Nostalgic foods from childhood

Cap'n Crunch!

I believe the Fruity Pebbles and a bunch of other cereals recently reduced the sugar content slightly, OP. FPs used to be over 50% sugar by weight.

rock candy

Marshmallow Fluff!

I've wondered how Tang tastes now. Or Sunny D. I used to be obsessed with both as a kid.

Vi-eena sausages and potted meat.

Post Alpha-bits.

Campbell’s chicken soup that my mom would serve with pb&j. I decided to try it again recently—haven’t had in decades. Like drinking a cup of salt with a littke water in it. Guess we were all raised with little but salt and sugar.

[quote]Marshmallow Fluff

I was going to say the fluffernutter sandwich. Also, a peanut butter and maple syrup sandwich is really good,

Some things that were a staple when I was a kid were Spam sandwiches, deviled ham, and Hamburger Helper. I haven’t had any of those for decades.

Those cereal companies are such scammers. The commercials said "Part of your complete breakfast". As a kid all I heard was "Your complete breakfast" so assumed they were healthy.

Unfortunately my mother thought it was a good idea to attempt to raise kids while still working full time, so every shortcut was taken.

Space Food Sticks

Metrical Bars

Fizzies

Candy Cigarettes

Mr Pibb

Canada Dry Taihatian Treat

Those first upscale microwavable TV dinners that came on the round plastic plate that everybody's mother would save.

EEEW R6. My mom used to LOVE potted meat on saltines. I'm pretty sure it was ground up lips and assholes they swept up on the slaughterhouse floor.

Some company came out with a reboot of Fizzies awhile back and they were very disappointing.

Rice-a-roni, the San Francisco treat!

R12 Le Menu? I loved those.

My dad still has a few of those plates for the microwave, r16

Freakies Cereal

Yes R16!!! The name escaped me! I remember those being pretty tasty and coming in at around 600 to 700 calories each. After my mother died my father lived on these!! I remember cleaning out the house after my father died with my older brother and we found probably about 200 of these plates this was before the days of recycling. Everybody thought the plates were too nice to just throw out so they kept them.

Wonder why Swanson or some other frozen dinner maker doesn't bring LeMenu back?

LeMenu-how elegant!

Dried squid with red dye coating was my fave snack. I'd buy a pack and chew on it at the Saturday movie matinee.

Oreos (not Double Stuff)- They changed something about the flour in the cookies so it now makes me sick. The filling has less flavor than Crisco.

Hostess Ding Dongs and Cupcakes- Same thing as the flour with the Oreos and the chocolate tastes like wax.

I would love to find Wildwood black cherry soda. It's supposedly still being made, but it's not to be found around here.

Anyone remember the old Pop Shops in the late 70s, where you could go in and mix or match pop in glass bottles. You got so many for such a price. Then you got so much off your next purchase when you returned the bottles. I loved their brand of cola.

Prime Choice steak sauce

The only thing I would like to eat, again, would be those Swanson or Banquet chicken pot pies. I don't think they're the same, now, so I wouldn't even buy one, today.

Fizzies were fun but God, they tasted horrible.

Tapioca pudding and Rennert Custard.

Anything Chef Boyardee.

Uh-oh...

No, my tastebuds have really changed. Used to love Reese's cups and other candy bars and now I find them too sweet and one-dimensional. Loved Chunkies but the old ones with hazelnuts and raisins.

Mary Kitchen corned beef hash....

Again?

Yeah, Chunkies! I agree, R29, I used to love them.

R32 how ironic. Now you ARE Chunky

Taylor Pork Roll. The gourmet delicacy of a New Jersey childhood, on a hard roll with scrambled eggs and melted American cheese. I had it again after forty years away and I couldn't finish it, it was so salty.

I miss beef. You used to be able to buy a steak and it was actually tender. Today's meat is so tough and the ground beef tastes completely different.

[quote]Recently I made an impulse purchase of a small box and almost gagged at how sweet it was.

I'll bet the gagging brought back some memories too, you WHORE.

How about a nice Hawaiian Punch?

[quote]R12: Mr Pibb

Coca-Cola is currently marketing Pibb Zero in 12pk cans. I have some. Still tastes like a Dr Pepper.

Scrapple is delicious! It too is probably lips and beaks from the slaughterhouse floor.

Nacho Cheese Cheetos

Recently I have been craving sugary cereal a lot. I barely ate it for decades and now I like to have a bowl before bedtime. I have been trying to stay away from chips so I guess I've just replaced one crunchy empty carb for another.

Speaking of chips, I still get occasional cravings for Fritos and Doritos. I used to love Doritos with that orange nacho "cheese" dip.

Count Chocula. Loved it.

Weaver’s boxes of frozen assorted fried chicken pieces.

Instant butterscotch pudding.

Taco flavor Doritos. I think they're still available, but not reliably.

I used to love Hershey’s Cookies & Cream bars, but now I find white chocolate far too sweet. If I’m having chocolate, I much prefer dark now.

Brachs used to make mellowcreme bells (white=vanilla, red=cherry, and green=lime flavors) for Christmas, and mellowcreme pets for Easter (pastel colors in various flavors), like they still have mellowcreme pumpkins and candy corn for Halloween. Farley candies made some variation of mellowcremes, but they were all one flavor (they tasted like shit).

Space Food Sticks

Bugles and Daisies

Snack Pack Pudding (Don't lick the lid!)

Underwood Chicken Spread

Granny Goose Potato Chips

Most of the industrial food of our youth does NOT taste like it did 50 or 60 years ago. Ingredients have changed drastically. For the worse. A few items may have stayed the same. Maybe the very rare product might have improved. For example, corn syrup replaced cane sugar starting in the 70s. Lard was removed in the 80s. Hideous industrial oils replaced lard and butter, generally. Industrial food is extremely processed nowadays. Think of the industrial ingredients used in a can of Campbell chicken noodle soup. The frankenvegetables, crap oils, and frankenchicken. They are probably using the most revolting chicken imaginable.

Make a pie and use lard for the crust, and fruit, and cane sugar. = yum make a pie with crap oils, and artificially flavored goo made with corn syrup = 🤢🤮

Chipped beef on toast

I still have Cap'n Crunch from time to time (or the store brand, Stolen Valor Crunch 😄 ).

I know what you mean r45…

R13

Yes, space food sticks! They were huge during the Apollo years - we loved them.

I made a great retro taco salad with Doritos Taco flavor, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, onions, hamburger sautéed with taco seasoning packet, some chile beans, and finished with a bottle f Catalina French dressing. Very 1972.

[quote] it was ground up lips and assholes

Food of the gods and breakfast of champions!

Angel Delight was a treat that as a child I would only be allowed to have at my grandmother’s house.

After she died a few years ago, in my grief I bought a pack. It tasted like shit and it made me cry.

These!

Pretty much a staple in high school when I'd get high with my friends. Dunked in hot tea....bliss!

I love that they're available in the US at just about any Indian market and, of course, Amazon.

Another 80s frozen food staple in my house was Budget Gourmet pepper steak. My mom would make extra rice to stretch it out a bit more. I found something similar at the store recently and it was too salty.

Also, I ate a lot of American Chop Suey as a kid and it just seems like a cheap pile of glop to me now.

R29 nothing tastes the same but I don’t think it’s our older taste buds.

