Cooking Memories...
#10
  Re: (...)
I posted a bit of extra information in the Food Lover's Companion thread and it got me to thinking of some of my favorite memories of cooking...of course the "Iron Chef" feelings when I cooked for my Mom and her husband come to mind when I first moved to Iowa three years ago.

I'd come home from cooking 12 or more hours and then come up with something "new and original" for dinner. My first time cooking for them is never going to be forgotten. I had just put the chicken on for a bbq's chicken with "white" bbq sauce when the tornado sirens went off. It was my first tornado warning but I kept on cooking as the sun was shining and I didn't have a clue as to what was going on around me. Turns out the twister was about 20 miles north of us tearing up some corn fields. The meal was good and the family still laughs at the memories of it and me saying "But I'll burn my chicken!" as everyone went for the basement.

Other memories bring back happy memories like making cookies standing on a stool as a little one with my Mom. Coming home from school and putting dinner in the oven for the first time (it was a meatloaf and I forgot to take the plastic wrap off before baking and Mom didn't notice until we were doing the dishes) or the day in a 7th grade home economics class when we had to cook lunch for our parents (that was the day I decided I wanted to be a Chef) are all things that I remember fondly...

How about everyone else? What are your fondest memories from the kitchen? I hope thinking about all the times in the kitchen or around the table with friends and family will bring back some wonderful memories and great stories to share with one and all...
"Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table."-Charles Pierre Monselet, French author(1825-1888)
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#11
  Re: Cooking Memories... by firechef (I posted a bit of ex...)
nice memories...I'll have to think on this a while.
Retired and having fun writing cookbooks, tasting wine and sharing recipes with all my friends.
www.achefsjourney.com
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#12
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by cjs (nice memories...I'll...)
Two things really stand out in my mind. One is baking with my mom and getting ready for the holiday season. This usually started a week before Thanksgiving and was pretty much ongoing right up till Christmas. My parents sun porch made the perfect walk-in cooler for storing everything on tables since our winters were cold.

Another great memory that I have is that my mom gave me creative freedom in the kitchen at a young age and never complained about the way something turned out, even when it didn't turn out well.
Maryann

"Drink your tea slowly and reverently..."
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#13
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by Mare749 (Two things really st...)
Those are great memories, LJ and Maryanne. My kids mentioned yesterday something we did in the kitchen together. (They are now old enough to remember and appreciate!)

I'd give them little chores to do while cooking breakfast or lunch, toast, butter bread, break eggs. They were about 3, 4 and 6 at the time. We'd always have music playing, and sometimes I'd just drop what I was doing, grab one or the other of them, and dance. We would have so much fun, cooking and dancing in the kitchen, I sure do miss those days!

Time just goes too fast, doesn't it? I've said this before: when I was a little overwhelmed with 3 boys under 5, my ex-husband told me I would never again get this time back with them, they were little for such a short time. I took it to heart and made the most of all that time. And, I'm so grateful for that advice. (And now they all cook....sometimes with me, but they draw the line at dancing with me...unless I make 'em)

I don't really have any cooking memories with my Mom, either she cooked, or I did, isn't that sad? I'm glad I broke that cycle. I think I may schedule a cooking date with her for the next family event. Thanks, LJ, for the inspiration, I'm almost 50 and she's 67-it's time to cook with my Mom!

PJ
PJ
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#14
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by pjcooks (Those are great memo...)
Funny you said that PJ. I didn't cook much with my mom either. There were some times making Christmas goodies or stretching pastry for Sunday dinner on a Saturday night. But most of those times were made stressful by her rush to "get it done"!

Oddly enough, I remember the times in the kitchen with my dad the best. I remember the time DH killed his first deer the best. He was soooo excited. We were going to have meat in the freezer for free! We loaded up the meat in a cooler and hauled it to my parent's house. My dad had purchased the beef and pork to add to the venison for ground meat. We spent hours in the kitchen and outside butchering that thing and making goodies for the freezer. My dad was great in the kitchen and had worked as a butcher to put himself through school when I was little. We had a blast!

The last time I cooked with him was in the final days before Alzheimer's took him to another place. I wanted to record his Brunswick Stew recipe and black-eyed peas. We purchased a hog and all the stuff and cranked up his catering grill in the back yard and spent two days over a Thanksgiving holiday making all the things he loved to cook. I think I treasure that memory the most.

