Saturday, December 8, 2007

Michelle Denise New



Sometimes the thought crosses my mind that maybe I spend too much time thinking about food. When I am at work, I think about what I am going to have for lunch. After lunch, I think about what I am going to have for dinner and what I should snack on in the meantime. After dinner, I think about what I could eat for lunch the next day. Is this an obsession? An addiction? I suppose there are worse things to be addicted to.

I feel very lucky to have grown up in a family that loves food and cooking. I have so many food memories. On Sunday mornings I would wake up to the smell of bacon wafting through the house. This was my dad's sure fire way to lure us out of bed. He would make scrambled eggs, or dippie eggs (for those of you that don't call them this, I think you might call them sun-side up), french toast, or pancakes. But there was always bacon! My dad also makes the best blue crabs I have ever eaten. I have tried to eat them out at bars or restaurants, but they always pale in comparison to my dad's. They are spicy and sweet, cooked in beer with old bay, cayenne pepper, vinegar, and celery. My dad has made us a bushel of crabs every summer for as long as I can remember. It really wouldn't be a good summer for me in Philadelphia or at the Jersey Shore without my dad's blue crabs.

My mom makes several comfort foods that I have just recently started learning how to replicate. My mom worked throughout my whole childhood, but we would still have several good meals each week. Time consuming meals were usually saved for Sunday dinner. Some of my favorites are my mom's beef stew, pot roast, roasted chicken, homemade gravies, pork and sauerkraut, and macaroni and cheese; I am salivating now as I type this. My grandmother is a terrible cook. My mom tells me of the horrible things she was forced to eat as a child and I am glad that my mom didn't inherit grandmom's cooking skills or odd tastes. Some of the meals my mom told me that she had to eat as a child were liver and onions, pepper pot soup with tripe, kidney stew, and canned vegetables. I think this might be the first time I have lost my appetite in a long time. Nah, its back. I'm starving.

About once a year, my family and I gather around the table and have beef fondue. Some people might shy away from this cooking method, since I wouldn't exactly call it a healthy meal. We sit around the table and fry top round or bottom round steak cubes in hot vegetable oil. FRIED BEEF! What could be better? We make a ketchup based dipping sauce and we serve no side dishes or appetizers or bread. This is just a simple meal of fried beef, and I love it.

If I am ever put on death row (hey anything could happen) it would be very difficult for me to pick a last meal. Is there a size limit? Is there a price limit? I think I would want a few of dad's blue crabs, a medium rare filet mignon, mashed potatos, a bowl of pork and sauerkraut, french fries, a juicy hamburger, a spicy tuna roll, fresh summer corn on the cob, macaroni and cheese, a couple of strips of bacon, a lobster tail, nacho chips with fresh salsa, buffalo wings, an italian hoagie and if I still have room, maybe a piece of cheesecake.

1 comment:

ma said...

Michelle,
I enjoyed your blog; however, I love liver and onions! My kids never did.
mom of Chickie face and muffin face