The art of storytelling is not just one to be perfected for summers around campfires or your future bestselling memoirs. The request that we all made as children, “Tell me a story,” is one that we must ask ourselves to do even now. Whether you’re writing a critical essay or a personal narrative, often times you can support your thesis by answering this request. Today, we will practice storytelling in the form of a simple personal narrative.
First, I want you to write a list of five things you would buy at the grocery store (this can be a grocery store that carries any food item from anywhere in the world) if you had an unlimited budget.
Then, I want you to write a 150 to 400 word narrative explaining your purchases. Please pay attention to sound and image in your writing, erring on the side of whimsy or sentiment rather than tedium (i.e—this because of that).
For example, on my list I would include fresh-picked Maryland blackberries. One of my favorite memories of childhood is going to the orchards outside of Rockville and scanning the bushes for the plumpest jewels just barely hanging on, which I knew my mother and aunt would later turn into pies. When I remember those days, there is a feeling of an unending early summer, longing, and a kind of joy that is difficult to duplicate outside of childhood.
English 1101 Spring 2008 
Mayra Garcia said,
January 16, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Strawberries would be one of the first things that I would purchase when I would go grocery shopping. They remind me of when I was young and my father and I would grow them in the back yard. He would let me make the holes for the seeds and then we would water them together.
Blue and juicy blueberries would be another thing I would add to my list. Making blueberry pancakes in the morning are so good. Especially if you add powdered sugar to the top and let them soak on honey maple syrup. Serving the pancakes with a big glass of milk to eat them with would just make the perfect breakfast. I would also buy the best tasting white chocolate there is to make delicious desserts with. My favorite thing to use white chocolate is on strawberries. Melting the white chocolate in the pan just makes my mouth water. Then when I dip the big red strawberries in the chocolate I can’t help but stick my finger in the chocolate and get a taste.
I would also buy some shrimp and some steak to grill outside. I would set the table up for a picnic; put the plate and cups out. Then I would season the shrimp and the steak and put them on the grill. And serve them with steam vegetables.
Chase Bass said,
January 16, 2008 at 11:22 pm
On my trip to the grocery store I would pick up some yakimandoos, some homemade pecan pies, some chicken and dumplings, some king crab, whole of course, and some Dr. Pepper. Believe it or not, all of these items, although a couple of them are prepared meals and not food items, have a certain sentimental value to me, even the Dr. Pepper.
I don’t know about everyone else’s childhood Thanksgiving dinners, but the ones my family had always had at least four pecan pies sitting out on the kitchen counter cooling and usually one or two still in the oven. The smell of the pecan pies as you walked into my great-grandmother’s house turned us all into drooling dogs even to the point to where I think we all had our tongues hanging out. This smell always made us eat really fast, which is something we all came to regret later on, because we knew that once we got done eating we could dig into those pecan pies.
I don’t think that the proper name for the food I am thinking of is yakimandoo, but that is what we called it. My aunt is Korean and every time we went to North Carolina to visit her and my uncle, she would always cook these dumpling-like snacks. They were quite delicious.
My father and I used to go to Panama City Beach every year to go visit my grandmother and just spend time at the beach during the summer. Every summer on the day that we would get there, my grandma would have a pot of chicken and dumplings waiting on me cause she knew that that was my favorite. Once I would get done stuffing myself, I would walk next door to the gas station and buy me a Dr. Pepper. It always seemed like every other time I would buy one, I would get another one for free.
We would always go down the old abandoned bridge and go fishing. One time I remember catching a crab, which we all thought was going to fall off of the hook before I could get it to the bucket but it never did. That was some good eating.
Chase Bass
1736
Alex Seburn said,
January 17, 2008 at 3:01 pm
I would buy the following: plenty of milk, bread, salad, rice, and chicken/fish (protein).
If I had an unlimited budget, I would buy a lot more than five things. If I had to chose essential things than I would buy the things listed above first. Milk would be vital for protein, vitamins, and strong bones. It is also the only thing that goes with cereal. Your supposed to eat around eight servings of food from the bread and pasta group, so I would buy bread. With bread you can make sandwhiches for lunch or toast for breaksfast.
I’m a staunch believer in staying healthy, so getting salad would not be a questionable call. Eating salad would also satisfy my vegetable servings. Rice goes with just about any dinner meal you can think of and it is also healthy. Of course you can not live without a sufficient amount of protein, so I would get fish or chicken. Of course I would eventually have to learn how to cook first. I would get those things listed above to maintain a balanced diet with health being a top priority to me.
Mindy Boswell said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:04 pm
1.Pepsi
2.Fresh Broccoli
3.Galletas de coco/ coconut cookies
4.Haagen-Dazs Chocolate ice cream
5.Mamon Chino
The first item I would put in my shopping cart would be Pepsi. This is something I have always enjoyed drinking since I was a young child. My mom would not allow me to drink Pepsi as a child because she did not want me to have cavities. However, when I stayed at my grandma’s house on the weekends she would allow me to drink it! This is where my addiction all began. I love the strong fizzy sensation you feel as those first few sips run down your throat. No other drink is quite as refreshing as Pepsi is to me.
Another childhood enjoyment of mine is fresh broccoli. My mom has always made broccoli with every meal for as long as I can remember. I prefer to have my broccoli steam slightly with Country Crock butter. I eat it with no guilt seeing as how it taste so wonderful and it is very healthy for me as well!
Galletas de coco (coconut cookies) is a long time favorite of mine. I first had these bite size cookies filled with coconut shavings while living in Costa Rica. They are a popular snack found at all grocery stores and convince stores. They were a snack I looked forward to if I ate all my dinner or at least ate my vegetables. In the United States they can still be found at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Publix or stores such as these.
Everyone has a comfort food, a food that you can enjoy to make situations seem hopefully. My comfort food is Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream. This is a delicacy I enjoy by the pint! I tasted my first bite of Haagen-Dazs ice cream in the summer of 2004 while vacationing in Hawaii. On our visit to the island of Maui we stayed at the Hyatt Hotel which had a Haagen-Dazs store inside the courtyard of the hotel. After sun bathing for quite some time I needed something refreshing and cold, this is when I noticed the Haagen-Dazs store not to far from the lawn chair I was relaxing on. I decided I would give it a try and asked the young man for a sample of the chocolate. After just one bite I was convinced this was even better than Ben & Jerry’s! I then smiled and told him “I’ll have a pint of the chocolate, just add it to our tab.” From that day forward I will only eat chocolate ice cream with a Haagen-Dazs label across the pint jar.
My favorite fruit which is mammon chino is a seasonal fruit of Costa Rica. The appearance for many restrains then from trying it. I nicknamed it “Blowfish fruit” because the needle like outward appearance somewhat resembles a blowfish. Although the outside may look hard and prickly it is actually soft. To eat this fruit you must bite the outside shell and open it to find a small white ball inside, which is what you eat. The taste is somewhat comparable to pineapple in the sense of sweetness yet it is different. This is my most missed memory of Costa Rica since it cannot be bought or imported to the U.S.
-English 1101/CRN 1736
Linda Felbaum said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:06 pm
5 Things I would purchase at the grocery store.
Looking out the window on this dreary winter slush, I begin to yearn for a warm summer day. I allow my day dreaming to take me back to the summers of my youth.
As a daily ritual, the men in our neighborhood would gather after work, pop open a cold beer and discuss their work day. After sharing a few beers their laughter could be heard from houses away. As they ended their visit, they would then head home to their individual families , the spring back in their step. As they left, each man would place their empty beer cans in a recycle bin. This particular recycle bin would be the resource for our yearly crab feast.
Every memorial day a few select men would drive away with their loot on their way to the recycle yard, and return with bushels and bushels of crabs. Not just any crabs, but large, female Maryland blue crabs! They were ceremoniously steamed with beer and Old Bay and then dumped in the middle of each paper lined picnic table. The center piece for our celebration.
The whole neighborhood would show up with side dishes galore and excited children in tow. This was a true “family” event that we all looked forward to, young and old. It was truly my favorite day of the year!
If I were able to go to the grocery store and purchase anything that I wanted, it would definitely be a huge bushel of those succulent Maryland blue crabs with Old Bay, melted butter and vinegar for dipping. And of course, some more ice cold beer. After all, we need to replenish our recycle bin for next year!
Sarah Hackney said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:21 pm
When I was a kid, my mother would take me with her while she ran her errands. My memory was never that great, but one store that always sticks out in my mind is the produce store. I distinctly remember how that place looked and smelled. But what is most clear is what I got every time I went to that store, and that was an orange soda and tangerines. To this day my favorite drink is Sunkist, which could be traced back to that store where I would get a can out of the old RC cola machine. I loved the tangerines because they were like baby oranges. Being little myself I was fascinated with not only smaller versions but bright colors(like orange).
Soy sauce has a special place in my heart. I’ve often joked that you could bury me with a bottle of Kikkoman soy sauce and nothing else, but in reality I was definitely not kidding. Again my mother was the one who started me on this love for that salty, black sauce that is given so little credit these days. I believe that you can put soy sauce on anything to make it taste good, and I’ll stick by that.
I’ve never been to fond of anything with the word pepper in it until I started seriously cooking. Not being a big fan of spicy foods, I assumed bell peppers had the same alarming taste as its pepper cousins. When I was introduced to these delicious vegetables, I realized, like soy sauce, they could go with anything.
My aunts have lived in the same house for as long as they lived. So since I was a baby, I’ve been making trips to North Carolina to stay with them. Through renovations, deaths in the family, new animals and technology, there have been extreme changes that have taken place in that house. One thing hasn’t changed, that’s breakfast. I had never seen anyone of my friends eating this kind of poptarts, only at my aunts’ house. Well thank goodness for that discovery, because breakfast would never be the same without the chocolate and vanilla poptarts. I’m talking about the kind with the vanilla on the inside and as frosting. They always have and always will hit the spot.
Samantha Willis said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:23 pm
5 Items I would buy at the Grocery Store
1. Kool-aid
2. Cinnamon Rolls
3. Chicken Soup
4. Biscuits
5. Cookies
When we were kids, my brother and I would stay outside all day and play. Running around from place to place we would become exceedingly thirsty. There was nothing like the sweet taste of cherry Kool-Aid to quench that thirst. My grandmother would make it for us almost everyday. Everyday on the school bus on my way home I would envision a full glass of kool- aid waiting on me when I arrived. To this day when I drink it I imagine being a kid again and all you think about during the day after school or playing is getting home to drink kool-aid.
The warm, sweet, soft taste of Cinnamon Rolls has always made my mouth water. They hold a special meaning though because our family eats them every year on Christmas morning. The food has actually become a tradition for us. When I smell them it reminds me of Christmas. Something so small and so easy to make holds so many memories.
Since I was a child my grandfather always made us Chicken Soup when it was cold. No one could make it quite the way he could. In fact we would travel to his house every week or so just to eat it. He’s been dead for 6 months now and everytime I think about chicken soup it reminds me of him. You never realize how something as simple as chicken soup could bring back so many memories.
I love biscuits. Home made fresh, hot biscuits. They have always been one of my favorite foods. Biscuits in general remind me of the south and how much I love it. I love about every southern food known to man but biscuits are wonderful.
Cookies aren’t necessarily my favorite food but they remind me of someone special that I lost. My step-sister loved baking them. It was actually one of her hobbies to make the whole family cookies. When I eat, smell, or think about them I think about her in the kitchen singing as she made them. I wish those days were still here, but cookies bring them back to me.
1718
Emily Noordhoek said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:24 pm
1. Macaroni and Cheese
2. Monster Energy Drink
3. Dove Chocolate
4. Chicken Pot Pie
5. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
One of the best things that I can remember growing up is when my best friend Julie and I would play Barbies every single day at my house. Whenever we were hungry, we would ALWAYS ask my mother to make us macaroni and cheese and we would eat huge bowls of it until we were full. We usually helped her pour in the cool milk, the powdered cheese, and the soft butter.
Sleep, to me, is one of the most awesome things on this entire earth. Whenever I have to wake up early in the morning, I always go by the store and grab a Monster Energy Drink. An energy drink in the morning always makes me feel better. It fills my mouth up with a sweet taste of Smarties and my body with energy for the day.
My sister and I discovered Dove chocolate one day at the grocery store together during a two o-clock in the morning run to Kroger. Dove chocolate is the most incredible chocolate ever made on this earth. My sister and I will spontaneously go to the store and buy chocolate and movies, and enjoy a night watching the T.V. show Friends.
My grandmother makes the most amazing chicken pot pie in this world. When I was a little girl and she lived in Lawrenceville, Georgia, I would always love going to her house for dinner when it was pot pie night. I would always help her prepare everything and I would throw flour all over the place playfully while we would make the dough for the crust. We would get out the vegetables and she would cut up the fresh chicken. While it was baking, we would play games and watch T.V. and spend quality time together. I couldn’t wait for it to be done, and when it was, I always had the biggest piece.
Boyfriends can be mean sometimes. What is the solution? Your best friend and chocolate chip cookies! My best friend, Mary Beth and I have the same boy problems. Whenever we are both sad, we always go up in the kitchen and take out the chocolate chip cookie dough. Mary Beth places them on a pan, and we wait impatiently while they bake and talk about our horrible days. Whenever they are ready, we pour two cold glasses of milk and enjoy our warm, gooey cookies. For the rest of the night, we play a good round of Guitar Hero and forget our problems.
