Childhood memories not what they used to be

[Evo]

There is a cookie commercial by Nestle for chocolate chip cookies out right now that talks about creating memories for your children of cooking together.

They show a child pulling squares of finished cookie dough off of a waxed piece of cardboard from a packet and placing them on a cookie sheet, which the mom lovingly places in the oven.

pre-scored cookie dough - simply break apart and bake.

WHAT? What happened to actually MAKING cookie dough? The fond memories of licking the spoon and bowl? Learning a skill, accomplishing something?

Will the next generation's fond memories be of tossing a frozen dinner into a microwave? "No one could press "start" like my mom".

Of course THIS is what happens when children don't learn how to cook, they wash roasting chickens with soap.

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-2/videos/soap-on-a-chicken

 

[Gnosis]

...Will the next generation's fond memories be of tossing a frozen dinner into a microwave? "No one could press "start" like my mom".
http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-2/videos/soap-on-a-chicken

 

[Astronuc]

There is a cookie commercial by Nestle for chocolate chip cookies out right now that talks about creating memories for your children of cooking together.

They show a child pulling squares of finished cookie dough off of a waxed piece of cardboard from a packet and placing them on a cookie sheet, which the mom lovingly places in the oven.



WHAT? What happened to actually MAKING cookie dough? The fond memories of licking the spoon and bowl? Learning a skill, accomplishing something?

Will the next generation's fond memories be of tossing a frozen dinner into a microwave? "No one could press "start" like my mom".

Of course THIS is what happens when children don't learn how to cook, they wash roasting chickens with soap.

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-2/videos/soap-on-a-chicken

My son baked a birthday cake for me. Even did the icing - but from a can. And he can make a nice apple crisp.

It ain't like the old days when I sifted flour for my mom and grandma, and made pies and pasties from scratch, or roasted chicken with stuffing, or preserves, or cookies and pastries from scratch. My maternal grandparents used a wood stove, since they lived in the country and natural gas wasn't yet available in their area. I used to chop wood and fire up the stove. Hot baths were made hot with boiling water from the stove!

We had to use an outhouse.

 

[Evo]

My son baked a birthday cake for me. Even did the icing - but from a can. And he can make a nice apple crisp.

It ain't like the old days when I sifted flour for my mom and grandma, and made pies and pasties from scratch, or roasted chicken with stuffing, or preserves, or cookies and pastries from scratch. My maternal grandparents used a wood stove, since they lived in the country and natural gas wasn't yet available in their area. I used to chop wood and fire up the stove. Hot baths were made hot with boiling water from the stove!

We had to use an outhouse.

Ok, so some modern conveniences are good things.

 

[ThomasT]

There is a cookie commercial by Nestle for chocolate chip cookies out right now that talks about creating memories for your children of cooking together.

They show a child pulling squares of finished cookie dough off of a waxed piece of cardboard from a packet and placing them on a cookie sheet, which the mom lovingly places in the oven.

WHAT? What happened to actually MAKING cookie dough? The fond memories of licking the spoon and bowl? Learning a skill, accomplishing something?

Will the next generation's fond memories be of tossing a frozen dinner into a microwave? "No one could press "start" like my mom".

Of course THIS is what happens when children don't learn how to cook, they wash roasting chickens with soap.

http://www.bravotv.com/the-real-housewives-of-beverly-hills/season-2/videos/soap-on-a-chicken

Yeah, I remember my older sisters making fudge, and tollhouse (chocolate chip) cookies, and chocolate cake with this incredible frosting, etc. I didn't actually learn how to do that stuff, but I did like to lick the utensils.

Those were the good old days, eh? Hopefully, our electrical grids and processed food industries won't suddenly cease functioning, because if they do we're in deep trouble.

 

[lisab]

How about popcorn cooked on the stove? I remember *lots* of burned bits and old maids but lots of salty, greasy goodness too.

 

[Astronuc]

Ok, so some modern conveniences are good things.

Entertainment was the radio and BBC, otherwise we sat in the living room talking. Otherwise, we were outside in the bush, or spending time at the railway station where my grandfather worked, or wandering about the railroad yard.

We did have pet chickens, too.

