Here's a memory for you:
In the late 1990's or early 2000's the Golden Corral restaurants were on our list of affordable dining options. With 3 kids to feed our budget was too tight to even consider dining out but we often did anyway. I remember one afternoon at the buffet we had enjoyed a big dose of comfort foods and were looking seriously toward the dessert buffet.
Let me pause here to give you some background information on Levi Adron. He had struggled for years with allergies, runny nose, asthma-like bronchitis, weepy eyes, ear infections - you name it! Levi had it. Levi also had a tendency to only eat the foods on the approved (by Levi) list. Fine dining options like pizza, French fries, bologna sandwiches, and tacos with no veggies were on the list. The unapproved list was relatively short as it included 2 foods: those grown in dirt and those that looked yucky.
Like most parents I liked my kids to step out every now and then to try something new. And while I did not expect them to embrace a Brussels sprout I thought a carrot to be a doable option. Statistically, 2 out of 3 boys can handle that. More noteworthy, 1 in 3 boys will expel carrots along with approved list buffet choices all over a public table in a crowded Golden Corral.
It was my fault. I bribed him with ice cream. Taste one carrot, I said, and I will let you have ice cream.
It wasn't until a few years later that he was officially tested and determined to be allergic to carrots as well as many other foods. Parenthetically he tested positive to a milk, thus ice cream, allergy as well but we never wasted that in a instant replay in a public place.
I remember very little about my childhood in comparison to the memories my sister has stashed away. Bits of stories are pieced together with other memories. Dates and places are confused and blurred. Sometimes as I recall an event to my mother she will politely unscramble the timelines to remind me of how and where it actually happened. Maybe because I am the baby I was too young to remember clearly? Maybe because I blend what I remember with what I have been told? Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention?
One thing I do remember is the super duper daddy egg sandwich! I don't know when we first had it and why we felt the need to name it but I remember clearly breakfast for supper and the super duper daddy egg sandwich. My dad was an experimental chief. One of his most famous original recipes was the spaghetti omelette. It was triple-D worthy before Guy was old enough to drive that convertible.
The super duper daddy egg sandwich was indeed super duper. Yard eggs with just a touch of milk scrambled in the electric skillet then piled on white bread with just a thin smear of Miracle Whip at nine o'clock in the evening when we probably should have been in the bed. Makes my mouth water to think about it! There was only one secret ingredient that made us belly up to the kitchen bar for such a treat and that was the event created by the fry cook himself. It was all in the presentation. The enthusiasm he had for cooking with his kids gathered around. The way my mom readied the next step as if she was preparing a path for him to delight his children. The choreography as they worked around the skillet together. I guess if my daddy had plated duck feather marinated in creosote I would have grabbed a fork and jumped in. Kitchen memories are the best!
Fast forward to Levi in 2017, the allergies have settled, he passed the peanut challenge (that's a story that he would not like to see in print). Levi married his high school sweetheart as his mother did and every Sunday after church we gather four generations around the table; his grandmother, his parents, his brothers and sister-in-law, his niece and nephews and his bride. I am often amazed at the servings he dishes onto his plate; mashed potatoes with gravy, pastas that are not Mac and cheese. I even saw him smear a little basil garlic pesto onto his sandwich last Sunday.
I consider Levi's picky eating habits when I plan a meal but it is nice to see him try new foods, maybe expand the approved list. Don't get me wrong I don't push him too much. I learned my lesson at the Golden Corral. I think it is that super duper young lady that grew up beside him that makes life and lunch worth sampling.
No comments:
Post a Comment