Food and Memories

     I can't explain it but for some reason certain foods bring back memories from the past.  Usually, at least for me, the memories are better than the taste of these forgotten foods.  Growing up I remember a morning breakfast of fried mush, sounds appetizing right.  Well, the truth is I have fond memories of sitting down to a plate of fried mush (cornmeal) and pouring syrup over the top.  I can't imagine that it was a healthy meal but when I grew up we were more concerned about filling our bellies with tasty food than eating healthy foods. I checked online with Professor Google and found the fried mush is still a popular food, which has made a comeback, so you still have a chance to try this memorable breakfast dish.  

    Another one of my favorites was fried puff wheat.  This delectable dish was pan-fried wheat puffs on the stove top in real butter.  If you ate the puff wheat out of the box it was the consistency of styrofoam and although I have never eaten styrofoam I imagine that it is equally healthy and tasty as uncooked puff wheat.   However, once the puff wheat was fried in an ample amount of butter and sprinkled with sugar or syrup the taste transformed in to a memorable taste explosion.  Let's call that the miracle of butter and sugar, which might actually transform styrofoam into a desirable dish.  

     Here's another food, which I have written about before and I'm sure many of you will remember with fondness.  Gravy bread, it was something I looked forward to more than the meat that sat next to it on my plate.  In our house it was beef gravy that was the prize delicacy, not chicken or pork gravy that just wasn't the same.  It was almost like a dessert when you dipped the soft doughy white wonder bread in the gravy.  Sorry to say wheat bread, whole grain or any other exotic healthy bread didn't exist as far as I knew plus they would have been a sad substitute for white bread.  The doughy white bread was a perfect match for the warm brown beef gravy with a slightly greasy texture; Wow makes my mouth water as I am writing these words.

     When visiting friends this weekend we discussed our old childhood food favorites and decided we would get together to share a meal of our favorites.  We will each prepare one of our favorite dishes to share.  I can only hope that these foods do our memories justice and we don't need to call an EMT.