 

[Evo]

How about popcorn cooked on the stove? I remember *lots* of burned bits and old maids but lots of salty, greasy goodness too.

My mom was a popcorn expert, I don't know how she did it, never burned, almost all kernals popped. Then the kid next door used some weird contraption called "jiffy pop", usually caught on fire. I swore to never get near the thing.

My mom made yeast donuts from scratch at least twice a month. I am not the cook my mom was, no matter how hard I try, the woman was a perfectionist and she delivered. I've always felt like a cooking failure, she was magic. Except at steak, she would cook a steak for 45 minutes, it was like a shoe sole, you couldn't eat it. She loved it that way. It would make my jaw hurt.

I'll never forget the first time we went to france and visited her family. Her sister cooked steak. She threw them into a hot pan and immediately turned them then served them. The parts of the steak that didn't lie flat were still red and raw on the outside. These were six second steaks. I just looked at it, not knowing what to do, I'd never eaten raw meat. My mom took ours and asked her sister if she minded if she cooked them. I like rare meat now, but my aunt's would qualify as carpaccio.

 

[rhody]

How about popcorn cooked on the stove? I remember *lots* of burned bits and old maids but lots of salty, greasy goodness too.

I still do it that way Lisa, old school, gas stove, large covered pot, popcorn, oil, salt, margarine till it melts and boils away. If I use just the right amounts, it comes out awesome, not to dry or too greasy. No one makes it as good in my house. Maybe I should try ghost bits in it too, nah... I will skip that part.

Rhody...

 

[DoggerDan]

What happened to actually MAKING cookie dough?

You mean before we learned that eating raw eggs wasn't the smartest thing to do?

The fond memories of licking the spoon and bowl?

A lot of us grew up with toll house cookies. A couple of weeks ago my Mom made some ranger cookies (similar, but with oats and raisins) and without thinking, I started licking the bowl and spoon. She turned to me and said, "Dan! Don't do that!"

We both realized she'd said the same thing 45 years ago, and had a good laugh!

I'm surprised there aren't premade, pre-cut sheets of cookie circles that can simply be slid out of a box and onto the rack. Sounds like they're close.

 

[mege]

I remember going to the grocery store with my grandmother as a kid - she was talking about making some sort of pie, and a lady that was kind of following us through the store overheard and asked "Ohhh... how do you make that, it sounds delicious!" My grandmother replied "oh, I make it from scratch". The lady, confused, "where do you buy scratch at?"

 

[Evo]

You mean before we learned that eating raw eggs wasn't the smartest thing to do?

You cook the dough. The processed dough squares contain raw egg.

It is extremely rare to get salmonella from raw eggs.

Scientists estimate that, on average across the U.S., only 1 of every 20,000 eggs might contain the bacteria. So, the likelihood that an egg might contain Se is extremely small – 0.005% (five one-thousandths of one percent). At this rate, if you’re an average consumer, you might encounter a contaminated egg once every 84 years.

http://www.incredibleegg.org/egg-facts/egg-safety/eggs-and-food-safety [/B]

 

[wolram]

I remember going to the grocery store with my grandmother as a kid - she was talking about making some sort of pie, and a lady that was kind of following us through the store overheard and asked "Ohhh... how do you make that, it sounds delicious!" My grandmother replied "oh, I make it from scratch". The lady, confused, "where do you buy scratch at?"

 

[billiards]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s664NsLeFM

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Old joke alert.

The chef on the cooking show tells the audience be sure to cut off the ends of the ham before putting it in the pan to bake. Someone asks why and the chef stops for a moment. Because my mother always did it, that's why. But why did your mother do it? I don't know, I'll call her tonight and ask her. Mom says because I had a small baking pan.

 

[Borek]

Of course THIS is what happens when children don't learn how to cook, they wash roasting chickens with soap.

I know someone who tried to wash ground meat before using it. You DO wash meat before using it, don't you?

 

[HeLiXe]

It ain't like the old days when I sifted flour for my mom and grandma, and made pies and pasties from scratch, or roasted chicken with stuffing, or preserves, or cookies and pastries from scratch.

Where is the drooling emoticon?