Another interesting twist, I have GREAT memories cooking with my MIL! Several times a year we would have a great big clam bake. It was an all day affair! We'd travel to Varnum Town to collect the clams. Then we would get all the veggies and stuff ready for the pots. There would be TWO steamers on the stove. We would carefully stack everything in a certain order into the pots. On top would be a layer of cabbage and one single potato. This was used to check to see when everything was ready....when the potato was done it was time to eat. We would spend an hour or so siphoning the drippings from the steamer spout to pour back over the "pot". There was also great care preparing the table on the porch with all the bowls, silver, etc. When the time came the platter was brought out for the presentation. The platter is a HUGE aluminum platter she purchased many years ago at a sale when a liberty ***** was decomissioned. First came the clams in the center. The cabbage was carefully arranged around the pile. Then chicken, corn, potatoes, and onions were artfully placed around the clams so that everyone had access to anything they wanted, regardless of where they were sitting at the table. There were little bowls of clam juice and butter at every place for dipping during the meal. Finally, the home made corn bread was passed in the hand carved Cypress bowl. What a meal!

Then there were the pig pickin's with my MIL and my dad doing the cooking together! What a pair and what a party!!!!! The lake house was the party place in those days! Our friends LOVED coming here, and our parents loved having them!

Finally, I remember making biscuits with my grandmother. We lived close to them and I spent a lot of time on the farm with them. With both parents working, it was economical. Biscuits were fun and flour would be EVERYWHERE when we finished, but a fresh biscuit out of the oven with butter and honey or molasses can't be beat! I also have great memories in that same kitchen blanching corn, cutting corn, shelling peas or butter beans. Sucking corn in the back yard, then cutting a watermelon fresh from the field! What special memories!

Thanks for the memories LJ!
Daphne
Keep your mind wide open.
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#15
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by Gourmet_Mom (Funny you said that ...)
Those are wonderful memories, Daphne! How lucky you were to have spent that time with your Dad, you'll cherish those times always. I can't get my Dad in the kitchen but I'm going to hang around his workshop a bit more, there's lots he can teach me, and it will be time with my Dad.

PJ
PJ
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#16
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by pjcooks (Those are wonderful ...)
My Dad was a mighty man. After his stroke (my mother gave up), I took them okra, tomato, onions and sliced polish sausage--they loved it. Then I would take Daddy's favorite--dried butter beans/ham hock/ cornbread--other things for variety, but on special occasions we had ham or roast, or chicken and (in my Dad's stroke affected voice---(Jaaanes mashed pototoes). Mother always said "Jane how do you make them?" Her reply was-- "lots of cream, butter and thru a ricer"---Mothers reply was "Oh my".

Mother called one Sunday morning and said "what are you doing?". I said Jane is rendering pork fat-- She said "oh my God you are going to die".

Memories.
"He who sups with the devil should have a. long spoon".
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#17
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by Old Bay (My Dad was a mighty ...)
Oh PJ, enjoy the time you have. I was lucky....my dad loved cooking. Even back then before I was a "food fiend", I loved time with my dad when he was cooking because that was what he loved. So whatever his hobby, take time to spend time enjoying it with him. My dad's other passion was golf. Any surprise I got a set of clubs at 10? We spent a lot of time at the club together. I miss him terribly, but I cherish my memories. Funny, I've not felt this close to him in a long time! I think it's time to make a batch of Brunswick Stew!

BTW, the first time my ILs and parents met was at a salt marsh. We met up to gather our own clams and crabs. My dad cranked up the gas cooker and we had an informal clam bake/crab boil right there in the marsh. I had forgotten that until now!

Another memory was the time DH and I were in college and for our birthday...15 days apart...our parents got together and rented a house at a ski resort for a birthday party for us and all our friends. Daddy strapped a pig to his cooker (bear in mind our birthday is in February) and pulled cooker and pig to the mountains for the party (We went to college at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.). I'll never forget....the weather turned bad the day of the party...blizzard conditions! Everybody showed anyway so we served in the basement of the house. There were so many people, the stairs to the basement collapsed! It was our twenty-first and a two kegger! What a party!
Daphne
Keep your mind wide open.
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#18
  Re: Re: Cooking Memories... by Gourmet_Mom (Oh PJ, enjoy the tim...)
Don't you think that is part of the passion regarding food - the memories that are associated with certain dishes, the smell alone of some things can just instantly take you back to another time and place. That association with certain dishes and certain people, like Daphne's Brunswick Stew and her Dad. It can just trigger wonderful memories of times that you'll never get back, but that aren't lost, just tucked away, to be revisited and smiled over.

And pj, the dancing in the kitchen . . . those kids will remember that forever and associate that with you and the love and warm feelings they had at that time. I am always amazed at what children remember from younger years.

I just think that over the years food is an underlying common factor that links all of us and triggers memories, good and maybe not so good. Like how many times has your first food disaster been trotted out for a laugh.

I love reading these wonderful posts to see what memories everyone has.
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