Back in the day (read: before having children) that list would have included Marie Claire, InStyle, Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, Martha Stewart's Living and probably one or two more.
Did I REALLY have THAT much free time on my hands? Apparently. Sigh. Although I did read Entertainment Weekly at work to keep up with industry stuff...or at least that was my excuse for reading it at work. Good times.
Anyway, I digress...I was reading Wondertime (which I am REALLY liking by the way) and noticed this article about food and it brought back a ton of childhood memories.
It was all about the different eras of food. Starting first with the kind our moms grew up eating (in the 50s) that you would NEVER hear about a family eating today. Think liver and beets.Then the food of our childhood (the late 70s/early 80s). Think bologna and American cheese roll-ups and homemade chocolate pudding. (I also distinctly remember tapioca pudding).
Seriously, WHEN would you ever make pudding from scratch when good-old Jello pudding snacks are all ready to go? And let's not even talk about all the nitrates and processed crap in bologna (which, by the way, I ate quite a bit of. Yikes!) But seriously, for most of us, this food just isn't something we'd feed our kids nowadays.
A few menu items from the Telford house from when I was a kid that really sticks out in my mind are: Tuna Casserole (you know, the kind with the egg noodles, a can of cream of mushroom soup and crushed potato chips on top), fishsticks, meatloaf, and peanut butter and marshmallow cream (or is it creme?) sandwiches. Yes, you read that correctly. Peanut butter and MARSHMALLOW cream. I remember really liking them, but am way too scared to try it now.
I wonder what our kids will think is totally retro food when they are older. Tofu? Smoothies? I have no idea, but I better start coming up with a good defense when they start asking me why I made them eat it.
There must be some food vibes in the air--check out this blog and this one for some good laughs about childhood food. Luckily, we never had to endure any of these things...although I do remember my mom trying to be sneaky with the powdered milk because we were all out of "normal" milk and she was hoping we wouldn't notice. ummmm, no way would any of us 4 kids drink it. YUCK!
So, what foods do you distinctly remember from your childhood that is now totally retro?
6 comments:
My father is a food chemist & used to work at a lab that tested foods before they went on the market (this is where I brag a bit...) & invented Magic shell (chocolate that hardens on anything) and Pop Rocks. We grew up as guinnea pigs testing everything for him before it went on the market. Remember Clearly Canadian soda? Do they still even make that?
Rebecca, your dad invented Magic Shell????? EXCELLENT claim to fame.
And Doris, yes! I always wonder what things we'll look back on and realize were horrible ideas.
Funyuns and Cactus Cooler define my junior high years. gross.
haha. Funny post. I think I grew up with the opposite situation from the links you posted. When we weren't eating fast food, we were eating something cooked in the microwave with cheese melted on top. I never knew we were weird until my friend was over for dinner in middle school, and as we were watching tv my mom passed around a plate of sliced potatoes cooked in the microwave with cheese melted on top. For my fam this was a normal dinner (we weren't that hungry since we had already filled up on tootsie rolls and twizzlers), but my friend was totally baffled. So now I think Jonny and I are turning into the kind of crazy healthy food parents that those bloggers were ranting about. (He even makes something very similar to the "chocolate treat" on the jete set blog.)
me again. another weird food story: jonny's mother is infamous for sneaking peas into his brother's milk to boost his iron. How would you not notice peas floating in your milk?
and here's mine: Noah was begging me for marshmallows & I didn't really want to give them to him because I was just starting to make a burrito for him (oh yeah, and they're made out of crap) so I compromised by cutting marshmallows in half and filling them with refried beans. He totally ate them up. Jonny thought I was insane, but I personally thought it was clever parenting.
Kristen,
The marshmallow story is totally AWESOME--and somewhat disgusting. But hey...he ate it!!
And Rebecca--I TOTALLY remember Clearly Canadian!! In fact, I was just randomly thinking about it a few weeks ago. What ever happened to it?
And awesome claim to fame!! Magic Shell AND Pop Rocks?? Lucky!
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