 

[Norman]

How about popcorn cooked on the stove? I remember *lots* of burned bits and old maids but lots of salty, greasy goodness too.

My wife still makes popcorn on the stove when it is for the whole family. (We have bad wiring in our house and pop the breaker at night if we run the microwave and any lights are on downstairs... it is a very old house.) She even has a specific pot she uses - it is only used for popcorn. There is usually only a few unpoped kernels left. It is a smaller pot, so maybe that is part of the trick?

And I really don't think the average person just buys the cookie dough pre-made. It is really not all that much work to make chocolate chip cookies... maybe I am wrong.

Basically, the only thing we don't do from scratch is pie dough. Neither my wife nor I have had any luck with it. So we go the easy route with the frozen store version.

Now I am all hungry for pie and cookies...

 

[turbo]

When I was in the Boy Scouts, I was the assistant leader of my patrol pretty quick. The reason was that I could cook. The patrol leader was several years older than me, and the first time we went on a camporee, the adults came around to our campfire to mooch off us. They said they just wanted to see how well we could cook, but they all took big helpings. We got the same ingredients as every other patrol, but Gary (eldest son of a dairy-farmer) and I knew how to cook. The scoutmaster should have awarded me my cooking merit badge on the spot. I got it a couple of weeks later, after cooking supper for an older neighbor.

I made a fire-ring out of rocks on the grounds of the scout-hall, built a wood fire, burned it down to coals, and cooked and served the entire supper out there. We sat on logs out in the yard and ate our supper. There were NO left-overs, just some dirty dishes to lug home.

I wonder how many kids today could plan a meal, pull together all the utensils and ingredients, and cook a good meal outdoors? And I don't mean Hamburger Helper.

 

[turbo]

Where is the drooling emoticon?

 

[Monique]

I still do it that way Lisa, old school, gas stove, large covered pot, popcorn, oil, salt, margarine till it melts and boils away. If I use just the right amounts, it comes out awesome, not to dry or too greasy. No one makes it as good in my house. Maybe I should try ghost bits in it too, nah... I will skip that part.

Me too! With caramel as a topping. I'm out of kernels though and haven't been able to find a replacement :(

I agree with Evo, making it yourself with your mom and licking the spoon when you know you shouldn't, those are memories

 

[turbo]

My wife and I have one of these poppers with a bottom agitator driven by a hand crank. There is little waste, since nearly all the kernels pop, and if you watch the heat well, there's no burning even though the pot is thin aluminum. Pop the corn in peanut oil, add a bit of salt and you're OK to go. Nice flavor, even without butter. Peanut oil has a high smoke-point, so you can use a lot of heat. When I was a kid, we had a similar popper (agitator on the bottom of the pan), but it had a simple hand crank on top of the lid.

http://www.popcornpopper.com/stovetop-poppers.html?gclid=COek7MCDjKwCFYZn5Qod2wPrlw

 

[Evo]

My wife and I have one of these poppers with a bottom agitator driven by a hand crank. There is little waste, since nearly all the kernels pop, and if you watch the heat well, there's no burning even though the pot is thin aluminum. Pop the corn in peanut oil, add a bit of salt and you're OK to go. Nice flavor, even without butter. Peanut oil has a high smoke-point, so you can use a lot of heat. When I was a kid, we had a similar popper (agitator on the bottom of the pan), but it had a simple hand crank on top of the lid.

http://www.popcornpopper.com/stovetop-poppers.html?gclid=COek7MCDjKwCFYZn5Qod2wPrlw

Yeah, we had a popper with a crank too.

 

[turbo]

My mother and I used to prepare and preserve a LOT of food, mostly by canning, and we had a large open cabinet in the cellar with shelves, so we could store canned beets, beans, stewed tomatoes, pickles, etc. I probably have more canning jars in the cellar than my mother ever had, but that's because as people clean out houses and garages, they'll give away canning jars. I have stopped taking them even though they are free. Enough is enough, and I have more than I will ever use. Every time I make up a batch of pickles and can them, I think about my mother. During late summer and early fall, we'd make up batches of bread-and-butter pickles, dill pickles, icicle (very sour!) pickles, mustard pickles, etc.