The price of sugar over the decades, plus the price of everything else had the candy makers change their recipes, use cheap ingredients…. I can’t eat American chocolate anymore…it taste like shit

I used to love Little Debbie snack cakes, but I’ve tried them as an adult and they taste like shit. Or at least styrofoam with sugary wax on top.

Ritz crackers are still delish.

Cap'n Crunch with crunchberrries.

I used to think that they should just make a cereal of crunchberries. Then, they did and I realized that you could, in fact, have too much of a good thing.

R46 I wish they had the self-serve Brachs dispensers back in stores... I sure miss Brachs.

I ate quite a few Lunchables in my youth.

Cocoa Pebbles was my favorite cereal. Second was Cookie Crisp. I have no idea how that ever made it to store shelves -- it's literally miniature cookies you're supposed to dunk in milk. Part of a "complete breakfast" my ass.

Malt-O-Meal

Loved spaghetti with butter, garlic salt, and parmesan. Still do.

Tostitos nacho cheese flavored tortilla chips. The round ones. They were more crispy than crunchy. Better than Doritos, and you could eat more without getting lockjaw.

I always loved those cereals that were part of a complete breakfast. If you had toast, juice and milk with them. And maybe some fruit or a couple of fried eggs and a little bacon or some oatmeal or something. You know.

Chicken McNuggets are in fact ground up chicken lips and assholes

R68 chickens have lips? I thought they had beaks

They have lips

Lips n assholes. Lips n assholes

Cereal plus toast and fruit juice sounds redundant. And I love carbs.

R53, my family made that same salad w/the taco-flavored Doritos, seasoned (packet) hamburger, and bottled (orange-colored) salad dressing. You could probably throw in some shredded cheddar cheese. It was pretty tasty.

Cube steak…my mother always made these. So tough. Like shoe leather. She worked so she didn’t have much time to throw a meal together. She’d serve it with canned beef gravy, canned peas or string beans and fries. But the fries were never crispy enough; she’d pan fry them. It wasn’t my favorite meal by any means but I remember feeling bad for her because my dad would get home from work before she did, but seldom lifted a finger to cook, unless it was something for himself, the prick.

[quote]taco-flavored Doritos

Taco flavored Doritos are TASTY - much better than nacho cheese flavored.

I used to find them occasionally, but haven't seen them recently. Apparently, they still make them, but finding them isn't easy.

My aunt made that taco salad and I loved it so much I would ask for it on my birthday. Hadn't thought of it in years, so thanks for the trip down Memory Lane!

Chewy Chip Ahoy! Cookies

When I was a kid they were my favorite but when they started cutting trans fats from food in the US around 2003 they completely changed the recipe and they've tasted like complete shit ever since.

I don't even know if they're around anymore, I haven't seen them in a while.

King Vitaman... have breakfast with the king

Did anybody make / eat this Jell-O poke cake. The frosting was instant pudding, IIRC. The streaks in the cake were Jell-O. Box cake mix (yellow), of course.

My grandma used to make rainbow color jello cakes for me as a small child. She must have known her grandson was a burgeoning homosexual.

[quote] Taco flavored Doritos are TASTY - much better than nacho cheese flavored. I used to find them occasionally, but haven't seen them recently. Apparently, they still make them, but finding them isn't easy.

Trader Joe's has taco-flavored gouda cheese.

Late July (brand name) lime-flavored tortilla chips remind me of the Doritos taco-flavored chips. Give them a try, if you can.

Those are fabulous but not easy to find.

Once we were big enough to use the stove, Mom pretty much left us to our own devices much of the time in terms of meals. So I made a lot of Stouffer's French Bread Pizza (with those little pepperoni triangles). Needless to say, vegetables were not a priority.

Pop Tarts. They were our go-to for quick breakfasts or lunch. They are loaded with preservatives, high fructose corn syrup and have little nutritional value at all, but my brother and I loved them. My dad would get annoyed with us because we could kill off a box of them in a day.

[quote]Trader Joe's has taco-flavored gouda cheese.

WHAT? I've NEVER seen this. I need to find this immediately.

It sounds like a fat whore's heaven on earth.

[quote] Loved spaghetti with butter

Butter 'n 'sketti for dinner!

Fruit Roll Ups

R85 my favorite flavor is the brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts. Sometimes I heat them up and put ice cream on top of them…delicious.

r89 They're also good with butter.

When I was a child in the 1960s, Kellog's had people deliver this new product called Pop Tarts. You got a few small packages with different flavors, stuffed into plastic bags which were left on your porch, your mailbox, or hanging from a door handle.

I think all the flavors were different iterations of red, strawberry, raspberry, and cherry, and there was no glaze. I thought they were alright, but nothing I asked my parents to pick up at the store afterwards. My father used to bring them home when he did the shopping. He liked them.

Archway Cookies. One had a soft, oatmeal base filled with a center blob of raspberry jam. There was also another oatmeal sandwich version.

I also remember a drink called something like Zarex, a concentrated syrup in a brown bottle. It stained the counter in our cabin permanently. That stain is still visible 50 years later.

I also recall ice cream cakes from Carvel. The cake part was sort of hard and scratchy, and not too sweet. Soft serve ice cream really looked like diarrhea when we bought it at the mall. Also a drink called Orange Julius.

Also a sandwich shop called Blimpie. I remember ordering a hamburger submarine that was heated in a microwave, but that technology was very new and it seemed like magic.

Bosco

Ovaltine

Frosted Shake

Shake-a-Puddin'

[quote]I've wondered how Tang tastes now. Or Sunny D. I used to be obsessed with both as a kid.

A gayling obsessed with tang? 😂

Pillsbury Figurines

I found the commercial for Shake-a-Puddin'! I was five years old, and I thought you had to dance like the kids in the commercial to get it to work (r93).

Yodels an Twinkies are not very good.

I always thought Pop-Tarts tasted like cardboard.

Do they still make Yoo Hoo, that chocolate milk drink? I used to love it as a kid but now I think it would make me gag.

[quote] Dried squid with red dye coating was my fave snack. I'd buy a pack and chew on it at the Saturday movie matinee.

r22 Lol. You can't be American.

Animal crackers. Don’t crave ‘em.

Start - powdered orange drink, better than Tang

Screaming Yellow Zonkers - buttery caramel popcorn, but what was printed on the box was very funny

Wise potato chips- loved the BBQ flavor. Used to be greasier, but very tasty. Wise still exists, but seems all their potato chips now are baked.

Isaly’s ice cream - available in cafeteria stores around Ohio/West Virginia/western Pennsylvania. Excellent ice cream, multiple flavors. My favorite was Rainbow! (Now doesn’t that tell you something!) They slso made Klondike bars. Isaly’s has since gone under, but Klondikes have gone nationwide.

Friendly’s - loved their burgers once upon a time, which were served on grilled bread. No longer.

Did anyone have Charles Chips delivered to their house? My grandparents did. Chips and pretzels…so good, y’all.

Oh goody, they still exist…I may order some and have them delivered to my office and share them with the people at the military base where I work.

Yep, we had them delivered to our house, R103.

R101 I love Animal Crackers. I crave em

Asshole

When I was quite young my grandmother (who I didn’t see all that often) always had fun treats. One that I really loved was PDQ. Chocolate and strawberry were great, but I was over the moon on the occasions that she had eggnog PDQ on-hand.

