Food and Memories

Up until leaving for college I was never aware of the importance food plays in my life. Looking back over the past several years I have come to the realization of the importance of some of my favorite dishes. For me it is hard to pick one specific dish and describe it as I have multiple. Reflecting upon my favorite dishes I’ve concluded that I have a favorite dish for every meal.

Since I am writing about my experiences on a nice warm almost summer like spring day I am going to start with my favorite summer dinner. Hands down my all time favorite summer dinner is my dad’s barbequed ribs with salad and baked beans and ice-cold raspberry lemonade to wash it down with. Writing about it makes me hungry and I can imagine the smell perfectly. My dad starting his prep early by putting the seasoning on the country style ribs. He has the blues on in the background trying to sing along. I can hear the clinking of the dishes he is using in the sink as he discards them one by one. Once the rub is on the ribs he fires up the grill. He puts it on a nice low heat and shuts the lid to the grill to allow for it to preheat. The time is approximately noon. My dad likes to slow cook the ribs so it usually takes up to four hours for them to cook. Once the grill is heated my dad puts the ribs on the grill and allows for them to cook nice and slow. My dad cooks by the philosophy that you can never be in a hurry. In the meantime my mom is preparing the baked beans and salad. My dad hates making salad so he usually leaves it up to my mom and me. My mom opens up the can of baked beans and pours it into a baking dish. Without measuring she adds in the molasses and the brown sugar. I am in the kitchen alongside her preparing the salad. I carefully chop the lettuce and dice the various ingredients that go in the salad. Once that is finished we all sit back and wait for the delicious ribs to finish cooking. When the ribs are about fifteen minutes from being done my dad carefully applies the barbeque sauce being careful not to add too much. Once he is finished with that he shuts the lid and waits out the remaining time. Once the ribs are done it is time to dig in. The smell of the ribs is a heavenly aroma. It smells of sweet barbeque goodness. I take my knife and fork and begin to cut into it. The ribs have a nice pink ring on the outside symbolizing that it has been cooked to perfection and has received the barbeque “stamp of approval”. Once I see it has the stamp I take a bite. It tastes spectacular. It has a nice smoky taste. Since it has been cooking for almost four hours it is extremely tender and almost melts in your mouth. This meal for me sums up almost every summer weekend. It brings me back to the carefree days of summer.

Now that I have shared my favorite dinner I feel it only proper to discuss my all time favorite lunch that takes me back to my childhood. Nothing beats a grilled cheese sandwich with piping hot tomato soup and a crisp dill pickle on the side. Ever since I can remember this has been my favorite lunch. There is something about the taste of the extra sharp cheddar cheese melted all over the perfectly toasted bread. Complemented with Campbell’s tomato soup it is nearly perfect. To complete the trifecta is a nice crisp dill pickle. The sourness of the pickle definitely completes the meal. My favorite thing to do is to dip my sandwich into the soup and let it absorb the liquidy goodness of the soup. It is so delicious words cannot simply express. This meal in my mind defines my childhood. Coming home from kindergarten and having it wait for me at the table ready to be devoured. Every time I eat this lunch it reminds me of my carefree days as a child where my only worry was if my mom would force me to take a bath that night.

Most say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. My favorite breakfast is waffles with nutella. Although this is a recent favorite (by recent I mean as of this year), this meal will always remind me of college. There is something that is so delicious about putting nutella on waffles. The hazelnut mixed with the deliciousness of the chocolate atop of a piping hot waffle makes your heart melt. Writing this makes me think of good friends and great times. It makes me think of my friends and I sitting in my kitchen eating nutella and waffles wondering how we could possibly eat that much and how we haven’t gotten diabetes by now. I feel that nutella and waffles will be one of those memories I tell my kids about when they ask about my college experience.

In my opinion dessert is the most important meal of the day. To me there is no better dessert than my mom’s homemade chocolate pie. In fact when I flew home for winter break I asked her to make me a chocolate pie. Being the amazing mom she is she had one waiting in the fridge for me when I got home. What makes this pie amazing to me is the time and love she puts into it. She could just buy a chocolate pie from the store but she doesn’t. She makes the crust from scratch. Starting with the flour and the butter she kneads it to perfection before adding the rest of the ingredients. She then carefully rolls out the dough and vigilantly places it in the pie dish. Once this is complete she pops it into the oven to cook to a golden brown. Once the crust is done she makes the chocolate filling. Stirring it constantly so that the mild doesn’t scald. She then takes the luscious chocolaty mixture and pours it into the crust, then places it in the fridge to cool. She then makes whipped cream from scratch. Once the cream has been whipped to perfection she covers the pie with the amazingly sweet whipped cream. To top it off she shaves chocolate over the pie to make it appealing to the eye. Whenever I eat her pie it reminds me of the holidays. My mom always makes her pie for holidays and special occasions. It reminds me of comfort and family.

For me food isn’t just about eating, it is also about the memories and the feelings that arise while I eat it. Eating some of my favorite dishes takes me back to the carefree days of summer and my childhood. While other foods remind me of family gatherings and fun memories with friends. Food has an interesting way of connecting people and places. I was talking with my parents the other day about my favorite foods and we began to reminisce. It’s odd how with certain dishes you can remember the exact day you ate it, who you were with and how it tasted. While my family doesn’t have any meals that have been prepared by generations before us and passed down, we have our own meals that as a family we have created and made special.