Flashback Friday...Comfort Food

Around the the table

(at Uncle Roy and Aunt Helen Hutchens, 1964)

For those of you who were at Sunday Dinner for "Remember Helen day," I don't know about you but I had a lot of fun. For those of you who couldn't make it, I thought I'd give you a "food review" and share some of the pics.

Thanks goes to the "outlaws" who put up with us Vandercars and our walk down our version of comfort food lane. Of all the in-laws, Jerry seemed the most accepting and willing to try everything on the menu, yet he's the one that ended up in the hospital the next day! We were hoping the doctor wouldn't make him list all the things he had to eat in the last 24 hours.

Anyway, thanks to my sisters,
I learned to make the carmel frosting for the chocolate
cake and the cheese that goes on
the toast for Mom's toast and cheese.

So in honor of Mom, who served up supper for 6 kids every night and Dad who worked night and day to make the money for those suppers, step right up and take the food tour (another nod to Dad) of Vandercar comfort food:

bread and beans

hard boiled eggs and vinegar

salmon bones
(that's right, not really the salmon, but the bones which here, are already picked out and eaten).

jello salad with carrots
(much to Sandy's continued bewilderment)
red jello squares
(a grandchild favorite)
just don't put it in the freezer...sorry no pic.

blonde brownies

chocolate cake with carmel icing

oatmeal raisin cookies

sliced tomatoes
(with sugar on top)

and in my opinion, the Holy Grail of Helen Vandercar's kitchen:
toast and cheese

And Sister Susie made sure our drinks tasted just the way we remembered them in our aluminium cups.Around the table
Maybe at Uncle Wayne's, 1954
check out the cups

At one point I think it was Alene, who was busy peeling hard boiled eggs for us, asked

"So, was there any "normal" meals that your mom made?"
I think Sandy chimed in, "like a traditional meal?"

At least all 4 of us girls were there eating eggs and nobody said anything, except "yeah, um....." then, silence. It all seemed normal to us.
I'm not quite sure what she was getting at, but I guess the more I think about it, I'm starting to realize that the food we ate might not have been traditional and I've started to wonder about some of the origins. Like what was bruised and on the way out at the fruit stand dictated what dessert we might have or what canning project might be going on in the kitchen. I think I learned the reason behind why mom always served cocoa with grilled cheese and I've tracked down Oyster Stew on Christmas eve as being a Bryant tradition, but what about things like eggs and vinegar, toast and cheese, etc. Does anybody know if these things were passed down? Anybody have any input?

Speaking of passing the tradition down. I loved seeing these big Grand kids...licking the toast and cheese plate clean just like they used to at their Grandma and Grandpas.

And I really loved seeing the next generation of Great Grand kids enjoy their Great Grandma's recipe.
And I am sure she had as big of smile on her face as I did and laughed out loud along with me when Conner and Zach asked for toast and cheese for breakfast the next day!

We also enjoyed looking at old picturesand a scrapbook that mom had made when she was in high school

and of course, the this is your life scrapbooks she made for her grand kids.And we ended the night with the video that I posted a few weeks ago. I had heard the song several years ago and knew right then that I would use it to make a movie of how we felt about growing up between the two of them.Around the table
at the Hayden's, 80's.

Directions to here:
Let me know if you have any answers to my food questions.
In the meantime I've been thinking about more things we could have added to the menu, like:

ginger bread with the very thin almost translucent frosting, chocolate pudding, grilled cheese and cocoa, baked apples, fried zucchini, dried corn, milk toast, pork and beans with sugar on top, Lima beans with sugar on top, watermelon and cantaloupe with salt, cut up fried potatoes, rhubarb butter and sugar cookies made with a fork imprint.

and from Grandma Fern's kitchen:

potato man donuts with powdered sugar, sugar sandwiches, homemade noodles, sugared popcorn, popcorn balls and homemade dinner rolls with butter and brown sugar

and station favorites like:
jays potato chips, bulls eye penny candy, luden's cough drops and coke in a bottle buried in a snowbank to make it ice cold....

but alas, Grandma Fern's and station food are two whole other Flashback Fridays!