Taste

The topic this week over at Mama Says Om is Taste. At first I started to think about all the tastes I love. The tastes I grew up with (cream tuna on toast, chicken and dumplings, pot roast and potatos), the tastes I developed in highschool (ranch dressing on my french fries, pizza with extra mushrooms, garlic chicken), the more developed tastes I learned when I started cooking for my family and friends (meatballs and zitti, chicken parmesian, carne asada, chicken enchiladas) and the tastes I teach my god children (homemade mac & cheese, penne pasta with sweet sausage, spaghetti with shredded parm. cheese on top). There are the foods that comfort me (fried potatos and eggs- my mom's, country gravy and biscuits- my grandmother, BBQ steak- my dad's) and the foods that make me excited (chocolate mice from Olde Thyme Pasteries or Asparagus wrapped in panchetta or stuffed mushrooms with good cheddar cheese). But then I got stuck on the other tastes. You remember the tastes you used to love but now don't sound that appealing... the tastes that are associated with summer vacation, being home from school sick or staying up late watching movies during Christmas break.

There were so many of them :

Summer breaks were spent at the community pool eating Watermelon Bubble Yum and drinking gatorade that had been in the sun too long.

Spaghetti O's with meatballs were an after school favorite when I was in Jr High. I remember after school specials with boys who had too much hair gel and girls with two pairs of slouch socks on.

We were young. To this day, I can smell these two things, along with many others and I am back in the day of side tied t-shirts, slouch socks, aqua net bangs and NKOTB.