The Who sing the praises of Great Shakes.

The sassy one...

Hamburger Helper Kudos cereal bars Klondike bars

Hamburger Helper? Oh, dear.

Schwan's chicken cordon bleu! I think my mom thought it was upper crust food because it had a fantsy name. It was in her 80s Dynasty/Dallas phase.

That shit looks vile!

R108 why did your grandma buy pretty damn quick food for you?? Did she despise you?

Pogens ginger cookies

Nostalgic?

“Hamburger gravy.” When times were tough, Mom bought a pound of ground chuck, browned it in a skillet, added flour, salt, pepper, and milk to make a gray-colored gravy. She served it over toasted white bread or Minute Rice, to feed a family of five.

Cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches.

Hominy boiled with hambones for hours served with cooked cabbage.

R115 - that’s just the thing… the don’t think she bought any of it for me, I think it’s what she ate/drank on the daily.

Creamed tuna on toast. Optional: green peas.

When we were older we were allowed to bake these when we got home from school.

Half the dough got eaten raw though.

La Choy Chow Mein, a disgusting gelatinous glop. I think the only edible part were the fried noodles.

For a brief moment, SHAKE-A-PUDDING was something I use to eat when I was a kid. This was around the mid-60's. It came with a cup, the pudding mixes and you filled the cup halfway with water. Place the top on, shake it and voila, pudding. It was actually pretty good, but again, I was 6 years old at the time. It was discontinued a few years later.

Here's the commercial:

This is so weird. I just found this thread today. For some reason yesterday I was thinking about Boo Berry cereal and how much I loved it as a kid. Growing up we would get it as a special treat once in a while. I went on Amazon and there it was for a good price so I ordered a box. I’ll let you know tomorrow if it’s still any good!

R121– me, too—I loved those La Choy fried noodles. I’d also pour maple syrup on them to sweeten them up.

R123 - I loved that too! Can’t wait to hear if holds up.

R121 we ate that LaChoy chow mein when I was growing up (my mom really liked it), but I remember the label being orange.

[quote]Canada Dry Taihatian Treat

I miss Tahiti Treat. It's pretty much impossible to find here now.

[quote] Hamburger Helper? Oh, dear.

Remember the jingle? Hamburger Helper helped her hamburger help her ...

We had Charles chips delivery. Though my father grumbled as he found them expensive. Am I misremembering. They also delivered chocolate covered pretzels?

R125 it arrived yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet. I shall update with my review soon.

I used to love Poptarts - my grandmother always stocked our favorites when we came to visit. I don't know what happened, but Poptarts are nearly inedible now. Same with Little Debbie - now they taste like their main ingredient is wax

R131 I agree about Little Debbie. I used to be addicted to those nutty buddies when I was a kid. I tried some last year and they were just OK. The peanut butter and wafers were fine but the chocolate coating tasted like chocolate wax and ruined the whole thing. If the company would improve the chocolate on the outside it could be so much better!

R132 Did you notice the word "chocolateY"? That means it can't be called "chocolate." Same goes for things identifed as "fudge" or "fudgy."

Interesting R133. I did not know that. They sure could improve the nutty bar by just covering it with chocolate. It tastes too artificial the way it is now.

We discovered that ersatz Pixie Sticks and Lik-M-Aid could be had by substituting boxes of Jell-O.

Pop Tarts had a rival for a few years…called toaster streudel or something like that….

Toaster Strider is still around, and objectively better than Pop Tarts, but doesn't inspire nearly the same nostalgia.

I'm sure I've posted it here before but I loved Weaver chicken roll. It was, I think, all the various white meat parts of the chicken deboned and put into a deli roll. It was delicious.

Crap!

R39 I had scrapple for the very first time on a road trip across the USA. I think it was somewhere in Amish Country. I lost 2 days of my life getting over how ill I became. I recall being in the back seat and waking up in Tenn. with my boyfriend of the timeframe. He had driven straight through I guess? It was painful..

My aunts used to make gobs (also called Whoopee Pies) which were soft, cake-like chocolate cookies with a frosting-like filling. It kind of makes me laugh that these cookies have recently turned into a trendy thing with all kinds of tricked out flavors.

I remember eating variations of Scrapple a few times but I don't think I ever had "true" Scrapple where it really was the worst remaining parts of any meat on an animal (usually pig) plus some kind of breading/flour etc to make it more filling.

I've become familiar with German cooking in the last several years and it's interesting to see some of the connections to what I remember from PA Dutch items.

There were paper straws that had like a strip of chocolate inside so you could put them in a regular glass of milk and sip and it would taste like chocolate milk.

I haven’t see YooHoo in ages but it’s like Milo, chocolate mixed with water. It’s actually more refreshing when it’s hot than chocolate milk which is too thick for my adult tastes.

[quote] Pop Tarts had a rival for a few years…called toaster streudel or something like that….

r136 Anyone remember Danish Go-Rounds?

Nobody remembers danish go rounds

I am a former pop tarts and toaster strudel addict

I enjoyed Capri Sun

R145 I forgot about these…they obviously didn’t leave an impression on me…

R123 here. I tried the Boo Berry cereal a few hours ago and it was OK. Not as sweet tasting or blueberry tasting as I remember. But that’s just me. If you like the cereal I would encourage you to buy a box and try for yourself. It’s less than seven bucks on Amazon.

It’s not a retro cereal but I really enjoy the new (to me) Fruit Loops with marshmallows. Very tasty!

R145 were those any good?

marathon bar, bacon chips

Thanks R123 R149

I’ve seen it at Grocery Outlet recently for $1. I was thinking it might be good just out of the box.

r142...

Hominy grits with milk and sugar. Almost every school day I ate it for breakfast. These days I prefer it savory with shrimp or scrambled eggs and cheese. The thought of eating it with milk and sugar today makes me urp.

Pop Rocks candy, Swanson's TV dinners, Ice Pops, Hersey's chocolate milk. .

Stouffer's Welsh Rarebit on toast.

[quote] Trader Joe's has taco-flavored gouda cheese.

What on earth is Trader Joe’s?

Greg, c’mon. You have to know about Trader Joe…their cookie butter is better than Biscoff’s.

R144 were they called Flavor Straws?

They sang this Love Me Tender when my father was growing up:

Love me tender

Love me raw

Suck me through a Flavor Straw

r144 r159 They were called Flav-R Straws. I loved them.

The go-to cookies we always had in the house when I was a kid were:

a) the Stella D'Oro "Lady Stella" variety pack. Loved those things.

b) these things we called "Japanese raisin cookies", but I've since learned are called Garibaldis. I think they were actually made from currants, not raisins. I wasn't that crazy about them, but there was something about the texture and the mouth feel of them that appealed to me. They were very moist and chewy, as I recall. If I ever came across them in a store, I'd buy them just for nostalgia's sake.

c) my absolute favorite were Flaky Flix, which were basically a multi layer wafer cookie dipped in chocolate, and then coated with little pieces of corn flakes. We didn't get them often, because they'd be gone within a couple of days.

Also, who remembers that dessert from the 70's that consisted of a mousse-like base, upon which you poured a layer of liquid chocolate, then chilled in the refrigerator until the chocolate solidified? I can't remember the name of it, but I remember liking it. I don't think it lasted very long on the market.