Hilary Bragg said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:25 pm
1. Cheese dip
2. Pineapples
3. Sweet tea
4. Fried chicken
5. Key lime pie
As a little girl, my daddy would always take me out to eat at a local restaurant, Third Coast Grille. After I finished my dinner and the waitress asked us for our desert order my dad always said “we’ll have the key lime pie for two”, and every time I take my first bite of juicy, tangy key lime pie I remember my daddy. Through out high school, one of the most famous social gatherings became El Sombrero, where Friday nights would be full of students or Thursdays after the basketball games you would see the local players and their families. A must have was of course, cheese dip. Now, its not the same, but a pretty close match can be found at the grocery store, and all you have to do is heat it up and go back to the good ole’ days.
Growing up in Georgia, dinner pretty much consisted of fried something, a vegetable, a fruit, and the famous sweet tea. Dinner just wasn’t complete with out that big, chilled glass of irresistibly sweet iced tea. For the fruit part I would definitely have to go with a fresh pineapple to even out the taste buds. Whenever grandma would come visit us and enter back into civilization (where she dwelled in a small town with a population of 200), she would bring along her famous fried chicken. Even though the fried chicken from Publix’s deli doesn’t compare to grandma’s famous chicken, no offense to Publix, it sure does bring back a reminiscence of child hood.
All of these things bring back a certain memory to me. Each item symbolizes a special time in my life, whether be sitting at the dinner table where we shared a common interest in eating, or listening to grandma tell stories about how her four brothers tortured her as a little girl. Its amazing how in the midst of performing a certain action, it can bring back such an intense memory of taste, smell, and touch. As I eat the fried chicken I can actually feel my grandma start hold my hand at the dinner table or I can hear her voice telling the hilarious stories of her childhood terrorization.
Dawn Vickers said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:26 pm
1. Steak
2. Baking Potato
3. Salad
4. Dressing
5. Wine
I have a wonderful memory of a very quite romantic dinner with my husband one year. Our children were all gone to friends and we decided to have a nice steak that was cooked on the grill with just the right seasoning. To go with our steak we needed a few things to help fill us up and be healthy so we had a potato baked to be soft and hot to melt the butter. We also added a nice fresh salad with several vegetables. When you are having dinner with out the kids you also need something besides ranch dressing, something a little fancier like a poppy seed dressing. Of course no nice romantic dinner is complete with out a nice wine from the great wine country of Santa Barbara.
The memory of a wonderful meal can make you want to go and buy the ingredients and have that setting every now and then to really enjoy the food and time.
Dawn Vickers
CRN 1718
Madison Davis said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Lemonade- During the summer days of my childhood, I can recall making lemonade and setting up a stand to sell it at. Of course, it wasn’t authentic fresh squeezed lemonade, it was the powdered mix. But in my eyes, it was just as good. My best friend and I would spend hours setting up for our sell. We colored large posters advertising our mouth watering beverage and would tire our arms stirring the mix. It was quite an effort for such a small profit; nothing. I remember feeling defeated then, when our lemonade didn’t sell. However, now I can look back and remember how precious those long summer afternoons were. The time spent with my childhood friend was priceless.
Koala Bears- During second grade, while we were learning about different countries we would pretend to travel to these places. For example, while we studied China, we would remove our shoes and sit on pillows. When we studied Australia, we were given Koala Bears as a snack. They were sugary shaped cookies with a printed koala on the front, filled with chocolate. I loved learning about different cultures and second grade was a new adventure each day. Koala Bear snacks bring me back to those days.
Popsicles- My best friend and I danced throughout our childhood. Everyday, afterschool, we would ride the bus home together then carpool to dance lessons. I can remember it like it was yesterday. We would come in and watch PBS’s Zoom while we ate fire cracker popsicles. Since childhood, my best friend and I have drifted away a lot. Different interest, different friends, there’s multiple reasons people may go their separate ways. But those popsicles will forever remind me of our friendship, because I always shared them with her.
Sweet Potatoes- Sweet potatoes have been a holiday tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. My grandmother always makes them on Thanksgiving, topped with marshmallows. The marshmallows are gooey and golden. With every bite they melt in your mouth and sweeten the potatoes. My mother continues the sweet potato tradition at Christmas dinner. She, however, puts in her own twist. My mom tops her potatoes with sugarcoated pecans. Each bite is similar to tasting candy. Perhaps, one day, I’ll have to start cooking sweet potatoes with my personal touch. But until then, sweet potatoes, whether marshmallow or pecan covered warm my heart as they remind me of time I am able to spend with my family.
Mangos- I had never had mangos growing up. My boyfriend’s family, however, always has a variety of fruits. One afternoon his sister was feeding her daughter a mango as snack. I had never seen the large orange, odd shaped fruit before. Curious as to what it was, I tried a piece. The sweet taste was nearly too much for me to handle. Although I do not favor mangos, they remind of how different each family is and how special it is that you can learn from others.
Madison Davis
English1101/ CRN 1718
Dianna Singleton said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Mangos
Watermelons
Strawberries
Bananas
Pineapples
When I was around the age of ten my half sister, whose way older than I, would bring home boxes of mangos. Since my niece and I were around the same age I would come over everyday and play. I always seen a box more come in through there house and always wondered what a mango was or what did it taste like. My sister wasn’t the nicest person in the world but she was always sweet to me but I was still afraid to ask her for one. She was a chef so I didn’t know if she needed them to cook or serve with some type of meal. I finally got up enough nerve to at least ask her what they were; of course I knew what they were because the box said mangos. I wanted to know more, everyday I’d see these untouched boxes of mangos that was just waiting to rot. So she said to me, “Dianna do you want one or something. You come here everyday staring at those boxes. They are really sweet and the kids never eat them, so if you like em’ you can have em’” Needless to say those boxes were gone within 2 weeks!
Watermelons are a fruit I just couldn’t stand eating. The tasted like nothing. So when I was younger all my brothers and sisters would go outside, run around and watermelon. One of my sisters, one day, came up to me and said, “Why don’t you eat some with us.” So I told her what I thought of watermelons and she took me by the hand and we went inside with a piece and she sprinkled a little but of salt over it and said, “Here, try it now.” When I bit into it I was thinking it would taste even nastier than before but I was surprised at the explosion in my mouth. It actually gave it some flavor. Sad to say though I still don’t like watermelon but I’ll never forget that experience.
Every since I could remember my mother always blended all types of fruit together and made smoothies. She still does it till this day. When I get home sometimes late and it’s too late to eat dinner she would ask if I wanted a fruit smoothie. I can never pass up such a tasty treat. She’s knows my favorite is banana and strawberry with a hint of sugar added. By the way she knows my favorite because it’s also her too.
Pineapple upside down cake is something that is at every event in my family. My mother makes the best PUD cake in the world. If it’s not at an event she knows everyone will lay into her about not making one or more. When I was little she would let me drain the pineapples and freeze the juice, with added sugar of course, to make a freeze cup. I would also lick the cake mixing spoon after she would finish. I could always smell the aroma coming from the house on the outside when I would get off the school bus. I would get so excited because I knew a family gathering was going to occur, either that or someone asked her to make one. Since my mother knows how deliciously important it is to bring not one but two or more to every gathering, she doesn’t ever miss a beat. I asked her one day if she would teach me how to make it and she did. I help her now when she makes them. So now that I know how my kids will know and they can pass it on to their children also. I want that PUD cake to last in our family chain for centuries to come.
Candice Wilson said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:31 pm
1. Blackberries
2. Okra
3. Pineapple Cake Mix
4. Mountain Dew
5. Biscuits
When making my list I came to notice everything listed is something that reminds me of both my grandparents. I have my Paw-Paw and Maw-Maw on my biological fathers side, whom which I only seem to see during the holidays. Then there is my Nanny C and Nanny P on my mothers’ side, in which I am the closest to.
This brings me to remember the times I was young and used to stay out in their country home out in Jasper Georgia. I can remember the times we would make a special drive to spend all day just to ride four-wheelers. It was great even my own Paw-Paw would ride like he was twenty again. Those were also the times when Maw-Maw and I would drive up to the bushes to pick blackberries as if they were calling us. Till this day I don’t think I have tasted any as good as those were.
The rest of my picks on my list come from my mothers’ side. Let me start of by saying there is nothing like my Nanny P’s fried okra. The holidays are always exciting just because we all know my Nanny P is going to bring a huge tray of good ole’ fried okra. Okra was not the only food to get excited about, I can’t forget about the famous pineapple cake. This was something my Nanny C used to make every thanksgiving. Every year she would use the same platter and say the same thing, “I am not bringing this, it looks like crap.” When she passed away I was honored to be handed her hand written recipe for the famous pineapple cake. I know make sure that I make it every year on thanksgiving in her memory.
The next two items Mountain Dew and Biscuits also come from my Nanny C. I guess you would say I was the closet to her so these may seem small to you, but they are huge in my world. I can remember seeing my Nanny C all the time with a can of Mountain Dew in her hand. Other than sweet tea, mountain dew seemed to be the only thing in her refrigerator. She also used to make these homemade biscuits that seemed to taste like a piece of heaven. Those biscuits were the best; again I have not tasted any biscuit like hers. Maybe one day someone in the family will get the courage to attempt in making those biscuits.
Candice Wilson
CRN: 1718
Ronald Moua said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Nacho Doritos chip cooler ranch
Honeycomb cereal
Banquet frozen food
Iced Tea
Hot dogs
Chips are one of the best ways to munch on wherever you go. Chips come in all sizes and are available at all stores and gas station. Nacho Doritos chip cooler ranch is one of my all time favorite purchase at the grocery store.
Usually, I would tend to pick the bag in the very far back because it seems like the freshest of them all. I love the very first taste of the chip inside my mouth, because of all the ingredients on the outside of the chip. Every single time I open the bag and take a tiny whiff of the Doritos my mouth would already start watering like a waterfall in the jungle. The best time to eat the Nacho Doritos is the middle of the night, because it is the easiest food available without any cooking to be done and it is just so easy to clean up. Another, fascinating thing about Nacho Doritos is that it is so crunchy; ever single bite that you take makes its own unique sound to it. Sometimes I can feel like I am making my own music that could be played on the radio station or made into an ad. Also, I enjoy that I would not even need to wash my hands because instead I would just lick and suck it all off my fingers if it was an ice cream. I am so lucky that the grocery store is only a minute away from my house.
Ronald Moua
1718
kelley mcwhorter said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:34 pm
1.chocolate milk
2.oreo cookies
As a child, the most simple task can seem like an adventure. It doesn’t matter where your parents are going, you wanna come to. When I was growing up my greatest adventures took place in the grocery store. It was always a treat to go shopping with my mother because she knew how to spoil me just right. Everytime right before we were ready to check out she would tell me to run to the back and grab two nestle’s chocolate milk’s. it was like a game to get them back before the cashier finished ringing in the last of our items. Now even as a college student, everytime I set foot inside a grocery store I get this undeniable craving for a nice, cold, nestle’s chocolate milk.
My boyfriend gary and I have just moved into our first apartment. I always get cravings for chocolate late at night. Knowing this we always have a pack of oreo cookies stashed away in our pantry. I have always eaten my oreo cookies the same way, soaked in milk. It was one of the first nights in our apartment, I was sitting on the couch watching gary as he carried what looked like the normal pack of oreo;s and one big glass of milk for us to share. When he sat down I had noticed he was holding two forks and I curiously asked him what they were for. He told me that by sticking a fork in the center of the incing you can soak your cookie in the milk without getting your fingers wet. I watched in amazment and couldn’t belive I had never thought of that. Gary never fails to surprise me; now everytime I eat an oreo I think of him.
Noemi Najera said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:39 pm
1. Pickles
2. Tomatoes
3. Esperagus
4. Onions
5. Flour tortillas
It never fails, as the above items are purchased for my household I always have a story for my children. Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley back in the mid 80’s the economy was not well. My parents decided their children needed to help out to make ends meet.
I was in middle school when the onion crop needed to be picked. My father would pick me and my brothers up afterschool and take us out to the field to work. Making sure my hands would not get blisters I would wear gloves while using the scissors to cut the end of the onions. As I worked kneeling and making my way thru the row of onions I would be the first to start crying. Not because I didn’t want to be there but because my eyes at the time were sensative. My family would laugh at me and then I too would follow with a giggle.
As the summer days were approaching my parents knew they needing to have a plan. My parents decided we would travel up north to work as migrant workers. We traveled through Kansas, Ohio, Michigan and Iowa. As the years went by I accepted myself in becoming a migrant worker. As a migrant I picked crop like tomatoes, pickles, esperagus and onions. I learned very quickly it did not matter how protected you were with gloves, long sleeve shirts and hats the heat waves would still get to you. The sun seemed to follow you no matter if you tried to shield yourself with a tree. The water was not enough to drink it made it seem as if you would rather drink the ocean.
Oh, and the flour tortillas; well, it just simply reminds me of the tacos my mother would do every morning for lunch for us. It never bothered her getting up at 4:00 AM to cook fresh tortillas for us everyday and by 5:30 AM we were working in the fields. There are so many things some people take for granted. And now I thank my parents for making me the woman I have become. Now, I wonder if they realize the life experience they taught me, that money does not come easy!
