Confession of a Fussy Eater – Milk
Have you ever thought about what you eat today compared with what you ate growing up? I do. I’m a child of the ’50s – you know those times? Exciting new food came from the latest box or packaged food. Processed and packaged food were what successful homemaker served her family. It was the time of TV Dinners and those crazy aluminum fold-up TV tables. I’ve been thinking about what I eat today compared with what my mother served when I was growing up. It is so different. Some of it was what my mother chose to serve and some of it was because I was a fussy eater. I thought I’d would write a couple of posts about how my diet has changed from what I ate when I was growing up to what I eat today.
Milk – I did not drink milk when I was growing up. Or eat cheese. Or butter.In fact I ate very few milk products or savory dishes made with milk products. I’m not certain how it started but I remember growing up ‘allergic’ to milk. I’m not certain why but my parents always told me I was allergic to milk. I think I had a reaction when I was being bottle fed as a baby and the doctor told my mother I was allergic to milk.She switched me to formula and that started my milk-free childhood.
My dad also did not drink milk or eat cheese. So it became a thing in our house not drink milk. Cheese was avoided. My dad would always be concerned when we went out or ate at a relatives house. “It doesn’t have cheese in it?” he would always ask. We did eat a few cream sauces especially creamed onions. We always had creamed onions when we had baked ham.
But we did not have any problems eating milk based sweets. My mother loved to make homemade milkshakes when she got her first Oster blender. There was nothing better late on a hot summer night than having a homemade milkshake made with vanilla ice cream, Hershey’s chocolate syrup and cold whole milk. Whip that up in the blender, pour it in a tall glass and then float another scoop of ice cream on the top.
My mother also made fresh whipped cream as topping for cakes and pies. It was a favorite at Thanksgiving. We never had that funny whipping cream that squirted out of a can or the fake greasy Cool Whip. She would whip a pint with a couple of spoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla. I always got to lick the beaters which were the best part of making whipping cream.
But we ate fake butter. We had margarine on the table instead of butter. Parkay was our brand. My uncle’s family used butter and we thought it tasted funny. I won’t touch margarine today.
Slowly I learned to drink milk and eat cheese a big part to the introduction of ethnic food when I was a teenager. Pizza became the rage in high school and my best friend had a killer recipe for cheesy enchiladas. Next came cheesecake. But it still took many years until I started to eat yogurt and other types of cheese beyond cheddar and Monterey Jack.
Now I love cheese, yogurt and butter. I rarely drink milk but I love to cook with it – cream sauces and soups. Today, my refrigerator typically has 3 or 4 types of cheese. Many of these are cheese I never saw or even knew existed when I was growing up.
Did you eat cheese and drink milk growing up?
This is a great topic, Marta! I always drank milk, although I always wanted “storebought” milk rather than the milk from our own cows. When I was very young and my grandmother still lived on the ranch, we had homemade butter, which I can still remember as being TOTALLY delicious. (After that, we had margarine, like everyone else.)
We had cheese, but it was always plain yellow cheddar cheese. I loved to have lunch at a friend’s house because her mother always made us Velveeta and Miracle Whip sandwiches on white bread. (Gag!) I’ve outgrown that.
Great post. I definitely eat much better and healthier than I did when I was a kid. We ate lots of canned veggies and convenience foods. The first time I had fresh asparagus (as an adult) was such a revelation; I never liked it because I’d only had the mushy canned stuff.
They made me drink milk when I was a kid and I hated it! I still don’t like it that much. I do love cheese though and that’s another revelation…there are so many kinds other than the American slices I grew up eating.
Chris – it must have been great growing up and having your own cow. And homemade butter – that sounds so good. Isn’t it funny how growing up we always wanted something the other kids had – like store bought milk.
Annie – How could I forget Kraft slices for cheese! I forgot that was the one cheese my dad would eat so we had it around the house. We would sometimes make grilled cheese or cheese and ham sandwiches with it. I have to confess – I still use it occasionally on cheeseburgers. It is probably a comfort food for me. Fortunately, no Velveeta in our house.
It IS a comfort food, I think. I never buy those slices but occasionally have some when I’m babysitting at the nephews’ house (they love grilled cheese sandwiches made with them). It really does melt so well.
Great blog post! When I was little I loved milk. We used to have our milk delivered in the bottles and left on our doorstep. One day, when I was about 5 or 6, I went outside to get the milk. I opened a bottle and took a big sip. It was sour and curdled. YUCK!!! I have never drank milk since that day. I do eat all other milk products, just no plain milk or chocolate milk as a drink.
My dad hates butter so we never had anything cooked in butter. My mom made all desserts with crisco. Now that I know what crisco is… YUCK but the desserts were delicious. We did use butter to put on potatoes, corn on the cob, etc.
We had a lot of cheese also in our house growing up. Good cheeses and also that Kraft cheese. I used to have Kraft cheese and bologna sandwiches when growing up and we ate a lot of canned veggies and canned beans growing up. I never really liked vegetables much when and hated beans. I now love fresh vegetables and am now just learning to like some types of beans.
This post brings back a lot of memories!
I completely forgot about milk deliveries. We never did milk deliveries but one of our neighbors did. They had a little tin box on the backyard where the milk was delivered.
Soured milk would definitely make me not want to drink milk. I wonder if they ever had sour milk especially in the summer when it was hot in California.