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Sophia Knightly | What Foods Evoke Childhood Memories?
June 16, 2012
Food is good for the soul. I know that for a fact. My love affair with food began one summer when my sister and I visited my
Grandma Caterina in New Jersey. To an eight year old, it seemed as if my
Neapolitan grandma cooked all day long. In the morning when I'd wander into the
kitchen for breakfast, I'd find her dressed in her usual attire, a house dress
with a white apron and comfortable shoes, as she prepped fresh vegetables and
fruits for the day's meals. Everything she made was delicious, from the
rectangular pizza with the perfect crunchy, tender crust, fragrant tomato basil
sauce and creamy buffalo mozzarella to the homemade, feather light gnocchi she
effortlessly prepared. My plump Grandma Caterina must have been a beauty as a young woman. The contrast
of her fair, pink-cheeked complexion to her dark hair and twinkly eyes was
striking. She had a gentle, loving disposition and was beautiful to me in so
many ways. Now that I reflect on it, I realize how selfless she had been as she
worked tirelessly to feed her family, never complaining and often smiling as she
urged us to eat plenty. When she said, "Mangia, mangia, bambina," which
means "Eat, eat little one", it was music to my ears. The first time I made a foray into Grandma Caterina's basement, we had gone down
to get a jar of tomatoes. I remember clutching her hand and gazing in awe at the
vibrant bounty before me. Spellbound, I took in the neatly stacked rows of plump
red tomatoes in jars, juicy peaches in brandy, bottles of white and red wine,
cured meats, rows of savory spices and tins of Italian pizzelles, crisp
snowflake wafer cookies that she baked on a pizzelle iron. It was culinary
heaven and the hard work of a woman who loved providing good food for her
family. Luckily, my father inherited his mother's glorious cooking skills. My fondest
childhood memories are of sitting at the dining table with my family on Sunday
afternoons feasting on the meal Daddy had lovingly prepared for us. My husband
doesn't cook, but he swears he inherited an Italian gene somewhere because he
loves pasta and the meals my daughters and I enjoy cooking when we gather in the
kitchen for the holidays. My new novel, GRILL ME,
BABY, is a celebration of food and love. During the book's launch week of
June 12, I am going to donate a portion of my sales to Share Our Strength/No Kid
Hungry, a charity whose mission is to end childhood hunger in America. What foods evoke childhood memories for you? One lucky commenter will receive a
copy of GRILL ME, BABY,
my romantic comedy about two hot chefs vying for a TV cooking show in a lively
battle of one-upmanship.
Comments
32 comments posted.
Re: Sophia Knightly | What Foods Evoke Childhood Memories?
Lasagna is my food of choice here. My mom made the BEST lasagna when I was growing up and she made it for my Bday every year as a kid. To this day, lasagna reminds me of her and the happiness of my childhood bdays!
(Angie Lilly 12:11pm June 16, 2012)
i love the title cant wait to read
(Denise Smith 1:00pm June 16, 2012)
Pumpking pie... always makes me think about my grandmother... nothing compared to her pumpkin pie...
(Colleen Conklin 1:31pm June 16, 2012)
Watermelon baskets or chocolate covered strawberries because I helped my mom make them for holidays and birthdays.
(Chelsea Knestrick 1:44pm June 16, 2012)
My mother was a fantastic cook, everything she made tasted great. But the funniest thing crossed my mind with your question. I loved pastina, little noodle with lots of butter. It was a comfort food for me.
(Kathleen Bianchi 1:51pm June 16, 2012)
My favorite childhood food was pizza dogs!
(Darci Paice 3:06pm June 16, 2012)
My Grandmother used to make sweet empanadas, an Ecuadorian recipe. She'd get up early in the morning to make them fresh. I'll always remember her for that. : )
(Deborah Neff 3:50pm June 16, 2012)
Pie crust reminds me of being a child because my grandmother
when she made pies would always make extra crust and back it
with cinnamon and sugar for us kids to eat as a treat.
