Here's an odd one: "meat juice sandwiches." My mother would fry round steak, pour a little water into the cast-iron skillets, scrape up the drippings and dip one side of a piece of bread into the liquid. I haven't had that for 40 years and no doubt never will again, but I can still taste it.

HL... thanks, that is what it is all about... remembering those odd things in our life.

I grew up in Jersey, and when we would go "down the shore", my mom would make the most fantastic balogny (NOT balogna - duh) on hard rolls from the Enterprise bakery. Lots on mayo and lettuce and wrapped in wax paper. I can still feel the sun and the sand and the crinkle of the waxed paper. Heaven.

Pop-ices - the popsicles that come in that plastic sleeve, and you cut the top off?

To me, it hasn't been summer 'til you've had one.

Tuna sandwiches and Lemonade/grape juice after going swimming. Those were the days!

Thanks for stopping by with your memories.

bluesurely… from my days of living in NYC, I know going “down the shore” is a right of passage for many. And that sandwich you describe on that bakeries bread would never taste the same anywhere else.

Beth A… I know what you man, I just had one of those popsicles (an orange one) the other day and it, too, brought back those lazy days of my youth.

bluesurly, I too grew up in New Jersey and spent much time at
"down the shore" eating baloney sandwiches wrapped in wax paper.

When were poor I used to eat lettuce sandwiches with mayo.

My mother also made a concoction of ground beef and white gravy for some dinners. Haven't had anything like that in years.

Meatloaf with no onions. Mom would make a seperate one for
my brother and I because we hated onions so much (and still do)

zuma… glad you waited until after diving into that pool to have this great & refreshing lunch!

Blackflon… I have a good place to go have ground beef & white gravy in NYC… The Cottonwood, down in The Village… everything on the menu is smothered in white gravy!

J T-H… that’s what makes mom’s MOM… making it like WE like it!

Thanks for your memories!

Root beer, and cream soda (if made with cane sugar). And for a depth charge of nostalgia, drop some vanilla ice cream in either of those. Also, Devil Dogs! I never had enough as a child, and it took a lot of whoopie pies later to make up for that.

I figured Jocelyn to be an onion hater...

George they say and I know it's true that the sense of smell is what evokes the most vivid memories. Coming home from school in the first grade (and second and third etc.) to the smell of my mothers home made chocolate chip cookies cooling in the window... Wow!

Thanks!

Mumbletypeg… thanks - Whoopi (pies), now that brings back memories of Moon Pies & RC Cola. And your root beer of A&W Drive In’s

Trig – now that is a terrific memory – the smell of warm freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

that's easy: Lucky Charms. I had not eaten that cereal for over 35 years, and then we bought it for our son. I took a bite and immediately had an overwhelming sense of dejavu, but it was more than that. It was a feeling of security and longing for what could not be had. The Germans call it Sehnsucht. That was about years ago, but i still experience that sensation every time I take a taste, although not quite as jarring as that first time.

Now, if I could only talk my wife into making my mom's candied strawberries...

meant to say that bite of Lucky Charms was about 4 years ago...

You know Procopius… eating all those sugar filled cereal during our youth, we all turned out OK. Thanks for sharing your dejavu memory.

Oh this is a good one. For me, it's beans fried potatoes and cornbread and tomato sandwiches with mayo and pepper. I still love these to this day. Life is GOOD when I have these foods!

A&W root beer because my grandparents owned an A&W stand in Michigan. Those horrible Chef BoyRDee pizzas that my Mom would make on Saturday nights. Bread "sopped" in pork chop drippings. Beanie Weinies from the school lunch room in Jr. Hi. And, grits cooled into rubbery balls, great in food fights in elementary school.

My mom used to make this wonderful chuck roast: it was tender, cooked with carrots, onions and potatoes. She drenched in a tomato sauce ( i later learned it was tomato soup) and placed it in one on those oven cooking bags.

Walter – being a southerner, we thought Italian food was best represented by Chef Boy-r-Dee and it was not until I grew up that I could enjoy true Italian fare. And Beanie-Weinies were never a favorite either.

Michael – if you are describing a sort of chili-fries, lucky you… that is one of my comfort foods. And tomato sandwiches with lots of real mayo are the absolute best! As for cornbread – I remember cornsticks cooked in an iron pan – yum!

Mr. Mustard – Now that is some good eating. Aren’t mom’s the best!

