Friday Food Post: The Economics Behind Grandma\u2019s Tuna Casseroles<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0Go read it, if you haven\u2019t already (but please come back here afterwards!). \u00a0The basic point of the post is that, it\u2019s now rather popular to mocking recipes from the 50s that are full of seemingly-nasty food combinations and ingredients, but we should give some thought to the world our parents\/grandparents lived in, in which dining out was a rarity and some foods we take for granted were a luxury \u2014 in particular, the ready availability of all manner of fresh produce year-round. \u00a0Heck, I remember Mom and Dad arguing about whether oranges were a special treat or not (she was from St. Louis, he was from Colorado \u2014 I assume that in the 40s, there was a regional difference here). \u00a0What\u2019s more, she points out that the immigration from Asia which brought new flavors to American kitchens hadn\u2019t happened yet, and reminds us that, in 2015, bad (middle-class) cooks have convenience-food alternatives; whereas, bad cooks in the 50s really had no choice but to cook dinner, no matter how nasty.<\/p>\nNow, Ms. McArdle, who\u2019s roughly my age, grew up with a \u201cfoodie\u201d family, so she thinks of this as a relic of the 1950s. \u00a0But, heck, that\u2019s my childhood in the 70s\/early 80s. \u00a0Eating out was a big treat, and a rare one. \u00a0I remember going to McDonald\u2019s: \u00a0Mom would order two shakes and the three of us kids would each get 2\/3s a shake. \u00a0Once a year, the Girl Scouts had a dinner at a smorgasbord restaurant (really \u2013 I don\u2019t remember if they offered particularly Swedish meals but they called themselves a smorgasbord). \u00a0When my grandparents came to visit, or we visited them, we went to Bonanza or Ponderosa, and, later, to Steak and Shake. \u00a0And that\u2019s about it as far as restaurant meals that I remember.<\/p>\n
What about Mom and Dad\u2019s home cooking? \u00a0 I have to say, I remember little. \u00a0Daddy\u2019s Special = ground beef with a spaghetti sauce (though I think it was seasoned tomato sauce rather than actual spaghetti sauce) with maybe things like mushrooms & onions added, topped with blue-box macaroni & cheese. \u00a0 (Yes, this rotates its way through my meal plan, now.) \u00a0Spaghetti with spaghetti sauce and ground beef. \u00a0I remember liver, and complaining about the gristle landing on my plate. \u00a0Fish of some kind, about which I remember little except disliking it. \u00a0It seems to me that we would have steak periodically, but I think a cheaper cut, except not braised, just panfried. \u00a0Canned vegetables like peas and corn. \u00a0Sundays were waffle nights, or sometimes crepes for variety (but no fancy fillings, just the same applesauce and syrup). \u00a0Oh, and Mom and Dad canned\u00a0for a stretch\u00a0\u2014 apples picked at the orchard, and pickled beets, and I want to say maybe stewed tomatoes, too. \u00a0They gardened, and I remember leaf lettuce (which I never liked), and maybe green beans, and I don\u2019t recall what else. \u00a0And that\u2019s about all that made an impression on me.<\/p>\n
Were we poor? \u00a0No. \u00a0Dad was an engineer at General Motors. \u00a0He never got that corner office, but, so far as I know, did respectably well. \u00a0Mom worked at a hodge-podge of jobs, off and on, mostly part-time, sometimes clerical\/retail, and sometimes using her RN qualification, thought she never took that refresher course (and I think never really wanted to), so was limited to things like orthodontist\u2019s assistant. \u00a0I disliked having to wear hand-me-downs and other embarrassing clothes, but (or perhaps as a result) I didn\u2019t have much of a fashion sense anyway (still don\u2019t), and Mom and Dad always repeated that this was because, unlike my classmates\u2019 families, they were saving diligently, and it never really occurred to me that we might be missing out on a superior culinary experience. \u00a0(Yeah, for all I know, they could well have afforded more but there was some skeleton in a closet somewhere.)<\/p>\n
In our household? \u00a0Well, we go out to eat about once a week, rarely anywhere fancy, but even so, the tab is growing what with fewer kids eating off the kids\u2019 menu. \u00a0And I\u2019m more likely to buy a better cut of meat to grill. \u00a0And I like to think I put more effort into finding a variety of good, yet easy-to-make meals \u2014 helped by\u00a0the ready available of internet recipes and the ability to check out cookbooks from the library and photocopy the good recipes. \u00a0What will my kids remember, though, when they\u2019re adults? \u00a0Who knows?<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s it for me. \u00a0And all of this is really building up to this: \u00a0tell me about your experiences. \u00a0It\u2019s Friday night, after all. \u00a0What else do you have going on?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Megan McArdle has a nice Friday-appropriate piece today, \u201cFriday Food Post: The Economics Behind Grandma\u2019s Tuna Casseroles.\u201d \u00a0Go read it, if you haven\u2019t already (but please come back here afterwards!). \u00a0The basic point of the post is that, it\u2019s now rather popular to mocking recipes from the 50s that are full of seemingly-nasty food combinations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":3120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cookingbaking"],"yoast_head":"\n
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