#1718
Stephanie Williams said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:46 pm
1. Hamburger meat
2. Milk
3. Bread
4. Onions
5. Potatoes
Growing up as a child I experienced how to make short comings into great experiences. My mother came from a very large family, four sisters and five brothers. Money was not easy to come by being that my grandfather was the only source of income for the family. My grandmother often had to swing meals big enough to feed her large family. She would do so cheerfully as if there were no hardships lingering in her mind. She implanted the positive side of these experiences in my mother as well.
I remember some difficult times growing up when extras weren’t important, though we had to be reminded of that on a regular basis by my mother and father. I can still hear it, “food in the tummy and cloths on the back. We’ll be just fine.” We never went without life’s necessities. When money and groceries were scarce, my mom would make a dish that she called the Meat and Potato Bake. She would take hamburger meat, diced onion and sliced potatoes, put them all in one dish and bake the mixture until it was fit to eat. She would then serve it with a large glass of milk and a piece of bread on the side. Believe it or not it is fulfilling! At the dinner table mother would always comment, “Meat and Potato Bake tonight, Granny’s special”, showing no concern with her troubles, just as my grandmother had years ago.
I now find myself grocery shopping being sure I have hamburger meat, onions, potatoes, milk and bread on my shopping list as top priorities, just in case. I remember the first time I made what I now call Granny’s Special. I had my own struggles at the time and somehow Granny’s Special made me feel better. I thought well, at least there aren’t ten of me. I often think of how my grandmother must have felt feeding and clothing ten children. It had to be hard. It makes me think of my mother as well and I’m sure mother does the same, just as her mother once did. The lesson that she instilled in me with a simple Meat and Potato Bake follows me to this day. Though times get hard, be thankful for what you have, even if it is just meat and potatoes, because it could always be worse.
Stephanie Williams
English 1101; CRN 1718
Chris Zywica said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:47 pm
1. A case of Miller Lite
2. Box of Bubba Burgers
3. Kraft Singles
4. Hamburger Buns
5. Bag of Tater Tots
My list of items for purchase at the grocery store is clearly the essentials of a good time. Some of the most memorable times I have had are cookouts with a few of my closest and dearest friends.
The case of Miller Lite is, without question, one of the most important items for this activity. Without this cool, frothy refreshment, everything else would only constitute a boring, bland dinner that I could have virtually anywhere and with anybody. Heck, even the cardboard beer box is necessary to help light the charcoal in my dirty, greasy Webber grill. Nobody ever remembers the lighter5 fluid.
The frozen, pre-formed Bubber Burgers will be the main fare for the event. Over the years, many a frozen beef patty has been experimented with, but the simplicity and delicious juiciness of the Bubba Burger have always been a hit at our bar-b-ques. The runny grease that flows out of the patty on to the charcoal, makes a satisfying hiss while being grilled, and at the same time helps the smoky aroma of the charcoal smell just that much better.
Now of course, no Bubba Burger is a Bubba Burger without that yellow, gooey goodness that is the slice of American processed cheese. It is the sticky glue that will hold the buns to the patty. If you were to drop this hamburger on the ground without the cheesy glue, it would split apart and your greasy patty would become covered in dirt and cigarette ashes. There is no way you could you could wipe the dirt and other muck off. The toasted bun is a critical component of this safeguard.
You have to lightly toast the bun to a golden brown on the grill for not only the purpose of being able to wipe off dirt in the event of a dropped burger, but to dry it out so to absorb the warm, oily juices spurting from the patty with every bite. Nobody likes a sloppy grease soaked bun that starts to fall apart half way through the hamburger. Grease running down your face and shirt is very unpleasant.
Finally, in order to prevent heart burn, some tater tots are necessary. These baked in a hot oven, after being coated in a semi-lite coating of salt, are the only part you will have to do off the smoky, sizzling grill. The hotter the oven, the better. With excessive salt and t5emperture, you will have a hot, crispy, salty complement to the greasy burger which is second to none.
This ritual with all its smells and tastes are some of the most enjoyable moments of life in my opinion. The ingredients are affordable and easy to come by, but the good times created by one of these cookouts are truly priceless.
Chris Zywica
CRN 1718
Sara Garmon said,
January 17, 2008 at 4:49 pm
1. Wild Georgian Honeysuckles
2. A huge plump Watermelon
3. Gummy bears
4. A fresh jar of ice cold Pickles
I remember, as a child, my dad would get up in the morning to go to work, before the sun would rise. As he was about to leave he would pick me up out of my bed and wrap me in a blanket, put me on his shoulder and carry me out to the truck. We would always stop at the local gas station and he would let me buy a snack to take with me a grannies’ house, but I would never pick a snack unless I had enough to share with my cousin Rachel or she could have her own bag. I would almost always pick gummy bears. When I arrived at my grannies’ house I would wait for Rachel and we would split them in half, they were our babies. We would play with them as long as their bodies would remain intact, sometimes longer than that if they had too much dirt on them for us to eat.
I have belonged to the same church my whole life. I love it and could not imagine going anywhere else. I can remember that every Sunday after church we would walk from our church through the grave yard to my grandmother’s house and on the way out there as we would reach the top of the first hill we could smell the wild honeysuckles fragrance blowing in the wind. It wasn’t a long walk, but it always took us forever because we would get side tracked picking honeysuckles. Then on Sunday afternoons in the summer my family and I would cut a huge ripe watermelon that had been picked from my grannies’ garden. I loved the sweet taste of it and the sticky juicy dripping down my chin as we would all sit around the picnic table out in the back yard.
Every Saturday night ended up the same way every weekend when Rachel spent the night with me. Late at night we would sneak downstairs into the refrigerator and steal the jar of pickles that had not even been opened., I don’t know why we tried to sneak them, I guess just for fun because my mom knew what we were doing and we would eat the whole jar and have tummy ache all night long but we would not just eat the pickles we would also have a contest of who could drink the most juice.
Ashley Weinert said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:25 pm
If I had an unlimited budget and could only pick five things, I would pick the following:
1) Koala Yummys
2) Black and white cookies
3) Stuffed bell peppers
4) garlic mash potatoes
5) Swedish gummy fish
Koala Yummys is a brand of candy made in Japan. The candy consists of a hard cookie coating with koala faces on it with a flavor filled center. The flavors could be chocolate, strawberry or vanilla. When I eat them now it takes me back to where I worked at the anime store. Working there gave me access to an unlimited supply of them. I remember sitting there watching anime, waiting for customers and just popping in koalas one by one.
Black and white cookies happen to be an extreme favorite of mine because it reminds me about old country. No, not Russia New York of course. I remember walking down the street to the diner just to sit down on the stools, watch TV and eat black and white cookies. Sadly, no matter where I look down here I can never seem to find a place that makes them. So when I do go back to New York to visit I make sure to stock up!
Stuffed bell peppers are the type of food that is an acquired taste. No everybody likes it, but you can also customize the center to your tastes buds. You can put anything from meat or cheese on it even jalapeños if you want. When I was living with my aunt she taught me how to make this delectable food. So now that I don’t see her that much I can always make them and remember the past.
Garlic mash potatoes is one of the few dishes that my mother than actually prepare. She is about the worst cook of the century, but some how she pulls off having the best tasting potatoes. Now that I live on my own I attempt to try to make it myself but it never turns out as tasty or as filling as the ones that she makes.
Swedish gummy fish takes me back to my senior year of high school where for half the day I got to work at a day care. At this daycare/ school we had a group of four year olds whom we were writing lesson plans and menus for. Then one day I was assigned to teach the math center and I had run out of ideas, then that evening while getting gas I saw the gummy fish on the wall. I thought to myself the kids would love to play a counting game with the gummy fish. Especially since they could eat them after wards.
Chris Napolitano said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:27 pm
1. Fruity Pebbles
2. Brownies
3. Cheeto’s
4. Freezoni
5. Campbell’s Chicken noodle soup
When I was a kid I always went with my mom while she ran her errands. The last stop of the day would always be the grocery store. I always went to the cereal isle because the bright colors of all the cereal boxes appealed to me. I always got fruity pebbles because it was the most colorful box on the shelf and they taste really good. So fruity pebbles has to be on my list of things to buy.
Brownies also makes my list because when I lived in Florida, I lived right next door to my grandparents and my grandmother always baked the best brownies. I would come in from playing with my friends to have to sweet chocolate aroma lingering throughout the house. It makes me think of my grandmother and when I was a little kid.
Cheeto’s are on the list because it’s like the perfect feel good food. Like when youre driving down the road and you’re really hungry, you can just grab a bag of Cheeto’s and munch out hardcore. No one that I know of can resist of bag of Cheeto’s when theyre really hungry because I know I sure can’t.
Freezoni’s make the list because you get a lot of Freezoni for a little bit of money. A 32 oz. at the gas station costs like a dollar. I’m all about saving money and getting something good out of it. I always get really thirsty while I’m driving down the road so a nice, big Freezoni is the solution to that problem.
Lastly, the Chicken noodle soup, my mom always made me a big bowl of it when I was sick or when she just didn’t feel like cooking. It just makes me think of my mom and when I was a little kid. I always downed a big bowl of that stuff in like 2 seconds.
Jessica Davis said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Five things that I would have on my grocery list:
1. Mac-n-cheese
2. Juicy Juice
3. Cotton Candy
4. Smore’s Cappuccino
5. Sweet Tea
Since I can remember my mom has always made the best Mac-n-Cheese on this planet. I remember her having it ready for me when I either came home from school or was just getting done playing with the neighbors. She adds her own special ingredients that to this very day I still don’t know. But no one can make it like my mom. I have yet to find anyone make it better or even close to what my mom can do. It’s so cheesy!
Secondly, Juicy Juice, I still drink juicy juice everyday. It’s so good for you and it tastes so good. My mom used to only let us drink juicy juice when we were little. We were only aloud one soft drink a week! How crazy is that? But I thank her for giving me the sweet taste of juicy juice. My favorite flavors are Grape, Fruit Punch, and Apple.
Ok, the reason I would buy lots of cotton candy is… My parents used to own a carnival and when I was old enough they aloud me to work the Cotton Candy Wagon. The first thing that I learned was how to make cotton candy. It’s so cool. All cotton candy is, is heated sugar with some flavoring added to it. Getting to help my family by doing this really made me feel really important.
Every morning is extremely hard for me to get up. I am not a morning person at all. So in order for me to get moving every morning I stop off at my local Race Trac and pick me up a $1.29 cup of Smore’s cappuccino. There is so much sugar in that one cup that it’s enough to last me all day, and it tastes so good. I can’t stand coffee but I love my cappuccino.
Sweet tea is just a southern essential. That’s pretty much all there is to drink in my house (other than juicy juice of course). I grew up drinking sweet tea. Even on the carnival, if the wagon was right next to us full of soft drinks, I still walked all the way to our travel trailer to get a big glass of sweet tea.
Amanda Cronan said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:32 pm
My List
Watermelon, Titanic Roses, Chicken, Blue Berries, Black Berries and Vanilla Ice Cream
My mother makes the best fried chicken! As a child I could get off the bus and walk up to the front door, to the smell of crust simmering in an iron skillet and I knew we were having a homemade southern dinner. There would be fried chicken, biscuits, green beans, brown rice and of course sweet tea.
Then (in the summer time) there was always an ice cold watermelon waiting to be cut. My family would wait until dusk and we would go outside and cut the melon on a picnic table. Then my brothers and I would run around the house, all sticky, playing hide-n-go seek and collecting lighting bugs in empty mayo jars with holes cut on the top. At the end of the night we would all open our jars at the same time. It was our own personal light show!
Every time I go into a market I have to stop by the flower department and see if there are any Titanic roses. My grandmother always grew these big beautiful flowers. The smell of these roses cannot be compared to any other flower. Each time I smell this type of rose, I get this feeling in my heart. For a small moment I can remember the exact feeling of being a child and helping grandma in the rose garden.
The last items on my list would have to be blue berries, black berries and vanilla ice cream. My whole life my father and I have always taken walks around our land. My father would help me talk out my problems and he always kept me determined in my goals. In the summer time, we would take a bowl of vanilla ice cream on our walks. On our land we would have blue berries and black berries growing wild. We would love to add them to the nice cold ice cream.
I lost my father last year. He died at the age of 47 to cancer. I can no longer take the walks around our property (it is just too emotional). However, when I miss him the most I find myself with a bowl of ice cream and some berries. Somehow these items make me feel like he is right there beside me. Still here and helping me through life.
Amanda Cronan
English 1101 – Course Number 1727
Melissa Jones said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:34 pm
1. Salmon
2. Key lime pie
3. Crabs
4. Shrimp
5. Garlic bread
As you can see with all the seafood im from Tampa Fla. I love seafood, and my favorite fish is salmon. I remember when I was younger we would go to the farmers market and get fresh salmon and fry it in olive oil. It is so good. Me and my sister would fight over who got the bigger piece. No fish is better than salmon.
My favorite dessert is key lime pie. My mother turned me onto it. When I was younger I hated it, but I guess you have to have a taste for it. The tangy meringue mixed with the graham cracker crust is indescribable. If I was having a bad day, I would go buy me one and it would just uplift my spirits.