My family could cruise through a bag of Milano cookies in nothing flat. They’re still around obviously but they don’t taste as good.

Pepperidge Farm cookies used to be good; my mom generally didn't buy that stuff because it was too expensive, but she'd buy them during the holidays or some other special occasion. I believe PF has since been consumed by some larger food producer because the quality of their stuff is just terrible.

This seems to be the trend for baked products in general: cheaper ingredients + more chemicals to preserve it. But it's shame that there's really nothing (or very little) left between fresh, expensive baked good & cheap crap that lasts forever.

Hershey's golden candy bars. They were wrapped in gold foil and were thick, like a candy version of a gold brick. My mom and I loved them. We'd get one a couple times a week after she picked me up from school.

I have an aunt that would always make a pretzel jello mold and bring it to every holiday dinner.

Spoon Candy, r161! I remember loving that, especially the hard chocolate top. I think this came out long before Magic Shell.

Brach's Pick-A-Mix used to be a supermarket staple, but they've mostly disappeared today. I've been told they still exist here and there, but nowhere near me.

Mint cremes. Vanilla cremes. Caramels. Chocolate stars. Six different flavors of Royals. Peppermints. Custom mix your favorites and pay by the pound. Fat whore heaven.

^Oh, I forgot about that - everyone used to fight over the caramels! I also liked those weird candies with coconut & pink, white & chocolate stripes

Brown bread. With raisins SUPER MOIST. Comes in a fucking can.

R168 Brach’s made those

Has this old timey candy bar been mentioned?

In the mid-'60s we'd buy these at the Ben Franklin store.

The original brand of what we referred to a "cum gum".

Is gum considered a food? I used to love Fruit Stripe gum. Of course, all of the flavor would go away in about 30 seconds of chewing and you were left with bland nothing. But the first 30 seconds were heaven!

[quote] The original brand of what we referred to a "cum gum".

That would be Freshen Up, I believe.

That Seven Up bar looks amazing. I'm sorry I missed it!

I’ve never heard of that ^ candy bar or the company but it reminds me of the Sky Bar by New England Confectionery Co. it had four different flavors. The company made several other candies (eg Sweethearts that you see around Valentines Day) and when it went broke in 2018, all the machinery was sold off except no one wanted the machines to make Sky Bars which I found unbearably sad.

Swanson fried chicken tv dinner, bonus if no corn kernels fell in the brownie batter.

In the mid 70s I ate a lot of boil in a bag lunches. The one I remember most is the sliced turkey. My mom would put a slice of white Wonder bread on a plate. Once the meal was finished boiling, she’d cut it open and let the slices of turkey and a big amount of gravy saturate that bread.

My sister still makes some variation of icebox cake with graham crackers and pudding. I haven't had it in over 40 years. Now I'm craving it.

R124 = Walter Cunningham

Corned beef hash patties made with canned corned beef. With ketchup.

Bourbon.

Cold calamari on Christmas morning left over from the night before.

[quote] Greg, c’mon. You have to know about Trader Joe…their cookie butter is better than Biscoff’s.

Yes, R158, I do know about Trader Joe’s.

There’s one on Boylston Street that I can easily walk to from home. I sometimes purchase rack of lamb there.

[quote] if no corn kernels fell in the brownie batter

Corn? When did I have corn?

R144 These were the original straws.

Canned corn and peas. Can’t stomach them today. Either fresh or frozen, not canned.

I miss chicken meat floss - haven't had it since I was little!

[quote]Is gum considered a food?

Yes.

[quote]Chicken McNuggets are in fact ground up chicken lips and assholes

[quote]R68 chickens have lips? I thought they had beaks

[quote]They have lips

This exchange is hilarious.

Not exactly a food, but my mother used to fry *everything* in lard or bacon fat. Almost anything is palatable once it's been cooked in bacon fat.

R190 even Brussel sprouts?

R176 Rejoice, Skybars are still made. Your lucky fat whore day!

Skeet

My favorite.

My sister loved those Swedish fish candies. I thought they were gross.

Popcorn balls wrapped in colored cellophane

Calves' liver. Bacon was involved. Not sure if my dad liked it. My sister liked it. I think my mom would've made it more often if more of us liked it.

r194=Ingrid Bergman in "Murder on the Orient Express"

Saw this on Reddit - I had completely forgotten about them.

I give Fruity Pebbles cereal a pass for the sheer pointillism of the product once suspended in a bowl of milk. It’s a gorgeous work of art. So much so that it was presented to delighted oohs and ahs to the royal family of New Guinea as a dessert at a Gerald and Betty Ford state dinner.

Strawberry fruit roll ups from Betty Crocker

Danish-Go-Rounds were better than Pop Tarts

Dutch Twins chocolate stick cookies.

R176 I love Sky Bars too, and they’re making them again!

Shake 'n' Bake

R204 You have to buy a minimum of 24, which with shipping is $62. Those candy bars had better make me cum for that price!

Spanish Bar Cake and Hawaiian Delight, both from A&P, R.I.P.

Tastykake…when we had our school breakfast program in Philadelphia, we’d get their cupcakes and oatmeal raisin bars. But they didn’t taste like the stuff that we got from the corner store…they added vitamins to the recipe, giving them a rather odd taste. I am guessing that the School Board was acting on the advice from government nutritionists or something.

Spanish fly

Nasty Betty Crocker tuna twist box mix. The lazy person (my mom) way to fuck up tuna salad.

R210, when I was growing up we ate Tuna Helper (Hamburger Helper’s cousin?) pretty often. It was hot — kind of like Mac and cheese with canned tuna. Sounds so gross now, but I liked it as a kid.

Yes but we all know even gay kids have dubious tastes

[quote]Nasty Betty Crocker tuna twist box mix.

Betty--where's that tuna smell coming from?

Twigs, DooDads, Swiss Cheese Crackers, French Onion thin crackers

Screw you Nabisco for removing all the good snacks

Lucky Charms— I wanted to eat only those chemical “charms” that came in different colors and leave behind the soggy rest.

R211, We used to get Tuna Helper Tuna Tetrazzini. Never had Hamburger Helper. Tuna Tetrazzini was so damn good. My favorite.

I think they still make it. I might buy a box and attempt to reverse engineer it with slightly more respectable ingredients.

My least favorite thing was some abomination called "Barbecue Beef Cups." It went something like, cook and drain some ground beef and onion. Add a half bottle or so of barbecue sauce and mix well. Spray a muffin pan. Mix up some Bisquick batter and fill each muffin pan 'slot' about 1/2-2/3 full (again, I hated this stuff so I didn't watch closely, but this is the gist of it). Spoon barbecue hamburger (like a serving spoon amount) in the center of each portion of Bisquick in the muffin pan. Sprinkle each with cheese and bake at 350.

The rest of my family loved it, that's why I included the directions, just in case it sounded good to someone.

I learned in home ec to make the mini pizzas using the canned biscuit dough and ate those as a teenager.

Loved jelly beans at Easter as a kid. But they're not as good. It must be the corn syrup.

R215 I ate a whole box of Lucky Charms one afternoon and I kid you not, I shit horse shows and clover shapes late that night.

At Christmas time my Mom would make Chex Mix, she added lots of nuts to it.

I bought a bag of Chex Mix recently and they don't even give you peanuts any more, just dry ass breadsticks instead.

