Mama | vmac+cheese

A meal in the sky

Posted on August 12, 2008 by vmacandcheese

This last weekend in Tahoe marked the fourth time in my life that I’ve been tubing. The first two times were at Camp Texlake, a Girl Scout camp I only visited for two summers when I was probably 6 and 7. The third time was in the summer of 1997. I was about to enter the 8th grade.

In the middle of that summer, the family decided to take a lengthy trip up to Ohio and West Virginia. And why the eff would you do something crazy like that?, you wonder. Truthfully, I can’t say I blame you. I consider my gentleman friend one of the best things to come out of Ohio, but beyond that, Cedar Point, and Lola…well, let’s just say that I’m not exactly hankering to move to the Midwest any time soon.

The real reason we visited Ohio that summer was to see Beej’s brother, Larry. At the time, Larry was living in Columbus, in a lovely home with a nice garden. He also had a boat on Buckeye Lake, which was a pretty big draw for me.

When we first arrived in Columbus, my mother had pulled Larry to the side and explained to him that I was 12, and growing, and that I ate a lot. Like, seriously, A LOT. That I needed to be fed regularly, in large doses, preferably with something cheesy, lest I turn into a whiny, complaining, grumpy, back-talking little monkey. Larry could only guffaw at my mother’s claims, which were seemingly exaggerations.

“I kid not,” she said, “All that kid thinks about is food. Food food food food food.”

“It can’t be that bad,” he’d told her, with a wave of the hand. And even after the first few days in Columbus, when I’d wake up and demand Instant Ramen for breakfast — sometimes along with a Pop-Tart, or dry cereal, or croutons, or all of the above — he didn’t think too much of it.

But then, we went boating. And he realized exactly what my mother meant. (more…)

Filed under: Childhood, Food, Mama, Travels | Leave a Comment »

Remembering how we used to eat…

Posted on August 6, 2008 by vmacandcheese

Shrimp boils.

My mom and dad loved having these as a weeknight meal. They were quick to put together, fun to eat, and best of all, very easy to clean up. Often, my mother would purchase pounds of shrimp and store them in the freezer, saving them for a day when we wanted a hearty meal that could be put together in minutes. To serve the cooked and seasoned shrimp, we’d lay out a bit of newspaper on the table along with cocktail sauce and a big empty bowl to hold all the shells. Then, we’d sit around peeling and eating shrimp and corn on the cob until we were completely stuffed. I loved how messy and laid back it was — for once, I didn’t have to worry about clean hands or holding my fork correctly (In my constant race to shove as much food into my mouth as possible, it was inevitable that 9 times out of 10, I wasn’t holding my fork properly. My mother was always happy to point this out. She say, “Hold your fork correctly,” in a very stern, no-nonsense voice, and I’d throw her a dirty look because adjusting my fork meant I went a nanosecond without eating. How dare you, mother.).

There is also a seafood boil place in downtown Austin called The Boiling Pot which I liked a lot as a kid, though we would nearly always order crawdads there. Being somewhat of a picky crawdad eater, I couldn’t eat any of the tail meat if there was even a speck of crawdad guts on it, so I was constantly scooping the crustaceans’ innards out with a plastic knife, then scraping them on the newspaper-covered table (lovely). Once, my entire side of the table was completely smeared with the blue and green and brown guts of dozens of crawdads, like a culinary Jackson Pollock. It’s blasphemous to nearly everyone in Cajun country, but I just couldn’t reconcile sucking those little half-bodies.

Filed under: Childhood, Food, Late Night, Mama | Leave a Comment »

Take it like a lady.

Posted on July 30, 2008 by vmacandcheese

Nearly every weekend beginning around the age of 8, my mother would take me to a local Chinese restaurant that served traditional dim sum. For me, growing up in a culture that treated barbecue like haute cuisine, ordering chicken feet salad and shrimp wet noodle off roaming carts was just about the most exotic and exciting thing ever. I loved the instant gratification of dim sum: I see it, I eat it. And the dumplings, oh, the dumplings. Steamed dumplings were my love, my vice, my McNuggets. (more…)

Filed under: Childhood, Food, Mama | 1 Comment »

The other pink meat

Posted on July 23, 2008 by vmacandcheese

Growing up, the meat of choice in our house was pork. My mom LOVED pork. Stuffed pork tenderloin. Pork loin chops. Pork shoulder chops. Chops broiled or grilled or (shudder) microwaved with a can of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup and served with buttered egg noodles (the dinner of champions!). There wasn’t a lot of chicken consumption going on in our house (mom thought it was boring), and red meat was a special occasion thing. But oh, the pig.

I always liked pork a lot, too — I loved the flavor, and I REALLY loved how it went with pretty much anything. One thing I DIDN’T love was the texture. Being a baby boomer, my mother was convinced that pork could not have a speck of pink in it, lest we all get food poisoning and end up shitting our pants for the next week. OR DIE. (more…)

Filed under: Food, Mama | Leave a Comment »

Apparently, I spent too much time in Berkeley last weekend

Posted on July 22, 2008 by vmacandcheese

Let me preface this post by saying that I’ve been in a bit of a freelance doldrums lately. See, part of the beauty of being a young fledgling writer is that you’re FLEDGLING. You have to embrace the fact that you don’t know when your next big break (or your next paycheck for that matter) is coming. The payoff is that you can sleep in when you feel like it and arrange lots of fun lunch dates.

When I get into said doldrums, I usually try to take a step back and see what I could be doing differently in life to redirect energy and get some momentum. And last Friday, I decided more energy needed to be focused on my workspace. (more…)

Filed under: Career Woman, Just thinking..., Mama | Leave a Comment »

« Previous Page — Next Page »