Heh, much as I want to send this topic spiraling off into TV land I’ll restrain myself. Instead…in a fit of nostalgia ( & 'cause they were way cheap!) I got a couple of Banquet Chicken Pot Pies …OMG, don’t remember them being that bad! I had them often enough-- though quite possibly I always got Swanson’s instead. Anyway, three bites of the mystery chicken 
& I threw it out & the 2nd unopened one too.
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Commenting on Jim downing a large specimen in the wild with a tranquilizer dart, Marlin: “He’s not hurt; He’s just immobilized.”
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I remember the Mac salad with ham fairly fondly. I will have to try the version I just found on All Recipes when I get a kitchen again.
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The Pear Salad made frequent appearances on my southern Mom’s festive tables.
And I never knew tomato sandwiches, just as described ( I suspect the default is Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip - I’ll settle for Pepperidge Farm Sandwich Bread and Duke’s), was Southern? My fave variant: Vidalia Onion sandwich.
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I saw a report on tomato growers in the US (Tomatoland) and the take away was the quote from the tomato farmer,
" I don’t get paid a single cent for flavor, "
If i try a tomato sandwich, i want a nice juicy heirloom tomato, not a commercial one.
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Of course!
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My father was from Oklahoma so maybe I have southern genes. I have had macaroni salad with ham, homemade baked beans, cornbread and milk. Every summer I still make fried green tomatoes and homegrown tomato sandwiches.
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Although having New England forebearers, I have developed a passion for cornbread with rich buttermilk as summer breakfast. Don’t remember where I picked that up. But it’s G O O D!
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I’m half Mississippi and ½ Italian (mother raised in Connecticut). Two great cuisines. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn my grandmother’s (Mississippi side) recipes!
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If you follow the chain, you’ll see that it refers to every group in the US. The subtopic was US culture and i was responding as an American describing one of our countless failures as a country.
It’s ok, we all jump to conclusions every now and then (I’m guilty of this at times myself). No judgement. Hope you’re having a great mothers day weekend!
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May Day and HEADS UP! All of you youngsters who have living family, don’t delay. Get their histories, their stories and certainly their recipes. I am the “last of the Mohicans” in my family. Younger relatives ask me for information, recipes and methods that I haven’t collected. So much heritage lost and memories unfulfilled. Do it NOW.
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Good advice. I made family cookbooks for both sides of family for wedding gifts, a few years ago. Also gave copies to everyone who cooked, or wanted one. Pretty slick program and end product. I’m glad I did, as the software and platform I used no longer exists. I do need to question my dad and older relatives about a few things though. It’s easy to think everything (memories, etc) will last forever, but sadly does not.
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My 97 year old dad, along with a plane full of other veterans from Utah, was hosted on an honor flight to Washington DC last week. The purpose of the trip was to view the Washington Monument, as well as see the various war memorials. They were of course acknowledged and honored for their respective service. My dad was beyond happy and appreciative that he was able to go on this trip. His wonderful nephew, (my cousin) was able to be his companion, which was a mandatory requirement of the trip. Anyway, there was a banquet one night, and guess what the menu was? Meat loaf, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a salad. Lots of happy vets at that meal, including himself. 
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Remember to ask the minute details. I was always told my grandmother came to California around the horn, at age 13, with only the company of friends of her older sister. Sail or steam? Really around the horn or across the Isthmus? Was her mother terminal at the time? Or dead? Where did she disembark? How did she in a few years meet my grandfather? Where did they first live before settling in my home town? Stupid questions, but now unanswerable.
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Yes, I get it. I was thinking of a few things to ask my dad, but they’ve escaped me. Need to write them down! I lost a much older cousin back in September who had provided some details/perspective of earlier days. I miss her a lot, and wish we’d had more conversations. Thankfully her (not much)younger sister is still with us. Still, a lot of stuff has been lost to the sands of time I think. Regrettably.
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What a great experience for your dad. And so fortunate that he can still make and enjoy the trip.
And if that dinner doesn’t say American, I don’t know what would 
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In addition to being a swimsuit model for Sports Illustrated, the new season of "Taste The Nation " is airing.
Here’s Padma’s opinion about American Food.
And The Atlantic opinion
"And, in a city where the hum of helicopters surveying the border adds ambient foreboding to every interaction, burritos also represent the essence of American food: cuisine from one culture cloaked in the imposed ingredients of another (in this case, wheat flour). “A burrito,” Lakshmi observes, “is tradition wrapped in colonization.”
And
" Lakshmi’s flirtatious manner, her unquenchable glamour, allow her to Trojan-horse Taste the Nation ’s true intentions for viewers who might be expecting a vaguely patriotic travelogue through America’s most iconic meals. What she’s offering instead is one of the most fascinating food series to emerge in recent years: a ruthless indictment of how a nation’s cultural heritage has been constructed out of the people and traditions that it has consistently and brutally rejected."
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Well, now I want to see it.
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The first three minutes you begin to understand. Im enthralled. Loving it . Ill. Continue tomorrow night.
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