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This week’s Monday Listicles topic is “10 Things Food.” Now, I almost never make anything I pin on Pinterest, and the time I tried, things did not go well.
But that’s okay, because I’ve got plenty to say about food. So here are my 10 favorite food memories:
1) Christmas shortbread cookies–my mother wasn’t a fan of sugar cookies, so every year we would make shortbread cookies, cut them out with Christmas-themed cookie cutters, and decorate them with red and green sprinkles.
2) Lemon bars–I loved my mother’s so much that one year I had them for my birthday instead of cake.
3) Orange bread rolls–These became my specialty at Thanksgiving. They’re like cinnamon rolls with orange filling and glaze instead of cinnamon, and were always a big hit. They are delicious and a total PITA to make. Therefore, I do not make them any more.
4) Le Ciel–One year we went to Vienna and Budapest for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, we had a phenomenal five- or six-course meal at the ANA hotel. I have no idea what we ate. I just remember that everything was amazing and the service was just about perfect.
5) Lemon cod filets–My favorite but defunct Chinese restaurant made this for me, and I cannot find a substitute.
6) Frosting–One summer when we were about 10, a friend and I decided to make cupcakes. That was fine, but we couldn’t get the frosting to come out right. I was sure that what you added to thicken it was flour. I was wrong.
7) Spaghetti sauce–my mom made hers nearly from scratch; she used canned tomato in various forms. I’ve got some on the stove as I type this.
8) Tacos–We only had them if my dad had recently come back from a business trip to Texas, because the Maryland supermarkets didn’t carry tortillas. That’s right, I grew up in the dark ages.
9) The Carnivore–if you’ve been to a Brazilian steakhouse, you’d recognize the method of serving at this restaurant outside of Nairobi. Slabs of meat are carried around on spear-like skewers and carved onto your plate. Only instead of unusual cuts of beef, here you’re eating African game.
10) Crepes–My mother-in-law makes excellent crepe-style pancakes. I would swear the oil in the pan is burning, but the crepes come out perfectly each time. Which just goes to show that I don’t know how to make them.
Photo by timsackton, via Flickr.
I can’t find a good lemon bar recipe to save my life. My husband loves them but they aren’t exactly what he remembers when I make them. Great list!
Last time I tried, I was unable to get them to turn out right–I need to try again!
Love crepes, and homemade spaghetti sauce. The flour in frosting story gave me a chuckle!
It tasted funny, too!
Loved reading your food memories! My sister makes orange rolls every Thanksgiving. I think there would be big trouble if she ever stopped making them. And your frosting story totally cracked me up!
Thanks! I’m not entirely sure how I got out of making them, but having to travel for Thanksgiving didn’t hurt.
I saw that carnivore thing at a Brazilian restaurant for the first time this year – so amazing to watch!
Also delicious! (BTW, I encountered what may be my favorite cut of beef at a Brazilian restaurant: bottom sirloin. I had not realized that the “top” in top sirloin was locational.)
Your frosting story reminds me of the time my sister thought to add butter to the gravy. I…I have no idea what SHE was thinking. *gagging*
Probably at the time she was thinking, “Hey, butter!” But that might not have been what she thought afterward.
The Carnivore sounds fabulous! Loved your take on the list with food memories. Ellen
It was amazing–as was everything I saw of Kenya.
Yum! I loved reading the memories that went with the food too. It’s weird that you couldn’t buy tortillas in Maryland!
It does seem strange now, doesn’t it? But food was much more local in the 70s.
Even I can make crepes 😉 love how you listed memories relating to food. I thought frosting makes everything better ha ha.