12 May Your Lovely Food Memories Shared with Your Mothers
For our “Treat Her Right” contest, we asked you to tell us your favorite food memory with your mom. We’ve already picked the winners, but we felt that all of your lovely memories should be shared. Read them below.
Happy (belated) Mother’s Day!
… it was healthy comfort food at its finest
“My mom made the meanest (and by that I mean the tastiest and most nourishing) lasagna. Using ingredients from my dad’s garden, it was loaded with herbs, spices, and veggies and oozed goodness. Never too rich, it was healthy comfort food at its finest! Our house being built on an old orchard, the aroma of her freshly made apple pie filled the house in the fall. Yum!”
– Louise
She taught me how to cook
“When I was a little girl, my mom made sure I understood what it means to eat healthy. We had no junk food in the house. Most importantly, she taught me how to cook. I remember making relish with her and I loved it when we would go for a hike in the woods or go to the beach with a picnic lunch.”
– Laury, Barrie
Moms are the best
“One time, when i was sick and there weren’t many supplies at home, my mom whipped up what i call a miracle concoction cause i dont know if it has a name, with avocados, bananas, maple syrup, ground walnuts and vanilla that miraculously filled me up with so much energy that perhaps drove it away.
I’d been sick for a few days up until that point, was lethargic, tired and not wanting to eat anything but this non assuming, seemingly bland concoction still lingers fondly in my mind today, after 7 years. Moms are the best.”
– Arjun, Delta
I will never forget our time together
“My Mum passed away 5 years ago in a single car car accident. I remember fondly our visits to Tim Hortons on a daily basis after our early morning swim. We had Tea and Coffee, along with our favourite bagle with garlic cream cheese. We would chat and update ourselves on my Dad and my siblings. I will never forget our time together and will always remember her fondly when I drive by a Timmies.”
– Elise, Stoney Creek
… almost like my mom had read my mind
“I remember a time as a kid when I had a soccer tournament all day. I had 3 games in sweltering heat, all back to back of eachother. All I had eaten during the day was some cereal for breakfast, a banana, and oranges during halftime. Nobody wants to cramp up in the middle of a game!
I remember the drive home with my dad and I was absolutely starving, praying that there was something delicious waiting for me at home. So when we arrived, almost like my mom had read my mind and knew I would be coming home with the appetite of a just awakened hibernating bear, she had made my favorite homemade meal of bbq baby back ribs, obviously layered in her family famous bbq sauce, with potato salad, and asparagus wrapped in filo pastry.
It might not seem like much of a story but something so simple was so incredibly satisfying. So much so that for whatever reason, that day and that moment has been permanently etched into my mind. Whenever she makes those ribs, my olfactory senses take me back to that simple memory of roughly 20 years ago. ”
– Daniel, Vancouver
I later realized the missing ingredient: my mother’s love
“Every Wednesday for lunch in Elementary School, my mom would pack for me my favorite food, spaghetti bolognese / with meat sauce. It was the perfect combination of slurpy and savory- al dente pasta with a hearty topping of herbs, tomato sauce, ground beef and a touch of honey or wine.
On every other school day, I would receive the standard peanut butter and jelly sandwich. One slice of bread was coated with glossy strawberry jam. The other side was coated with creamy peanut butter. It was a sticky, goey, finger licking mess that I really liked except for the fact that other kids kept on commenting on how yellow my teeth were from all that nut butter goodness.
As I grew older, I’ve tried many versions of these classics: with whole wheat and white bread/pasta, with organic and with inorganic ingredients. But one thing still remained the same: I could never get the recipe quite right. It never tasted the same as it did when I was young. I later realized the missing ingredient: my mother’s love.”
– Rachel, Miami
Our Mom is the best
“When we were children, growing up, there was very little money coming in to our household. Our Father had to go far afield to make a meager living to support our family.
My Mother had to make due with what she could afford to feed us. She made sure that we had all of the food groups but our dinners were often made up of fried bologna and eggs on mashed potatoes or pigs feet made into a healthy soup or chicken wings before they were “popular”.
We had vegetables out of the garden in the summer and frozen for the winter. We wondered what everyone thought was so good about a “rare steak” – our steak was a blade steak cooked very well with tomatoes and onions in the oven to make it tender.
Our mother may not have had a lot to work with but she did a great job, we appreciated everything and have great memories of dinners together around the kitchen table.
Our Mom is the best.”
– Maureen, North Gower
To this day we laugh about making soup
“My mom make great food and was always great at using everything in our house and being thrifty with food. To do this she was always trying new recipes and ways of putting ingredients together.
One day she decided she was going to roast some chickens, as it was just the two of us, there was plenty of leftovers. She decided to try her hand at making soup. I was really excited about this because chicken soup was my favourite growing up and I couldn’t wait! It was a long and drawn out process, from getting all the meat of the bones and then stewing everything together, by the time it was done it was too late to dig in. So she divided it up in containers and froze it.
The next day I was dreaming of this delicious soup all day and was so excited. I finally got home and my mom warmed up some if the soup and we dug in! The first couple spoonfuls went right down, but then we both looked at each other and we both had this weird look on our faces, but kept eating.
We had containers and containers of this soup in our freezer, and we kept heating it up and having it for dinner. Until one night we were having THE soup again, and we both looked at each other and said “do you like this”? And we both laughed, because we had been choking down this awful soup, I was too polite to tell my mom that it was horrible, and my mom knew how excited I was to have the soup, so we never said anything! To this day we laugh about making soup and mom attests that she will never attempt to make soup again! Its a story we will never forget!”
– Melissa, Edmonton
Life couldn’t get any better
“The childhood memory that makes me feel loved and warm all over, were the days when my brothers, sister and I would come home from school and Mom had just finished making a batch of homemade doughnuts, dipped in sugar.
The amazing thing was that she never used a recipe and she would time it just right so when we walked in the door they would still be warm and fluffy. One wasn’t enough to fill our hungry bellies after a long day at school. We happily wolfed them down with tall glasses of fresh milk straight from the cow. Life couldn’t get any better being at the receiving end of such delectable delights.”
– Heike, Edmonton
Home cooked meals
“Growing up my mom always gave me home cooked meals and eating out was considered a treat for good behaviour or good marks in school.”
– Sarah, Ottawa