Did Colonial Children Complain About What Was For Dinner?

Posted: October 23, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Diet- comedy | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

The answer to the eternal question ”What’s for dinner?” has so many more answers today than it did when I was a kid.  Just the categories of food has more in number than I had as actual choices; Thai, Italian, Sushi, Mexican, Burgers, Chinese, Pizza, Indian, both Southern and Northern which are not to be confused with Persian, Southern, Barbeque, German, Steakhouse, American, New American (I’m sure that “new” just means more expensive that non-new), Seafood, Vegetarian, French, Japanese, Scandinavian, African…

Even with all these categories to choose from, whether we cook it at home or, throw the other choice in the pot I did not have as a kid, go out for dinner, it seems that someone is unhappy.  How can that be?  My family has almost unlimited options between my cooking and Durham’s culinary offerings.

When I was a kid, my menu was limited by the few raw ingredients my mother was likely to purchase.  See I did a lot of the cooking, but since I could not drive, I did none of the shopping.  We never ate out for dinner, so take that option off the table.  That left us with ground beef or chicken and as far as categories it was American, since new American was still just a spark in some future chef’s eye, Italian and maybe Southern, since my parents were southerners.  The complaining about “what’s for dinner?” existed then.

All this whining despite the giant choice got me thinking about kids even further back than my 1960-70’s era.  What about kids in colonial time whose menu was limited to what they could grow or raise and how long it could keep in an underground root cellar.  Did children in the dead of winter complain of another yam stew or were they thankful just to have food at all?

If you don’t have many choices does it make it better or worse?  Has the explosion of worldwide culinary offerings spoiled us so much that we don’t enjoy what we have when we have it?

When I was in college, I spent one summer living in my college town renovating my off-campus house and working many different jobs.  One of those jobs was working in the catering office of the food service department.  We served all kinds of different groups who used the campus for various meetings and conferences.

Our food service was run by the college and not a big corporate contractor and thus was really good.  Depending on what a group was willing to pay we could make a meal as nice as surf & turf or as down home as shepherds’ pie.  I will never forget my favorite group who had a conference, The Farmer’s Wives of America.  Eleven hundred women filled the dining hall as we served them our least expensive, but heaviest plated meal of opened faced hot roast beef sandwiches, mashed potatoes and gravy and cooked to death green beans with ham hocks.

When the servers went to clear the tables they were shocked to find that the women had scraped and stacked their plates at the end of each table and all were terribly complimentary of what a wonderful lunch it was.  I remember being summoned out into the dining room over the PA system by the organizer of the meeting to be introduced to all 1,100 Farmer’s Wives so they could thank me for their lunch.  Their gratitude for not our best meal was overwhelming.  I wonder if it was just that they were just pleased to have a meal they did not have to cook, let alone grow or raise.  They did not even get to have a choice in what they ate, but they appreciated it just the same.

I don’t have an answer to this complaining about “what’s for dinner?” just wondering if it is an age-old problem, or perhaps just New American.

Nantucket Memories

Posted: September 15, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , | 3 Comments

I am writing today from a deck chair on the porch of a house in Nantucket that my friends Rich and Susan have rented for the week. Rich is my oldest friend, having known each other since he was four and I was five as well as being my husband’s business partner. Rich is kind of like my brother as well as my husband’s work spouse.
They know each other so well that they often show up for events dressed in matching outfits.

This morning Russ and I went into town before Rich and Susan. Russ bought himself a pair of Nantucket Red shorts and decided to wear them out of the store. Rich had been wearing his Nantucket Reds when we left the house, but when they joined us in town he had changed into khaki’s and a blue shirt. I noted that for once they were not matching. Rich’s response was he knew that Russ would not only buy the shorts, but that he would wear them so he changed so they would not match. Now that is a friend who knows you well.

We are all in Nantucket together for a business meeting that starts tomorrow evening, but until then we are enjoying a little vacation. Since we have been here many times before, my first time as a teenager with Rich’s family and again as the first vacation Russ and I took Carter on when she was just five months old, we are spending time reminiscing between either planning where and what to eat or actually eating.

We went to the Wauwinet Inn for lunch and ran into CBS Sunday Morning corespondent Bill Geist and his wife Jody whom I had flown in from Boston with. Jody and I had sat with each other on the tiny plane and talked the whole time so she was happy to meet Russ. She remembered his name since it is the same name as her daughter’s new son. They were here for a wedding and encouraged us to crash it or any of the other 43 weddings Bill said were on the island this weekend. We said we had a good dinner reservation so we would have to crash during the dancing.

I don’t know how people went on vacation before the Internet. I sit here listening to Russ and Rich discuss the ratings and menu’s of various restaurants and try and balance out the offerings versus what they have planned for the next day’s meals. If we go to Galley Beach do they have enough meat when we are going to seafood tonight, or if we go to Langedoc is it too fancy? So many decisions to be made.

This is not a new travel activity. I can remember being on vacation as a child with my parents and having my mother get furious with my father because he wanted to discuss lunch and dinner while eating breakfast. As Rich said earlier we just need to find things to do between meals since they are the big highlight of the day.

And there you have it. What to do when not eating and how do you make food less important when you are on vacation? I have decided that the best thing to do is try and eat at regular times, never waiting too long between meals so that I am not so hungry that I make bad decisions and that, when possible, I split dishes with anyone who will do that with me, even if it the diner at the next table.

One of the joys of travel is learning about and enjoying local cuisine but that does not mean sampling island fudge or giant slabs of coffee cake, but raw oysters and steamed lobster is just the thing to splurge on, if only with money and not with calories.

In the moments I have written this the sun has dipped below the tops of the scrub trees, bringing on the cool air that I have not felt for months. The setting sun must indicate that soon it will be time to prepare for dinner and another meal with great friends and new memories to add to our lifetime of Nantucket times together.