FlashBack Friday

I almost forgot it was FlashBack Friday over at HeartSongs. Today's topic is comfort food. Oh My...... FOOD How could I forget food! I love food

You always hear the term you should eat to live not live to eat.
Well, my family has always been very big eaters. And we show it.
That is we were big eaters, not any more.
While growing up it would be mom, grandma, and I going to Mesa, AZ for holidays with my 2 aunts, uncles, and all the cousins. There would be Dunkin Donuts for breakfast or sometimes big cinamon rolls. Big traditional turkey and ham dinners with all the fixin's for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. There would also be the pies, pumpkin, apple, cherry, pecan, and every once in a while rhubarb.
We would either eat out at different Mexican restaurants on the other nights we were there or grill out in one of their backyards. You can do that in Mesa during the winter, it's not cold compared to here.
None of that happens anymore. With all of us getting older and my uncle, my husband, and a couple of others discovering they are diabetics all of our diets have changed. It is for the better and none of us eat nearly as much as we used to. Plus, we eat much healthier.
We still get together for Holidays but the meals are so much different. More vegetables and fruits, salads, and low carb meals. After meals we all go for a walk around a mall or around the neighborhood.

While growing up, when my stomach was upset, my grandma would make jell-o for me. She would pour it, hot, into a mug and try to force it down my throat. Ok, that isn't comfort food but it's a food memory. I really don't eat jell-o to this day. I even have a hard time fixing it for my kids.

What else? Um, roast beef. Mom used to make roast beef every Sunday for our noon meal after church. She would put it in the oven before we left for Sunday School and it would be ready when we got home. The house always smelled so good and I never tired of the smell. After the big Sunday lunch we would always have popcorn, apples and cheese for supper. We would sit in the living room, watch America's Funniest Home Videos and eat our popcorn, etc. My kids think I am weird when I talk about it.

Cold, winter weekend nights would bring homemade chili and cornbread. I grew up on lots of chili, enchiladas, burritos, tacos, empanadas, flautas, fajitas, and lots of other Mexican food. And I'm not talking about Taco Bell or Del Taco either. When you're best friend is Hispanic and their mom loves to cook and you spend the night there lots and spend a week with them when your mom goes on her honeymoon when you are 16, you get lots of YUMMY Mexican food. I really didn't want to go back home when my mom and stepdad came home.
And my friend's mom's salsa didn't come in a little packet you had to tear to pour on your wrapped up taco. She made her own salsa, fresh tomatoes, green chili's, jalapenos, and whatever else she used. Delicious.

Now I am the one that is supposed to make the house smell wonderful with all the baking and cooking. I just can't seem to create that same magic. I'm a much better baker than a cook. Scott is the cook now. He says I make wonderful meals but I don't see it. Nothing I do, besides my lasagna, will ever compare to what my mom used to make or what Scott makes now.