Before I moved to Georgia my whole family would get together every now and then and we would have a crab boil. We would get a lot of crabs, shrimp, potatoes, corn on the cob and old bay seasoning. Everybody would sit around laughing and having a good time, while all the kids would run around playing. I loved when we had crab boils it seemed like nobody had a care in the world. And no crab boil is complete without garlic bread. It just brings the whole meal together.
Melissa Jones
1727
Yvette Allison said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Five items I would purchase at a grocery would be strawberries, ice cream, large boiled shrimp, cocktail sauce, and red wine. These items may sound strange to others but for me they each mean something special.
I would first select strawberries to remind me of running through the garden at my babysitter’s house in Ringgold,GA. Mr. and Mrs. Odell Ware kept me and my sister when we were young and when the garden would finally bloom, we were allowed to follow behind Mr. Ware and pick just a few strawberries. Of course my strawberries never made it to the basket; but Mr. Ware never said anything. I miss the carefree days of running through the garden barefoot and getting the dirt between your toes, the smell of the strawberries and the prickly feel of the leaves as I tried to harvest my crop. When my family moved to Gainesville, GA I would have remained in Ringgold if they would have left me, just to be able to run through the garden as much as I could and not loose that feeling.
After strawberries would be the ice cream. Ice cream has always been a big thing in my family. My dad would get the largest bowl in the house and I think he could actually put the entire half gallon in the bowl. It was always Fudge Ripple! The gigantic bowl was not complete until some milk was poured over the ice cream to make an icy crust. I still enjoy milk-covered ice cream and have actually told my daughters about how their grandfather could make eating a bowl of ice cream an adventure just by watching him prepare the bowl.
Once I have the strawberries and ice cream, I would get my large boiled shrimp. Of course the shrimp is nothing without the cocktail sauce. I believe I was first introduced to boiled shrimp by my dad. My dad, who I thought was bigger than life, could make eating anything an adventure. I watched him peel the shrimp, pull the tail off, and of course submerse the entire shrimp into the cocktail sauce. Once it was completely covered he would pop it into his mouth and enjoy it fully. When I started eating boiled shrimp, I couldn’t stop. I thought they were the greatest thing to ever be put on a table. To this day, I can eat at least a pound or so of boiled shrimp with a lot of cocktail sauce and still want more at the next meal.
Now days with my boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce, I’m learning to enjoy a good bottle of red wine. I never use to like to drink wine, but a friend gave me a bottle as a gift one day and I’ve been hooked every since. I love the robust reds and how the flavors just explode when you drink them. I like trying different reds like Zinfandels, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlots, and my recent favorite Sangria. My husband has also gotten into the fascination of trying red wine. I like to try and guess the different flavor I smell and taste.
My shopping list may be different, but it’s what I enjoy. Each item brings a special memory and I look forward to remembering everything about strawberries, ice cream, large boiled shrimp, cocktail sauce, and red wine.
Yvette Allison, #1727
Renee Banks-Seawell said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:39 pm
My grocery list would include:
1. Tea
2. Sugar
3. Watermelon
4. Peas
5. Peaches
In my youth, I took forgranted many things that I shared on a weekly basis with my Grandparents. My Paw Paw always planted a huge garden. He was a Baptist Minister who also worked a full time job in a factory but he always found time to plant his garden and include at least one thing that each family member loved to eat.
After Church on Sunday’s , we would go to his house to eat lunch. His little house was made of wood and only had five rooms but it felt like a mansion to me. It is undescribable how important I felt as a little six year old girl sitting in their kitchen eating the lunch that my Nanny had prepared. Pawpaw always sat at the end of the table and everyone knew not to begin eating until the Blessing had been said. He would ask me to say it most times and I would sit, my little feet not even touching to floor, but feeling like I was 6 feet tall and say “God is Great, God is Good, Let Us Thank Him For Our Food, Amen.”
Now was the time that we would all start to pass around the bowls of fresh vegetable’s that my Nanny had prepared from their garden. I can still smell the aroma of the peas that I loved to mix with her fresh cornbread. I couldn’t have been any happier if I had been dining with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.
My Mama and Daddy would usually be there with me and Daddy would go out into the Well Pumphouse and get a jar of canned pickled peaches that my Nanny had made. They were sweet but had a little tart flare to them. I probably wouldn’t have normally even thought about eating them had it not been that Nanny had made them and my Daddy loved them. If Daddy liked it, then I liked it too (some things never change!)
Noone ever had to asked me what I wanted to drink. It was always my Nanny’s sweet tea! She made the best sweet tea in the whole wide world. One of her neighbors had never had sweet tea before and she described it as tea syrup but she just hadn’t acquired a taste for the finer, southern things in life. The day my Nanny died she had a gallon of sweet tea in her refrigerator and I remember sitting down at her kitchen table and savoring one last glass of her sweet tea.
After we had all eaten our lunch, the men would go into the living room and take a nap. Nanny, me and the rest of the girls would clean up the kitchen. It was then that the real treat came. Paw Paw would get up and go to his garden and pick two or three fresh watermelons . My favorite were the red meated ones but he usually planted some yellow meated for others in the family and he would try to pick one of each.
When he walked into the kitchen with those watermelons, I was the first one to the table because I couldn’t wait to taste that sweet melon and smell what I always described as the aroma of fresh cut grass. I still think of those watermelons when I smell grass that has just been cut. Pawpaw would cut into the watermelon and hand me the red meated one. I would take a bite of that sweet watermelon, spit out the seeds, and go for another bite. I would be so sticky by the time I finished eating that I usually had to have a bath. They were absolutely the sweetest, juciest melons that I’ve ever had in my life.
If I could walk into the most well stocked grocery store today, 40 years later, I would have at the top of my list tea, sugar, peas, peaches and watermelon. Through all of the years, I’ve never lost the memory of those wonderful Sunday’s spent at my Pawpaw and Nanny’s house. I’ve since tried other folks tea, it’s not the same. I’ve bought pickled peaches at the store but I don’t really even like them. I’ve gone to markets and bought peas but they taste frozen, not frest like my Nanny’s did. As and for watermelon, I’d just as soon keep the wonderful memory of PawPaw going to the garden, picking them himself, and the wonderful aroma that I thought was just like fresh cut grass. Some things are best left to memory.
Renee Banks-Seawell
English 1101/1736
TIFFANY MAJORS said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:40 pm
If I had to purchase five things from the grocery store, they would be: Lasagna, lemons, sugar, strawberry cheesecake, and whip cream.
As a child growing up in Danville, VA, there was nothing like coming home from a long day of school to my mother’s savory lasagna. The rich smell of melting, oozing cheese mixing with the meat and sauce would fill the air. I would normally smell it cooking right before I entered the door. During the 15 minutes it took to consume the meal, any troubles I had would disappear and nothing could interrupt my euphoric mood.
I would also have to have some sugar and lemons to go into my home made lemonade. There’s nothing like lemonade that is made from fresh squeezed lemons and leaves a tangy sensation on your tongue. I especially liked lemonade on those hot days in July. Temperatures in Danville could reach over 100 degrees.
Strawberry Cheesecake with whip cream on top would be the last thing that I would purchase. There’s something about the whip cream that just rejuvenates my taste buds. It, just like the lasagna, can take my mind off of anything. I remember that after I broke up with Theus Thomas, my friend, Jordan, invited me to come to her house and watch movies with her. She brought out the cheesecake and whipped cream and I was in heaven. I didn’t think about Theus the whole three minutes it took to eat the slice. Hey, it didn’t completely make me feel better but it made me happy while it was going down my throat into my stomach. It also will always be my favorite dessert.
Kaye Cox said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:41 pm
1.) My Mom’s homemade vanilla cake with homemade chocolate icing
2.) Little Peking Chinese – Restaurant
3.) Olive Garden – Italian Restaurant
4.) Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream
5.) King Crab Legs
If you haven’t noticed from my list…I don’t really cook. I was the older sister who would bribe, beg, plead and threaten, my younger sister, Yvette, to cook for me. I must say she is an excellent cook. I believe I assisted her in her ability to cook so well.
I can remember the smell coming in from school, of chocolate floating through the air. My mom makes chocolate icing for cake that would melt in your mouth and leaving you wanting more. Of course the cake was good too but her homemade chocolate icing is unlike any I have ever had. It is very hard to describe the taste and pleasure it brings to your taste buds.
I will always remember, before my husband and I married, we were eating Chinese at the Little Peking Restaurant in Dawsonville. The meal wasn’t as memorable as the moment. We always order the same thing,” Happy Family” – Seafood, vegetables, rice, typical Chinese food, and split it between us. . The fortune cookies that night were the main event. We had been talking about our lives and future expectations. Everything was great and our plans were going as expected. Some of our friends were not as lucky as we have been. When we opened our fortune cookies it was like fate had step in and read our minds. My cookie said, “You are with the person, you will spend the rest of your life with.” My husband’s fortune cookie said, “You are on surrounded by love and happiness.” We thought it was great that our night had been about our future and our fortune cookies gave us promise of our dreams coming true. We decided since fate was with us we would play the lottery with the numbers on the back of the fortunes. Of course, we did not win anything but each other.
I love the food and drinks at Olive Garden. The salad has a sharp vinaigrette flavor and the food is always great. The Olive Garden is my favorite restaurant. Not because of the great food and drink, but because this is where my husband proposed to me. He is not a romantic person but that night he gave it his best. The Italian music was playing softly. The lights were dimly glowing. The restaurant had very few people because it was a week night. I can still hear his voice croaking as he asked me to marry him. You would think after 13 years of dating he would not have any reason to be nervous. It was the sweetest moment in history for me.
Kaye Cox ENGL 1101 CRN 1727
Maria Elia Hernandez said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:43 pm
My five items I would purchase from a grocery store are as follows:
1. Water
2. Tamales
3. Grapes
4. Rice
5. Wine
My hot summer childhood memory was gathering outside around a big iron skillet where my mother and aunts would steam the tamales for hours. It is our tradition to make them several times a year when most of our family reunites. This food is a delicacy for us. Tamales are different kind of meats cooked with a lot of different spices and stuffed in a corn tusk. You then have to fold it in a special kind of way so the food inside the tusk stays in its place. This will steam for hours till perfection. Children are running our side in water slides, others are in the pool. You can hear laughter and screaming because some are playing touch, football and cards. The more adolescent kids are laying on the patio or driveways for some tanning talking about their boyfriends or girlfriends and eating some grapes from grandma’s vines. Our uncles are usually out to the barn side shooting some tin cans and sipping on some wine like my mother and aunts.
Hours later after everyone has had time to catch up with each other the tamales are ready to eat. Then every one is called out to join in prayer and then they start serving themselves. The tamales are served on top of a bed of Mexican rice to enjoy. And so it goes a fulfillment of my childhood memory of summer with my family. Those were the best times of my life and they will always be embedded in my memories.
Raquel Hill said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Five items I would buy at the grocery stores:
1. Galletas de Coco/ Coconut cookies
2. Lobster
3. Avocado
4. Mango
Not long ago after my arrival to this county, I went to the grocery store and saw this box of coconut cookies. It came to my memories about how I would love to eat coconut cookies and I was not being able to afford them. My parents bought the box not too often and shared to all of us. However, they will get the most because they were the parents. That day, I bought three boxes and I ate them all by myself. I was so excited knowing that I could eat every single cookie by myself. I came from work and the first thing in my mind was the rarely smell of coconut and taste it like it was something unique.
Another item on my list would be a lobster. I am from the coast and we ate fresh seafood. However, the lobster it was exquisite. It was very expensive to afford. I ate it one time out of twenty years living in my country. I always remember how it tastes so delicious that I want to come back to the restaurant and eat it again. We did not come back. My father always took us places where we can try at least one time things that there were expensive. He said, “It is better to try it once that never.” Every time I go to the supermarket, my son and I stared at the lobster. He stared at it because it is alive and it walks around. I stared at it thinking how it will look on my plate at dinner time.
The other item would be an avocado. Oh! Just thinking of it I want to have right now. I remembered how my mother did a lot of stuff with it. She did shakes, ice cream, and salad. We could eat it with soup or with sugar like a dessert. When it was its season we could buy a lot of them because they ripe fast. The farmers needed to sell them fast. That time it was the great time we were eating avocados in different ways and did not get tired of them.
One fruit that it is delicious for me and I also get it at the store is the mango. I remembered how we went to the country to get a hundred of them and we wait until it ripped so we can eat them. My mom, my two sisters and I sat down in the floor and eat one after another. There were sweet and juicy and we could not stop.
CRN 1727
Ismael Navarro CRN 1727 said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:44 pm
Day and night. Weekday and weekend no matter where or I did, there was always time for a burger. This is no ordinary burger this is the burger known to every one in the western United States, well almost everyone. The way to order it is unlimited. They regular for the average foulk. They got 4 by 4, 6 by 6, 8 by 8 and so on and so on. And yes they got the famous animal style. Wich I hope the patty is still beef. It is full of flavor and smells like a hamburger should smell if there was a ever a smell test done.
Watermellon is another of my favorite foods. Most would say it looks big and clumsy but I say its the fruit thats asking to be eaten. It comes in just the right shape; round. I don’t slice it into peace. I just cut one end of it and dinner is served, a perfect plate. Just cut the end of and its ready for travel. I take to the couch or my bed room and eat like a king.