R214, I loved DooDads and Tidbits

r220 Whenever I buy the Cheddar flavor Chex Mix (my favorite), I always add a bunch of cocktail peanuts or dry-roasted peanuts to it and shake the bag real well.

Knox Blocks. Basically flavored jello wirh Knox unflavored gelatin added to thicken to the point they could be cut. I think Jello called them Jello jugglers a decade or so later.

I didn't realize how good I had it because my Mom used to make meals mostly from scratch all the time. My neighbor friend used to get tv dinners and I begged my Mom to buy me one. Also used to beg my Mom for the cheapie cardboard type frozen pizza, I thought it was the best.

Utz Pub Mix is a good substitute for Chex mix. It’s better than Chex mix, actually.

R224, the home of my wealthy ‘60s childhood friend had tv dinners - my family did not - so I grew up associating tv dinners with affluence.

Stouffer's french bread pizza and Steak-Umms. I was a fat whore latchkey kid for a few years, these were easy to make.

Gardettos snack mix is best of all, but it’s probably also the most deadly.

Every holiday someone would bring an Oreo crust pan filled with the seasonal peppermint ice cream for dessert.

Do they still make Scooter Pies? Addictive af.

R216, it sounds delicious to me, but I think it would be better if you put the barbecue beef in the bottom of the cups and spooned the biscuit mix on top, where it would puff up and brown. Then again, that wouldn’t be beef “cups”, and I don’t know how you’d serve it without making a mess. But it would be a tasty mess. Beef and onions, barbecue sauce, and biscuits. What’s not to like?

Several people have mentioned that cheap baked products don’t taste as good as they used to. This has come up on the DL before (probably many times!), and some comments suggested it was because they had reduced or eliminated the trans fats. Could that be it? It makes sense to me because many crackers taste like sawdust now – much drier and without the buttery flavor they used to have.

Stouffers French Bread PIzzas

R73 and R53, you know that Taco Bell makes a Nacho Cheese Taco Supreme, complete with ground beef, taco seasoning, lettuce, tomato, cheese and sour cream, right?

I agree that taco favored chips are better than nacho cheese, but OTOH you don't have to make the Taco Bell taco yourself, and you can break the tacos up in a bowl and pour Catalina dressing over them for roughly the same effect.

Full disclosure: I have not tried the Nacho Cheese Taco Supreme, although I am going to very soon now that this thread has inspired me.

R232 if that’s the case then I need to start a petition to bring back trans fats! What’s the point of living if you can’t enjoy yummy treats every once in a while?

[quote] Steak-Umms

r227 As a teenager I used to make Steak-Umms sandwiches with swiss cheese and fried onions on sourdough. Delicious.

Velveeta cheese. Not sure if it's been mentioned yet or if it's really cheese.

A sandwich is a sandwich but a Manwich is a MEAL.

Manwiches were quite good, if I do say so. Can you still buy it?

Yes it is still sold hither and yon

I could never get the Manwich meat to stay in the bun. (Not talking in code here, I couldn't get the actual hamburger meat to stay in the bun!)

I don't think any of these foods are made the same way as in the past. Velveeta changed a long time ago (the flavor reminds me of nail polish remover). It's probably easy to make sloppy Joes without Manwich. Maybe use a dry (packet) mix for that.

I don't care for the tomato taste in a Manwich. I did like the old school BBQs though. My Aunt worked at a school years ago and had the recipe and we would beg her to make them for us.

Those tacos from Jack in the Box where the tortilla shell and mystery-meat filling are deep-fried together.

r244 What's even better was Jack in the Box's Monster Taco. It was giant version. Last time I was there they had discontinued it.

R241, whatever the ad shows, any sensible person eats a sloppy joe (which is what Manwich is) with a knife and fork.

You can make your own, as R242 says, and use less sauce than the recipe directs. That way, the mixture will be less runny. The meat will still tend to fall out when you try to pick it up though.

Sloppy Joes.

R245 Apparently, the Monster Taco is something they discontinue and break back, then discontinue and bring back, etc.

I guess for the last two years, they've used it as a Halloween promotional item. Perhaps look for it again in a couple of months....

r248 It sounds like they bring it back but the sales are disappointing so they discontinue it again. The article mentions the Super Taco. It was the same thing.

Fried Spam on a roll!

I consumed so much SPAM in the military that I can’t even look at it anymore today.

R229 that sounds epic! Damn!

Munsters Fun Paks in the fall. They were orange Sno Balls from Hostess that licensed the Munsters name back in the early 90s. Now they are known as “Scary Cakes”.

Quaaludes

I thought Manwich was just a brand name for sloppy joes. Are they different?

Tato Skins.

And don’t tell me about the TGIF version— they’re not the same!

Taylor Ham, a/k/a Pork Roll. We had this at almost every Sunday breakfast or for a quick meal (fried egg, slice of cheese, pork roll on a hard roll). Now that I know what's in it, I can't eat it.

Fish sticks dipped in French dressing

I haven't had fruit cocktail in 20 years, but I love it. Is this still sold in the supermarket?

Dunno where you grew up but in Connecticut we ate sloppy joes with our hands. They were made with chewy Portuguese hard rolls, which stood up well and with support for the "slop".

It is still sold in markets R259. As a kid, I would pour some of the syrup and some of the fruit over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

I could go for some right now.

[quote]I thought Manwich was just a brand name for sloppy joes. Are they different?

Manwich is a canned sauce that you add to ground beef to make a Sloppy Joe. You can make Sloppy Joe's from scratch.

I hate the grapes in fruit cocktail.

How do you feel about the grapes in your Fruit of the Looms?

This was my favorite tv dinner as a kid. I especially loved the warm vanilla pudding and the peas.

[quote] I hate the grapes in fruit cocktail.

r263 You call that pallid green thing a grape?

[quote] I especially loved the warm vanilla pudding

Prepared you for swallowing something else with a similar color and texture later in life.

[quote] Now that I know what's in it, I can't eat it.

Lips and assholes?

R256 OMG, I totally forgot about those. Those were great. However, those were from my adulthood, not childhood. 😉😉

r268 Every part of the pig but the squeal.

Some of these are more nostalg-ICK.

This was a favorite after school,snack.

And then there’s my asshole!

Your asshole was a nostalgic food from childhood?

No, but his dad's was.

Bacon Thins

The first cakes I made were from Betty Crocker: Answer Cake!

r277 I remember those!

If cake was the answer,what was the question, R277?

I was obsessed with jolly ranchers

[quote]If cake was the answer,what was the question, [R277]?

I'll take "Moist As a Snack Cake" for $200, Alex.

My grandparents made Pillsbury orange rolls as a weekend treat when I was a kid. I never liked them as well as cinnamon or even pecan rolls, so I've not eaten them since. But whenever I see them in the store or catch a scent of orange frosting, it takes me right back to their kitchen.

I bought canned peaches in heavy syrup and cottage cheese tonight

R282 my dad loved those. Reminds me of him. Thx.

[quote] I bought canned peaches in heavy syrup and cottage cheese tonight

r283 Well aren't you special. 🤣

Don't be such a cunt, Queerface. R283 was enjoying a moment.

r286 Oh, calm down. The laughing head shows I'm just playing. When I was a kid it was pineapple on cottage cheese. But Russian dressing on cottage cheese is the bomb.

