Food For Thought...
How many times, in this last year, have you read the phrase ‘Food For Thought’? Some are meant to give us thoughts to ponder, perhaps on topics that had never even crossed your mind. If you ask Google the meaning of ‘food for thought’, it tells us that it is “something that warrants serious consideration”; something that needs to be thought over carefully before deciding or acting. The topics can be varied; medical, political, religious, or daily living. Some can even be silly, just to entertain the reader.
I’ve been
thinking a lot about food this last while. What do I need to have on my grocery
list? Do I want to prepare a meal from scratch or do I want to try some
prepared meals from a deli or the frozen food section at the market? What about
the ‘craving’ for my favorite dessert, what would be easiest to chew with my
new dentures? During one of my personal photo scanning sessions, I came across
a number of photos that reminded me of some of my favorite meals prepared by my
mother, or one of her four sisters who were also great cooks. As one of my
relatives recently stated, those sisters could do “magic with flour and cream”.
My mother
came from a large farming family. There wasn’t much money, but they always had
a large garden, raised chickens, milked cows, and made their own sausages. How
five girls learned to be great cooks in the same kitchen could have been out of
necessity, but not always pleasant. The aroma of freshly baked bread is still a
very pleasant reminder of home.
One favorite
item on the list was associated with a fascinating family story. When my grandparents
were still living in Europe, their circumstances required a lengthy move. They
believed that in order to stay healthy on the journey, it was important to have
plenty of water to drink, and have lots of bread that wouldn’t spoil. They made
buns that contained a lot of butter in the dough, baked them, then toasted them
so that they wouldn’t get moldy. The buns were kept in grain sacks while
travelling.
Several
years ago, on one of the delightful visits from my aunt, she insisted on doing
some baking and cooking in my kitchen. She made chicken noodle soup, quick
fried rolled dough (that we called strudels) and potatoes in cream, toasted
buns, and fruit kuchen (coffee cake) for desserts. My mother cooked the same
when I was growing up, and I even learned to prepare some of them. No more… it
was too much work, and I found other things to do with my time. But it was
these photos that brought the memories flooding back.
It may sound weird to some of my readers, but a couple of buns and a cup of coffee were a favorite lunch for me, but don’t know anyone who still makes them.
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