Your favorite food (#atozchallenge)

Your favorite food...

        Sadly, I've been finding that more and more the foods that have always been my favorites don't set well with me sometimes.  I've always liked spicier flavorful foods.   Favorite foods include pizza, Mexican, or Thai food.  But I'm also mighty fond of just about all Asian food and Italian when I'm in the right mood.   When you get right down to it my favorite thing to eat is food--period.

          Oh, there are a few things that I don't like so well, but if I'm hungry I'll go for just about anything.  Sometimes it might be a mood thing.  I might crave a sub sandwich or some soup.  Turkey dinners are great anytime--especially the Thanksgiving dinner like my mother used to make.  I can duplicate those Thanksgiving style dinners like my mother made so that everyone eating it seems to think it's great, but I can tell the difference.  When I cook it, those turkey dinners don't seem quite as good as my mother's.  Maybe it's like she used to say how you spend several hours cooking and then eating it just doesn't seem as good as it might have if somebody else had done all the work.

       I love ice cream, cake, candy--any sweets.  I'm crazy about sweets and that's bad for me.  Food, food, food.   I enjoy eating.  My wife thinks I'm a great cook, but that's maybe because she doesn't cook.   I'll admit that a lot of times my meals seem better than many of the restaurant meals we get.  And when it comes to spaghetti, forget about it.  It's been rare that I've ever had a plate of restaurant spaghetti that comes even close to what I make.  It's in the sauce.  Seems like you'd get a really good spaghetti gravy when you pay top price in a restaurant, but I rarely have so I rarely order spaghetti when I eat out.  Spaghetti is something best fixed when I fix it.  Same with chili most of the time.

         My favorite food if I have to pinpoint one might be pizza.  But if I'm not in the mood for pizza then my favorite food is something else.  It comes down to mood.   When I have a serious craving for something special and if I fulfill that craving with something that I think is really outstanding, then that's my favorite food.  For the moment at least.

          What do you tend to eat more than anything else?   Is there anything that you won't order in a restaurant?   Do you think you cook better than most people?

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Thanksgiving on the Road

Thanksgiving Day Greetings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         In all the years before I became an adult I don't think I ever spent a Thanksgiving away from home.  Every year my mother would fix essentially the same delicious traditional dinner.  Over the years she may have added a new side dish, but I don't think there were any she stopped serving.  Thanksgiving was one of my favorite days of the year and other than a couple of exceptions, the table was almost always set for just my parents and us kids.  Since we were far from relatives most of my time growing up we didn't have any other family to join us.

        Then when I went on the road with a touring theatrical company in my mid-twenties, I started missing those meals that had meant so much in my early years.  During the 80's our tradition became eating at some buffet restaurant in Hendersonville, Tennessee since every year we were booked for a Thanksgiving evening show in nearby Gallatin.  

         I would take the cast members and treat them to dinner.  The food was decent and nicely priced.  And it was all-you-could-eat which was appreciated by a young troupe of low paid actors.  It wasn't my mother's Thanksgiving dinner, but at least it was a notch up from the typical road food we usually ate.

         Over the past several years I've fixed a meal very similar to the one my mother used to fix since now I live in Los Angeles and she's in East Tennessee.  In recent years their meals have been mostly potluck affairs since my mother doesn't do the big cooking events that she used to.  As our kids have moved away far across the country from us, our Thanksgiving dinners have become smaller.

        This year we won't be having a dinner at our house.  Instead we'll be traveling to visit one of our daughters who lives closest to us, though still over a thousand miles away.  Not sure what will happen for dinner, but I'm sure we'll think of something.

         It's been a while since I've had Thanksgiving away from home.   I'm looking forward to the road trip though.  There's something about a long driving trip that stimulates my mind.

         Do you have Thanksgiving at home or away?   Will you fix dinner or does someone else do it?   Have you ever had your Thanksgiving feast at a restaurant instead of someone's house?

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Are We Talking About Food Again?

A delicious-looking meal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

         So I was talking on the phone to my mother and she was telling me about what they'd had for lunch and about how my sister was going to buy pizza that evening and invite my brother and his family over.  I was kind of envious because I really liked the pizza at Giovanni's when I ordered it during my visit there last month.  That's in Maryville, Tennessee where most of my family lives and it's welcome to see a darn good Italian restaurant opened up in that area.

          When I was there at Giovanni's I ordered a New York style pizza with anchovies, onions, and pepperoncinis.  Not many takers on this one which was okay by me since it's my favorite kind of pizza and taking some leftovers home wasn't all that bad.  My brother and youngest sister both tried some and they liked it.  That surprised me since I usually don't find many others who like anchovies.   Maybe it's kind of a family thing.

            After talking about the topic of their meals with my mother, I told her about the meal I had fixed the previous evening for my wife and I and how much my wife had enjoyed it.  Then I went on to describe the big breakfast I was planning for Saturday morning--a feast that would include scrambled eggs, patty sausage,  potatoes O'Brian, biscuits, and gravy.   We do enjoy our Saturday morning breakfasts.

         At this point my mother interjected, "All you do is talk about food."

         Initially I protested that this was not so because food is not the only thing I talk about, but then conceded that I do talk about food a lot.  When the family is together we often go off on the topic of food.  I've found this to be true in many scenarios with other people as well.  After all we all have to eat, eating can be very enjoyable, and what better thing to talk about since we all probably have some interesting food stories to tell.

           Especially when the family is all together for the holidays we'll talk about what we're going to have for dinner that night, go off on a food buying mission for ingredients, spend time preparing the meal, and then talk about food while we're eating and after the meal.   Eating is inevitable and the meals together can be significant events.

            Now don't get me wrong, we talk about plenty of other things, but the meals are the catalysts for getting together and having conversations.   When I think about the pot lucks, the restaurant outings, ceremonial meals for things like weddings and birthdays, and all of the other ritualistic gatherings in which food is consumed, I realize the importance of breaking bread together.  

            As many of us gather together for Thanksgiving and other holiday meals in the coming weeks, conversations will be flowing.  The meals can be excellent prompts to delve into memories of the past.  People who have passed on will be remembered.   Stories of days gone by will be told.   Favorite recipes will be shared.  There's nothing like a happy meal together and the conversation that goes with it.

            What's for dinner?

             Do you find that food is a common topic of discussion when you are with others?   At gatherings with family or friends is meal preparation and consumption an important part of the day?   Have you found meal times to be useful for gathering information and enjoying entertaining stories?



         

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