This is tough, don't know which is my favorite: My mother bought rice bread from a bakery. It had a crunchy, buttery crust and I slathered it with peanut butter and Miracle Whip and lettuce sometimes. Have not seen or heard of rice bread since but it was great. Or it could be a slice of buttered bread or cornbread topped with thick bean soup and ketchup. Haven't had it in ages. Hmm! Yummy!!! Brings back lots of great memories at Grandma's too!

Well, my mom was a Georgia southerner (La Grange and Hogansville) and she cooked like one. The best of what I remember is sloppy joes with cornbread baked on top of it, and in the summer egg salad sandwiches and kool-aid. On Saturday mornings for lunch, my dad would fix a plate of beans, put some onions on it and some pickle relish, maybe fry some boloney, and have to the side a hunk of Mom's cornbread. Man, that was some good eatin.'

Oh there are so many... just a couple. Pig feet, boiled down till they're sticky and fall off the bone. Add cider vinegar and salt, eat with greens and sop with cornbread.

Fried tomatoes, not green... ripe but firm red ones. Slice into spider with hot bacon drippins. Add salt, pepper, and a little flour to thicken it up. Cook until it forms a nice reddish brown mush :-)

Hah! I could play this game for hours.

Pam – thanks, I am glad I triggered some good memories… I just ‘googled’ rice bread, as I had never heard of it… there are quite a few recipes listed.

Stephen – sounds like your mom was a true daughter of southern cooking. And I like your dad’s fixings, also. Thanks for stopping by.

Eric –I love to sop up gravy, dripping and anything that can be sopped; that is good eating. We use to have the fried tomatoes at my great-aunt’s I mentioned above… wish I was there right now. Thanks for playing along…

Tomatoes eaten fresh from the garden, peanut butter and mayo sandwiches (which I haven't eaten since), watermelon eaten in the back yard, homemade fudge that you have to beat forever, and fried chicken and mashed potatoes with milk gravy!!

I'm hungry now!

Oh, thanks George! I'll have to check out the recipes. Now this made me think about Mom's apple pies and Wise Potato Chips. Don't even know if they make them anymore. And Pecan Dream Cookies at Christmas time. I have carried on the tradition and still make them.

I remembered this story, too. When I was about 4, we moved to a new house, and the furniture had not arrived yet. So as he was leaving for work Monday morning, my dad said, "You get to have a picnic with Mommy today."
Well, the only picnics I had ever been to before that involved deviled eggs. In fact, I thought that deviled eggs were called picnics. And I loved "picnics."
So imagine my 4-year-old fury when Mom spread out a blanket on the floor, and served me the same old peanut butter and jelly with apple juice I had every other cotton pickin' lunch.
"Where is the picnic?" I demanded. It took a tantrum and an hour for my mother to figure out why I was mad.

Yeah, but after all these years I'm still an unabashed "gravy sopper"

Pam – I have a Wise Potato Chip can somewhere… now that is a great memory of our childhood; potato chips delivered to our door!

BA – LOL, a scorned four year old can be unruly for sure. I, too, like to picnic and you are so right about certain foods at that picnic. Thanks for the chuckle.

You must have been special, George! They didn't deliver by us out on the farm. Remember how some of the chips would be a little dark or burnt? My brother and I would fight over them. And I've never seen a can of them. Geeze..... How I'd like to have one now!

My mom was a self-admitted TERRIBLE cook, but she did have a few hits. To this day, all she has to say is "Panama Noodles," and we come running. Basically it's lasagna, but instead of italian seasoned meat sauce, there's chilli, and instead of ricotta, there's Velveeta. OMG -- ooey, gooey goodness not to be believed. Nutritionists would argue it doesn't even qualify as "food," and indeed it is a heart attack on a plate, but you only live once!

Rice pudding with raisins - my Granny Jessie's recipe. Creamy and sweet, mined with dark raisins and with a very slightly rubbery crust on top. Food of the gods, people ... food of the gods.

Thanks for your memories…

Kimberly, you are so right about living only once. The “Panama Noodles” sounds awesome… oh, to be a kid again and not have to think about good or bad cholesterol levels.

Phaedo – call it what you may, it is a great Triscuit treat. There are some great things that come out of those little potted meat cans… I remember eating Deviled Ham on Saltines crackers, as an after school snack.

Tapioca pudding. (Fluffy variation)
Can make a double recipe and eat it all at one sitting.

Mom – thanks, that sounds like a winner. My great-aunt made a similar one with brandy soaked raisins. She always says she especially soaked them an extra day, when the pastor was coming to dinner. – Her Christmas fruitcakes she treated the same way!

Okay, George, you asked and I'm gonna answer.

