Moving on...
Did you ever think that when you eat a meal it brings back a memory? Whether it be a memory for a specific taste or a memory for a time and place or a memory for a certain person? The smells alone can trigger memories. You may be eating something you have never had before in your life at a restaurant in a city that you have never been at in your life. Something in that meal...one of those flavors will trigger something for you. That's how we decide what we like...my theory anyway. Screw taste buds. I think this also molds how we cook for ourselves.
I love my mother. Don't get me wrong. She is a good example of good intentions/bad ideas when it comes to food and cooking. She taught me the basics of cooking and a lot about baking. BUT...and that being the operative word, her options for dinners when I was growing up, left something to be desired. Our typical week of dinners up until I could cook or when I didn't cook, consisted of fish sticks with bland, sticky white rice; broiled, chewy steak with Worcestershire Sauce and buttered egg noodles; macaroni and cheese with some kind of leftover meat (usually done after she has made a ham roast the weekend before); spaghetti with some poor store bought sauce; and then the best part yet...what my mother defines as "hash." I'm not talking about the ground ham with little potatoes hash. I'm talking about taking some kind of leftover meat, and adding the leftover noodles or rice from another meal, some random frozen vegetable, and adding either tomato sauce or a brown gravy. When I was younger she would call it her homemade hamburger helper, but now that I'm older she has been calling it "hash." Either way, these "innovative" meals where the very reason I couldn't eat frozen vegetables (especially lima beans!), white rice, buttered noodles, store bought spaghetti sauce, steak in any form (was horrible for me when I had braces...I couldn't chew it),and fish sticks (still won't eat today). Eating any of these foods within a meal would make me gag inside. In addition, I have NEVER in my life bought fish sticks or any kind of a steak at a restaurant in my life. I have reaffirmed my appreciation for rice and noodles though. I also make my own spaghetti sauce. I rarely ever buy pre-made.
My father rarely cooked, but when he did, he cooked everything that my mother didn't. He taught me the value of sauteed mushrooms and fried onions. He taught me how to make my first lasagna. He taught me how to make omelets and encouraged me to put a variety of ingredients in them. My father used seasonings and likes flavor. So, in a way, together they shaped my cooking and encouraged my need to branch out. To this day I use mushrooms and onions in whatever I can. I make phenomenal omelets and experiment with them, and according to most who have had it, my lasagna is the best they have ever had. I also take my father portions of my dinners...I guess out of pity for the blandness he is being served at home.
So I guess the questions of the day are... What kind of memories does food serve for you? Where are your roots with food? What has shaped your food choices of today?
My mother was my inspiration to learn how to cook. She was very good at surprises because she never wrote anything down and always made a dish different every time. I remember taking all my mothers food scraps one night and asking her if
ReplyDeleteI could "make" something. I remember throwing carrot peels, water, flour, salt and pepper in her used mixing bowl and creating a huge mess in the kitchen sink, but BOY did I have fun.
My mother had a huge pallet (spelling?) and served me everything under the sun. I ate mushrooms and onions at a young age and still love them. When I cook for my kids now (ages 1 & 3) they eat everything my husband and I do. My three year old loves spicy taco meat even black bean salsa!
It is the same thing for me. My daughter has had the opportunity to try everything. I realize her tastes will develop and change many times over the years. But at least I can say that I introduced her to everything. She is definitely not picky.
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