I Went out hunting turkey. We are having a few people over for Thanksgiving, I found 6 and bought two in case we could not find them at Christmas (or we needed one for leftovers--a tradition if company eats too much) I got an order of California rolls for dinner for tonite. Not enough wasabi but pretty good otherwise.
When I was a new bride at 18 years old, I got a Campbell's Soup Cookbook and one of the first things I made was stuffed peppers. It was bell peppers stuffed with rice and hamburger meat mixed with a can of tomato soup, topped with more soup and some cheese. I was so proud of myself.
I remember that recipe. I wonder if half of the stuff I remember as being "so good" was merely being a young boy who would eat 4 poached eggs on toast as a midnight snack, and scarf them down so fast I'd forget to taste them. Regarding the pride in cooking...I'm reading hunting season accounts of kids taking their first turkey/deer/bear/whatever and the immeasurable pride they get in providing food for their families. Cooking is like that.
The thing is, a lot of ingredients are not the same as when we were kids. All the "health police" changes from raising/processing livestock to the ingredients in canned soups make a comparison impossible. So we'll never know if those things we remember were "so good" since we can't truly reproduce them. When I was a teenager there was seldom any junk food/snacks in our house; maybe an occasional bag of oreos but not a lot of things. My weekend late-night snacks were usually popcorn made in a pot on the stove or a cut-up potato fried crispy with ketchup for dipping.
There is that. I think a lot of changes were cost-cutting/profit-driven, and the health aspect was a smoke screen. Regarding junk food, I recall we only started buying cereal after my parents split up and my mother began working. But there were no chips or stuff like that around. I carried that into my adult life, only slouching after I retired.
Leftovers. Red beans, rice, andouille sausage, cornbread, coleslaw. I have a pumpkin pie (from scratch) in the oven for later.
Fried fish, green beans, and Claxton fruitcake. My mother used to get catfish nuggets from Dill's grocery, a family-owned store in Royston, GA that carries the IGA brand. They were really good. I've been meaning to try some. Kroger had all 3. The fish was terrible. Had no flavor. I suspect it was too old (exp 11/9). I went the whole 9 yards with the egg, flour, cracker crumb batter, too. Gorton's frozen battered fish is perfect every time. Not worth all the trouble. Glad to cross fresh catfish off my bucket list forever.
I'm on a roll with not cooking this week. The better half took his mom to a doctor's appointment and is stopping by Cracker Barrel to pick up supper for her and us. I'm having turkey and dressing; she's having chicken and dumplings; he's having fried fish.