[quote] But Russian dressing on cottage cheese is the bomb.

Frankly, that sounds disgusting.

Doo-dads had some spicy powder like beef bouillon in it that made it special.

Richard Nixon loved ketchup on cottage cheese.

[quote] Frankly, that [Russian dressing] sounds disgusting.

[quote] Richard Nixon loved ketchup on cottage cheese.

r288 r290 Same principle. But yeah, I've never met anyone else who likes it. Maybe that's why I have such a queer face. 🤣

r283 how about Katherine Kulman's meal - fried catfish with a side of canned peaches in heavy syrup?

I love hot sauce on cottage cheese: Pico Pica brand, or Taco Bell Fire sauce.

"Hooray for Beefaroni"

I was obsessed with cereal: Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Mini Wheats and Frosted Flakes were my favorites.

Ketchup flavored chips.

Hawaiian Punch (only on vacation).

Lime, orange and strawberry sherbert.

Mape-O-Spread.

I loved Campbell's Tomato Bisque soup. It was so rich and tasty I could eat it out of the can with a spoon, like tomato pudding.

Now it tastes like the can.

R295 try making the cinnamon cereal like you would Rice Krispies treats. Very tasty.

There was a Boston Cream Pie cake mix that was very good.

A Eskimo Pie, widda knife!

Underwood Chicken Spread, despite this commercial with Mason Reese. I loved finding that sandwich in my Hot Wheels lunchbox. It was better than tuna, baloney/bologna, or ham. I tried it recently, and it’s nothing like I remember.

R300-What is?

R301, Hydrox cookies, similar to Oreos but with more emphasis on the cookie than on the filling, are now made by Leaf and are exactly as I remember when they were made by Sunshine. Rarely had Oreos during the multi-year Hydrox drought.

Thanks, R302. I was always partial to Hydrox.

Those tiny little cakes I made with my Easy-Bake Oven. I loved eating the batter too.

Rainbow layered cake: lemon, strawberry, chocolate layers with grape jelly between and sour cream icing. Yum!

Someone gave me a box of MAYPO the other day. I definitely remember the commercials from my long-ago youth, and the commercials said it was maple-flavored oatmeal. Well, not anymore -- it's just "quick cream farina" (at least now.) So neither maple-flavored nor oatmeal. Oh, well.

For about $8 and a trip to Sam's Club, you can get a Halloween 4-pack of spooktacular cereals, including Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Franken Berry, and Frute Brute.

I think I saw Frute Brute on rentmen.

I still crave a Slim-Jim when I see them in the supermarket checkout line.

My mom gave me Junket a lot as a dessert or snack. It was custard. Not too sweet.

Bubblegum

R307, I never heard of Frute Brute, but I liked the other three. Boo Berry was a favorite. I saw if for $1 a box not too long ago at Grocery Outlet, but knew I’d eat it all if I bought it.

Almost every family has a secret they never discuss. Ours is this: We were taste testers for Pop-Tarts.

It was not long after Kellogg’s introduced the toaster pastry in 1964. But for several months one year (none of us can pinpoint the exact date), brown cardboard boxes arrived on our doorstep with an assortment of Pop-Tarts tucked inside. Strawberry. Raspberry. Brown-Sugar Cinnamon. We ate them all. After dinner. Sometimes hot, usually cold. With frosting and without.

Neither I nor any of my seven siblings can recall how we came to be Pop-Tart critics, and my parents aren’t alive to tell us. But I have a theory: My mother was resourceful and, with eight children to feed, she probably saw an appeal for tasters somewhere and thought: “Oh, boy. Free dessert.”

Whatever the reason, we were witnesses to food history. Today, as Kellogg’s prepares to celebrate the 60th birthday of Pop-Tarts next year, they remain a cultural touchstone. Last year, more than two billion were sold, according to the company. They’ve been depicted on art murals, exhibited in museums and parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”

And like Barbie, they even have their own movie: Next year, Jerry Seinfeld plans to release “Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story,” a farcical chronicle of the race to win the breakfast-pastry wars, which Post began with its own toaster pastry, Country Squares, six months before Kellogg’s introduced Pop-Tarts.

Mr. Seinfeld, who directs and stars in the Netflix film, based his script on a joke in his stand-up routine, and invited a baker’s dozen of his friends to join him onscreen, including Amy Schumer, Melissa McCarthy and Hugh Grant.

In an interview, he recalled a boyhood trip with his mother to the supermarket, where, upon seeing a box of Pop-Tarts, “I just grabbed it.”

They were a revelation for a kid who ate dry toast. “They seemed very futuristic,” Mr. Seinfeld said.

Even the name — Kellogg’s considered calling them “fruit scones” — was changed to reflect the sensibilities of the ’60s, when Pop Art was ascendant. And they transformed the lowly toaster into more than just an appliance for browning bread.

To me and my siblings, Pop-Tarts were exotic. We were raised in a small agricultural community in the shadow of California’s Santa Cruz Mountains and got most of our food from the farms and dairies that dotted the outskirts of town. Processed food was rare in our house, and store-bought sweets rarer still, as it was cheaper to bake dozens of homemade cookies on a Sunday to be divvied up during the week.

The Pop-Tarts were delivered to our door in a cardboard box about the size of a footstool, with nothing on the outside to indicate flavor, frosting or even that it was from Kellogg’s. The individual packages inside were marked with only a number.

I was barely in kindergarten, as I recall. But I was captivated, like one of the hominids in “2001: A Space Odyssey” — only, instead of staring at a black alien monolith, I was transfixed by a cardboard box. (In his 2020 Netflix special, Mr. Seinfeld echoed a similar sentiment about seeing Pop-Tarts for the first time: “We were just chimps in the dirt playing with sticks.”)

When our family food experiment began, Pop-Tarts were already in stores, but we got unreleased flavors our neighbors and classmates couldn’t buy. And that made us special.

One sister recalls that our father locked the Pop-Tarts in the basement for safekeeping. This makes sense. Food left unattended in a big family tends to disappear quickly, and my parents guarded the Pop-Tarts the way Harry Winston watches over its diamonds on Oscar night.

We didn’t eat Pop-Tarts for breakfast; our mother continued to serve the oatmeal that, if it sat too long, congealed into beige goo. And if you ate one too quickly out of the toaster, you were likely to burn your tongue.

On tasting nights, we would gather around the kitchen table after dinner. Then my father would appear with the box of Pop-Tarts and place it gently on the counter with the same care he laid baby Jesus in the crèche on Christmas Eve. My mother would tear open the bags and dole out one Pop-Tart apiece. She did not toast them (which is kind of the point, isn’t it?), and the flavor was kept secret until the big reveal.

Some of us sniffed and nibbled. Others took sizable bites. My mother would sometimes ask us questions. But mostly, we remember filling out forms and grading the Pop-Tarts for taste and texture. Then the box, and the filled-out forms, would be whisked away and the leftovers rationed until another box arrived with new flavors and frostings to try.

We were good students and took our job seriously, considering our appraisals with the same thoughtfulness as a “Top Chef” judge. In our minds, at least, this was important work. I may be exaggerating here, but if you like Frosted Strawberry or Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon — two of Kellogg’s best-selling flavors — you may have our family to thank.

