Childhood foods, playing scientist and flushing apples.
I was reading Schokolade Madchen’s blog and she did and entry on how she’s making foods she ate as a child for her German born husband. So far, he’s impressed with macaroni and cheese but not so much impressed with green bean casserole. The man clearly has good taste.
This made me think of what foods I loved as a kid. For better or for worse, I ate anything as a kid. I still do, generally speaking. I admit, I love meatloaf – but with barbecue sauce, not ketchup. And if I make it, I have to eat it with scalloped potatoes and green beans because that’s how I remember it. I dig maple and brown sugar malt-o-meal, too. (Another food she’s making for her husband.) I do not miss eating goulash at all. Does anyone love this stuff?
Hmmm…I do remember taking vanilla ice cream and mixing in peanut butter and Nestle’s Quik like some mad scientist. Of course, I also mixed together all the shampoo and conditioner pretending that my bathtub was a laboratory. I didn’t eat that, though.
This reminds me of the time I flushed an apple down the toilet. I had taken a bite and decided I didn’t like it. So I flushed it. Then I promptly tried another apple. It sucked, too. So I flushed that. I have vague memories of my father eyeballing me from across the bathroom as he snaked the toilet and apples pieces came bobbing up to the surface. To this day, I still can’t stand Jonathan apples. Those things taste like dust to me.
What’re your favorite childhood foods? And did you ever do something with your food that got you into trouble?
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Just a random attorney writing about daily life with Little Filthy, my rotten dog.
May 9th, 2008 at 6:55 am
Hmmm…. Let’s see – what did I eat as a child. Well, I already told you the Chef-Boy-R-Dee story. Ate lots of that! I also loved french fries dipped in vanilla ice cream – yum!
I wasn’t much of a breakfast eater – still not on weekdays, but I can clearly remember my parents desperately trying to get me to eat anything. My dad’s bright idea was to put ice cream on everything because ice cream is basically milke, right? I had ice cream on Cream of Wheat, cereal and even apple pie. My mom used to make something called apple fritters for breakfast. Not the doughnut kind, but something that was actually a Weight Watchers meal. They were teh yum!
Goulash is just bad. Everyone in our house loves meatloaf so I make it quite a bit. Your toilet story reminds me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL3HR3_Phic
May 9th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Hehe I was just about to post the link to a Tiny Tunes episode when Bev walked by and let me know she did the same video
Hah! That episode totally made me think of you flushing apples 
I loved cereal when I was a kid. Like… a lot. I would eat cereal nearly every meal a day if I could. Cap’n Crunch of Fruity Pebbles FTW! Sadly I never had some weird science project of food that I put together… the closest being toast with butter and brown sugar or cinnamon, but that’s really not very experimental in retrospect.
I did drink pickle juice though! But truth be told I still do today if I can sneak a swig while Bev isn’t looking
She HATES the smell of pickles.
YUM!
May 9th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Bev – THAT WAS ME! that video cracked me up. “No potty.” “Ewwwwwwww.” Kids are hilarious. “It’s too loud!”
Eating french fries with a vanilla milkshake is my McDonald’s indulgence of choice.
Very Bill Cosby of your dad to put ice cream on everything. heh. “Dad is great! Give us chocolate cake!”
May 9th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Lynchseattle – So, lemme get this straight…you’ve gone from cereal every morning to oatmeal every morning, right? Dude, you’re growing up. What’re you going to be eating every morning when you’re 50?
Oh man, pickle juice?! Seriously? That just turned my stomach. How much do you think you could drink without barfing?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:22 am
I gulped pickle juice when I was pregnant. And my husband at the time, would get mad so I’d fill the jar back up with water to hide it. *laugh* Then I’d be off to find another pickle jar …
May 9th, 2008 at 8:26 am
My mom made this AMAZING dinner that she called “Sticky Wickets.” It involved super thin egg noodles, ricotta cheese (I think) and lots of mozzarella with a simple marinara that she put ground turkey in (Mom always used ground turkey instead of ground beef, for health reasons). It was like lasagna on crack, and the cheese did that fabulous stretchy stringy thing when she served it. Usually our meals were so healthy and bland, but Sticky Wickets were fun and comparatively junky. I’ve since asked her for the recipe, but it’s been lost forever. I bet I could recreate it, and boost the flavor palate with a real ragu and some fresh basil.
As for getting in trouble, I once used some Hubba Bubba gum I’d been chewing to decorate my face “like a clown.” The problem was, I thought it was so cool that I left it on too long, and I had Hubba Bubba eyebrows. What didn’t come out with peanut butter hardened, and I lost chunks of my eyebrows that day. Thank god they grew back and I didn’t end up looking like Vanilla Ice.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:27 am
I have this mental image of you standing above the toilet saying “apple go down the hooooooole.”