Chocalote is the way to my soul. Sweet, creamy and smells real good. I have always loved chocolate. And Im not afraid to say that Im a chocoholic. Chocolate should be its own food group, rite over dairy, so with any luck it falls into the milk and another great creation is born.
Juan Gomes said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:48 pm
1. Fresh baked bread
2. Fish
3. Hot dogs
4. Hot cocoa
In my every day life, there are certain things that trigger the memorable scenes of my childhood. Food is certainly one of those things.
The smell of fresh baked bread makes me drift back to my childhood. Waking up early in the morning to help my father in the family bakery introduced me to what hard work means. It also reminds me of my father’s never ending quest to give me a better life.
Every summer I and my cousins went to the coast for at least a week. Fish reminds me of the sense of victory after a good day of fishing with my older cousins.
The excitement and the joy of watching the home team with my friends is what hot dogs relate to me. Every year, I can not wait for the baseball season to begin, and go to the ball park with my friends.
There is nothing like the sense of comfort and protection that my father gave me after a hot cup of hot cocoa in the winter.
All these things bring me closer to my younger days.
Juan Gomes
CRN # 1727
Landon Mcdonnell said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:50 pm
5 grocery fancies
1. Ground chuck
2. Potatoes
3. Vidalia Onions
4. Shrimp
5. Seasoning
I am stepping through the winter green forest that surrounds me. Leaves are crunching beneath my feet. It’s like the sound of fresh bread that has been baked by the forest to signal my arrival. Ahead there awaits a primal flame, not started by man though but by the sun. A smell rises from the earth. The smell is familiar, like a thump of feeling from the home I grew up in, like thoughts, like breath.
The smell draws me closes like a beating heart. I push through the ancient trees that halt the fires spread. I witness a feast that is far from my thoughts. It has all seemed to have happened by accident, by chance. My father then steeps out of darkness. He says,” Hay son I made your favorite camp side meal.”
1-17-08
Joellen Street said,
January 17, 2008 at 6:50 pm
Jiff peanut butter
Saltine crackers
Sugar baby watermelon
Every January for the last 15years I choose one day to celebrate my father. I am one of six children , the youngest . My father, passed , he was larger than life , intelligent , funny, and always … always made special time.
The wheel of cheese! Oh how my mouth waters when I wander through the cheese isle . Gouda, Smoked Cheddar, and of course aged Baby Swiss. I always buy Colby for this special occasion. My mind wanders back to the small kitchen of my youth, cheese cloth and my tall dad. What are we making with this ghost material, and milk. “Cheese!” exclaims my father. His face glows , I find my self twirling with delight. I was 6.
Next , Granny Smith Apples . Tart and sweet with a crunch of delight as summers of past fill my mind. Apples remind of the summer I was sure horses could talk. Really, talk the English language.
My father drove me to every horse farm in the area that summer . Dragging my apples , I coax the animals. “How are you today?” I ask. Holding the apple on the palm of my hand ………… crunch. Nothing, not one word. Only slobbers ,and muching as the sound of the horse tail swishes. My fathers smiles broadly. I climb back into the car. Stopping by the pond near our house , dad opens his red worn metal lunch pail. Jiff peanut butter and saltines crackers emerge. Smiling he hands me a plastic butter knife and begins to polish two apples. Let the feast begin. We chat for what seemed to be hours .
Finally, the Sugar Baby Watermelon. Our garden of watermelon. The small dark green balls entwined in the vines glisten as I spray water over under the summer sun. Thump , thump, twist and lift. Hours of cooling in a cooler with ice . Sweetness as I finish my slice of a Sugar Baby . Gazing at my dad , the best watermelon picker ever.
Joellen
1727
Tony Beatty said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:37 pm
My Name is Tony Beatty I am a political science major and hopefully one day I will be either a politician or working for one.
If I were going to a super market that everything in it I would get 3 things. One thing that I would buy is beer/wine. I love to have beer or a glass of wine when I am eating something that goes along tasty with it. One other thing that I would get would get would be a life time supply of coffee because I cant of not having a coffee in the morning I know that may sound gross but it is true I have not gone one morning since 2004 without a glass and I don’t know how I could not. The last thing that I would buy is fresh Kobe beef from Japan. This meat is so tender. I have eaten this meat just once (in Malaysia). It was so good. I have eaten imitation meat here in America but it does not compare.
Thank you for reading.
Tony Beatty English 1101 CRN#1735
Kamilla Araujo said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:41 pm
1. Crab legs
2. Steaks
3. Shrimp
4. Grammas’ Banana pie
One of the things that always remind me of my childhood is foods. My parents have been travel agents for the past thirty years and we used to go to the beach all the time. Every time I go groceries shopping and buy crab legs and shrimp I think about the ones I would like to get from Brazil. At the beach we would buy shrimp on a skewer that had been caught a few hours prior and still had the salty taste from the ocean. The person would also sell limes so we could pour the juice on it. There was also this cabin right at the beach where they had the crabs still alive just walking around inside a big tank. We would pick the ones we wanted and they would boil it for a little. Back then there was no such thing as crab legs. You had to eat the whole thing and it was like a dream. Another food that brings me back fun memories that I love are steaks. Ever Sunday we used to have a cookout at my house where some relatives would come. My uncle used to season the steak with Tequila and garlic for a good three hours before bringing it over. We spent the whole day at the pool playing while the adults would sit and drink all afternoon. I miss my relatives and every time I buy steak I spice it with Tequila and garlic and have it with a beer for the memory of my uncle who is really ill and doesn’t cook anymore. Last but not least my grandma’s amazing banana pie. I loved going over to her house and sneaking in the kitchen to have some of her pie. The middle was this caramel like syrup with banana slices and on top covered with a sweet layer of whipped cream. Every time my grandma comes to visit me she makes me that pie and put my name on it so nobody else will take it. I guess now I now why I love certain foods the way I do; it reminds me of my past and the good people that are part of it.
Dana Farmer said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:42 pm
At the grocery store I would definitely buy German beer, tortas, crème brule’ coffee creamer, Starbucks coffee, and last my not least strawberries. Let me tell you a little story about why they are all important items on my list.
Last year I went and stayed two weeks in Germany with my Uncle Rick. They have the absolute best beer your tongue could ever taste. It is so smooth going down and you don’t have to worry about it coming back up. It is made in their own breweries. We actually took a trip to one and it was amazing learning and watching how things were down. However, the best part was the free tasting!
My second item is tortas. I take a vacation to Mexico once a year and that is one thing I cannot get enough of. It’s basically fresh guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and beef on freshly cooked bread. It also brings back great memories of the family sitting at the beach socializing over lunch. Some of the greatest times have came from doing this each year.
Third, my crème brule’…let me tell you there is no other like it in the world. Whoever made that flavor, I give them props! This goes well with my fourth item of choice, Starbucks coffee. You put those two together and you have made the perfect day for me! I love sitting on the porch each morning enjoying them as I watch the sun rise and my dog play. It makes me feel like I should be in my own commercial.
Last are strawberries. Maybe it’s a southern thing, but strawberries on a hot day takes my worries away. I feel as if I’m on a short vacation while eating them. I can remember when I was younger we use to have picnics as a family and we always had strawberries. That definitely being one reason I love them so much today. My parents are divorced and it just takes me back to the “good ole days”. If you put all of these things together, it would be my own heaven!
Joseph Hall said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:44 pm
If I were told to go to the grocery store and buy four food items, and only four, I would begin by purchasing a loaf of butterzopft bread. I lived in Switzerland for two years when I was about 9 years old. Butterzopft was bread that was made fresh every day in the local bakery. It was out of this world, and I don’t even like bread very much, but this bread was special. Secondly, I would make my way to the Mountain Dew isle, the store I would be shopping in would have an entire isle devoted solely to Mountain Dew. AHH! Taking a sip of Dew takes me to a different universe. A universe where you think of nothing else but the incredible goodness that is flooding your taste buds! Next, I think I would hit the isle that had the Spaghetti on it! Nothing brings back better memories that a heaping pile of spaghetti with meatballs. MMM! It reminds me of a childhood song… “On Top Of Spaghetti, all covered with cheese. I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed!” I think that will suffice, you get the point. Before I make my getaway, I would have to swing by the frozen section and snatch up a carton of freshly churned Mayfield Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream! I need not explain that selection further! I’m sure everyone can relate!
Jason Simms said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:44 pm
On my list of things I would buy at the grocery store, would be sausage, corn, potatoes, crawfish and beer. These items make up one of my favorite meals to eat, Low Country Boil. When I think about a Low Country Boil it just brings back great memories growing up in Louisiana.
All of my family and our friends would gather at the house. The kids would be swimming in the pool and the men would be play horseshoes till it was time to start cooking. Once the water came to a boil, we would place in the potatoes, sausage and corn in the pot along with onions, lemons, and old bay seasoning. When they just about done we would add the crawfish to the pot. Once the crawfish went into the pot the kid got out of the pool and the guys not cooking would stop play horseshoes because they knew it was about time to eat. Once everything was done we would lay newspaper on the tables and just poor everything from the pot onto the newspaper and just dig in. It nothing like some perfectly seasoned crawfish, corn, potatoes, sausage and a cold beer in the summers of Louisiana. It makes me hungry just writing about it.
ENGL 1101 CRN#1735
Kamilla Araujo said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:45 pm
1. Crab legs
2. Steaks
3. Shrimp
4. Grammas’ Banana pie
One of the things that always remind me of my childhood is foods. My parents have been travel agents for the past thirty years and we used to go to the beach all the time. Every time I go groceries shopping and buy crab legs and shrimp I think about the ones I would like to get from Brazil. At the beach we would buy shrimp on a skewer that had been caught a few hours prior and still had the salty taste from the ocean. The person would also sell limes so we could pour the juice on it. There was also this cabin right at the beach where they had the crabs still alive just walking around inside a big tank. We would pick the ones we wanted and they would boil it for a little. Back then there was no such thing as crab legs. You had to eat the whole thing and it was like a dream. Another food that brings me back fun memories that I love are steaks. Ever Sunday we used to have a cookout at my house where some relatives would come. My uncle used to season the steak with Tequila and garlic for a good three hours before bringing it over. We spent the whole day at the pool playing while the adults would sit and drink all afternoon. I miss my relatives and every time I buy steak I spice it with Tequila and garlic and have it with a beer for the memory of my uncle who is really ill and doesn’t cook anymore. Last but not least my grandma’s amazing banana pie. I loved going over to her house and sneaking in the kitchen to have some of her pie. The middle was this caramel like syrup with banana slices and on top covered with a sweet layer of whipped cream. Every time my grandma comes to visit me she makes me that pie and put my name on it so nobody else will take it. I guess now I now why I love certain foods the way I do; it reminds me of my past and the good people that are part of it.
Kamilla Araujo
Crn#1735
Lucy Terrones said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:48 pm
1. Kool-aid
2. Peaches
3. Cookies
4. Milk
If I could buy any thing in the grocery store, I would buy Kool-aid. Kool-aid reminds me of those hot summers when I would play outside with my sisters, and after sweating so much, run inside to grab a nice cold glass of kool-aid that my mother would prepare. This brings back memories from back then when summer was the best season in the world.
Peaches would be my second purchase. Peaches are the only fruit I enjoy eating. I like other fruits, but nothing like sweet peaches. When I was growing up, the house we moved to when I was 8-years-old had a tree of peaches. I practically love anything that has peaches in it.
My last purchase would be cookies and milk. I consider this the best combination to eat as a snack. My mother always taught me to finish my milk; however I disliked the milk. I would always eat the cookies and dipping the cookies in the milk was a great idea to finish up the milk.
These grocery items mean more then just an item to me, they mean my childhood.
Lucy Terrones
English 1101
CRN # 1735
Ingried Ramirez said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Having the opportunity to have an unlimited amount of budget for a grocery store it could be just a dream. Although it’s almost imposible to happen it could happen. Let’s imagine that it happens one day what would I do with that budget? First I guess I would buy all the things that I need to keep my fridge full. Then I would start buying things that I probably don’t need but that bring me so many memories from when I was I child.
I remember that when I was like 12 years old, I had a really crazy obsession with gerber. I know that it may sound gross, in fact now that I think about it I can’t believe how crazy I was. That is why I would buy maybe 2 bottles of gerber, it’s just so weird but when I see that little tiny bottle I remember when I use to go to the store and buy me different kinds of flavors of gerber. It was funy to see the people’s face wandering why I was buying gerber. I remember me telling them that they were for my little brother, nephews, etc. Although some people already knew that I was the little 12 year old crazy girl that liked gerber.
After buying me a couple of gerbers I would also get some other goodys such like animal crakers, different yogurts and all those snacks that right now I may not buy if I didn’t had an unlimited budget.
Ingried Ramirez
English 1101
CRN# 1735
Charles Harrington said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:49 pm
The Five things I would buy at a grocery store if I had an unlimited budget.
