As a child, my mother grew up amidst the horrors of World War II in what was then northwestern Czechoslovakia. She had all sorts of horror stories to tell us kids. A lot of those stories involved food shortages. Living through that she learned how to make meals out of whatever food happened to be available. And because of that she became an extreme penny-pincher. Despite living in America in the abundant Sixties and Seventies, she still prepared some meals for us kids as though we were living in wartime. She could make a meal for a family of six for under two bucks.
Being a kid with an endless appetite I relished every meal set before me. And it seemed I could never get enough. But now, in retrospect, I would not eat some of those meals as they were not exactly healthy and well-balanced.
One of those meals consisted of boiled potatoes, lavished with butter, cottage cheese, and buttermilk. That was it; nothing else. You took a spoonful of buttered potato, put some cottage cheese on top of it, and stuffed it into your mouth. After eating it, you then took a healthy swig of buttermilk to wash it down. That was the whole meal and I loved it back then.
Another meal she made she called "sgetti." She would boil up a pot of spaghetti noodles and when done drain them. Then she would put some butter into the pot to melt then add the noodles back into the pot. She would stir it up to get all the noodles buttery then she would add a can of condensed tomato soup and some water. She would also add some salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of sugar. She would then mix it all up and warm it up and then serve it. Yikes!
But one of the grossest things she did was save all the drippings from when she cooked bacon in a jar. She then put the jar in the refrigerator and the bacon grease would congeal. Later, she would take out the congealed bacon grease and spread it on rye bread to make bacon grease sandwhiches. I kid you not! She really did this. And we kids really ate them--and I remember enjoying them as a small kid. Now, I absolutely shudder at the very thought. Double yikes!
What kind of weird meals did you eat as a child? Click on the "Comments" button below to share your childhood memories of eating.
Being a kid with an endless appetite I relished every meal set before me. And it seemed I could never get enough. But now, in retrospect, I would not eat some of those meals as they were not exactly healthy and well-balanced.
One of those meals consisted of boiled potatoes, lavished with butter, cottage cheese, and buttermilk. That was it; nothing else. You took a spoonful of buttered potato, put some cottage cheese on top of it, and stuffed it into your mouth. After eating it, you then took a healthy swig of buttermilk to wash it down. That was the whole meal and I loved it back then.
Another meal she made she called "sgetti." She would boil up a pot of spaghetti noodles and when done drain them. Then she would put some butter into the pot to melt then add the noodles back into the pot. She would stir it up to get all the noodles buttery then she would add a can of condensed tomato soup and some water. She would also add some salt and pepper and a few tablespoons of sugar. She would then mix it all up and warm it up and then serve it. Yikes!
But one of the grossest things she did was save all the drippings from when she cooked bacon in a jar. She then put the jar in the refrigerator and the bacon grease would congeal. Later, she would take out the congealed bacon grease and spread it on rye bread to make bacon grease sandwhiches. I kid you not! She really did this. And we kids really ate them--and I remember enjoying them as a small kid. Now, I absolutely shudder at the very thought. Double yikes!
What kind of weird meals did you eat as a child? Click on the "Comments" button below to share your childhood memories of eating.