Salt cod in those wooden boxes refreshed for about 24 hours and then cooked with a white sauce and served over baked potato. And liver and onions. And sour cream cookies. And dandelion greens dug out of the front yard. And for special occasions, her one escape from her teetotaling ways: Rum Cake.

I learned a lot of cooking in my Gramma's kitchen and all of those memorable dishes came from there.

MiddleAgedWomanBlogging… thanks for listing some of my favorites foods, too. I especially love fudge!

O’stephanie – Thanks, I have not had Tapioca pudding in years… I’ll have to dig out a recipe and fix some soon.

COS- your Gramma sounds like she was a great cook, you will have to post her Rum Cake recipe sometime. Thanks for those memories

I tell you what I remember the most: A cold NuGrape from a country store in eastern Tennessee. You just can't get them in the old bottle no more.
Nice post, by the way.....

Blackberries and biscuits. Grammaw used to send us out with a pail to pick berries, and when we got back there'd be fresh baked biscuits and fresh-picked blackberries. Heaven!

Second place? Grammaw's homemade peach ice cream made with fresh peaches and 13 eggs and hand-cranked.

Yes, o'sis, fluffy tapioca pudding, double recipe, yuuuUUMM! Great comfort food. I haven't had any for years, but if it weren't so late at night, just the suggestion would have made me go made some... wait, I'm out! NO tapioca in the cupboard! To the store, tomorrow!

Great topic, gm, thanks for bringing back all these memories, with their smiles and happy tummy feelings.

Mmm... count me in the Jersey contingent. For me it's Oscar Mayer Braunsweiger on Wonder Bread with Miracle Whip - forced down later by a TastyKake.

Nom nom nom...

My fondest memories are in winter time. Our big fireplace would be going and I would come home from a day of riding horses over hill and dale, rosy cheeked and very hungry! My father had fashioned a special apparatus to cook meats in our fireplace and this was most often something like a beef tenderloin or a London Broil. Potatoes covered in foil would be tossed in and most importantly giant onion would be sliced and soaked in a batter that would cook up light as a feather. First the salads, then the beautifully, perfectly done meat, nice and rare, steamed spinach and my mothers perfect onion rings. Glasses of red wine and some cheese and fruit for dessert.

I can still smell it. I can almost taste it. I sure do miss it.

What nice memories. The foods you, and all the commenters mentioned are very happy flashback. Saturdays b-fast were often flapjacks. I remember eve popcorn in the open fireplace hearth. My Father had this long handled 'shaker' of a wired-cage. Popcorn was always a bit burnt, over salted, and lots of kernels never popped.

I'm beginning to sense I could write a long bore?
I'll try to get a job in Florida with Annie Thyme?
A bowl of Pho. ~ I loved home made garlic dips.

Mashed potatoes, grilled cheese, lemon meringue pie.
Utz's Potato chip. When the 'fbi' stopped by? Dad cooked meat loaf.
Oy! Jelly doughnuts were a Given after morn mass. No, I never was priest molested. I stole the wine tho? The priest was too drunk to know. He was PTSD from WW 2.
I loved devil food cake, deviled eggs, egg salad, and all food that you and others posted about, also.

After I was kicked off the alter boy list for giggling on Latin misery pounding the chest prayers.... I could never remember the old repentant:`'mei culpa misery- and, O lard kebler- peanut cookie crackers, and besides .... unpaid tuition fees- was a church gonna Ya:`Get-Dumped Reason!
I recall Sister Maria Merry!
The nun caught me stealing!
I was shoplifting a 2- cent 1/2 pint!
Chocolate milk, tootsie roll on/on!

I love oat meal with honey/cinnamon.
Candied apples, cauliflower casseroles.
Tuna with cheeses, asparagus, broccoli,
peas, corn on the cob, and leg of a lamb.

I had a GrandPa who loved lamb gravy.
I remember when I stole penny candy.
I loved the nuns frisking me the most.

Sister Maria may have know too much?
Father Keydash told of my confessions?
snoop? He told a nun cherished secrets?

The best snack times in school were frisk!
My nun thought I stole the baked potato?
Sister in grade school knew I was ticklish?

I should have had a comma between the beans and fried potatoes. No way to correct it. Drat. More like a pinto bean soup with ham, but really thick. Mom would cook it for hours on slow heat.

Mission – thanks for adding your memories to this post, that’s what it is all about.

I, too, remember an old country store that had a large cold drink box – the bottled drinks hung down from their necks and you would slide them over to a slot, deposit your quarter and then pull the cold bottle of “pop” up by its neck. There was a bottle opener on the side of the drink and you would open the bottle…I still have memories of that first swig… aaaahhh !!!!!