Pickles are banned in this house after 8pm. Nothing worse than having Chris roll over in the middle of the night with an explosion of pickle aroma coming out of his mouth. I loathe dill and the smell of pickles makes me queasy. However, the protein shakes that he drinks right before bed are pretty nasty as well.
What is it about french fries and vanilla ice cream/shakes. That’s such a weird flavor profile but it works! They should incorporate into Top Chef. Speaking of Top Chef… I’m waiting…. *taps foot*
May 9th, 2008 at 8:36 am
QTMama – For REAL? Oy! That is just….wow. Your stomach didn’t hurt, drinking that stuff?
May 9th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Heather! Hello! You’re so good to visit.
Sticky Wickets sounds awesome. Guilty pleasure awesome, even with ground turkey.
Awesome Hubba Bubba story. heh. I fell asleep holding on to my silly putty – which ended up in my hair and all over my sheets. My mother was unimpressed.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am
Bev – Bye bye, toilet painter! Painter go down dah hooooooooooole!
“explosion of pickle aroma” – barf, dude. Just…barf.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:49 am
My older brothers and I would make “milks shakes” using only milk and kool-aid. The citric acid in the kool-aid would curdle the milk and “thicken” it. We thought we were geniuses. Yummy, watery flavored curdled milk.
I also remember that if we ran out of milk for our cereal, pouring water or orange juice on Wheaties.
I seriously don’t know how I gagged either of them down. I think kids have iron stomachs. At least I must have.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Heh, don’t think we don’t say the “toilet pinter go down the hoooooole” all the time around here. That and “I yike yil Foofy” are common phrases in the Lynch household. We’re all about randomness.
This is my other favorite Baby Plucky cartoon: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uKitu6VFAkg
And yes, I say “i push the button, not you push the button” all the time in an “ellelator.” “)
May 9th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Simonne – Ohhh man, that is grooosssss. heh. Yeah, kids can totally stomach anything sometimes.
I remember seeing some Laverne and Shirley episode where Laverne put milk in her Pepsi. I tried it and it curdles the milk, too. Of course, I thought it was awesome.
May 9th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Mac n cheese is the first thing I learned how to cook. Years later babysitting, some of the kids I was watching got me into the bad habit of smothering it in ketchup… mmm.
I ate meatloaf maybe twice growing up. Then about 6 months ago I was making meatballs. I planned on making a ton, but got sick of rolling them half way through. So I used the remaining meat for one big meatball-loaf. It was awesome. No ketchup or barbeque sauce, just my meatball ingredients. Yummm.
May 9th, 2008 at 9:12 am
My childhood made me a very picky eater.
I still LOVE pork chops and applesauce. My grampa (RIP) would make that every time I stayed with him and my Gramma when I was real little.
My whole life, if I’m eating macaroni and cheese (except for deep fried macaroni and cheese wedges, those are amazing enough to stand on their own) I have to have SHAPED (pref. Spongebob or Scooby Doo) macaroni, KRAFT brand, made with 2% milk.
Bagel dogs and those mini corndogs were definite winners when I was a kid, and also spawned my love of putting honey mustard on everything.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:14 am
My parents were HORRID cooks… really REALLY horrible. We also didn’t have scheduled meals, it was very free form – fend for yourself sort of thing.
I do remember hot granola though, and I’ve never managed to make it like my dad did.
My mom made homemade granola with oats, cinnamon, cahews, and dried fruit in it. We ate it like cold cereal a lot, and in the winter my dad would make it like oatmeal and it was so warm and comforting.
Mostly my parents tossed anything they found in the fridge into a pot and it was sort of soupy, something that we ate over brown rice.
I had my first ding dong and poptart at my best friend’s house when I was 12. I’m still a total ding dong junkie…it’s a guilty pleasure I only allow myself once or twice a year.
May 9th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
One of my favorites as a child was hamburger gravy over biscuits. YUM!! I also loved rice with cinnamon, sugar, and milk.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
I don’t remember my mom cooking much when I was a child. I remember lots of canned food though.
My grandmother, on the other hand, was a wonderful cook. We’d go to her tiny apartment every Sunday and eat amazing meals. She’d make enough for us to take home to eat the next day.
She did make a tasty goulash (which I liked), but not as often as her many other dishes. Breaded, tenderized veal. Savory fried potato cubes. Creamed, garlicky spinach (maybe the only dish I really mastered). Gooey rice pilaf with chicken. Stuffed cabbage leaves (this took 3 days to make). Dumpling soup. And about a dozen amazing desserts that have probably ruined desserts for me for the rest of my life.
I miss her food dearly and am angry at myself for not having learned all the recipes. If I could have her back for just one week!
May 10th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
My Mom used to make peanut butter and banana sandwiches and to this day, the smell of that combination makes me gag. And she also made us eat fried liver and onions – UHHHHHH! I remember spitting chunks out into my napkin and then flushing the napkin after dinner. She never caught me!