(Carin Walker 4:32pm June 16, 2012)
Macaroni and
(Markey Bakas 4:43pm June 16, 2012)
I have fond childhood memories of eating freshly caught beer-battered walleye-pike on Friday nights. My Dad was a avid fisherman and when he wasn't working, he was on the Mississippi River fishing from his boat. I remember how he'd wake me up at 3 am to get going. We had to hit the bait shop to buy fresh willowcats and drive 25 min. to our location and go out in the dark to locate his favorite fishing spot, called the Keisel Horse Wingdam. It had a rock formation below the deep water that rippled above and the walleyes were thick in there. We always had a freezer filled with fish. I remember getting some freshly caught and filleted from him, after I married and moved away and how I couldn't wait to cook it, when we got home, for my family. It was the best ever and the last I've ever had, since my Dad got cancer and is now deceased. I have my great memories of our happy times and how the other fishermen envied my Dad for his knack to catch such nice big walleyes. Many conversations took place, every time we docked...when they saw his stringers filled with fish. After a while, he'd bring a cardboard box and have me run the fish to the back of his camper covered pickup truck to keep them out of sight (so they'd quit asking where he caught them) and take his favorite fishing spot...which did happen a few times (another reason for getting up so early)!
(Linda Luinstra 4:58pm June 16, 2012)
I don't really have foods that evoke memories but I sure have some memories about Nanny's cooking. She made the best tuna casserole that no matter how many times I've tried I cannot duplicate. I should have paid closer attention when she was with us and taken detailed notes. :(
Good luck and happy writing!
(Tracie Travis 6:34pm June 16, 2012)
Baked macaroni and cheese makes me think of the wonderful dinners at my Mom's house growing up. And grilled cheese sandwiches were something she would make when I visited her at lunch time. We'd share them and chat the afternoon away.
(Michele Hayes 6:36pm June 16, 2012)
Wonton soup - my arms always felt like they were going to fall off after chopping up the pork and shrimp. My mom and I would make for family gatherings and there never seemed to be enough!
(Mary C 8:52pm June 16, 2012)
I think the one food that brings back the richest memories - my Nanny's (grandma's) Bananna Pudding. We would come back to my daddy's mama's house for our yearly vacation...Nanny made everything from scratch - I knew we were home when I tasted that bananna pudding. I have never had it anywhere else, nothing measures up.
(Kimberley Coover 9:29pm June 16, 2012)
Since I grew up in a Polish household, I'll have to use American translations the best I can. A good pot of stuffed cabbage, or Pierogi, which are dumplings which can be stuffed with potato filling, sauerkraut, farmer's cheese, plum, or any number of fillings, Sauerkraut, or cured cabbage, with cooked smoked sausage and rye bread!! I miss most of all my Mom's cinnamon-raisin bread, which she painstakingly made and also gave some away to some of the neighbors. You could smell it baking down the street. I used to love it around Christmas time most of all because I would help her not only with that, but with her special cookies, which I still make to this day. I haven't tried to make her bread yet, but everyone loves her cookies!! They're very time-consuming, and take 2 days to make!! I also make the other dishes, and my Father, who is still alive and 90 years old now, says that I'm a better cook than she was!! I take that as a big compliment, especially due to the fact that he only wants to eat at my house, and not at my other 2 Sisters' houses!! lol I would love to read your book, since my Father is a bit ill at the moment, and could use something a bit uplifting to read. Thanks for the memories. I do miss my Mom a lot!!
(Peggy Roberson 9:54pm June 16, 2012)
I loved my banana pudding, it was so good. Books sounds great. Thanks for giving me a chance to win your book.
(Linda Hall 10:29pm June 16, 2012)
My paternal grandmother made poached eggs on toast whenever I stayed
overnight with them. I loved it there, but it never tasted as good anywhere
else. My maternal grandmother made the best rice pudding I have ever had.
No one in the family seems to have the recipe, so I have been buying
cookbooks from the 30's and 40's to try and find it. I have found a couple of
good possibilities.
There were the filled cookies my paternal grandmother made at Christmas
that I loved. Luckily, she gave me the recipe and they turn out just like hers.
At Christmas my mom made a cake roll with walnuts. cherries and dates in it.
She died unexpectedly and my stepmother threw out all her recipes (as well as
all our baby and family pictures). Several family members have given me what
they think the recipe is, but they aren't the same.
For a family meal, my favorite was always a chuck pot roast with onions,
potatoes, carrots, and gravy. I make it for our family whenever I can.
