Question of the day November 28th! "Good Times"

I read once that a noted physcologist said that most foods we are really partial to are "Good time" foods. They say we develop an association with good times and certain foods when we are kids. One such food mentioned in this study was watermelon. What are your good time foods and can you find a mental picture of one such time from childhood?

The most outstanding good time memory was of making boiled custard ice cream. This was the old hand cranked ice cream maker that really comes to mind. I remember as a very young child, after my father cranked what seem like forever , him saying I think it is ready now. I wanted to know how he knew it was ready, and he told me to crank the handle. I remember as hard as I tried I could not turn the handle, that he was turning so easily. That Ice Cream was the best.:):):D

I remember, as a kid, trying really hard to like watermelon. We started the summer out with grilled steaks, baked potatoes, homemade ice cream and watermelon on the 4th of July. Ditto on my birthday, July 13. And my sister's birthday, July 20, then my brothers' birthdays on August 5 and 23. So in six weeks we did this five times. And I just didn't like watermelon, but I thought I should. I bet I was thirty years old before I finally said, No thanks, I just don't like it!

However, I do LOVE homemade icecream. I will always remember my brothers with the rock salt, ice and ice pick and a big blue quilt for insulation, cranking on the ice cream maker .. again, five times in six weeks. It was my job to sit on it and hold it down so they could turn the handle harder. LOL

I like homemade hamburgers with chips and dip and potato/macaroni salad. Always reminds me of summer evenings with friends and family. And root beer floats (although I hate root beer alone) reminds me of going to the A&W drive-in with my teenage brothers when I was a little girl. I thought I was all that!

I have many favorite foods, including many I can no longer eat, but I don't associate them with any particular memories, maybe because I had a pretty happy childhood? Every holiday has favorite foods associated with it in my mind, and some have a particular person - Banana Bread is Uncle Mac's - I've shared his recipe here, butterscotch sauce and hot fudge sauce are Aunt Bertha - even those it's technically her sister Betty's butterscotch sauce recipe, Betty was dead before I was even born, so I associated them with Bertha - but lots of things I love just because!

Christmas cookies :)

Baking christmas cookies with my mom every year is one of thsoe memories I will always cherish. Baking those cookies always meant the family was coming over.

I would "help" her. I had my own apron and oven mitts and they had ladybugs on them.

and our dog (a black miniature schnauzer) woudl always be underfoot and her back would always end up covered in flour. haha

Good time foods ... from high school, hot fudge sundaes; from college, popcorn with butter, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Amaretto stone sours or Bartles and Jaymes wine coolers.

Good time foods - what a great topic!

Spaghetti and Meatballs - every Sunday we went to my grandparents house (Dad's folks). The whole family gathered. Nonna and Nonno made the meal, and we all ate. Did this from when I was born through until Nonno died in 1985, about 37 years.

I'll echo baking Christmas cookies with my Mum, too! Oh I didn't think until I read the prior post, those were great times! I rolled things in powdered sugar, licked the beaters and scraped the bowls. I was SO much help, especially in those earlier years, that Mum often insisted Dad be home while she baked! :D

Italian Ice - Lemon or Almond flavors. We never had a/c in Dad's house, still don't! (He was against it when I insisted on adding it to my house here, when I bought it; and guess who is first to ask to put it on? Anyway . . . ) Hot summer nights, the extended family would gravitate to the grandparents house. Uncle Joe and later his son, my cousin, Guy, would go "down town" to the Italian shop and return with Italian Ice. A few times, I got to ride with Guy on his motorcycle! It was tricky trying to hold the cardboard cartons on the way home, I really wanted to hold ON, ha haa.

Tuna fish sandwiches and cheese puffs. Growing up we spent a every chance we got on my dad's boat. We lived in NY and mostly took the boat out on Lake Ontario. Every time we'd go out in the boat my dad would make us tuna fish sandwiches with little bits of celery in them. We very often had a bag of cheese puffs too.

I have tons of good memories of corn roasts and family get togethers and baking holiday candies and cookies, but food is food and a memory is a memory. I'm partial to foods I like but can't connect many to childhood. I like catfish and cornbread but didn't ever eat catfish until college. I like grilled chicken sandwiches but not until about high school. I've always liked ice cream and still do. I don't turn to food for comfort. To me food is a necessity for living, a waste of my time, and its a pain in my pocketbook. The longer I go without food the better off I am. I do have least favorites. I hate Italian food and I hate watermelon.

I have the memories of homemade ice cream too. I was also the one to sit on it so the "big" kids could turn the crank. Then grandma got an electric one, but the ice cream wasn't as good.

My mom always makes pies for Easter and Thanksgiving (used to be Xmas too). So I always helped her make the fillings. I would stir the mix on the stove while she prepared the crust (homemade crusts). We made coconut, lemon and just an instant pudding chocolate pie. This year I missed out helping her with the pies. Since she is retired she made the crusts during the day before I got there. Then she made the coconut filling when I was doing something else (I don't even know what). She didn't make a lemon pie.

I guess mine would have to be carrot cake. It's always what I wanted for my birthday so mom would make it for me. The bestest cake ever! Besides what could be more fun than a birthday?!