All this talk of Mamaw’s chocolate pudding and apple tarts has really made me think about 1) food (but what else is new?) and 2) how childhood memories – at least in the South, though I assume it’s universal – have a way of getting tied up with food. I have tons of memories of being outside and riding bikes and exploring the chicken coops in Papaw’s barn – but those memories are linked to walking back inside, wandering into Mamaw’s kitchen, and finding a snack of fresh lemonade and leftover toast with a little homemade plum jelly on it.
When I was a little girl, being at Mamaw and Papaw Davis’ house meant chocolate pudding, homemade apple tarts, fried chicken, fresh vegetables, and a loaf of white bread on the table at every meal. Mamaw Davis died when I was 12, so I haven’t had her food in over 20 years, but I can taste her fried corn right now, not to mention her sweet tea that had so much sugar it actually made you pucker a little bit when you swallowed it.
Being at Mamaw and Papaw Sims’ house meant sixteen kinds of ice cream in the deep freeze, boiled peanuts, and basically all the treats Mama and Daddy would never let us have. Mamaw Sims died when I was five, so I don’t remember her cooking, but I do remember that Papaw Sims would LOAD US UP on candy and popcorn and peanuts and ice cream when we visited. To this very day, if Sister and I are together and have to stop at a convenience store, one of us will buy diet Mountain Dews (it would’ve been Sundrop back in the day), peanuts, bubble gum, Red Hots, etc. – and then imitate Papaw Sims when we distribute the goodies.
Even at three, Alex knows that going to my mama and daddy’s house means donuts, Coke, and Cheetos, and going to David’s mother’s means biscuits, Goldfish, and chocolate. It makes me smile.
Now I know I’m from the South, where we talk about what’s for lunch while we’re eating breakfast, where we bemoan how stuffed we are while we ask somebody to pass us that coconut cake, but my guess is that just about everybody has two or three (or nine or eleven) foods that remind them of childhood, and comfort, and family.
Mine are fried okra, mashed potatoes, chocolate pie and sweet tea.
What are yours?
I reserve the right to ask for recipes.
Well, I never really knew my dad’s parents well enough to have these kinds of memories, but I certainly have those memories of my maternal grandparents. Nana made the best lasagna in the whole world. Her parents were immigrants from Italy, but her mom died when Nana was 13. So, Nana had a lifetime to perfect the dish… and she did.
Papa always had fudgcicles in the freezer. I still love them and I think about being at their house whenever I eat one.
And there is one dish that I ALWAYS think of when I remember family events, but it was one I NEVER ate. It was called anchovie salad. It was a plate covered with orange slices and a little anchovie in the middle of each. I think there was olive oil on it too. Yeah, yuck.
Nana also made escarole soup with little teeny tiny meatballs. But I did not gain an appreciation for this until I got older.
But my all time favorite was the stuffed celery. Chopped black olives, mixed into cream cheese and stuffed into 2 inch sections of celery. DELICIOUS! Seriously, delicious.
My mom made deviled eggs, fried okra and homemade pizza.
My mom’s mom didn’t cook. My dad’s mom was a great cook. But my favorites from childhood were her strawberry pie and her sugar cookies. To this day I have never tasted a sugar cookie like hers. It would literally melt in your mouth! It was so light and sweet. That is a recipe I wish I had.
To me, homemade cinnamon rolls and donuts, s’mores made in the backyard, deviled eggs at family picnics, my mom’s famous chili burros (recipe can be provided!), my aunt’s taco salad, and fondue with my husband are the best comfort foods.
Oh, excuse me–I forgot to mention my Supreme Comfort (Drink) of All Time: diet Coke. Straight from the fountain, with a wedge of lemon, and lots of it. Amen.
Grandma had a loaf of white bread on the table at every meal and tang in metal cups. My mother’s side of the family is the one that has the most influence on me and they are from MN. Norigen heritage, lefsa(sp?) a type of tortilla made of potatos and (although I don’t eat it!f) lutafisk (fish treated in lye until it is a gelatonus blob, buck eye balls (penut butter balls dipped in chocolate, not necessarily norigen)BLACK coffee, and hotdishes.
Hmmmm. Let’s see. What reminds me of childhood? My grandma made the best fried eggplant, squash and okra.(Obviously my fried food addiction started early. It’s a miracle I haven’t already had a heart attack.) The best part was all of the veggies came straight from her garden. Grandpa was always on hand with RC Cola and cheez-its.
My mom makes the best Sunday roast and mashed potatoes you can put in your mouth.
Whew! I thought all of this time I just had serious food “issues” when in actuality it was just being Southern and growing up in Mississippi. Here are some of mine…
My mom’s pimento cheese sandwiches on white bread, her tuna salad (with tiny chopped-up celery for some extra crunch) on white bread. My grandparent’s home made italian sausage during the Christmas holidays. Piping hot grits with butter and crumbled up bacon during the cold winter mornings when it’s still dark outside. Oh and those huge glass bottles of coke that were so heavy it would break every bone in your foot it dropped.
OH! BM, You are on my FAVORITE subject.
GaGa’s homemade rolls, (can NOT make these to save my soul-will give you the recipe if you like and you can try)homemade angelfood cake and of course her fried apple pies.
Mamaw’s pecan pie, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy. As simple as mashed potatoes and gravy is, it just does not taste the same. She also made the best coffee-she would bring it out to me in the mornings as I sat on the fence and talked to the cows and horses.