When I was a kid, many of the best cooks in the area were men, and many of them had earned their stripes cooking for logging crews, sporting camps, etc. When I was a little tyke, and we got to go to a PTA supper, I'd hunt down a nice old guy from town, and ask which table his bean-hole baked beans were on. He'd tell me, and that's the table I would sit at. His beans were the best! He thought it was nice that I cared, and he'd usually come sit with me and we'd critique the corn bread, biscuits, cole-slaw, desserts, etc.

For the uninitiated, bean-hole baked beans were a staple for log-drivers moving pulpwood and logs down the rivers. Generally, the cook would travel down-river with the crew (and behind them after cleaning up) and the cookee (assistant) would travel downriver ahead of the crew. He would travel to the next takeout, uncover the rock-lined pit(s) there and build fires in them. As the wood burned down, he would lower covered cast-iron kettles into the underground ovens, with water, beans, salt pork, molasses, mustard, pepper, etc. The beans would bake in those kettles, and when the log-drivers showed up near the end of the day, they would have beans for supper. Biscuits, too, thanks to portable wood-fired ovens. Those old-timers were all excellent cooks.

 

[Loren Booda]

When I was growing up, my Mom cooked dishes as complicated as Beijing Duck. She took courses in Chinese cooking and assisted a French chef.

However, I don't recall gaining a pound from such munchies! Even so, future (neutrino) memories are preferable.

 

[lisab]

When I was growing up, my Mom cooked dishes as complicated as Beijing Duck. She took courses in Chinese cooking and assisted a French chef.

However, I don't recall gaining a pound from such munchies! Even so, future (neutrino) memories are preferable.

Can you prove there is such a thing as future memories?

 

[turbo]

Can you prove there is such a thing as future memories?

I have them all the time! When they don't come true, I chalk it up to faulty (p)recollection.

 

[Loren Booda]

Can you prove there is such a thing as future memories?

With uncertainty, anything can happen (or not!)

 

[rhody]

My wife and I have one of these poppers with a bottom agitator driven by a hand crank.

I use a medium gauge metal pot, corn oil, barely covering the bottom and about three tablespoons full of margarine. The pot is thick enough that it doesn't burn the corn, normally, if I have the heat right, I only shake it at the end before it is almost all popped. I add salt while it is popping too. The pot has a small whole to let the steam out. The pot must be 30 years old, you can't find them like that any more.

Once the margarine stops sizzling, the corn begins to pop, From then on, it takes two to three minutes and the popcorn is ready. Like I said, a little shake at the end is all their is too it.

Rhody...

 

[Proton Soup]

we always made popcorn on the stove. deep cast iron skillet with lid. i have no idea how much butter, but the real magic is in the shake.

 

[Alfi]

My mom made yeast donuts from scratch at least twice a month.

Aw ... you made me cry.
( thanks )
I haven't thought about Mom's Mom for awhile.
THAT memory is 50 years old. Big glass and a shot glass* ... mix it up, roll it out, cut em out and deep fry em. add some sifted sugar ... Ymmmm
The bits in the middle were not wasted .. cook em up .. we called them Doughnut holes.
I called them the shot spots. ?? mom was not impressed with that one. ?
hmmm - Tim bits ?

* ... oh she hated to use it ( grandpa liked his drink ) ... but it was the perfect size ... lol

good memories ... the smell, the feel of rolling the dough, the first introduction to a production line cooking effort, the whole family quality control testing.
yummm . hehehe

Talking to Mom while reading this. She says my memories are the same as her's.
We both remember a particular day ... Nice.


Sadly, the doughnut making ended with granny. but thanks for the memory recall.

 

[Borek]

This thread makes me crave for a raw dough

 

[Alfi]

This thread makes me crave for a raw dough

Not a gloB of the stuff, ... but you ... a missed bit off the edge of the bowl. Mmmmm

 

[Alfi]

And Bread !

It was so routine for so long I almost forgot to mention.

I know next to nothing of baking, but I Can make a pan of bread. Doesn't every seven year old know how to make a loaf of bread? From the sifting of flour on up?
It autta be a law or a rite of passage or something. :)
psst psst pst
oh !
There are machines for that now.

 

[Borek]

Google no knead bread.