But as revolutionary as Pop-Tarts were, few of us remember being wowed. Our great-grandmother, who had emigrated from Czechoslovakia, regularly turned out trays of homemade apricot kolache and fresh apple strudel. Pop-Tarts paled in comparison.

“I did not like them,” said my sister Mary. They didn’t appeal either to my sister Gondie, but gave her bargaining power on the school playground. “You could eat one Pop-Tart and trade the other for a candy bar,” she said of the two-pack. For my part, I would eat them only if my mother cut the edges off, leaving a ravioli-size square of frosted raspberry jam.

Maybe it’s not surprising that none of us eat them now. “But it was a great memory,” said my brother Michael.

I called Kellogg’s, which on Oct. 2 split off Pop-Tarts and other brands into a new company called Kellanova, to see if it had a record in its archives of my family, or others like ours. A spokeswoman said the company did not keep historical data. I scoured websites that referenced Pop-Tarts and the 1960s, and read the account of a man (whom I couldn’t locate) who said he had worked with Kellogg’s to develop the Pop-Tart and brought them home to his children.

This made me wonder: Would our experience be an anachronism today, in a digital world where everyone seems to be an online food connoisseur?

Now, there are Pop-Tart reviews by the Food Network, blind taste tests on YouTube, communities that rate them on Reddit, online rankings and taste challenges for children. Joey Chestnut, the perennial winner of Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, ate 100 Pop-Tarts in about 30 minutes a few years ago. (His favorite flavor was S’Mores.)

I asked Mr. Seinfeld why he thought people would be interested in a comedy about the dawn of Pop-Tarts.

“Ninety-five percent of it is complete insanity,” he said of the movie. But he noted that the Pop-Tart holds great nostalgic appeal. “It was a great graphic, and a great name and a great product.”

Indeed Mr. Seinfeld said he still liked to eat two Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts with a glass of milk.

“There is nothing better,” he said.

R313 and r314

Go jump in the Atlantic Ocean

What’s your problem r315? I thought that was an interesting piece.

The Brown Sugar-Cinnamon Frosted Pop-Tarts are good with butter

Pop Tarts did burn your mouth sometimes.

Someone has a lot of time on his hands.

[quote] Those first upscale microwavable TV dinners that came on the round plastic plate that everybody's mother would save.

Le Menu.

They weren’t really upscale. They were just frozen food. Very few frozen microwaveable foods in late 1970s/early 1980s. The reason why people saved the plates was because we were told we needed to use “microwave safe” plates to heat things in a microwave and since Le Menu came on plates, they were obviously microwaveable. And free. Seriously, they charged money for “microwave plates” back then.

Le Menu were delicious. When the internet first came around and people were nostalgic over them, a group of people who worked in the plant started their own messageboard to answer questions people had (trying to remember which dinners Le Menu made, etc). All of them had loved their jobs, got along well with their managers and coworkers and cried when the factory closed down. IIRC it was run by Campbell’s Soup company back in the days when businesses were well regulated by OSHA, EPA, state labor boards, FDA, etc.

Reagan put an end to that. Regulations loosened, conservatives like Clarence Thomas on SCOTUS to strike down labor laws, dilute monopoly laws, etc.

It was really sad reading how much people looked back on their days working in a food factory with such great fondness. I worked in some dead-end jobs and looked back with fondness, too. There was no pressure. Your managers were locals. Sometimes nearly everyone was related to each other. But people got along and were treated well.

What a world we live in now.

Thank you for putting a negative doom and gloom spin on your post r320. Wouldn’t expect anything less from a Debbie Downer.

Tuna Twist

I adored French Onion dip and still do.

You’re welcome, R321. You deserve it.

I don’t remember Tuna Twist, but I’m kinda sold from the ad.

Hydrox is just the worst name for a cookie. They deserved to lose the sandwich cookie wars on that basis alone.

For me, the nostalgia cookie is a BAG of Mother's assorted cookies, the "Cookie Parade". None of the cookies (top was a kinda chocolate fudge sandwich one, then the chocolate chip, then maybe the waxy pastel circus animals, then whatever is left at the bottom of the bag) were not all that great but some of them were not shabby at all, and you'd have to dig around in the bag to get the good ones. A distinct 70s-80s treat that my mom would sometimes buy. What happened to that company is a crime

Nestle's Crunch

[...]

[...]

[...]

Tang! I supported the hell outta the space program, drinking that stuff. And you notice that the Russians didn’t get us, which I am duly proud of.

My eldest brother told me he and our parents would eat a canned pseudo meat Pattie’s because money was tight. This was over 70 years ago. He says you can buy them on Amazon but he’s forgetting the product name.

Bridge mix!

I never had Bridge Mix, but I was fascinated by it as a kid. It seemed so upscale, like brown-edge wafers.

Space food sticks

r327 Since Nestle sold their candy business (Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, etc.) to Ferrara, it's now just called "Crunch."

I bought and devoured a pound box of See's Bridge Mix a while back. Far superior to the crappy bagged stuff from the supermarket.

[quote] My eldest brother told me he and our parents would eat a canned pseudo meat Pattie’s

WTF?

Butter mints in pastel yellow

A&P Hawaiian delight from the deli

A&P Spanish bar cake -- I'm going to try that alleged recipe today.

Swanson TV dinners -- Salisbury steak / Turkey

The dirt in Tawila was tastier than the dirt in Adre. It had a richer, sweeter flavor.

Twatila r341?

R245 R248 I just saw an ad for the Jack in the Box Monster Taco. It said, "Get it by November 19."

2 for $3

turkish foot candy

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal. There must be crack cocaine in this cereal because it's incredibly addictive. If you've never had it, stay away from it.

Toasted cheese and tomato soup.

I have three brothers...two older and a younger. There's five years between my second brother and me, and only two years between my younger and brother and me. So, my younger brother and I were lumped together as the younger pair, and we shared more common experiences growing up.

I remember every once in a while our Mom making open-faced toasted cheese sandwiches, cutting them in quarters and serving them to us with cups of tomato soup (from Campbell's soup) on small cocktail tables set in front of the tv.

It is nostalgic, comfort food for me.

I was going to agree/identify until you said it was open faced.

R347, whenever my Mom did toasted cheese, it was always open-faced. I did not learn to make a grilled cheese sandwich until well into adulthood.

I always made toasted cheese like she did, either under the broiler in the oven (carefully watching it so it did not burn) or in a toaster oven.

That’s how we always had them too r348.

^^^ Sounds messy!

Did the bread get brown in these toasted cheese sandwiches? Sounds as if you'd lose the cheese when you flipped them over to brown the bread side.

Lobster Thermador

Cherries Jubilee

Dutch Baby Pancake

Bananas Foster

Baked Alaska

Ass mints

R351, when my mother made a toasted-cheese sandwich, it was a different thing altogether from grilled cheese (which she also made sometimes).

First, the bread was toasted so it was lightly browned. Then, it was buttered. Then, she put slices of regular cheddar (probably Cracker Barrel Extra Sharp) on the buttered side and ran it under the broiler. The cheese melted over the side of the toast, so you ate the sandwich with a knife and fork. It was delicious but very rich, more of a light dinner dish than lunch.

She made grilled cheese in the usual way, using Kraft singles or similar. That was good, too, and of course you picked it up and ate it by hand, usually for lunch.

R358, that's how we did it too...toasting the bread lightly before adding the cheese. I especially like it when my Mom added a sliced tomato. Under the tomato it would be golden and gooey, while around the tomato the cheese would be brown.