Thanks for sending us down memory lane.
(Patricia Barraclough 12:23pm June 17, 2012)
Cinnamon and sugar toast. The little "cookies" my grandma made -
basically pie crust with sugar - for the strawberries, and peanutbutter
cookies. Baked those with my grandpa. :)
(Kelli Jo Calvert 1:43am June 17, 2012)
Whenever I have a grilled cheese sandwich it brings my back to my summer vacations at my grandmothers house. It seems like that was lunch most days and we would sit outside in the backyard with our sandwiches and iced tea. What a great time we had and I always get a smile on my face thinking of it.
(Denise Boyd 4:41am June 17, 2012)
I'm going to inject a note of foods not liked - I went off bananas, milk and cheese early, and I mean by age two. I would take milk on cereal or in tea but not on its own, still don't. We only got processed cheese from the supermarket which tasted like salty plastic, not nice at all. The bananas was the funny one because aged two and a half I was in hospital for a minor op and when Mum came to visit, the nurse told her I must be quite sick because I had not eaten lunch, just drank the orange juice. Mum asked me, 'Why didn't you eat your lunch?' and I said 'Oh it was banana sandwiches, yeuck.'
We had really good Sunday roasts, chicken, pork, beef or lamb, with roast potatoes and gravy, which were a wonderful family occasion. I think a lot of families don't eat that way anymore.
(Clare O'Beara 5:02am June 17, 2012)
Everything my Mother cooks brings back memories. She used to spoil us & still does.
(Mary Preston 6:18am June 17, 2012)
As a child my Mother made apple stacked cake and the smell of it baking was wonderful, no one could ever cook like my mother! She's gone now but her memory will always live on
thinking about what a wonderful cook she was! And fried chicken, She was the best.
(Ann Thaxton 6:42am June 17, 2012)
Meat pies! I remember when I was a kid making them with my Mom at the counter and then we would have one for supper that night and freeze the others. Miss you Mom!!!
(Diane Sadler 8:40am June 17, 2012)
Marshmallows! (OK, those aren't food)
(Roxana Perez 9:19am June 17, 2012)
I was so lucky to live upstairs from my grandmother who came from Lithuania. I was like her shadow and watched her cook, pink cheeked and always smiling. But my best memories of when she showed me how to make New pickles, which only remain in the chock for 24 hours. She said, "Patsy don't touch them until then." I would creep down into the cellar and lift the plate that covered them and try one! I make them now but miss the fun of being with grandma! Plan to share this experience soon with my 9 year old grandson who, like me, loves pickles.
Pat Pascale
(Patricia (Pat) Pascale 9:30am June 17, 2012)
My grandmother always made a special banana cream cake for my father's birthday---it was to die for!!!!
(Sue Farrell 11:01am June 17, 2012)
Homemade ravioli and noodles with my gma's meatballs and sauce. Yum. Served on white and orange plates.
(Pat Lieberman 11:21am June 17, 2012)
Thank you so much, readers! I have loved reading your wonderful and heartwarming childhood memories of food...they've made me hungry too :)
Please keep your comments coming in. Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there!
(Sophia Knightly 11:58am June 17, 2012)
I was always running and hated to stop playing to come indoors for lunch. On days where I was particularly engrossed, my mom would toast up bread, fry an egg and make a sandwich out of those fixings with the addition with a ham slice and or a tomatoe slice. I could eat it quickly or slowly while continuing on with whatever I was doing in the backyard...usually looking for interesting bugs and birds.
(G. Bisbjerg 12:56pm June 17, 2012)
Thanksgiving with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie. What else do you need?
(Shirley Nienkark 1:12pm June 17, 2012)
Burgers evoke memories of my dads vertical grill with grill baskets on the side to hold the burgers. S'more's over the campfire along with scary stories remind me of camp.
(Alyson Widen 4:53pm June 17, 2012)
I have many foods that I like but...the one that brings happy
memory is grilled Hot Dogs. I remember going to the beach
and wearing myself out swimming. After walking home my dad
would be grilling hot dogs for is. We would eat those and
Potato Salad and juice.
(Cindy Olp 6:29am June 18, 2012)
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