Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

Beans Beans Beans... What Did You Grow Up On? - Regional Foods & Brands

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TJ:
I grew up mostly in Rogers County, Oklahoma. I was born in the Cherokee community of Tiawah which is now south of Claremore, the county seat. Except for living as a baby in Los Angeles when Dad worked for Douglas Aircraft during WWII, we never lived in a real city until we moved to Tulsa when I was in the 11th grade.

We had all kinds of beans to eat when I was growing up. I tolerated "blackeyed peas," which were not peas but beans.

We were just lower-middle-class or lower-class income type people. We lived in the country quite a few times, too and then the milk and eggs we had was as fresh as fresh could be.

There were times we had very little to eat; but, we never starved, because the LORD provided.

Someone had given us some blackstrap molasses which most people used as a health tonic and it was bitter when taken straight. But, mom used it with ginger spice and vanilla and made molasses cookies. It was almost like Jesus changing the water into wine; they tasted like they were made with regular dark molasses.

I also liked Spam growing up and I still like it. I buy a few cans of it every month.

One thing that I just liked naturally when I was growing up was Tex-Mex type foods. Mom would buy "Chili Bowl" brand mix which was made the size of a regular red brick. You added water and some more meat to make the chili.

Now in my old age, 63, I consider Picante Salsa to be a major food group.

Rayn:
My folks are from New York city, so I was brought up on a lot of different foods that they liked. My father taught my mother how to cook and is still better in the kitchen today.  He makes a mean New York Italian spaghetti sauce from a family recipe (we have Italians in the family) and a hearty lamb stew that is great on cold winter nights, but what I liked best from the local area I grew up in (Southern California) was Mexican foods like tamales, enchiladas, tacos, tostados, chile verde or carnittas. 

The best beans to me were pinto beans or navy beans always cooked with a ham hock for flavor.  We also were friends with a Native American tribe and ate amazing food at feasts when the men came home after hunts.  Venison was cooked in stews and served with hominy and stone oven baked bread, but you know what my very favorite thing to eat as a boy was?  I loved plain old Campbell’s Pork and Beans from the can with a package of franks and lots of ketchup on top!  LOL 

Yep.  I still eat that as a "comfort food"... that or homemade Macaroni and Cheese also with ketchup.  It doesn't take too much to please me.  I'm a man of simple and often ordinary tastes.

Surely,
Rayn

Jeff Wrangler:
I grew up in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Amish Country (think of Witness, with Harrison Ford). New Jersey may call itself the Garden State, but for generations Lancaster County has billed itself as the Garden Spot of America.

Since it's now late spring and summer is a-comin' in, my thoughts are turning to the locally grown produce we feasted on. First, at this time of year, local strawberries and what we in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country know as "sugar peas" but the rest of the world knows as "snow peas."

How that staple of Asian cooking made its way to the Dutch Country I have no idea, but they have been grown in Central Pennsylvania long enough to be considered a part of "traditional" Pennsylvania Dutch cooking.

Later in the summer we had the best tomatoes in the civilized world, and the same for the sweet corn. I have fond memories of going to a farm market with my parents, buying white sweet corn that had been picked that morning, and having it for supper that evening. (Yes, my family was close enough to its rural roots that we had "supper," just like Ennis and Jack.)

As for brand names, Campbell's was big in our area, too. I lived close enough to my elementary school that I was able to go home for lunch every day, and usually my mother had Campbell's soup for me for lunch. Campbell's Vegetable Beef is still my favorite. Also, while the rest of the world stuffed itself with Hostess snack cakes, we had southeastern Pennsylvania's own brand, Tastykake!

We also had a local dairy that specialized in milk from Guernsey cows. You don't see Guernsey dairy herds any more, because farmers switched to Holsteins, which give more milk per pound of feed, but Guernsey milk has a higher butterfat content. When I was 4 years old, I nearly died of a ruptured appendix, and I lost a lot of weight during my illness. As I was recovering, my mother gave me Guernsey milk to fatten me up. Boy, did it ever!

My favorite comfort food is still homemade macaroni and cheese, prepared according to my mother's recipe, baked in a casserole dish with tomato sauce included among the layers of elbow macaroni and cheese slices.

2robots4u:
Hi all, I just found this thread and have enjoyed reading it.  I remember my mom and aunt telll us kids about what they could and could not get during WWII (I was born in 1942).  As a young boy in the south we ate pinto beans almost every day, but after coming to Calif my mom still cooked the southern way...pinto beans and cornbread.  I finally rebelled and refused to eat almost every kind of bean made, except good ole Campbell's Pork and Beans.  I have since resumed eating pinto beans, but now they are called refried beans and I eat them only on a Mexican plate.

I don't recall food labels until I took an interest in cooking (when your interest is eating, and I did enjoy it as I was a skinny kid who could never gain enough weight, you don't pay attention to brands).  In So. Cal we had most of the national brands and a few not-so-familiar brands.  Over the years I have seen more and more new brands and the spreading of brands usually found in a specific region of the country.  With the up-start of "speciality" stores (Trader Joe's for instance) it became possible to find almost any brand you wanted...of course, cost was a major factor in whether or
not you bought it.  And now, with the constant buying/selling of food companies, you'll find those delicious sweet roll you love so much, are actually made by Alpo Dog Food Co.  But we still eat them, don't we?

mvansand76:
Boerenkool met worst (Curly cale with mashed potatoes and sausage)
Zuurkool stamppot (Sauerkraut with mashed potatoes and sausage)
Bloemkool, aardappelen en vlees!
Vla, sperziebonen,...

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