Isn't toasted cheese British usage?

Tripe in the Sunday gravy.

Nabisco Brown Wafers

R362 Brown Edge Wafers

Corned beef from Argentina in the squarish can you opened with a key.

Chopped up with a little mustard, mayo, and sweet pickle relish on whole wheat bread.

I actually thought it was healthy. And now it comes from Brazil and Australia. No wonder Argentina is broke.

R364, I always liked Libby's corned beef, even as an adult, but I haven't had it in a long time. Thank you for the reminder. What you describe sounds a bit like ham salad, but made with canned corned beef. We used to eat it sliced with sliced onion and mayonnaise or mustard on whatever bread was in the house. Rye was particularly tasty, as I recall.

I'm putting it on my shopping list! As a special bonus, my recollection is that the sell-by date is years into the future, so it's a good thing to have around in the event of a Zombie apocalypse or the like.

My mom used to make a corned beef casserole, also tuna noodle casserole. Back then I didn't appreciate it but love that kind of food now.

Vienna sausage and Spaghetti-Os in aspic

^^^Ass pick?

Fruit loops, bazooka joe gum, koolaid (nothing but a sugar delivery product), Now ‘n laters candy, Honey buns

[quote]I always made toasted cheese like she did, either under the broiler in the oven (carefully watching it so it did not burn) or in a toaster oven.

I agree, but I always like it just a little burnt.

Tonight I made tuna noodle casserole for the first time in I don't know how many years. Thanks, this thread.

Of all the really weird Jell-O salads that were around, this one was actually pretty good.

Lime Jell-O, cream cheese, crushed pineapple, walnuts....

[quote]this one was actually pretty good

No it wasn't.

Philly here; TastyKakes are the best! I grew up on them.

Hostess cupcakes!

I'm going to try that Spanish bar cake recipe tomorrow. Hopefully it's close to the original; fingers crossed.

R373, yes it was. Light but creamy and intensely sweet.

R374, I grew up in DC, where we had both Hostess and TastyKake. Hostess was better and generally more popular.

TastyKake was once OK as a Hostess substitute, but have you tried their products lately? They're dry and tasteless. I think they may be another victim of the loss of transfats. (I haven't eaten anything from Hostess in a long time; they may be terrible now, too.)

Never had canned corned beef but we had corned beef (from the deli) sandwiches on bulkie rolls. This was before microwaves were common. My dad would boil the corned beef in a little water, then mix it with spicy brown mustard and serve it on a bulkie or onion roll.

My mother's triangular french toast with maple syrup.

Home-made poutine.

R380 Canadian, eh?

Yes R381. More specifically Québécoise.

Gino’s, which used to be a serious rival to McDonald’s. I remember when Mom got paid on Fridays and she would take my brother and I (along with her best friend and daughter) to Gino’s on Hunting Park Avenue in North Philadelphia. We’d sit in the park if the weather permitted. Their Gino’s Giant was as good as the Big Mac. They eventually morphed into KFC IIRC.

We had fish cakes on Friday nights because we were Catholic. Or fish sticks. We probably would have had regular baked haddock or something but many kids (like me) don’t eat fish prepared that way. My mom would give me canned tuna or crabmeat-and mayo sandwiches for lunch on Fridays. I can still almost taste these things - my mom seasoned everything just right and served it nicely. Just made a slight difference.

R383, which also grew up in the Philly area. I have vague memories of Gino’s. My mom didn’t drive when I was young and sometimes we’d walk there for a burger or whatnot. I think they went out of business when I was 4 or 5. I have no memory of the food, but I remember the place.

r374 r378 We had a thread like this a few months ago, so I decided to buy a packet of three Tastykake Butterscotch Krimpets. Whereas once these were light and spongey, now they dissolve quickly in your mouth into a gritty substance which is all there is to swallow.

I've never been a Hostess aficionado, and I don't really eat mass-market pastry any longer, but it's hard to imagine anything could be worse than my once wonderful Krimpets.

Funyuns.

Canned fried onions don't get enough love.

Crispy, greasy, and salty: I used to eat them out of the can.

Now the only place I see them is in the green bean casserole pictured below.

They’re vulgar.

Carnation Breakfast Bars. I ate one everyday until they discontinued them. Why do they do this to me?!?!

Also, Naco Cheese Cheetos they were the best!!

R385 Mom had my dad’s car. Friday night meant that he was at the neighborhood speakeasy. We’d be getting Gino’s or something from the steadily decreasing Horn & Hardart’s or a sit down dinner at Lytton’s. Or Mom and Dad would go shopping and get Ellio’s Frozen Pizza.

R386 there’s definitely a difference between the old Tastykake products and the shit they have today. Sugar and lard have been replaced with palm OIL (or something else) and HFCS.

Can’t wait to see this thread end. God

r392 why read and post on it then? You are making your own misery.

R391 — Ellio’s frozen pizza! We had that too — I had forgotten all about it.

I’m pretty sure my family mispronounced the name (as we also did with Q-Tips and Reese’s).

[quote]I’m pretty sure my family mispronounced the name (as we also did with Q-Tips and Reese’s).

r394, how does one mispronounce "Q-Tips"?

How do you mispronounce Reese's? Actually, I have heard people say: "Ree-sees."

My family pronounced it par-MEEE-shin cheese, the Kraft stuff in the green shaker bottle.

Were they on the SPEEC-trum?

r397 my dad always mispronounced things, we had a Spads restaurant by us and he always called it Spuds. He also though Jose's was pronounced with an H. My father was actually a successful business owner but man he could be embarrassing.

[quote]He also thought Jose's was pronounced with an H.

Most people pronounce "Jose" as if it were spelled with an H, r399.

[quote] Weaver’s boxes of frozen assorted fried chicken pieces

Holy crap I completely forgot about those. They were good. Then they changed.

Melody chocolate sugar cookies

My grandmother always had Entenmann’s pastries in her kitchen. As well as Charles Chips, which has been mentioned before in Datalounge. You can still order them online.

Oops at r399 I meant pronounced Jose with a J

Talking on the phone and typing at the same time, sorry

[quote]Post Alpha-bits.

I haven't seen these in a while, but I enjoyed them as a kid. A few years ago, I was surprised to see some at a supermarket I didn't usually go to and couldn't resist buying a package. I should have known better, because the box screamed "Great new flavor!" It was the old flavor I was looking for. Sure enough, they tasted terrible and I threw the rest of the package away.

Seems like my childhood was around the time of all those really unhealthy, sugary cereals like Lucky Charms, and Cap’n Crunch, both of which I loved. But in the previous era kids mostly ate shredded wheat or corn flakes.

395, 396

Yes, we pronounced Reese’s Cups as Ree-Sees — maybe that was a regionalism?

My mom pronounced Q-Tips as Q-T-Tips. I was probably in college when I realized we’d been saying it incorrectly.

R396 just like Fee-cee-s?? Those people and you are into scat and it spills out into your other verbiage

King Vitaman cereal ("have breakfast with the King")

Yeah the pronunciation of Reese’s as “Reecees” was very common. I never heard “Q-T-Tips,” though.

I work with someone who says “Goo-Be-Gone” instead of “Goo Gone”. Doesn’t matter how many ties she hears it said correctly.

*times