1. Watermelon
2. Cream of wheat
3. Hot Wings
4. Fish
5. Pasta
These five things might seem to you to be a normal grocery list, but to me they have a deeper meaning. I look at these items and see memories of me and my family. The first item on the list is watermelon. I choose this because not only is it my favorite fruit, but it reminds me of growing them in a garden with my stepfather as a child. It amazed me how much sweeter it tasted than store bought ones. The second item on my list is a warm cereal called cream of wheat. This cereal reminds me of going to visit my father, because he would always fix it for me for breakfast. I remember knowing it was time to wake up as the wonderful smell came it to my room. The third item on my list is hot wings. Hot wings remind me of our superbowl parties we would throw every year. All of our friends and family would come over to eat and watch the big game on TV. The fourth item on my list is fish. I love fishing; eating fish reminds me of fishing trips I took with my father as a young child. I remember waking up early and going to the lake so that my father could teach me how to fish. The last item on my list is pasta. Pasta is my favorite food, and it reminds me of birthdays I had with my family at the spaghetti factory in Atlanta. As you can tell by now, this is not an ordinary grocery list. It is more like a list of memories.
Charles Harrington English 1101, CRN:1735
Allison Brock said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:50 pm
If I had unlimited funds to purchase anything that my heart desires at the grocery store, the first thing I would purchase would be Twizzlers. My mom and I frequently sit together, talk or watch t.v. and share Twizzlers. It is one of my earliest memories. Whenever I go see my mom, I take Twizzlers. Whenever my mom comes to see me, she brings Twizzlers. They have a lot of sentimental value for me. They are comforting , just like my mom. With Twizzlers, I can accomplish anything!
The second thing I would go for would have to be Cocoa Pebbles. That has been my favorite cereal since I was a kid. I have a lot of great memories of eating them with my older sister before school and arguing over who got the last bowl. My best memory of this fabulous meal is when me, my husband, and our good friend Connor all shared a whole box of cocoa pebbles after a hard night of partying together. Connor is now dead and I think about Connor every time I eat Cocoa Pebbles, which is almost every day…….can’t live without ‘em. RIP Connor. I miss you!
My third choice would be lobster tails. When I was a kid, I always felt super priveledged whenever my family went to Red Lobster, which was not very often…….maybe once a year. I believed that the rich folk all ate lobster tail at every meal. I always thought that once I was grown, done with school, and rollin in dough that I would eat lobster tail on the regular. Whenever my husband or I say “When we’re eating lobster tail every night…..”, we are talking about when we are both done with school. It’s a dream we share.
Allison Brock
1735
juliana medina said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:50 pm
1. Maseca (tortilla mix)
2. Pinto Beans
3. Watermelon
I would buy Maseca to make fresh tortillas from scratch and Pinto Beans to bake and refry. Every time I make tortillas I make enough for the whole family so we can sit down for breakfast which reminds me of my childhood in Mexico me being in my grandmothers kitchen waiting for that fresh, hot , steamy tortilla to come out of the “comal” filled with beans or just plain salt. This is was something that I would look forward to every morning to spend time with my grandmother and have breakfast. Until this day she is one of the best cooks I have ever met she also use to make “enchiladas” filled with beans with a side of salad mmm… those were my favorite, I just wish I could make some and make them taste the same.
The third item on my list reminds me when I use to visit my uncle Abel in Monterrey, Mexico. We use to go to his house or his wife’s house and have a family gathering just to eat fruit I remember that they had all sorts of fruit ranging from cantaloupe, oranges, strawberries, and the best of all watermelon. We would all sit around each other and I would listen to the grown ups carry on conversations about life and how different it was living in the city as opposed to the country. These are some of the things that make me feel a little closer to home, even though I do live here in the U. S.
Jonathan Poff said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Born in Columbus, Ohio, raised in Jumping Branch, West Virginia and marinated in Gainesville, Georgia I have been and lived in a few areas in the United States. I’ve also lived in Blacksburg, Virginia and Greenville, North Carolina. I tell you this to say that I have consumed lots of food from different parts of the midwest and southeast. Lots of people do not have the luxury of eating fine or not so fine foods from other places and I find that to be such a shame. Food is deliciously soothing in all ways you can possibly imagine. I’ve ate German, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Canadian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Jamacian, Hatian, foods from different African countries, and many other places that I’m sure you don’t want to read through. There’s one food that to me if I were on death row and had to choose what I wanted for my final meal, this is what I would choose – kimchi, bulgogi, sticky white rice, cheese cake, and orange cream soda.
Kimchi and Bulgogi are Korean foods and I must say Koreans are the best cooks ever. Sticky white rice is traditional Korean rice but not strictly Korean by any means. My two best friends are both from South Korea and my general view of food changed after eating bulgogi. Bulgogi is meat that is still on the bone that is marinated in delicousness for hours upon hours if not for days. Kimchi is spicy cabbage that I could eat barrals of and to be perfectly honest already have. To eat the kimchi one must have the sticky white rice to calm the flavors that are occuring in your mouth so your tongue can survive to eat another day. Cheese cake, to me, is the most delicous sweet food one can make. I’ve only come across one person in my twentytwo years of existence that does not like it. Orange cream soda is a popsicle liquified with carbination. What’s not to love about that!?
I’m not claiming not to be a food expert by no means but I do claim to love food as much as a sumo wrestler in his prime. I’ll eat with the best of them and for the most part, as long as it isn’t looking back at me, I’ll eat it! To get what I’ve mentioned, minus the cheese cake and the orange cream soda to which you can buy at your local Publix or Wal-Mart, you must go down to the Korean market in Gwinnett. It is simply life changing in how good it is!
Jonathan Poff 1735
Jessica Dowdle said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Over the winter break, I met my sister, Tamara, for the first time. It was the strangest thing to meet a person who you have never talked to and have them be so much like you. I remember driving around at midnight in Nashville looking for a Wal-Mart and Tamara looked at me and asks, “Jess, can we go to the gas station? I really want a pickle.” It was like talking out loud to myself. I always have a huge jar of pickles in my refrigerator, and I was thinking that same thing at that same moment.
From that moment of just sharing a thought of wanting a pickle while lost in Nashville, I began to find other things that my new found sister and I had in common. She is from the North and me the South, so we talk somewhat different. For instance, she calls pizza, pie. The next day she woke up wanting a pie, so I drove to this huge mall that had this famous pie shop in it. I will never forget the look on her face when we walked in. There were apple pies, peach pies, and many others. She just starts laughing hysterically. I did not understand. So then she explained to me that she wanted a pizza pie.
I never realized that food could bring two people together and give them so much to talk about. I will never forget meeting my sister for the first time. When I go to the grocery store, I always make sure I get a jar of pickles and a frozen pizza for Tamara-just in case she comes over.
Jessica Dowdle
1735
Renee Newport said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:51 pm
1) Watermelon grown from my Grandpa Herb’s garden
2) A jar of Jiff Creamy Peanut Butter
When I was younger, my older sister, Nicole, and I would take weekend trips to South Carolina to visit my Grandpa Herb. Every afternoon after lunch Grandpa Herb would take Nicole and I on a tractor ride around his property. My grandpa owned tons of acres with surprises around every turn. There were places reserved for herb gardens and isles of perfectly aligned trees of all sorts: apple, orange, and lemon. Around the back of the house was a trail that led to a big pond that sat beside a small shed with a swing out front. Grandpa would have a fresh watermelon that he picked earlier that day for us. The three of us would sit on that swing by the pond eating his fresh grown watermelon and would wait for the sun to set. My Grandpa Herb was killed about three years ago in a drunk driving accident. And every time that I eat watermelon I think of him and imagine us sitting on the swing outside that tiny shed.
As a child my family was very poor. We had spaghetti on a regular basis because my mom could buy the stuff for cheap and make it in big portions for leftovers for the week. My sister and I ate peanut butter sandwiches quite frequently for snacks throughout the day. One afternoon Nicole walked out of the kitchen with a spoon in her hand that had a ball of peanut butter on it. I was confused. What was she doing with that? “It’s a peanut butter spoon,” she says. “Can I try one?” I was intrigued by this. Eating peanut butter straight out of the jar! Of course I was too young at the time to realize that it doesn’t taste much different then if it were on bread. Nicole handed me a spoon with a massive mountain of peanut butter on it. “Now don’t let anyone else have it. These are only meant for special people like us.” Now that I’m old enough to know how my life was then, I realize how much Nicole did to make me feel like a normal kid. She would take tiny details like having to eat peanut butter everyday and made them special to me.
CRN 1735
Holly Colgan said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:53 pm
1. Fresh tomato
2. Tomato sauce
3. Skinny noodles
4. Sharp cheddar cheese
5. Sprite
If I had to choose five things from the grocery store I would have to choose fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, skinny noodles, sharp cheddar cheese, and lastly, sprite.
During my childhood this meal, with a tall glass of sprite, was my absolute favorite. I have four sisters and I was the middle child so when my mother said she was cooking spaghettis, I always added an s at the end, I knew she was making it especially for me. My sisters and I were very close growing up we were all silly and followed what the other did so if one got in trouble, we all did.
One time my mother cooked my favorite meal and despite the fact we were all stuffed, she made us sit at the table and finish what was left on our plate. My sisters and I were very creative and watched a lot of TV so when we couldn’t finish the last bite and my mother left the room, we decided we were going to get rid of the spaghettis one way or another and our little bellies weren’t taking another bite. We all agreed the best way to make it disappear was by throwing the noodles and sauce on the ceiling. One of us started throwing it and the others followed. My mother came in shortly after hearing all of us laughing, wondering what was going on. Needless to say we all were punished and had to clean the ceiling shortly after.
To this day I love spaghettis. I still say it with an s and even though my boyfriend makes fun of that, I love that even adding the s somewhat takes me back to my childhood. Surprisingly, its about the only thing I can cook and even though it doesn’t compare to how wonderful my mother makes it and how she made me feel when she did its still my meal of choice.
1735 Holly Colgan
Jeremy Daniels said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Jeremy Daniels
Eng. 1101
1735
1. Mayonaise Cake
2. Popcorn
3. Mountain Dew
I know what you are probably thinking right now. Mayonaise cake? What the heck is that? Well let me explain: my mother has and probably will always bake me a cake for my birthday. What can I say, I am the youngest and she calls me the baby.
Ever since I could remember my mother would start baking away on the day or two before my big day. When I would get home from school and walk in the front door I would be smacked in the face with a huge wiff of chocolate icing and overly sweet cake mix. My mother would always ask me if I want ed to lick the bowl of icing after she wasn’t finished mixing it, and of course yet again I found my self glued to the TV with a huge bowl of yumming icing and a spoon in my hand. Now, here’s where the mayonaise comes in; my mother replaces the use of milk and eggs with mayonaise which gives the cake a sweeter taste and keeps it moiste much longer. This makes the cake unbelievably appealing to any chocolate fanatic.
The consumption of popcorn has always been a family tradition when it comes to watching a movie. My father absolutely loves the stuff. As a kid, I would sit on his lap while we watched our favorite film. Munching the whole time on the popcorn specially prepared by the old man himself; a bowl of very warm, very buttery, melts in your mouth popcorn. Sometimes we laugh at the memory. The two buds who just couldn’t eat enough. I hold this memory close to my heart because it was a time when my dad and I truly bonded.
Mountain Dew is a necessity in anyone’s diet who likes to live their lifes while burning the candle at both ends. It has the kick of a cup of coffee but without the stinky breath. It works almost as good as an Energy Drink but sometimes those can burn the throat. I require at least one can of MD in the morning. I just can’t start my day otherwise.
Jung Oh said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:55 pm
1. Crab
2. Steak
3. Chicken breast
4. Unagi
5. KimChi
When I was young, I lived with my grandparents for fifteen years. Both of my parents had to work during the day and afternoon so my grandmother always made me a good meal. There was a one truck which came every Sunday morning that sells King crabs. So I always woke up at 5:30 in the morning and ran to the truck to purchase fresh,redish, Giant King Crab. It was very competitive to purchase King Crabs because I lived in very urban city which was hard to find fresh sea foods. Giant King Crab legs tasted so delicious and i was so desperate that I sometimes could not wait until my grandfather eat first. It is Korean tradition that kids have to eat after the adults.
I think this is only one of the reason that I still live in United States. Steak is the only reason that I still go to american restaurant. When I lived in Korea, I always asked my grandmother for American Steak. Since Korea doesn’t have many cows like United States, price of steak is very high. United States has much lower price than Korea so I often cook steak for my dinner.
I really don’t like chicken breast. However, I am eatting chicken breast more than rice these days since I am trying to get my shape back. This is one of the best foods for weight trainners which has high protein with less fat. And it still gives you full meal. So I need it for my every breakfast.
I traveled to Japan several time when I was really young. I cannot remember anything about Japan except one food, Unagi. It is a eel(?) cooked with soy sauce that has a great taste. This is only food that I eat in Japanese restaurant. I can feel that juicy eel is rolling on my tongue every time I put it in my mouth.
Kimchi. I got no words of explanation for this food. If Korean person doesn’t like kimchi. He is not Korean. Not even North Korean. This food always reminds me that I am Korean.
CRN 1735
Catherine Daniels said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Catherine Daniels Wal-Mart grocery list:
1. Red Velvet Cake
2. Oysters
3. Ramen noodles
From the time I was twelve years of age I remember coming home from school on my birthday and walking into my trailer or wherever I happened to live that year, and smelling the aroma of freshly baked cake with crème cheese icing on top. It never failed that my mom would slave over a stove to make me the specialty cake for my birthday. Whether it be made from scratch or right out of a box; the cake was always mouth warming and hit the spot. Til’ this day, even though I am twenty-one, I still request one of these cakes. What is cute about the story of the cake is that even when it is not my birthday and I am driving south for two hours to visit my mom, there will be atleast a piece of Red Velvet cake for me.
