Tastes Like Home

I’ve always had a big appetite!

Just a little while ago, I found myself flipping through the pages of a family cookbook. I’m in kinda a nostalgic mood today…grumpy because we’ve having another heat wave and bummed because it looks like I won’t be able to go home for Thanksgiving again this year.

Anyways, as I was looking over all the recipes of my childhood it made me remember lots of wonderful food memories!

You know, like the time you had your first hot dog….or when your mom convinced you that frozen peas were candy (thanks, mom).

I’ve shared with you all some of my very favorite family recipes. My mom’s turkey chili, my great-grandmother’s bundt cake, the chocolate chip cookies I made all throughout high school and college….

All of these recipes hold a special place in my heart and take me the three thousand miles home, even when I can’t be there physically.

If I had to put a finger on my absolute favorite food memory growing up, it would probably be when my mom made her special beer battered flounder. Totally eighties, right? I haven’t had it for years, but I remember her only making it on special occasions because even in 1988, we were a semi-health conscious family and frying wasn’t something my mom did regularly.

I don’t have a recipe, but I know that she made a thin batter out of flour, beer, paprika and salt and would gently dip the flounder fillets in it before frying to a crisp in golden oil. The end result were fillets as light as air that crackled between my teeth. We always had beer battered flounder with something healthy on the side, like broccoli, because my mom always said “we had to have something green on our plates”.

What about you? What’s your favorite food memory growing up?