Simple Foods, Childhood Foods

I suppose all of us have foods that we loved as a child and still, maybe inexplicably, love, even if they're full of chemicals and preservatives. In that category for me would be Kraft Macaroni n' Cheese, Oreos, Cheetos (though I haven't eaten any since I read in one of those "Eat This, Not That" books that for some reason Cheetos are like, one of the worst things you could ever eat--sigh) and Hershey bars. Although obviously I had some affinity for junk food, I was always thin, in part due to genetics but also in part due to the fact that portion sizes used to be reasonable. When I was growing up lasagna (made with cottage cheese!) came in small squares, not in sheet-cake size slabs, muffins were the size of a fist, not a softball, and there was no such thing as Super Sizing. In fact, I think I was in junior high school before we even got a McDonald's in my home town, and even once we did I almost never ate there.

So, we've covered junk food, but what about simple food that children like but still appeal to adults? I still like peanut butter and bananas on toast, for one. Egg salad is a longtime favorite: hardboiled eggs, Duke's or Hellman's mayonnaise (full fat, please, NO SUBSTITUTES), and salt. If I want to fancy it up, and I usually don't, I might add chopped dill or curry powder. I use the same formula for deviled eggs: eggs, mayo, salt. No pickles, capers, or anything else extraneous. Pickles, though--there's a childhood love that never went away. Clausen's, please, no other kind will do. I still have an affection for the much-maligned (by foodies) California black olives, yes, the rubbery, salty kind in the can. Love them. I also still like tuna salad, but even though I like it using my basic pattern of mayo, salt and nothing else, I also like it fancied up a bit, though I wouldn't have as a child. Marcia Adams, the Midwestern cookbook author who had some PBS television shows, has a recipe I like for tuna salad that includes cream cheese, chopped black olives, lemon juice and chopped pecans. As a child I would have rejected, vehemently and with horror, this recipe on the basis of its inclusion of nuts--shoot, I would have rejected it on that basis as late as my 20s. But, I've stretched my horizons a bit.

As for sweets, the chocolate chip cookie has been a constant throughout my life. Flourless chocolate cakes, creme brulees, tortes, tarts, they may all come and go, but I have found no improvement on the chocolate chip cookie. Or chocolate chip cookie dough. I like them chewy but will accept them crisp sometimes too. Here I will not tolerate nuts; I like nuts in savory foods only and occasionally in sweets, but not chocolate chip cookies. On this I do not yield.

Finally, on the subject of beverages: I grew up in a sweetened tea household and hated it. At that time in Texas, that was the norm, and restaurants rarely offered tea unsweetened. That tide finally changed, but by that time I had developed a strong preference for Cokes. (In my part of Texas, the brand name "Coke" was used as a catch-all for any type of soft drink, i.e., "Do you want a Coke?" "Sure, I'll take a Dr. Pepper.") In my 20s I finally weaned myself off of regular Cokes and moved on to diet Dr. Peppers, Diet Rite, and the like. Now, I'm struggling, with some success, to limit those and drink more unsweetened teas and water (this last is hard, I like flavor). I can recommend Twinings Jasmine Green Tea, as well as their Mixed Berry and Black Currant flavors.

So, some food tastes come and go and others, it seems, have better staying power. I wouldn't want to eat nothing but egg salad, pickles and chocolate chip cookies for the rest of my life--not least because it wouldn't be a very balanced diet--but I like to know they're still around, easy to create and always satisfying.

Recommended reading: Marcia Adams' "Cooking From Quilt Country." It's just a beautiful book and a pleasure to read, with its look into the kitchens of the Amish and Mennonite. My Texas tastes are somewhat different so I rarely use the recipes, but it's a book I'm glad to have on my shelf.