Yum, yum..yum. I could not wait to get my little hands on a shell to pop it open to lay the raw oyster on a soda cracker and top it off with hot sauce. Mmm..it just slides right down my brother would say. I had to have been eight and my brother was six. Little did we care of how the raw oyster looked, we just followed in the example of our father. He was always great at getting a deal on oysters. He would drive home with two huge coolers of oysters and lay them in the patio. I remember my brother and I running out of the house just to see who could open the oyster shell first. These are memories that will always be at heart with me. You see, my brother and I have different dads. I lived with our mother and my brother Stephen lived with his father. To remember moments such as this hits my heart. Although I no longer eat raw oysters, it is still a memory I will never want to forget.
You know when you’re at the age of thirteen to fourteen and you have all the energy in the world to stay up late? Well, my cousin Chasity and I were one of those thirteen year olds. I always looked forward to spending the night with her. The thought of dancing and singing all night was exciting. It almost seemed like a tradition. Anytime I would come over to spend the night Chasity and I would dress up run to her room to act like we were Britney Spears or some kind of pop star and we would sing our hearts delight into the poor little karaoke microphone. If the microphone could have feelings and had two little legs, it probably would have wandered off and hidden itself. When out of energy after singing for three hours we would finally take a break to the kitchen. We would always grab a pack of Ramen noodles and cook them. Now, the tradition is that you have to eat them with your fingers. These moments are delightful. Makes me want to go back to this time and watch myself if I could. I’m sure I would just laugh. Even thinking back to this memory makes me giggle inside.
Catherine Daniels
English 1101 CRN 1735
Rick Sakal said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:56 pm
1. Buttermilk
2. Saltine Crackers
3. Cole Slaw
4. Potatoes
5. Tater Sauce
The holidays have come and gone, we have just had our first snow fall, and it’s cold and gray, so its official, the dull depressing days of winter are here. There’s only on cure, a fish fry, and not just any old fish will do, but Lake Erie Walleye and Perch. Still having family in Ohio my freezer is always well stocked with both. I’ll start by frosting the beer and defrosting the fish. Then I’ll call a bunch of friends telling them to put on their best Hawaiian Shirt, and grab their favorite gal because we’re going to chase the winter blues away. All the guys get involved in frying the fish; first we soak the fish in buttermilk, and crush the crackers for the breading. Someone will be cutting the spuds for French fries, while someone else will be sure everyone has a beverage of their choice. It usually starts when the first fillets hit the pan, the stories of the one that got away or the time I fell out of the boat, or how we all miss the best angler around, my Grandfather. As the afternoon drifts into evening its always amazing how the cold ,gray outside the windows gets replaced, at least in our minds, with clear blue skies, gentle waves, and good friendships.
Cyrena Wamsley said,
January 17, 2008 at 7:58 pm
My Grocery List If I Had An Unlimited Budget:
1. Cinnamon Rolls
2. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
3. Chocolate Croissant from England
4. Cream of Wheat
First, ever since I was a little girl, my daddy would always make cinnamon rolls for special occasions. I remember waking up on my birthday every year with my mom, dad, and my brother singing happy birthday to me and holding cinnamon rolls with candles in them. He would also make them for us Christmas morning and we were not allowed to open any presents until my parents went downstairs and made the cinnamon rolls. Now, every year my birthday and Christmas comes around it is kind of sad because I don’t get to wake up with the sweet smell of the cinnamon rolls because I don’t live with my parents anymore.
At first, when I was younger my brother and I were not allowed to have Cinnamon Toast Crunch. My mom did not like the fact of us kids eating all that sugar in the morning. But, all of that changed when my brother and I were old enough to spend the night at our grandparent’s house. When we would wake up every morning, we would come out to the table and there was always a bowl full of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and whole milk. It was amazing stuff. I could not believe why my mom wouldn’t let us eat this at home. Every time my parents would come pick us up, I would always ask why we were not allowed to have at home and she would always say, “That’s something you only have at your grandparents house. Not mine.” Still to this day when my grandmother goes out any buys my boyfriend and I food for our house, she always makes sure to buy us Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal.
When I was about 15 years old, my family and I took a trip to England. There we stayed in a flat (which is like a big one story house) for like a month. Since it had a kitchen we really did not eat out that much, but when it came to breakfast we always went down to the little pastry shop on the corner. The first time I went there I tried numerous amounts of pastries, but my favorite was the chocolate croissant. Ever since I came back to the United States I have tried to find a chocolate croissant like the one in England, but nothing ever will compare to the one there.
Cream of Wheat is something I never had when I was a little girl. My parents thought it was disgusting and I always ate oatmeal instead. Well one night I was at my boyfriend’s house and we had nothing to eat and all there was was Cream of Wheat. I told him that if he made that I would not eat it what so ever. Well he made it and told me to just try it, and well the next thing I knew I loved it. Ever since then I make it at home now for both of us.
Cyrena Wamsley
English 1101
CRN 1735
Stirling Ricks said,
January 17, 2008 at 8:00 pm
1.Coffee 2.Steak 3.Beer 4.Potatoes 5.Kimchi If I could go to the store and buy any five items they would be very simple. The first thing would have to be coffee. There is no denying its wonderful power. Coffee is, in my opinion, one of the best discoveries ever achieved by man. Coffee is one of my addictions. I simply can’t live without it, nor do I want to. The second item up for bid would be Steak. Steak has always been a great food to grill out during the summer .But since it is summer and were talking cooking out, one simply can not forget the beer. This combination of alcohol and meat and fire almost make me tear up. Throw on some potatoes and the picture is complete. This is Americana at its best. The final item on my list would be kimchi.Kimchi is a Korean dish introduced to me by my father-in –law.Kimchi sounds unappetizing to many Americans but I always try especially when it comes to spicy food. My father- in –law, Steve, has a fascination for Asian cuisine and I usually trust him, but when he told me it was fermented cabbage my reaction was like most. With my nose upturned I tried it. I was instantly in love. This was not the boiled cabbage I had grew up on this was truly a great thing. If you like spicy food and are willing to get past your preconceived notion of what fermented cabbage tastes like you will most likely become a fan also. Stirling Ricks CRN#1735
Maria F. Diaz said,
January 18, 2008 at 9:46 am
In my household we always try to eat a healthy and well balanced diet. Some things that I would buy in a grocery store are food items that always have to be in the house.
Some things are fruits, cereal, milk, vegetables, and meats.
Fruits are a rich source of vitamins. I love eating fruits during the morning. I usually don’t have the time to prepare breakfast; therefore, I take a fruit to eat it at work.
The second and third items that I would buy are milk and cereal. Cereal is a great source of fiber, and it lowers cholesterol. Milk is a great dietary supplement. It contains multiple vitamins and calcium. It makes bones stronger. Combining milk and cereal complements a meal and can help with loosing weight. I remember my mom telling me to drink a lot of milk, so I can grow strong and healthy.
Next I would pick some vegetables. I would pick some potatoes. French fries, mashed potatoes, and baked potatoes are my favorites since I was a little girl. My mother always says that potatoes are fun. We made art, and created stamps out of them.
And the last item I would pick would be any type of meat. Meat provides all the proteins that we need in order to have a healthy body. I remember my dad making delicious steak sandwiches when my mother was not able to cook.
It is very important for me that my family stays healthy, and the best way to do it is by choosing the right food items.
English 1101
CRN 1727
Bryan Delmendo said,
January 18, 2008 at 1:35 pm
1. Strawberries
2. Honey Baked Ham
3. Gummy Bears
4. Hot Fries
5. Leche Flan
As a child, I grew up eating strawberries all the time. They were my mother’s favorite fruit and she always bought them. It’s what I like to eat when I feel home sick or sick in general. The honey baked ham is something my family and I eat every year on Christmas and Thanksgiving. After stuffing ourselves, we wake up the next morning and my aunt would fry the honey ham with sugar. Then we would eat it with the leftover dinner rolls from the night before. The third item is gummy bears; I’ve always loved eating gummy bears. I love eating at a buffet restaurant (Golden Coral/ Ryan’s) and devouring their gummy bears. Hot Fries are also one of my favorites as a child. I remember getting into Hot Fries in elementary school. They would sell them in the cafeteria during recess. I still eat them till day and they bring back great memories. Last on my list is Leche Flan. This is milk custard which is a big deal in my family. If you don’t make a flan that’s perfect, you’re not important.
Bryan Delmendo
1718
Dustin Carter said,
January 18, 2008 at 5:25 pm
1. Cheese dip
2. Tostitos chips scoops
3. Fried chicken fingers
4. Hot sauce and ranch dressing
5. Sweet tea
My favorite snack ever since I can remember has been cheese dip. It is perfect for get togethers or just for a late night snack. It has become Every Friday night I go to the local Mexican restaurant with my family and all I get to eat is an order of cheese dip. This brings me to the Tostitos chips. You have to have these so you can have something to dip in the cheese dip. You cannot just buy any kind of chips. If you go the cheap way but it takes away from the amazing flavor of the cheese dip. The scoops version is also a good addition because it makes it a lot easier to scoop the dip.
Fried chicken fingers are a must. I grew up here in Georgia and eat everything pretty much fried. I could live off of chicken fingers all I eat pretty much is Zaxby’s. I love their buffalo fingers. I would buy the hot sauce because I love to eat hot things. No matter if I’m eating chicken fingers or French fries I put hot sauce on pretty much everything. Usually whatever the hot sauce goes on come with a dollop of ranch dressing to calm down the intense burning factor of the hot sauce. Of course then you need sweet tea. I love sweet tea because every time I went to my grandma’s house when I was younger she would always make sweet tea to drink with dinner. So now it has become such a habit that I do it without thinking.
Dustin Carter
1736
Diane Holcombe said,
January 19, 2008 at 9:17 am
1. Walnuts
2. Pecans
3. Fresh Corn from the produce section
4. Round Peppermint Candies
5. Fig Newtons
The walnuts, pecans and fresh corn remind me of growing up with parents that were raised in the country. My parents and I would go to friends house that they had known for years to pick the nuts off her tree. My dad would try to pay her, but she refused to accept any money from him. So he would sneak the money in the garage and hide it on a shelf where she was sure to look. He was the type of man that didn’t believe in accepting anything for nothing. After returning home, my mother and I would sit for hours cracking and taking the nuts out of the shells. Then she would go into the kitchen to make cakes and pies from scratch. After they had finished cooling, she would put the nuts on one by one. This process usually took her a couple of days, but in the end they tasted better then ones bought from the store. To this day, I would rather have a dessert made like she did instead of a store bought one.
The round peppermint candies and fig newtons remind me of two of my grandparents. My pa-paw would always offer his grandchildren and great-grandchildren peppermint candies whenever he saw us. It makes me a little sad when I see peppermints since he passed on, but I also think of all the good times we had when he was with us. My granny would give her grandchildren and great-grandchildren fig newtons. She would tell us that they were a healthier snack instead of junk food. Even though I didn’t like either one, I still would accept them out of respect for my grandparents and I didn’t want to hurt their feelings.
CRN 1736
Natalia Gaviria said,
January 19, 2008 at 7:57 pm
On my trip to the grocery store the first thing that I would pick up are some blackberries. As I’m approaching the stand where the blackberries are, all I can remember is my grandmother’s favorite weekend lunches accompanied by a sweet, foamy, substantial glass of juice. Her special recipe of extra brown sugar and a touch of honey always made it incomparable to any other juice.
Secondly, I can’t forget to get Sara Lee’s wheat bread. Every morning for breakfast I prepare a small rich, toasted egg and cheese sandwich. This has been a daily conventional breakfast prepared by my mother since I was twelve years old. I also love making a ham and turkey sandwich loaded with lettuce and mayonnaise after coming home from a long day of work and school.
Tomatoes and Onions are a tradition in our family that we use to cook an enticing meal to give it a unique seasoning. Sudado de pollo (steamed chicken with potatoes and vegetables), my grandmother’s inimitable dish has my mouth watering as she is cooking it. Every other Friday, she would cook this delicious dish to end that school week with a remarkable lunch.
Thirdly, Frosted Flakes cereal my favorite snack of the day. Since I’ve been here in the United States for eight years, I always had frosted flakes for my second snack for breakfast or sometimes before I go to bed. Fourth item I would get will be avocados; I love its rich, buttery taste with a touch of sea salt and pepper. Since sever years old, my grandmother and my mom have always accompanied every soup with a slice of avocado.
Lastly, eggs are essential everyday for breakfast. My favorite egg recipe is my mother’s specialty, scrambled eggs with diced tomatoes and onions. When I visit my mother on the weekends, she always spoils me with her huevos con guiso, together with an arepa (corn tortilla), and a cup of La Abuelita’s hot chocolate.
