Food Stuff

*** I'm skipping on a theme this week, so you will have to content yourselves with reading posts on various random subjects! ***


I have a friend who, whenever we went to a certain restaurant (props to Grandma's in Albany), she would order meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  I asked her why, and she said that, since she grew up in a very Italian household, she rarely got to eat "American" meals, and meatloaf with mashed potatoes was a foreign delicacy of which she was generally deprived.

The reason I'm writing this post now is because I recently finished an entire container of Cool Whip, along with some Jell-o mixed in, underneath.  I'm not exactly sure why Jell-o and Cool Whip are such a delight for me, but I suspect it was probably from having it at a "fancy" restaurant when I was younger, and being amazed that regular old Jell-o could be so high-falutin' and yet scrumptiously delicious, just by adding white fluffy stuff as a topping.  I suppose another part of my excitement is that Cool Whip was a bit of a rarity for us growing up; not that we were poor, but it was generally something that we had only on special occasions- like, when my mother made Icebox cake.  Yum.

In addition, I also happen to have a thing for certain breakfast cereals.  To this day I can devour large quantities of Honey Smacks and Lucky Charms in one sitting.  Honey Smacks (originally Sugar Smacks!) and Lucky Charms were a rare treat in our home, where we grew up with very boring and horrible breakfast foods such as Cream of Wheat and Puffed Rice.  On the rare occasion that we had the "variety" pack of oatmeal, it seems that only the "regular" kind would be left in the box by the time I got to it.  If you ever had to submit to eating that crap, you probably know what it looks like to have a large dune of sugar sitting at the bottom of your cereal bowl.  (And by the way, Lucky Charms has only received a place in my heart because Kaboom is no longer in existence.  Kaboom was the best cereal, EVER.)

I remember being ultra jealous of kids who had normal (the kind with sugar built in) cereal, and being totally fascinated by those little individual cereal boxes that my cousin always had in her house.  Those little boxes, that  could actually be transformed into cereal bowls if you cut off the side of the box!  She always had big boxes of Cocoa Puffs, too.  A big box of  sugar-y chocolate-y goodness which not only tasted delicious, but  also contained a prize in the package!  The only thing you got with Puffed Rice upon opening was stale air and a grouchy mood for the day.  If it hadn't been for those early years of spending summer weeks at my Nana's house, I might never have learned of the joy of Cocoa Puffs, mini cereal boxes, and other gastronomic delights.

For example, I also might never have tried a Yoohoo (which I still buy when I'm feeling nostalgic), or known what it's like to eat an Italian Ice with a stick spoon thingie  (the trick is, you have to skim off the top and the sides and wait for it to melt a little, and then turn the whole thing over so you can get to that dark colored, icy, sugary part).  We didn't have an ice cream man in our neighborhood growing up.  No wonder our cousins thought we were hicks.

In the non-sugar category, instant mashed potatoes makes the top 20 on the list.  Now, this may not seem like anything weird, because they have come a loooong way over the years.  But, back about 92 years ago, when I was growing up, there was only one flavor (plain), and I'm guessing maybe only one brand.  I wouldn't know, because I had the misfortune of growing up in a house where the mashed potatoes were made from SCRATCH.  Mashed potatoes from scratch are not smooth and creamy like the kind from the box.  You might get little tiny surprise lumps here and there, and they weren't buttery and salty like the fake kind.  And, as for Stove-Top Stuffing (instead of potatoes!), I don't recall partaking in that luxury until I was an adult.  Thanks, Mom, for depriving me as a child and forcing me to eat home-made, real food.

Sometimes I get a hankering for other crap food as well (the stuff that isn't home made).  I actually like some of those buffet places where they serve food that isn't natural nor even close to being made from scratch.  I guess, like my Italian friend, I'm occasionally attracted to foods that I didn't grow up with.  Though I will say, I never had Spaghetti-O's until I was in my 20's, and that will never make the top 20 or even the top 100.  Sorry, Chef Boyardee.

I'm sure I could go on forever with my musings on food, but I will end this here.  When we get closer to the holidays, I'll have a lot to write about.  But for now, I've still got one more Jell-o in the fridge, and a second container of Cool Whip to explore.

Hey, they were on sale.