Tom – thanks, great memories. Just closing my eyes, I can see you, pail in hand, collecting blueberries – then running back to the house, as fast as you could – the old wood screen door slamming behind you, as you yelled out, “Grammaw, I got lots of berries.”

And, your memories of fresh churned ice cream bring this to mind - All the kids in the family taking turns turning the crank.

L&P… thanks for that gagging memory, it does sound like a strange nighttime snack!

As for Grill Cheese… one of my favorite sandwiches. I like my GC with sharpe cheddar cheese, grainy mustard & sliced tomato on 12-grain wheat bread. GC is a close second to PB&J’s!

O’Kathryn…. This is what I like about OS – bringing people together and getting to know them. I hope when you make tapioca pudding, it brings a smile & warmth to your tummy!

Jodi… some how I thought you were a Jersey Girl… must be your love of out of the way super eating places and your love of TastyKakes. What I loved about traveling in New Jersey was the wonder old diners on every traffic circle.

George, it's a new day and don't know how I could have forgotten my absolute favorite as a kid. The fried potatoes in lard that my grandmother cooked. Praise the lard!

Cool post, got me time traveling. Peanut butter and Honey grilled sandwiches where one of my dad's creations. We had milk men still when I was a kid. I would grab the list and add a gallon of this orange drink to the milk order, great stuff. We had liver and onions once a month which always guaranteed I would get a beating of some sort. God, I hated that stuff! Had these chocolate things called Flicks which were good and if you covered up the l and i with your thumb it read Fucks which we really liked.

Ablonde – thanks - it sounds right out of the wonderful old English movie “Tom Jones”; riding to the hounds, Port in silver goblets and large banquets with various game upon the tablet.

But yours sounds so much tastier in a warm comfortable setting…

Arthur James – many thanks for your great comment. I always enjoy them and the imagery you provide.

Michael – I, too, wish there was an edit button on the "Post a comment" square, but I like the image of beans on fried potatoes… it was ‘fill one's plate’ and pass the biscuits, too!

Pam – come back as often as you like. You always have some good antidotes to add to the mix.

Dr. Spud-44… thanks for traveling through the ‘time warp’ with us. You have some memories that I wish were around today… as for the liver & onions – luckily I grew up in a house were that was never on the table; but we did have something call “liver mush” that was served at breakfast – fried like sausage and it had a very distinct flavor.

I am going to try one of your Dad’s PB&H today for lunch… it sounds like the prefect thing for a rainy day in Georgia.

For me it's ice cream. The real treat for us was to drive down near the exit to the Thruway for Carvel Ice Cream. That didn't happen often so it was a treat. Likewise, I was back in the Bronx not too long ago reliving another life time, when out of the blue I heard the music of my childhood. It was the Mr. Softee Ice Cream truck still playing the same music they played about 50 years ago that had every kid in the neighborhood reacting like Pavlov's Dog. (There is a post there that I'd forgotten about until I read your posting here.) Nice job.

Harp – thanks for stopping by and sharing your memories.

A short story in regard to the Mr. Softee Ice Cream truck… back in 2006 I was down in New Orleans gutting homes after Katrina with Habitat for Humanity. Twelve of us were working in St. Bernard Parish on Dauterive Drive, a neighborhood that had completely flooded when the levees were breached. We were on our third house that week and the temperature was in the high 90’s – our required work gear was long pants & shirts, hard hats & mask and steel toed boots – all to keep us safe from the contamination left after the water receded 6 months before.

Anyway, we were taking a break a when someone said, “I hear an ice cream truck.” We all said you must be dreaming this area is completely void of a living soul but us. But she said again, “No listen; I hear that sappy ice cream truck music.” We all shut up and listened… all hoping it was true.

Well, rounding the corner out of no where – a Mr. Softee truck – blaring that familiar tune drove up right in front of us. And like the little kids of old…. We scampered over and stood in line to make our selection.

Ice cream has never tasted so good… it was manta from the gods!

ps: I had an “Orange Dreamsicle”

I laughed out loud at this (just like a little kid.) Imagine a Mr. Softee truck driving up in the aftermath of Katrina??? It's like someone trying to tell you that the world will reassert itself if you will only keep the faith. I love it.

I don't even remember my favorites... although it was probably the chocolate covered ice cream cones. In fact... now that I think about it, there was an ice cream shop in downtown Annapolis where I used to take my family when my kids were much younger. The connection between that and my Carvel childhood was never apparent to me until now. It was just a natural thing to do.

Wow man.