Beyond the Books: Foods that Remind You of Childhood

Beyond the Books is a weekly feature hosted right by Kissin Blue Karen. Beyond the Books is a weekly writing prompt where she throws out a topic (mostly non-bookish) and others blog about it.

Today's Beyond the Books topic is: Foods that remind you of childhood

This is going to be a fun topic. I joke around that I've blocked out most of my childhood for self-preservation, but I do remember some fun stuff too. My uncle, a widower, lived next door to us and he came over for supper every night. My mom, while a decent cook, was not an imaginative one. Possibly also because of our skinny budget, we mostly ate the same things week after week.

Sunday after church we had roast beef and mashed potatoes. Every Sunday was eleven o'clock mass followed by roast beef and mashed potatoes. Then the family played board games the rest of the afternoon and had a light supper. 

Considering that Wednesdays were Prince spaghetti days in my childhood--check out this classic commercial-we had spaghetti once a week. But it wasn't Prince. It was Mueller's and the sauce was Ragu. 

One might not be able to call themselves Canadian if they didn't eat French meat pie or French meat stuffing around the holidays. My sister makes them both well. I've been aching to try my hands at making meat pie. I could buy it frozen, but it wouldn't be the same thing.

Speaking of the holidays, every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mother would buy a bag of walnuts in the shell. She would put them in a large bowl with steel nut crackers. I buy mine already shelled these days.

We would also have a little bowl of buttermints--not that I knew they were called that. These pastel candies practically melt in your mouth. They were a rare treat in my childhood home.

No pantry of the 70's would be complete without a can of SPAM. I wouldn't touch the stuff now, but back then SPAM helped you stretch your dollar and a can could feed all five of us. 

There was also Deviled Ham, which my mother would use to quickly make ham and pickle, AKA ham salad. 

Remember my uncle who lived next door? He liked a food that to this day I can barely stand to look at. My mother would only make it once in a while and, on that day, she would also make our meals at the same time. Our family would all sit down to supper and there would be my uncle with his gross looking liver and onions. Yuck!

What are some foods that remind you of  your childhood? Do you still eat them now?