When I told my mom I was writing a series about some of the food she made when I was little, she said, “Are you going to talk about my formula?”
Formula? I didn’t know she had a formula. She explained how she served the same kind of food on every given day of the week. I don’t know how I never noticed this. I’m a bright person; I find patterns and themes in everything – apparently not when it comes to dinner though. Here is the formula she followed:
Monday: soup
Tuesday: chicken
Wednesday: ground beef something or other
Thursday: breakfast
Friday: foreign food
Saturday: sandwiches or pizza
Sunday: “Sunday dinner”
I love how vague “Sunday dinner” is. I think what she meant was we would have a ham or a roast or something like that. I called my sister shortly after talking to my mom and said, “Did you know that Mom had a formula for our dinners?” to which she replied, “Oh you mean how Wednesday was ground beef night?”
Once I thought about it, I remembered we did have breakfast for dinner a lot. I just never noticed it was always on Thursdays.
I love breakfast for dinner. I almost like it more for dinner than I do for breakfast. Mom would make waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, French toast and one of my favorites: scones.
From the picture, you probably noticed these aren’t scones in the British sense (my sister actually refuses to call those scones because she’s devoted to identifying the name “scone” with what she was raised on, and that is the fry bread scone).
I have a clear image in my head of sitting up at the bar watching my mom turn scones in the frying pan as my mouth watered.
I honestly don’t remember if anything accompanied the scones, like fruit or bacon. But back then I didn’t think to balance my fried sugar with fruit, dairy and protein. My idea of balance was spreading honey on one scone and jam on the other.
The scone I photographed has honey butter. I don’t think my mom ever served us honey butter. I confess the only reason I used it is because the guy selling honey butter at Farmer’s Market was cuter than the guy selling the regular honey.
Formula? I didn’t know she had a formula. She explained how she served the same kind of food on every given day of the week. I don’t know how I never noticed this. I’m a bright person; I find patterns and themes in everything – apparently not when it comes to dinner though. Here is the formula she followed:
Monday: soup
Tuesday: chicken
Wednesday: ground beef something or other
Thursday: breakfast
Friday: foreign food
Saturday: sandwiches or pizza
Sunday: “Sunday dinner”
I love how vague “Sunday dinner” is. I think what she meant was we would have a ham or a roast or something like that. I called my sister shortly after talking to my mom and said, “Did you know that Mom had a formula for our dinners?” to which she replied, “Oh you mean how Wednesday was ground beef night?”
Once I thought about it, I remembered we did have breakfast for dinner a lot. I just never noticed it was always on Thursdays.
I love breakfast for dinner. I almost like it more for dinner than I do for breakfast. Mom would make waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, French toast and one of my favorites: scones.
From the picture, you probably noticed these aren’t scones in the British sense (my sister actually refuses to call those scones because she’s devoted to identifying the name “scone” with what she was raised on, and that is the fry bread scone).
I have a clear image in my head of sitting up at the bar watching my mom turn scones in the frying pan as my mouth watered.
I honestly don’t remember if anything accompanied the scones, like fruit or bacon. But back then I didn’t think to balance my fried sugar with fruit, dairy and protein. My idea of balance was spreading honey on one scone and jam on the other.
The scone I photographed has honey butter. I don’t think my mom ever served us honey butter. I confess the only reason I used it is because the guy selling honey butter at Farmer’s Market was cuter than the guy selling the regular honey.
Would I eat them again? I just had two more for breakfast.
Would I make them again? Yes.
Would I feed them to friends? Sure, maybe not for dinner though.
6 comments:
I like your motivation for purchasing honey butter.
You can make me one of these scones any day.
My mom made scones like your mom. Do you think fry bread scones were a fad in Utah when our moms were growing up? I was so confused when I encountered a "real" scone.
Before I moved to Utah, my idea of a scone was something more like an English muffin. My great-aunt used to send Wolferman's scones to my grandma every year for Christmas and that's the idea I had of a scone. Probably the British version, though I've never cared to check...mostly because I like the Utah ones so much better. You can make scones for me whenever you want. :D
I will make scones for you anytime you want.
And Stef, British scones aren't like English muffins at all. I'll make some of those for you too. My favorite is with dark chocolate chunks and toasted hazelnuts.
this whole "real scone" thing is ridiculous. They are dry, crumbly things that when I bite into them FALL apart and make crumbs EVERYWHERE all the while tasting like sand.
I love mom's scones. Chewy..moist...and usually covered in something sticky.
MY mom had a formula too! I remember this with breakfast. Monday Oatmeal, Tue Eggs, Wed Pancakes, Thur Eggs again, Fri Cereal. And the pear recipe we had with cottage cheese instead of what you guys had.
I honestly don't know what to make of the breakfast-for-dinner concept. For me, nothing beats cereal. I'd rather have cereal than ANYTHING in the morning.
However, I never looked forward to Thursday nights. Pancakes? Blah. French toast? Meh. I'd eat it, and it's fine, but I just wouldn't choose it over spaghetti or pizza or anything.
But I DO like pancakes from time to time. And omelettes. And so forth. But where do they fit in? When can I eat them? Lunch?
*Oh, and dad's Swedish pancakes were always a welcome diversion. I'd forego the cereal on those days.
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