!
Oh, my childhood diet was very, very much like yours . . . only my mom was not inventive enough to think of putting Cheez Whiz on vegetables (which were never fresh in my house, by the way) . . . even though we always had Cheez Whiz in the refrigerator. Like you, my diet has completely changed - and expanded - since my childhood. (I can still remember the first time I tried guacamole when I was in high school, which opened an entire new universe to me.) Thanks for another fabulous Museum of Me exhibit, Bonny!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't do Cheez Whiz, but our veggies were mostly frozen and mushy when I was little. And we had a lot of casseroles (tuna noodle was a favorite!). One thing the childhood me would be shocked that I eat and enjoy as an adult is Brussels sprouts. I hated them as a child because they were the mushy, bitter frozen ones. Now I like them fresh and roasted. I know some of the change in taste is because the plant itself has changed and tastes better now, but I also much prefer a fresh vegetable to a frozen one if I can get it. I'm certainly very happy that, in general, people are more interested in fresh, unprocessed foods these days!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun exhibit and what memories!! My Mom was an excellent cook and we did have a lot of fresh veggies. I can remember not liking turnips and parsnips when growing up and now I love them. I can still remember the first time my Momm bought an avocado and cut it up to go in a salad...I didn't care for it then. I detested liver (and still do - taste and texture are awful). We also had a garden where my Dad grew tomatoes, green and wax beans, yellow squash, raspberries and blueberries. We did not have yogurt back then and I had never even heard of tofu - I enjoy both of those things now.
ReplyDeleteI am stunned that our taste buds survived our childhoods! Canned vegetables were a staple at my house, I never had frozen veggies until I moved out on my own.
ReplyDeleteYou have reminded me of so many things that were in my house too (I hated Tuna Noodle casserole... so much!!)
This is a great post, Bonny! My mother was a wonderful cook and she loved to entertain so our meals were more varied than yours but still pretty similar. Roasts, meatloaf, pork chops, and spaghetti (with homemade sauce, though) were all in regular rotation. Also, fun fact, my mother hated casseroles and one pot meals so those were pretty rare. As an adult and preparer of meals, I'm a BIG fan of those one pot meals and I make them all the time!
ReplyDelete"Supper on a Bread Slice"... my dad had a much more colorful name for that!! Remember peanut butter & marshmallow fluff sandwiches (Wonder Bread, of course)?
ReplyDeleteI'm very thankful for my aunt (dad's brother's wife) who was a good cook and encouraged my mom. If we had spaghetti & meatballs or made lasagna, it was always with Aunt Cece's recipe (and still is... they're that good). And she introduced steamed artichokes to us, for which I'll be forever grateful.
I grew up pretty much like you did, except take out the Cheez-Whiz and sub in Bird's Eye butter sauce. Everything we ate, except for the meat, came from the freezer or a can. Even our fruit came out of a can and was usually ensconced in J-ello. Froot Loops was as close as I ever came to fresh fruit.
ReplyDeleteNow --------------bring on the farmer's market in all its glory!
For a good part of the year we had fresh fruits and vegetables because there were many nearby farms and my father often was paid in produce. Both of my grandmothers canned and when that supply ran out toward the end of winter, my mother would buy canned vegetables. We didn't eat much beef, mainly chicken, lamb, pork, & fish. We had things like salmon patties, goulash, spaghetti, & various stews. My mother didn't buy the processed foods that were popular at that time mainly because it cost too much for 5 kids. We never went hungry. The only food I didn't like was liver and I still don't like it. What's different about how I eat now? More access to ethnic foods and seasonings and year round availability of fresh vegetables.
ReplyDeleteWe probably ate what most people were eating in the 60s, and it's too bad that most of it was processed, canned, instant, and not good! I'm envious of your growing up with what sounds like really good food!
DeleteJust about everything I eat I did NOT eat as a child. ha ha. I eat black olives by the fistful and remember my disgust as a child to all who ate them.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a rich prompt! I was born in the last gasps of the 1960s and my mom's home cooking wasn't a whole lot different, except that she EMBRACED the microwave when it appeared. She was fond of recipes with precious names (I laughed aloud at your Supper on a Bread Slice) - like Hamburger in a Pea Patch and South of the Border Casserole. I actually loved Hamburger in a Pea Patch because it was the only thing she made with soy sauce, which tasted so different from everything else! I'm also telling my kids about staple foods we eat now that just weren't on offer when I was young, like yogurt and hummus. I'm glad to be eating these days!
ReplyDeleteMy mother was also not an inventive cook. We knew what day it was by what we were having and the work week ended at my grandmothers where we usually had chicken thighs (I realy dislike them). But, my grandmother did make a great fudge that no one in the family has the recipe for and we spent some time trying ones I found online. When my father retired, he took over most of the cooking so meals improved.
ReplyDeleteThere have been days that I can really sympathize with my mother when I face the "what should I make for dinner again" question and I'm fresh out of ideas. Here's hoping you can find that fudge recipe. Even chicken thighs aren't so bad if you have fudge afterward!
DeleteMy childhood meals seemed to consist of varying dishes of mince - savoury mince, shepherds pie, meatballs and - very exotic - chilli. Never anything like pizza or pasta or curry.
ReplyDelete