My mother mostly cooked from scratch for our dinners. The meals I most associate with childhood...

Thick, homemade spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage
Swedish meatballs with egg noodles
Tri-tip on the grill (by dad)
Porcupine meatballs (these were meatballs with rice in them, cooked in a tomato sauce)

But we also got processed foods as occasional treats...

Klondike ice cream sandwiches
Entemann's chocolate donuts
Carnation Breakfast Bars - she mostly stocked up on these for roadtrips
Foil wrapped hohos, a treat for field trip lunches

And, my aunt made the world's best iced tea. She brewed the tea and then added sugar and bottled lemon juice. I've never been able to get the proportions right to match how she made it.

*chocolate milk made with Hershey's syrup
*little carafes of oil and vinegar for salad dressing in restaurants
*orange push-up pops in the little cardboard tubes that looked almost like a toilet paper roll
*Haagen Daz coffee ice cream

Best.Thread.Ever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tomato slices with salt. This was something my grandma ate as a snack almost every single day. Sometimes she'd eat a tomato like an apple (salting it as she ate). It's something I haven't really seen other people do but we'll sometimes make them up to remember grandma.

I grew up in Georgia (the state) and many older people did this with Vidalia onions.

That's probably a health or home remedy thing.

Nope. People just pick them and eat them for a snack in Georgia. Vidalia onions are sweet.

Onions might be my favorite food. But I wouldn't bite into one like an apple and eat it as a snack -- sweetest Vidalia ever, or not.

- Five Alive juice from concentrate
- Domino cinnamon sugar from the shaker that looked like a penguin or a clown on buttered toast
- Handi-Snacks
- A kiwi flavored sparkling drink at the corner store that had a kangaroo on the label - similar flavor to Clearly Canadian - never seen it before or since
- Boston Baked Beans candy

My grandmother used to sometimes prepare us milk with fine egg noodles. It was sweet, only for supper and it tasted sweet, warm, and smelled and tasted so good. This was when we were preschool / young elementary and used to stay at her house. So for me, this is childhood taste.

Nestle's Quik mixed with milk (chocolate milk) or mixed with a little water (chocolate syrup) on vanilla ice cream (sundae).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tomato slices with salt. This was something my grandma ate as a snack almost every single day. Sometimes she'd eat a tomato like an apple (salting it as she ate). It's something I haven't really seen other people do but we'll sometimes make them up to remember grandma.

I grew up in Georgia (the state) and many older people did this with Vidalia onions.

That's probably a health or home remedy thing.

Nope. People just pick them and eat them for a snack in Georgia. Vidalia onions are sweet.

Sausage biscuit

Cool Whip desserts. I think one was Cool Whip mixed with frozen strawberries in a pre-made graham cracker pie crust. There was also a pistachio version that I think was made with instant pudding mix.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tomato slices with salt. This was something my grandma ate as a snack almost every single day. Sometimes she'd eat a tomato like an apple (salting it as she ate). It's something I haven't really seen other people do but we'll sometimes make them up to remember grandma.

I grew up in Georgia (the state) and many older people did this with Vidalia onions.

That's probably a health or home remedy thing.

Maybe, but Vidalia onions can be quite sweet, so it’s easy to imagine people munching them like fruit.

Anonymous wrote:Lemon meringue pie
Chocolate meringue pie
Apple crumble pie
Peach pudding
Chocolate chip cookies
Raisin cookies
Sugar cookies with pink icing for Valentine’s Day
Divinity fudge

Grandma was quite a baker.

I have no idea what Peach Pudding is — but it sounds delicious!
I will be doing a search for recipes as soon as I’m done here.

Anonymous wrote:The frozen orange juice from concentrate.

Yes and it took for freakin ever to melt into the water when you're like 11 and just want some OJ mixing it up at the sink.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tomato slices with salt. This was something my grandma ate as a snack almost every single day. Sometimes she'd eat a tomato like an apple (salting it as she ate). It's something I haven't really seen other people do but we'll sometimes make them up to remember grandma.

I grew up in Georgia (the state) and many older people did this with Vidalia onions.

That's probably a health or home remedy thing.

I think it was a Depression era thing that they never stopped doing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Grandma's ambrosia: fruit cocktail + marshmallows + shredded coconut + sour cream

Oh man. That or my mom's jello cream cheese walnut congealed salad was how you knew we had company.

I'm chuckling while I read this. The only times I got to eat these delicious concoctions was at friends houses or school events. I thought they were heavenly.

Anonymous wrote:Drive thru Dairy Store half gallons of ice cream in exotic flavors like black walnut, pumpkin, mint choc chip.
Getting the burger at Biff Burger and going across the street to McDonald's for the fries.
My first Whopper with Cheese when the Burger King opened.
KFC when it had original recipe only and mashed potatoes and gravy.
Yes I am a Boomer.

Ooooh, I have not had black walnut ice cream in many years!

I always got black walnut ice cream at our neighborhood High's store (it was similar to 7-Eleven). So delicious!

Last time I drove past the Thurmont, MD area I spotted a Highs, so they're still around maybe. I don't know if they still carry ice cream.