Mama’s seafood newburgh, carrot cake and red velvet cake (I have the carrot cake down pat but the RV cake is much to be desired). Mama made the best vegetables in the world. Earlzilla (our housekeeper of 20 years who just turned 90 last week. She is my 2nd Mama.)and I would shell the peas and shuck the corn and she would cook it up. She used fat back of course. Oh! and the corn bread. Can’t do it half as good. Sunday lunch always tasted good, no matter what it was. Mama was a wonderful cook. Daddy’s housekeeper now can’t get over all of the pots and pans that are stuck up in the cabnets.
CREAMED potatoes, not mashed…that’s Yankee talk. Where are y’all from?
Oh girl – ain’t it so!!! Cornbread,cream corn,rice cooked in chicken broth,fried chicken etc. etc.
MMMMMMM!
Fried Okra, Chicken & Dumplins’, fried salmon patties! Yummo!
Yes, Sister you are right. I guess I was in PA a little to long.
BM, I just made your Mamaw’s Chocolate Puddin and I had a bite, well about 4 bites, and it is SOME good. Will it be ok to slap my husband? I think that GaGa used a salad plate to measure her apple pie circle.
Try again, boomama, and put about half the filling in them that you think should be in there–maybe a heaping tablespoon to a 7 or 8 inch round crust. Make the crusts about an 8th to a quarter inch thick. Heat your oil to about medium high, then start turning it down as you see how fast they’re cooking. You’ll catch on with experience, it’s not like it’s rocket science. I left you a few more pointers on the other post before I saw your comment, too. Hope it helps. :)
My favorite food memories: Fried chicken, creamed potatoes and cream gravy with white beans. The beans MUST have a piece of salt meat (pork) cooked in them. And homemade buttermilk biscuits. Italian Cream Cake for dessert, or Mama’s homemade cheesecake. Or, Homemade Meatballs and mushroom gravy, rice, fried potatoes, green beans cooked down till they’re plumb defeated and seasoned with bacon grease, pinto beans with ham hocks cooked in them, and either homemade yeast rolls or crispy homemade cornbread made in a cast iron skillet, with either homemade pineapple upside down cake made in an iron skillet or Mama’s Lemon Torte for dessert. Writing this down honestly brings tears to my eyes for the happy forever-gone memories this brings back. :)
And Addie, I’ll bet my favorite sugar cookie recipe is very similar to the one you mentioned, if you’re interested in it. Just comment here or on my blog if you’d like to have it. :)
Sister – Lea Margaret and I have made a grievous error for which I’m sure we both apologize. :-) But seriously, I never say “creamed potatoes” – I always say “mashed potatoes.” I guess this is just one area where Lea Margaret and I betray our region. I never knew there was any difference in regional potato terminology. :-) But now that you mention it, I do remember Mama always saying “creamed potatoes” – I just haven’t heard it in a long time.
And my first effort at making apple tarts was a disaster. I obviously have a long way to go to be in Mamaw Davis’ cooking territory. I do think Diane’s dough recipe was right on, and the apples tasted great, but everything went to pot when I started trying to put the dough and apples together. I cut the dough the wrong size, then got too many apples in there, and then I burned the fire out of one side of them when I put them in the hot Crisco. I told D beforehand that my goal was to make something “not horrible,” and he laughed at me…but I didn’t even reach my “not horrible” goal. But I’ll try again (she says, with determination).
OK, Mamaw’s PUDDIN is divine. There was only about a spoonful left in the pan and I just took a BIG strawberry and dunked it in and scooped it up. I am slappin Chris, Mac, Daddy AND the dog!
Of course, I’m no cook, but I did watch Mamaw while she fried those apple tarts. Here’s a key ingredient…you need patience while they fry. I remember her getting the grease hot, then turning the eye down (like Diane said) before laying the tarts in the iron skillet. They did not fry fast…they took their sweet, precious time getting brown. It always seemed like an eternity before they were ready…much like her chocolate candy with freshly shelled peanuts – Oh. My. GoodNESS. Heaven on earth.
I sure do miss Mamaw and Papaw. :)
Hey, D just tried the tarts, and he said that they were actually tasty. The filling is good – and I think Mamaw may have used a pinch of salt in her dough. There’s a hint of savory that I’m missing.
So here’s what I learned. I need to cut the crusts bigger and not roll them out so thin. And yes – cut WAY back on the filling.
I’ll try again tomorrow – because I’m stubborn. :-)
And “green beans til they’re plumb defeated”? I love that.
I LOVE fried salmon “croquettes,” (as Mama called them) by the way – had forgotten all about them. Now I’m gonna have to go to the store again and get stuff for those… :-)
Y’all are making me hungry… :-)
I sure do miss Mamaw and Papaw, too. I just about started crying today when I was trying to make those tarts – just thinking about Mamaw standing over her stove. I’m glad you remembered that it took some time for them to brown, because today I thought I had done something wrong. Crank ‘er up, then turn ‘er down, then let ‘er fry. :-) I’m glad Diane reminded me to dust off my excess flour, too – I forgot about that.
And Lea Margaret, I’m glad you liked the puddin’. Don’t slap everybody TOO hard – or they won’t let you make it again! :-)
Gumbo and sancocho. I have the secret family recipes for both, but mine never turn out like those of my grandmothers.