Flashback Friday - Food for Thought

Well, I am currently in Arizona with my mom going through her basement. But when I saw the prompt for this week's Flashback Friday, I knew I had to make time to post. Linda at Mocha with Linda hosts this meme and I am so glad to join her this week!!!

PROMPT:

What were meals like when you were growing up? Did your mom (or dad) cook (and was it from scratch or from a box?) or did your family eat out much of the time? Did you eat together as a family or was everyone on a different schedule? What did you call meals? (Dinner vs. supper, lunch, etc.) What were some of your favorite things that your parent fixed? What did you dislike and vow never to fix once you grew up? Did your family have any food traditions, things that were a must on certain occasions (such as Sunday dinners or holiday meals)? Did your parent teach you to cook or did you wing it once you were grown? How similar or different are your family's eating habits today than when you grew up?

Cooking has always been a big deal in my family. I wish I could lay my hands on it right now but I have a picture of my great grandmother in the middle of her HUGE garden. She loved to cook and grow her own food......I have a lot of her DNA!!

The picture below is of my grandmother and great grandmother in the kitchen making our family pound cakes....that's me licking the bowl, my other favorite past time. I was always in the kitchen when they were!!! In fact, my mom tells a story of me sitting on the counter while she was making a cake. While she turned around to get something, I cracked all the eggs into the bowl!!!
Sitting down for dinner was a must in my family. I can't remember but a handful of times that we didn't all eat together around the table. This is a tradition I have carried out with my own family. My mom loved to cook and try new things. I can remember having french food, fondue, homemade chinese, vegetarian to name a few. But our roots are southern and fried was our favorite!!

this is my mom and my grandmother cooking together

I don't remember my mom ever having many "flops", but one thing I hated was collard greens. My dad loved them but I couldn't even stand the smell!!! and it is one thing I have never fixed my family!! I also swore I would never fix lima beans!! One night at dinner, my mom served them for the first time. I sat there forever and ate everything except the lima beans. My mom finally told me she was going back to her room and when she came back she wanted the lima beans gone (she thought she was giving me an out because she didn't say "how" they had to be gone and thought I would throw them away), but little goody (aka dumb) me was still sitting there when she came back and she had to follow through and make me eat them. So I swallowed them each whole like a pill.....and to this day can not eat lima beans!! :)

We do have many family recipes that have been passed down through the generations...and you have to be part of the family to get the recipe: my great grand mother's yeast rolls (she taught me how to make them when I was 12 and I have taught Alyssa how to make them), pound cake (many, many people....like my bff Wendi...have tried to figure this recipe out. It is so good. Wendi gave up and just asked me to make her one every year for her birthday). These are just a few.

My mom and great grandmother me to cook. I also learned a lot in school. However, I was always itching to get in the kitchen. I can remember when I was around 12, I decided to try to make a pecan pie while no one was home. I got out the cookbooks and started with the crust (I had never made one before). When my mom got home, I was standing there trying to figure out how to get the rolled out crust into the pie shell..... the pie turned out great.....so she couldn't get mad! well, except for the HUGE mess I had made in the kitchen!!! I am still a very messy cook!

Mom and I love to cook together whenever we can and made this wonderful crab salad just last night for dinner!


If you've been around my blog for long, you know I love to cook. I am so grateful for the things I learned from my family and how they instilled this love in me!!

Now, head over to Linda's and check out some of the other stories!!