While dining on a scrumptious meal prepared by the bride on Tuesday evening conversation turned to the subject of good meals we have known. I expect you have experienced a delightfully tasty morsel or two prepared and consumed in the company of friends and family that has registered in your memory.
The bride enjoys cooking and doesn't stop at traditional North American fare, which suits me just fine, but she confessed during the conversation that while she enjoys "cooking from scratch, the way you're supposed to," it is waaay too easy to cheat and/or cut corners with today's easily assembled packaged products that seem to match the quality and taste of the original products.
There used to be a day when the phoney substitute was easily detected and dismissed by the food snob in us. But now ... not so much. Who wants or needs to make a pie crust from scratch when the phoney frozen version is pretty well right there in the quality range you expect?
Certainly there are some long admired family recipes handed down from parent to child that are untouchable, revered and not to be tampered with by including substitutes. In most cases these are recipes that date back to the turn of the last century, or from the post-Second World War era before we got television and TV dinners, and before the advent of mircowave ovens and packaged gravy, potatoes, precooked meat and frozen vegetables. Fresh was still where it was at and even the milk was handled minimally to ensure a genuine taste.
But then times changed. Our lifestyles accelerated. Meals around the family kitchen or dining-room table pretty well fell off the schedule with the exception of special occasions or a Sunday get together.
And that's not a bad thing. When I have to swing into bachelor mode for any length of time, I bless the phoney potato thingy things and the frozen whatchyamacallits.
I can also empathize with those who still call up those traditional meals and recipes that really counted for something. The fresh turkey that was done just so, and the potatoes that you actually had to mash and cream yourself and the vegetables that had to be peeled and boiled or baked. The real-deal dessert with homemade whipped cream. Tough to beat, they say, especially if it is presented on a table that is actually set properly with cloth napkins and accompanied by some social niceties. You know that nostalgic era just before air conditioning and giant refrigerators.
Of course in that era, some women still sewed their own dresses from patterns. And many learned how to do that in high school. Now they don't call it home economics, they call it life skills and it consists of learning how to stab fake meat with the fork held like a dagger or how to follow the instructions to dump microwave popcorn into a bowl. Be careful, the steamy hot spot might burn your fingers if you open it incorrectly. That's the home economic course for today's young-adult learners.
And while we may lament the passing of little finessing items, we don't really miss them all that much, do we? After all, they were all very time consuming events and with our need to be on the tweet machines and Facebook connections every 48 seconds, we just don't have time for good food and folks. There is an app for that. You wanna talk to me? Nope, text me. Just as good. Phoney meal? Phoney conversation or real meal and real conversation? Both work ya know.
So what will your memory meals be in the future? Will it be a family gathering around the table or a pizza to go while you text your friend on the way to pick up a Slurpee?
Just wondering.
