Childhood memories associated with food

[Pooh]

Hi y'all!

I just read an interview with Michael Reich, Executive Chef of the Renaissance Hotel, on Chicago Cooks, via Cheftalk.com.

A favorite childhood breakfast his mother prepared for him was called Humpty Dumpty eggs. It's an egg that is cooked in the middle of toasted bread that has a hole cut into the center.

Boy, my grandmother used to prepare this for me and that was my very favorite breakfast. I never dreamed it had a name, let alone "Humpty Dumpty Eggs"!

I thought it would be fun if you could share your childhood memories associated with food!

[lynne]

Cinnamon always brings back childhood memories...

Grandma's house for Christmas and baking Snickerdoodles...

We lived at the top of a huge hill in Belgium . A huge cobblestone (therby slick) road was how the bus would come to get us for the 45 min. ride to the English speaking school. On snow days when school wasn't cancelled, the bus couldn't get to us -- and we were excused from school. Mom used to make us cinnamon toast and we'd curl up and watch the snow fall! If we went outside to play, my friend's mother would make us Mexican hot chocolate...

My Mom used to make us Humpty Dumpty eggs too -- only we call them Egg-in-the-hole. It's funny, when we've got guests that don't want the whole 3 course breakfast (usually corporate guests here for multiple days and eating way early--we usually do a simpler hot breakfast for them), we often offer egg-in-the-hole to them -- very often, their eyes light up and say yes! When served, they usually talk about "when I was a litlle kid..." Cinnamon toast (which I use as a base for a fruit bruschetta is another one that gets people going...

[Kimmie]

For me, it's "petits pains au chocolat".

That is small breads stuffed wih chocolate morsels. My grandmother made the very best, and I would have that at 4:00, after school.

Such fond memories!

[Bayou]

pooh, I haven't thought about this in years, and I'm having a culinary flashback of, not my Mom's cooking, but an Aunt that lived close by when I was a kid.

Sunday lunch (we called it dinner then) -- I remember some Southern classics.

Fried chicken (it seemed to be OK to eat it then.)

Mustard greens and a dish called "hot water cornbread." (Great stuff.)

And, of course, banana pudding.

[Kimmie]

Fried Chicken, Bayou?

It's still okay if you take off the skin! Drain the chicken pieces very well on kitchen paper.

[cape chef]

Hi Pooh...

somewhere in this place is a thread on breakfast items. and everyone had a memory and name for the dish you discribe.

I used to call it "EGGS IN A NEST"

When I think of childhood memories I think of the smell in my grandfathers bakery...fresh baked breads,and I loved filling the jelly donuts. My great aunt used to make the most incredible latki and matzo balls. I can still smell them know.

In the autumn and winter months there was always the aroma of slow braising meats and vegetables.
cc

[Mezzaluna]

My olfactory memories run in the same vein as Cape Chef's: my grandmother's challah and kichlach (cinnamon rolls). Also the aroma of schmaltz rendering slowly on the stove in my mother's kitchen.

[Kimmie]

Mezz,

Grandmother used schmaltz for her french fries! That was heaven.

Did yours too?



[ May 14, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]

[Isa]

In my house, we never ate in front of the TV except on very special occasion. The menu, on these days, would always be the same Campbell tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich.

I still remember the dinner my mom made for us on Halloween night, Campbell tomato soup and crepes with maple syrup, as if we needed more sugar. As you can see we loved Campbell tomato soup in my house.


Every summer we would go to Maine, and spend a month in a beach house. Lobsters from Lord’s were a favourite treat. I would always go with my dad get the lobsters. While we waited I would learn such useful trick as how to put a lobster to sleep or how to get it to stand on the top of his head while he was still alive. Once we were done playing with the lobsters, my dad would buy a jar of “green”, lobster liver, and some chip and we would go sit on the concrete wall eating our chip and dip. Finally after a wait that someday seemed like eternity we would get our lobsters. On the way back to the house I would be the one holding the paper bags holding the steaming hot lobsters. To this day the smell of hot water on paper bag reminds me of lobsters and those trips to the lobster store.

[shroomgirl]

"toad in the hole"
Cinnamon toast all crunchy bubbly, buttery

Hmmmmm I think it would be the salads my family made....large bowl of greens any vegetables around then the leftover grilled meat from the night before....My dad really got into making that gem.

Or pate choux with stuffing or seafood stuffed tomatoes.

[Pooh]

That's so cool, cc. I will try'n look for it!

Thanks!

[Svadhisthana]

hmmmmmmm, lessee
Childhood memories of food, I remember the eggs cooked in a hole of bread, we called it toad in the hole.
I also remember cinnamon rolls with frosting on Sunday mornings, and the smell of the kitchen when my mother made caramel popcorn. I never liked eating it but the kitchen smelled wonderful and it was nice and warm in our large house that was often drafty.


Svadhisthana

When I was a kid, I grew up in South America... I'll never forget my grandma's cooking -- she was the most amazing cook! Her ceviche was the best I've ever tasted. Spaghetti with green (basil) sauce; bread pudding with rum raisin ice cream. My mom wasn't bad either -- her mango ice cream is still unmatched.

Gosh, I'm hungry!

HP

[logose]

French toast with grape jelly
Flan with a dollop of whipped cream on the side.
My mother's Bolognese spaghetti sauce that she simmered for what I thought was an unbearablely long time because aroma premeated the air and we couldn't wait for suppertime .
Wonderful simple Japanese lunches with rice, miso soup, and grilled fish followed by Japanese confections made with assorted sweet bean pastes.
My mother's fried rice.

[Risa]

My mom was constantly baking when I was a child. She still bakes quite a bit today, but mostly banana bread and cookies. However, my favourite childhood memories involved fresh baked bread. Cloverleaf buns baking in the oven, coming out and being slathered with butter. Filipino Ensaymada which is basically a brioche dough filled with a good cheese (gouda when I was a child, asiago in more recent times) that is brushed with butter after coming out of the oven and rolled in sugar. Baked buns filled with a spicy yet sweet meat filling. I still bake bread today whenever I'm homesick.