Food Memories
I don’t want to say it…. but I believe we are on the brink of losing a lot of the passed down recipes and the cooking of each family’s own unique culture. Due to multiple reasons, families don’t sit down to eat together as we used to do. Don’t cook and pass down recipes as we used to. Convenience has taken over and we are at jeopardy of losing the cooking that once defined generations. I know most of us in the pre-tech generations have early memories of Grandmas cooking or remember how family units used to spend the most time in the kitchen. These food memories, as I like to call them… might be a thing of the past and it is up to us to continue to keep recipes and old family traditions alive. We need to take the time to not only collect and write these recipes down but cook these recipes, bring them to life!! Create the smells, the sounds and give these memories to our children, family and friends. If we don’t fight the good fight, 20 years from now all that our children will remember, is their favorite fast food or takeout.
Food has the power to trigger deep memories and evoke emotions and feelings. The taste, smell, and texture of food can bring you back to a place or setting. Bring you back to your childhood or maybe it’s even the best meal you ever had on vacation in another country. My favorite food memories revolve around my Maternal Grandmother. She cooked many old German recipes. I grew up eating halushki, cabbage rolls, red beet cookies, and my favorite meal rouladens. She makes the best potato salad, and my younger sister is now tasked with continuing her recipe for the holidays as my grandmother has grown older. Growing up in western Pennsylvania, I grew up in an area of Polish and German decedents and I love the fact that the food there was a homage to our heritage, and it was celebrated with festivals. I cherish these memories. Food memories are important because it creates a sense of belonging and community. These are the kind of things I hope will continue in the future and make this preservation important to the next generations.
The world is different now and kids don’t have the same access to what we once had growing up. Today, it is very rare for a school to offer Home Economics classes. Most kids will probably raise an eyebrow at you if you ask them about Home Ec. Grade school children and young adults are not being exposed to the world of cooking and self-sufficiency, like sewing on your own buttons, like we used to. I was lucky enough to have a school that at the time provided multiple Home Ec classes. We learned how to run a restaurant and cooked all the time, and it was so much fun. The world is now tech driven and due to budget decline and a refocus on core subjects that get you into college, Home Ec is a rare thing. To coincide with this issue, is that most adults are also not cooking at home. Kids and parents alike are blinded by screens. Convenience is everywhere. Life is too busy as we are stretched thin that most of the meals people depend on are takeout and delivery. Now that we know that it is up to us at home, what are we going to do about it? How do we get the kids involved?
We research! We cook! We teach! Every family has their own unique story of evolution, we all come from immigrants and the stories that got us here will always revolve around food. So, tell your story, tell your children about their ancestors and do it with cooking. Get them involved and interested. Teaching our children is the key to continuing on traditions. We have got to lead by example and show them that it is important to us, so hopefully it will become important to them. Research and collect recipes or talk to older family members. If you don’t have that available to you, then create your own story. As long as we are cooking, teaching and creating these special kinds of memories with loved ones, that’s the bottom line.
I know it’s probably the last thing most busy adults and parents are thinking about, but I believe it is important to recognize. Creating memories and experiences! Taking the time to sit down with your family over a meal might be a core memory that they’ll carry with them forever. Creating that family recipe book for your family members might mean the world to them. Hosting a theme dinner party for friends might be the best party ever. Life is meant to be lived and celebrated. Make those memories!! Eat that food!! More than ever, we must not lose sight of who we all are and how we all got here. In a world full of darkness, we need more of that. Happy cooking! Happy eating! Happy memories!!
Xo
Written by Brittney Felix
March 16, 2025
