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Mom's home cooking
What does summer mean to me? It means family, barbeques, and delicious home cooking from my mom. Now during the holidays, my mom makes some of her most iconic foods. For me, things start in April. My sister and I have our birthdays in the beginning of April. Normally my mom makes us our favorite meal, or she will take us to our favorite restaurant. There is one thing though that she makes me every year for my birthday. That is her famous strawberry shortcake. I always look forward to her making this every year for my birthday. So much so that it has now become a tradition. Her strawberry shortcake isn't the traditional shortcake though. My mom never makes it the way that everyone else thinks this dish should be made. Once you try it though, you will never have it the same way again. The process starts the night before. She cuts the strawberries up and sprinkles sugar on them. Sometimes she uses a bit of Amaretto for the strawberries. After the strawberries are macerated, (softened by soaking in liquid), the cake part is made. Traditionally, shortcake is made for this dessert. Hence, the name of the dish. My mom never liked shortcake with this dish. She would always say that the cake shouldn't be as dense and definitely a lot more flavorful. So instead of shortcake she would use pound cake. I know it is still a dense cake, but the flavor is better for the dessert. She bakes the pound cake in its traditional loaf pan. Usually, she makes two so I can take the leftovers home with me. Now the whipped cream isn't homemade, but it's still one of my favorites. Some people would layer their cakes, not my mom. Her way of serving the dish is to cut a chunk of pound cake off as the base. After which she layers on some strawberries. Some whipped cream applied on the top of the strawberry layer. Next is more strawberries and some of the macerated liquid. Now it's ready to eat. That is the dish that starts the feeling of summer with me. Knowing my mom takes the time to make me this cake every year makes me feel very special. Usually, after the spring starts to end and fold into summer, her next dish is her baked beans. Like her strawberry shortcake, her baked beans a very non-traditional. When my mom starts preparing for Memorial Day, she starts with making her baked beans. Everyone who has every had my mother's baked beans have never wanted them any other way again. Her baked beans come out of the pot thick and sweet. The recipe is a bit of a family secret. Unfortunately, I cannot divulge everything about her beans. I can however tell you that one thing she doesn't use is molasses. The recipe is not one to be tampered with. To omit or use another product in its place looses the consistency of the dish. One time a friend of the family asked to make the beans for the 4th of July holiday. When my father tasted the beans, he was not happy. Firstly, they were burnt. Secondly, not enough bacon. Thirdly, no onions. That is a must in this dish. Trust me when I tell you that you will not get big chunks of onion in the dish. They dissolve into the bean mixture. Lastly, that normal, sweet taste that make my mom's baked beans special was not there. The family friend had used molasses. My father always was my mother's official taste tester. If he says that there is something wrong with it, then there is. The one thing my father wanted every holiday was my mom's baked beans. It is a staple within our family. Something that my grandmother passed down to both her daughters. Any deviation in the recipe, would change the taste of the dish. My mother has many dishes that come from my grandmother who was from northeast Pennsylvania. An area that we all know as Pennsylvania Dutch. Through trial and error, she has made some of these recipes a staple throughout our lives. Summer food isn't always for the summer. It is food that should be a staple at any time of the year.
By MaryBeth Calahorrano4 years ago in Feast
Antipasto Squares
I grew up as an only child in an Irish household. Neither of my parents could actually cook. I literally existed on breakfast food (for all three meals) and TV dinners. However, I also spent every single day of my life from birth with the three siblings across the street and their parents, Jim and Lynn. Their home was almost the exact opposite of mine: always chaotic, always a litttle messy, and homemade food galore, for almost every meal, every day.
By Lynn Henschel4 years ago in Feast
ALMONDS: A YUMMY SNACK ALTERNATIVE, BOOSTING HEALTH WHOLLY!
The traditional Almonds everywhere… Remember how we all used to run to our school buses with a fistful of almonds everyday? Well, moms knew it all! Be it snacks or desserts, it remains incomplete without some golden slices of those rich Almonds. They make better the best, since that is what they are truly capable of. But where do they actually comes from? Almonds belongs ancestrally to the Mediterranean region. Historically, the almond trees grew there wild and were later cultivated as early as 3000 BC.
By Amar Choudhary4 years ago in Feast
10 Ways to Eat Oatmeal According to Different Countries
I recently watched a YouTube video by Beryl Shereshewsky. Her video content focuses on food cultures and recipes from around the world. The video I watched was about what people from 10 different countries added to their oatmeal. While watching that, my inner Nutritionist was inspired to write about the health benefits of each way they had their oatmeal and how it could be improved. Before we get into that, here are a few health benefits of oatmeal:
By Dharrsheena Raja Segarran4 years ago in Feast
Salt Those Tomatoes
The most iconic summer food. Oh my goodness, that could be an endless list. Figuring out what to pick, to write about, could take awhile. So, in trying to think about the exact perfect, most iconic food recipe or bite to write about, I closed my eyes to envision, what I’ve most loved about summer in the past and what I most loved to eat. What came to my mind was a ripe juicy tomato. However, not just any old tomato, one that is picked fresh from a garden, perhaps in the Southern region of the United States. A tomato that is picked in the heat of the summer, just ripe for the picking, to bring inside a house, and lay upon a cold ceramic counter. This action would pre-empt one to reach into a drawer to get a cutting board and a knife just sharp enough to slice the juicy red tomato with some rough patches, just enough to indicate that it was garden grown, and not presented as “perfect” to be sold in a store. Slicing the tomato with just enough accuracy to get almost even slices, good enough that it doesn’t really matter, because they will be gone within a matter of minutes. The next step would be to get out a pretty plate, with maybe some blue patterns on it, a contrast in color, that would help illuminate the natural earth delight that you are about to devour. For me, a salt addict, I must admit, the next step would be to reach for that salt shaker, you know the one the Doctors warn you about. If you are lucky like me though, you find out later in life, you need extra salt in your life, due to an odd auto-immune disorder not widely known, that requires one to add extra salt to everything to achieve a healthy equilibrium. I must say, I don’t complain about that, because if you have ever tasted a fresh juicy home grown tomato with salt and some pepper sprinkled on it, in the dead heat of summer, you might think you up and went to a place called natural food heaven. At least that’s what it’s like for me. It takes me back to simpler days where getting garden grown food like tomatoes and raspberries, corn, and carrots from a neighbor’s garden was a gift you couldn’t turn down.
By Adrienne Elizabeth4 years ago in Feast
My Fair Lady
We pull up to a crowded parking lot stretched half a mile wide. Cars litter the streets, while near by houses make $5 per car they allow to park in their driveway. An unappetizing smell hits us first as we pass the livestock. Let's pretend it isn't there, shall we? We sprint past the cows and the building of oddities and souvenirs to the next layer of the hot, crowded county fair lasagna. Sketchy vendors pedal tacky jewelry, knives, and custom leather belts. A glimmer catches my eye of a shiny something I want to touch, but the grumble in my stomach keeps me on track.
By Jamie Brown4 years ago in Feast
Gnarly Potato Salad. Top Story - June 2022.
Is there anything more universally binding and delicious than potato salad? For my family, traveling around from coast to coast, up and down from North to South, recipes from home are the one thing that doesn’t get broken in moving.
By Kristen Christensen4 years ago in Feast
