Special Treats

After running a bunch of errands today, I decided to give myself a little treat – it got me thinking about what we would have called special culinary treats when we were little.  Here’s my list:

Meatballs on Sunday night.  Daddy cooked a huge pot of sauce and made meatballs almost every Sunday night (for pasta dinners twice that week).  I used to love when Daddy let me help mix up the meatballs (a gooey combination of meat, spices, eggs, and bread crumbs, hand mixed).  It was also our job to stir the sauce for hours on end – and heaven help you if you accidentally let it burn!  But the best part was “testing” the meatballs to make sure they came out okay.  There’s nothing like the simple taste of meatballs in sauce for a late-night snack!

Barbequed chicken.  My dad was known for making the BEST barbeque chicken.  That is a meal fit for all summer special occasions. At Grandmom’s, it was grilled on the huge camp grille behind Uncle Charlie and Aunt Mary Ann’s house. At home, it was grilled outside the back door, and for neighborhood picnics, several families wheeled over their own grilles to give enough room to cook for an army.  Dad even grilled for the VFW – and people all over Media kept an eye out for that fund-raising feast where Dad grilled on huge half-barrel grilles just outside the back door of the hall.  It was always finger-licking good!  The secret was slow grilling and frequent basting with a terrific sauce.

Corn on the cob.  Here’s the perfect accompaniment to that BBQ chicken!  Halfway through my childhood, we started getting white sweet corn, and oh my gosh! – what a delicious side dish!  I liked mine with a little butter and salt.  We could eat 2-3 ears of corn each at one sitting.  It was only available in July and August, so you had to get your eating in while the season lasted!  I’m having a hard time finding corn that good these days.

Yum-yum cake.  This is a special dessert made with boiled raisins and lots of spices – moist and yummy enough to live up to its name every time.

Ice cream.  Ice cream was always a treat, and it was one of the traditions when we went to Maryland.  There was a farmstand called “Money’s” where we would stop on the way down.  But better still, we sometimes stopped in town after church on Sunday.  We kids would wait quietly in anticipation because the telltale sign that we were going for ice cream was to stay straight on a certain road rather than make the left toward Grandmom’s house.  As soon as we passed that crucial point, we’d let out a huge cheer! 

Crabs.  Caught down at the pier and steamed with Bay Seasoning in Grandmom’s kitchen, there was nothing like a table covered with newsprint and hot crabs and surrounded by Lombardozzis and Balzers. 

Fresh baked cookies.  I especially liked chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin, and I can trace my complete lack of control with cookies back to my childhood.  I remember a few of us baking cookies one afternoon – and leaving NONE of them to eat later.  We polished off dozens of cookies right out of the oven that day.

Jax.  Yup – aka cheese doodles, or cheese puffs.  Tasty, but mostly a special treat because that’s what Dad used to bring home for me when I was up late doing homework.  He’d often go up to the local tavern for a nightcap and always bring me home something to munch.

Other special treats: 

>  Chicken and noodle casserole – Mom’s recipe, and I especially liked the slightly undercooked and stuck together noodles.

>  Breakfast at Perkin’s Pancake House – another after-church treat.

>  Chocolate milk – we weren’t allowed to have it with meals, but Maryellen’s Mom served it with lunch!

>  Cucumber salad –  I wasn’t allowed near the bowl before diner because I used to nip more than my share.

>  Ham – smothered in brown sugar, pineapples, and ginger ale – I can’t seem to get that recipe right these days.

>  Steak for dinner – We usually had little club steaks and everyone got their own.  Once, my family tried to trick me by giving me the one that dropped on the floor while I was in the living room.  But they couldn’t stop staring and laughing, and I knew something was up.

For most people, memories of childhood are filled with special treats.  It’s not just the taste of the food that resonates, of course, but it’s also the memories of fun and family and friends gathered for a special occasion or for everyday life.

In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes:

There’s another wonderful Italian expression: l’arte d’arrangiarsi – the art of making something out of nothing.  The art of turning a few simple ingredients into a feast, or a few gathered friends into a festival.

And that’s the real secret, isn’t it.  The food is wonderful, but the memories live on because of the people.