Memories...

I grew up in upstate New York and people are always shocked when I say that I have never been to New York City. I don't know why I've never been...funny.

Anyway, we did spend a lot of time in Canada. My mother's siblings live around Toronto and my grandmother's family had a place north of Toronto that we traveled to during the Summer. lots of different memories come to mind. I couldn't share them all in this one post but maybe I can share a few.

My aunt was/is a wonderful cook and always had/has lots of good food around. In general, most of my memories of growing up are around food. I am always trying to capture the past by having the same types of food we had when I was a kid--ask my poor husband about what i make him eat:)

As I was saying, I love to eat at my Aunt's. One of my favorite things was a tomato sandwich--white bread, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise. So simple but incredible. And we used to eat them outside by the pool. That was fun. They had incredible pantries and freezers full of food. Another thing was a rice krispy treat ice cream sandwich. I think it was a peanut butter bar with strawberry ice cream--at least that's how I remember it. Once time she made homemade caramel pop corn. I could not stop eating it! At Christmas, she made all kinds of cookies. My mother's favorite was fruitcake cookies (yuck!). But my favorite was a meringue cookie! Yum! There were all kinds of family recipe cookies too. One Christmas, Aunt Sari made Seafood Newburg for dinner and we sat around the table eating dessert for what seemed like hours after. I was sick. I had to go lay down and I don't think I got up until the next morning.

One of the things we still laugh about and regularly wish we could still eat is cheesecake! And not your usual homemade cheesecake--thick, tall New York style with a layer of sour cream on top. There were other flavors too but I don't remember those. I do remember the berries that were plentiful on the table. But here's the interesting part...it was not for dessert...THE CHEESECAKE WAS FOR BREAKFAST!!! That's right, breakfast!!!! How awesome was that. I wouldn't dare eating that much dairy or that many calories at breakfast these days but the memory is there and it's great.

The last time I was at their house was for their oldest daughter's wedding. Now my Aunt did not prepare the food but I know she had a part in choosing it. And it was incredible...a seafood buffet. Seafood gets me every time. In Canada, a tradition is to have a wedding cake but it is a fruitcake type and it is cut up and wrapped in little pieces for the guests to take home. So because of that, at this wedding they also had a very large dessert table. It was amazing.

So there, now you know my slight obsession with food. And how it ties in with my memories. It's fun to think back. I just have to make sure that I am not living in the past and that I stay in the present and make my own memories with my kids and maybe a little bit of food...