W3- Teachers

When it comes to cooking- I'm not the man that anybody should want making dinner for them. My cooking skills don't go beyond putting some freezer food into the oven or grilling the simplest of meals on the stove top. Some of the specialties that I've been know to cook up on visits from my brother or some of my friends from my hometown are- the frozen viola meals that come in bags that you just dump into a frying pan and let it pretty much cook itself. There are of course the college requirements to have chicken sticks, $1 pizzas, pizza rolls, fish planks, etc. Those things are easy for me to prepare for visitors, and to be quite honest I sometimes get these foods just so my company has something quick to eat that I wont mind giving away.

There are plenty of these little freezer foods that I have learned to get from my friends. My friend DJ introduced me to the viola's that can be whipped up really quick and taste better then 90% of other freezer food at a decent price to boot. DJ was my roommate for 3 yrs and introduced me to many fast cooking- high calorie food, but it was another roommate from last year that showed me a lot of healthy alternatives. Nathan showed me many fruit snacks that I particularly like, one of which was to add fruit such as cranberries into my cereal. I have no idea why I never thought to do this...probably because my taste in cereals was one of the only foods that hadn't evolved from a childlike state till recently, but the addition of fruit adds a rather nice taste that provides healthy benefits. To go along with something non-food related that Nathan brought to my attention was to eat those adult gummy vitamins. They're definitely a good boost of energy in the morning and I suggest them to anybody.

Probably the one food teacher I've benefited the most from is like many other people- my Mom. Mom has taught me to make spaghetti, grilled chicken, and pasta dishes. Although my renditions of these family favorites can't compare to Mom's dishes, they do provide me a good source for dinners that I can prepare myself. The best thing that I ever learned to cook from my Mom is something that I can actually make with a result that's very similar to that of my Mom's own. One of things that was mentioned in the explanation for this blog post was the grilled cheese that your friend gave you an alternative way of preparing, and that is precisely what my Mom had taught me. Even though I hate not being able to cook up grilled cheese the right way, I will resort to making it the alternative way. When I do make it the right way I'd be hard-pressed to find something I'd rather have for lunch. I still think that my Mom makes the best grilled cheese, after all there's nothing like being at home while Mom cooks up something delicious. I'd like to add that the best way in the world to have  grilled cheese is with ketchup. I don't know why, but that is the way that I ate grilled cheese as a kid, and continue to do it that way to this day.

The one last thing I'd like to add is putting chips on sandwich's. My best friend Aaron showed me this technique in middle school and I've done it this way on turkey, salami, bologna, etc sandwich's to this day. I recommend this to everybody when preparing their next lunch meat sandwich.

W2- Family Food Cultures

This may or may not be what this blog is supposed to represent, but the best thing I could think of is that my family is kind of like a big bag of skittles. Every person in my immediate family is so drastically different that a bag of candy is the best way I could explain the different...flavors of my family. To get even more specific with the analogy, every person is like a different variation of skittles.

My brother Alex is like a bag of sour skittles, sour on the outside, but underneath the sour coating there is a sweet core that tastes like the original skittles.

Original I guess would have to be my Dad because of how consistent the flavor is. These kind of skittles are the basis for every variety that has came after it, and are somewhat plain compared to the other kinds available now. The one thing about the original is that it is always good and never lets you down, whereas the other kinds are more particular and are not for everyone.

My Mom would be the blender kind, so sweet that it's almost too much. The blenders take all the flavors and mix them too, there adapted to be like all of the other skittles, even if it sometimes comes out weird. What I mean by this is that Mom takes a little bit from all of us and tries to relate to all of our little quirks (even if she doesn't understand us sometimes).

I think that the tropical kind of skittles are the strange variety of skittles that taste a lot different then the others, but you can tell there based off the others. My sister Beth is the tropical kind, way out there and unique in every way.

That leaves me and the only kind of skittles left...the CRAZY CORES! Now these are strange candies. When you bite in to one your somewhat surprised at the taste and may not initially like it. The more that you eat the crazy cores the more you like them though.

So, I hope that this is what this assignment could somehow be translated into. I thought of the analogy and just thought it was too perfect a way to describe my diverse family. Even though this isn't exactly a culture based food for my family...everyone likes skittles, with my family being no exception.

W1- Remembering Home

In my home there really aren't a ton of foods that have been passed down through the years. A few things that I can think of are Broccoli Casserole and something that as a child I always called "The Stuff". Now broccoli casserole is kind of a shame-based food because obviously broccoli is supposed to be a healthy food choice, but when it is smothered in Velveeta cheese and topped with a whole sleeve of Ritz crackers it really defeats the purpose of eating broccoli. For a long time this is the only way that I would eat broccoli, but I've snapped out of my childish picky eating phase and now like broccoli by itself or with slaw dressing (Note: the word "slaw" may be the most awful sounding word in the English language). 

"The Stuff"- an amazing dish that my Mom has made since my middle school years. All of my friends that have came to my house over the years and had the privilege of eating "the stuff" have loved it. My best friend Aaron is in the army now and every time he comes home he has me tell my mom to make "the stuff". This has became a tradition throughout the last three years that Aaron has been in the military, possibly making this a kind of situation where this is something he needs when he comes home.

Okay so "the stuff" is what I've always called this dish that my Mom makes, but last year I found out exactly what the dish is called. What it actually is is just a simple recipe called chicken tetrazzini. So, the actually name of "the stuff" was revealed to me, and I must say I was kind of disappointed by it being a simple recipe that is known to many people. Although I was disappointed to find this out, there were a few extra ingredients that my Mom puts specially into her version of chicken tetrazzini. A simple brown sugar and melted butter mix is added into my Mom's recipe, but it makes all the difference in why hers is much better then any other chicken tetrazzini I could ever have. One more thing thanks to my Mom is that she taught me how to make this meal and I can gladly say that I can make this family tradition meal myself.