Natalia Gaviria
1736
Carolina Carrion said,
January 20, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Crab
Plantain
Garlic
Cilantro
Mangoes
Right now I’m in North Georgia, and it’s winter, it’s cold outside and I already began to sneeze. But I just need to think about that magic word “Crab” and I’m transported to a South American Beach at the Pacific Ocean. The Sun is shinning, I have been swimming all morning and I can still feel that salty taste in my lips. I’m hungry so I go look for my favorite dish, which is of course, Crab. I will need a few more ingredients like ripe plantain, which will add a bit of a sweet taste; then garlic, which to my opinion will give it an amazing smell; then of course there’s cilantro, and a few more things that I don’t dare to write here, since we are talking about my Grandmother’s secret recipe. So I go to the local Farmers Market. This place is an explosion of vibrant colors, the farmers at this, the fruit and vegetable section, are mostly chubby, red chinned women, and they are shouting and asking me to go to their section and buy their fruit. I approach one of them and get the Plantain, Garlic and Cilantro there, plus the best most aromatic Mangoes I have ever seen or smelled. I ask the lady that is helping me where I could find the crab, she point me to follow straight ahead to the Seafood section. As I get close everything starts smelling fishy, so I pin my nose while I hear a man shouting and running, in front of him there are about ten fugitive crabs, running for their lives, everybody moves out of the way in fear of their claws. I feel for them, I really want them to find their way to the Sea, I have never seen them like this, I had only seen them at my Grandma’s table, nice and juicy. I loose my appetite for Crab, right now I just want to help all the other ones escape, but that will probably upset the Farmers, which in this section are mostly muscular men with a knife in their hand. I still have the Plantain, Garlic and Cilantro, so I decide to replace the Crab with some peanut paste, I will make some “bolones”, delicious as well, but that recipe I will tell you some other time.
charles Thornton said,
January 21, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Aged tenderloin rib eye
3lb’s Lobster tails
Fresh asparagus
Chicago cheese cake
This would be the favorite meal for my wife. She is the best and still is the most important thing in my life. In my thoughts the past is just that the past. Things that matter are the things that are coming and how this would make her happy today. She on the other hand looks at the things in the past and remembers. Like the first time I cooked steak for her children. This was are forth or fifth date. We were at her house and I was grilling rib eye’s making salad and baked potatoes. She is not fond of cooking after raising four kids alone. Well the grill was getting hot and Jimmy the youngest around 10 then, had some of those balloons the thin ones you use to make animals out of. I was blowing them up and all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain in my chest. So I made an excuse that I needed to get the steaks on to stop making the animals. As I was cooking the pain was getting worse. She asked a few times if I was ok, of course I said everything was fine. Dinner was now ready and while eating I realized that the pain was becoming more intense. I was thinking of reasons I could excuse myself after dinner. One of the excuses running through my head; “Had to get up early had some work to do etc …” When everyone was done she asked if I would like coffee, I said a short cup and went to sit down. That was it I got up and told her I was in a little pain and had to leave she asked if she could help I said I would be fine. But I could not walk upright and she asked if she could help again and I asked if she would drive me to the hospital. She asked what was wrong and I did not know. By the time we were on our way, my best recolection of the trip was her asking me not to die in her new car. She was trying to take my mind off the pain that was now unbearable. Well the hospital was the answer that I needed, the doctors advised it was a collapsed lung and I might not make it. Well they were wrong, we are now married and I still grill her favorite food: steaks. We do not do balloon’s any more. She saved my life and married me too and now I am the luckiest man in the world.
Charles Thornton
Amy Thornton said,
January 21, 2008 at 8:13 pm
I have been given a check for an unlimited amount of money and told to buy four or five items of my choice. I pondered and pondered and could not think of anything specifically I would like. Why was this so difficult for me? It occurred to me after many hours of contemplating, that since my first child was eating food I have headed to the grocery store with prewritten lists of items for the family.
Money became tighter as each child was born and thus my food budget decreased as they increased. I was buying cookbooks on how to make “family Meals” on budget. Hamburger helper became our new red meat dinner. Eventually I forgot what it was like to eat red meat.
The times I did indulge thoughts of buying a big juicy steak when I knew the kids were at their friend’s house, I was ridden with guilt for days. Even now after dwelling on my four items I imagine how thrilled my children would be to come home and smell the aroma of steaks grilling, cheesy baked potatoes, and apple pie cooking in the oven.
I have made my decision! My list would consist of steaks for eight, potatoes for eight, and two cinnamon apple pies, and two gallons of milk. For after all seeing the joy on seven happy faces is a gift in itself.
Amy Thornton
Jonathan Miles said,
January 21, 2008 at 9:25 pm
When asked what foods I can’t live without, my mind tends to wander west, down interstate twenty. I grew up in Texas, a land of many flavors. From the Creole cuisine of deep East Texas to the International Chili Championship in Terlingua (West Texas for you folks that don’t know), most of my tastes lean towards the spicy rather than mild.
Growing up in East Texas, we were never too far from a fresh cooler of crawfish, or “mudbugs”, as they are affectionatley called in my family. My dad, two empty coolers and I would take a Saturday morning trip to Logansport, Louisiana at least four or five times in the summer. Logansport ain’t much to look at, but the people and the “mudbugs” make it worth the ride. We would pull up to this old shack on the right-hand side of the road, just as you passed the rusty, old bridge. I remember the first time I went on the trip, I made a comment about the quantity of hounds laying on the front porch and my dad told me that they used the dogs to track the crawfish through the swamps. I was only six or seven years old at the time, so I believed him. Everytime I go home for the holidays now, my dad will say something like “Do you still run those hounds through the swamp?” and I turn beet red. Anyways, upon arrival at the weathered, old shack, my dad would honk the horn a couple of times and five minutes later we were heading back home, with two coolers of crawfish on ice. By the time we got home, my mother would have a huge pot of corn on the cob and new potatoes boiling away on the fryer in the backyard. Throw in the crawfish and we were in heaven!
Another food that I can not live without is chicken. Now, I realize that everyone loves chicken, but the chicken that I am so infatuated with is beer can chicken. To make beer can chicken, you need two things, your favorite can of beer and a whole chicken, cleaned and seasoned as you please. I prefer to season my chicken in a creole fashion by using a lot of cayenne pepper, garlic and a homemade sauce called “spicy red gravy”. Keep in mind, when you are choosing your chicken, that you want a bird of somewhat equal proportions. Once, I made the mistake of buying a chicken with one drumstick larger than the other. After some southern ingenuity (wire ties) and a little patience, I was able to successfully, balance the bird. Once balanced on the center of the grill, the flavors of the chicken started to fill the air. I have never tasted a more intoxicating, tender chicken in my life!
Fresh crawfish and beer can chicken may not tickle everyone’s fancy but I can’t live without them. I think the main reason I like them is because they are not meant to be eaten alone. The memories and the food are intertwined and will always leave a lasting impression on me. So the next time I get a little homesick, I’ll turn on some Willie Nelson or Jerry Jeff Walker, fire up the grill and prepare to bask in the flavor of memories.
Jonathan Miles
1736
Charles Thornton said, said,
January 21, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Aged tenderloin rib eye
Lobster tail
Potato
Chicago cheese cake
I hope this is not a repeat last one lost is cyber space.
This is one of my wife’s favorite meals. She is the best thing in my life. I live in the now and believe that that this day would make my wife happy. My belief is to look forward to tomorrow and not back. But my wife would remember this meal with a story from the past. On are forth or fifth date I was over at her house and brought rib eye’s to grill out. While the grill was getting ready her youngest son Jimmy had some balloons, the skinny kind that you make animals out of. While blowing up the balloons I felt a sharp pain in my chest. I made an excuse to stop and started cooking, all the time the pain was getting worse. When we finished eating I could hardly stand the pain it was hard to concentrate. She asked if I would like a cup of coffee. I said a short cup then I would need to leave. For some time I had been thinking of away to excuse myself with out telling her that I was in pain, even though she had asked if I was all right a few times during dinner. When I sat down that was it, the pain became unbearable and I had to leave now. It was all I could do to stand up almost falling over; she asked if I was all right I told her I would be ok. The pain was so strong I realized that I would not be able to make it home. I asked if she could drive me to the hospital, she said she would but had just moved to the area and was not sure where it was. She had taken Jimmy their once and thought she could find it again. We started driving, I was almost incoherent by this time but remember her telling me not to die in her new car. She was trying to get my mind off the pain when we arrived at the hospital I got my answer it was a collapsed lung. They told her I was in bad shape and we had just made it in time. My left lung was completely collapsed; I would not be here with out her help. She remembers this story each time we grill steaks. But I remember that each day I get with her makes me the luckiest man in the world. So I think of today, tomorrow and the future.
Charles Thornton
Marilu Benitez said,
January 23, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Mangos
Watermelon
Papaya
Bananas
Hot chocolate
On my list I mainly listed fruit because I love fruit. I have always chosen fruit over sweets. Papayas remind me of my trips to Mexico to visit my grandmother. I would sit for hours eating papayas and mangos with my grandmother. We would just go to the back yard and we would pick the papayas and mangos from the trees. We would go wash the fruit. Then my grandmother would cut the fruit and put some chili powder with a couple drops of lemon on the fruit. While we ate our fruit we would talk about guys, fashion, and how life is very different there from here in the US.
Ripe bananas are really tasty as well. I love to sit and watch my fifteen month old son eat bananas. I usually peal the banana and give it him. He will bite the banana until his whole mouth is stuffed with it. Sometimes he gets too excited and he spits it out and rubs it on his face and his hair.
Hot chocolate is very delicious to drink especially on cold winter nights. I sometimes curl up on the couch in the evening with a book and a cup of steaming hot chocolate. Usually my handsome young “companion” is sitting next to me begging for a sip of steaming chocolate. But, I usually say to him “babies can’t have hot chocolate”.
CRN 1736
Michael McDonald said,
January 23, 2008 at 6:42 pm
One of the first things on my grocery list that I would buy would be fresh peaches. Peaches remind me of my grandmother’s cooking, particularly her sweet, succulent peach cobbler. When we would walk into her house, we would immediately become overtaken by a sugary aroma, with a hint of cinnamon in the air. The first gooey bite into the plump peaches was the most amazing sensation; you could feel the warm cobbler travel down your throat, through your esophagus, and finally reach its destination in your stomach.
Another two items on my grocery list would be steak and mashed potatoes. Who doesn’t like this combination: juicy, tender fillets accompanied by buttery white clouds of heaven. The only thing better than gorging yourself on the steak is cooking it. The sizzling of the steak once it hits a fiery hot grill and the smoky aroma that accompanies is almost more satisfying than actually eating the steak.
The final two items on my grocery list would be flour and chicken so I can make my all time favorite- fried chicken fingers. At first glance, before their bubbling oily bath, chicken fingers are not the most appetizing. The raw chicken has a slimy, rubbery consistency, and the puffy white coating seems a little bland. But once these fingers take a dip into a hot pan boiling with oil, they turn golden brown, and have a crunchy yet tender consistency that is most delicious.
Daniel Rockwell said,
January 24, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Maggie
Ben and Jerry’s
carton of Camels
Hawaiian Punch
Mountain Dew
Maggie is an Indian ketchup that has the same sweet taste but also a large amount of spice. It is good on everything that ketchup is, except better. It was introduced to me by my long-time friend Shaila from Bangladesh. The ice cream explains itself in its name. My favorite was always chunky monkey. If you haven’t had it yet, I highly recommend you going to the store and buying some immediately. The cigarettes, well, I’m a smoker and I only want the finest taste. I’ve tried the rest, and I’d walk a mile for a camel (as the old slogan goes). My mother and I have smoked them for a while now and even my girlfriend smokes them, and I never thought she would quit smoking menthol. Mountain dew is just not something that can be put down so easily. For years ma and my closest buddies would go down to Taco Bell, get stuffed and pound down as much to drink as possible. We don’t think anything can compare to it, it’s just that addictive. The Hawaiian Punch just reminds me that it was fun to be a child, but I can still sometimes be a kid. It also stains carpets and because of my clumsiness, I must be very careful. If I’m not paying attention I’m usually better at keeping clean. I may lead an odd life but I always appreciate the small niceties.
1735
Lisa albano said,
January 24, 2008 at 5:50 pm
1. Bubble Gum Ice-cream
2. New England Clam Chowder
3. Fresh Picked Apples
4. Fresh Peeled Jumbo Shrimp
5. Alfredo Pasta
A few of the first things I would purchase at the store would be Alfredo pasta and fresh peeled jumbo shrimp. These items would be cooked and thrown in a large pot together to make a homemade fettuccini Shrimp Alfredo. The sauce would be made from scratch with real cream and lots of butter, just the way it was when my children and husband surprised me on Mother’s Day. The smell of the sauce filled the house and the made my taste buds water for that first bite.
The next item I would purchase would be some New England clam chowder. I have been hard pressed to find any place that makes a clam chowder as fresh as what I remember from my childhood. In went to summer camp in Massachusetts and my parents would come visit. They stayed a t a small bed and breakfast with the freshest most memorable New England clam chowder.
The next item on my list would have to be fresh picked apples. My children and I have a tradition that we go every fall to the small apple orchards of Georgia and pick and eat as many fresh apples as we can hold. The apples in the store for some reason do not nearly compare in flavor to the apples we eat on the orchards, however, the joy and smiles and laughter that comes along with a simple store bought apple makes every bit just as delicious!
Finally, I would top off my list with Bubble Gum Ice cream. I remember as a child getting a large bucket of this ice cream and spitting in a napkin, to see who would have the largest stack of gum. The gum was like a small challenge to collect and not eat. My brother and I spent many a summer afternoon spitting in napkins. The funny part is now my children do the same thing with Bubble Gum Ice Cream!
Lisa Albano