Tomorrow is the full moon, and, boy, can you tell. Under the early morning-still nighttime sky, Lacey and I took a run, and she was absolutely full of herself. I had to correct her twice (voice correction followed by positive reinforcement with heaps of praise for following the correction, which she loves). At one point, she and Baby Oscar made up some crazy 30-second chase game. All this is going on while foods from different eras are traveling through my mind.
If you were around for 1981, did you ever watch the Peanuts Halloween show and find yourself loving the Dolly Madison snack cake commercials just about as much as the Peanuts special? Remember the Zinger Zapper??!! Makes me want cream-filled cake at 4:30 in the morning. For the record, if I recall correctly, Dolly Madison was the sponsor - or at least one of the big ones - for the Peanuts specials, so it's no wonder my generation grew up loving snack cakes. We didn't stand a chance. And I'm sorry, food snobs and critics - but snack cakes really are quite good.
But it made me think about other foods, too, particularly from the 1970s, some of which I remember vividly - tuna casserole, anyone? I know I've referenced jell-o on more than one occasion, and I particularly adore Coca-Cola cherry salad. In the summer, it's a staple around our house. Ice cold and sweet, but not overly-sweet, thanks to the thin layer of sour cream spread over top. The other thing I have had a few times in the past and loved, mostly at church dinners, is the sweet macaroni salad from the 1970s.
Now, this salad is unusual. You need to make it the night before, and it does have a can of sweetened condensed milk in the recipe. If you make this salad, if possible, you need to follow the original recipe, which can be found all over the internet. The ingredients in the salad make a difference in off-setting the sweetness of the condensed milk. The salad needs to set overnight, as well, so it's a make-in-advance thing, which is a time-saver for the day that you want to eat it. It's great in the summer with saltine crackers and REALLY good, strong, stinky cheddar on the side and a few slices of fresh tomatoes. I've only made this a couple times in past years, and I don't know why. And yes - it has two cups of Dukes mayo . . . . I mean, you probably already figured that out. I'm putting it on the list of things to make the first full week in May.
I digress with the food talk, but you need to know that at some point, more 1970s foods, as well as church potluck dishes are going to pop up in this feed. Those foods made me the foodie that I am today, along with my experiences in the Deep South, which gave me an unyielding love of Dukes mayo, fresh seafood, fried green tomatoes, and southern style cornbread. I don't have a home town or a lifelong experience with a location. I'm from everywhere and nowhere, and out of all the places that I've ever lived, my heart is very much in the Deep South. The beauty of those old trees with Spanish moss, the food, the culture, the salty air, the breezy summer mornings, the colorful homes . . . . did I mention the food? These things are spiritual to me. My inner self is calmed by them, and I find myself closing my eyes sometimes and just re-imagining the smells and tastes and views. There's a longing there, for sure.
Meanwhile, back in upper Northeast Tennessee where I have lived for more than two decades and where my paternal roots are firmly planted (I've been coming here my whole life but only moved here permanently in the mid 1990s), this weekend's cooking adventures included homemade croutons and baked vegetarian chili-mac. I had four odds and ends bags of bread, including a heavy, yeasty Tuscan bread, a partial French loaf, hamburger buns and one lone, stray hot dog bun. No worries, set the oven to 350. Cube the bread, toss it in melted butter and olive oil until nicely coated. Spread out on baking sheets, sprinkle heavily with Parmesan cheese and bake for ten minutes. Flip the croutons, bake for ten more minutes or until golden brown, and then let completely dry before storing them in an air-tight container. We eat ours in soups, salads and sprinkled on top of anything where we want a nice crunch. They are really nice directly out of the oven, still warm and salty from the parm and butter. Here they are!
We try to eat down the kitchen and cabinets every now and then, so you have to get creative sometimes. I have not made baked chili mac in years, so using the odds and ends and some leftovers, we had vegetarian chili mac topped with globs of sour cream last night. This is comfort food at its best. I also like to take vegetarian chili and pour it into a greased dish. Then, top it with your favorite cornbread recipe and bake it on 350 degrees until the cornbread is nice and golden brown. I believe the last time I did this, it baked for about 25 minutes or so. Now THAT'S really good stuff. For us vegetarians, chili is a very good source of protein, as you can see below from all the beans.
Change is on the horizon for us this week. It's a good change, I believe, and one that I hope propels us in some new directions. Remember that longing for the Deep South? I so very hope that in the coming years, we get the opportunity to remedy that longing by making the Deep South a space that we love and embrace more often. Time will tell, and that's what it will take - time. Dreams sometimes don't happen overnight, and that's okay. It gives you something to aim for, something to look forward to, that metaphorical vision board that keeps us going. I've turned so many things over to God in the last couple of years that I'm surprised he's not blocking my calls or hasn't unfriended me, ha ha. But He's God, so that makes Him capable when we humans are standing at the threshold of something and our impatience is starting to show.
Of course, I would be remiss if I did not post a couple of baby pictures. My baby girl Trudy and my baby boy TC . . . . those faces. Good grief. I don't stand a chance against them. They run our schedules and our lives in general, but they would, wouldn't they?? They're in charge. When you look like them, you get whatever you want and then some.
Blessed Sunday to you. I hope your weather is warm and breezy and sunny. If it is, please push some of that my way, please??
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