A few weeks ago, my Aunt Esther and I talked about fresh garden tomatoes and how tasty they are. I season my fresh-sliced tomatoes differently than Joe does and I asked my aunt what she puts on her tomato slices. I was surprised when she said salt, pepper, and sugar. That’s the same way I eat sliced tomatoes! The way we ate them at home as I grew up, the way my mom served them. And I bet Grandma and Grandpa Schumm did the same. Maybe even their parents as well. Our preference for seasoning tomatoes has been passed down for several generations.
Speaking of tomatoes, one of my favorite sandwiches is a BLT (bacon, lettuce & tomato), but I add a fried egg to the sandwich. I guess you would call that a BELT. Restaurants that also serve breakfast will add the egg to the sandwich if I ask.
We undoubtedly get most of our food preferences from the food we ate growing up, at home and at school. Some of the not-so-common food we ate at our house:
We had radish sandwiches–radish slices with salt and pepper on butter bread. We often ate an apple with our popcorn. Salt is good on a raw apple. At school they served peanut butter sandwiches with mac & cheese and with chili soup, food pairings that Joe and I both still like.
A favorite meal by Grandma Miller was fried pork chops, fried potatoes (fried in a cast iron skillet), and stewed tomatoes. Joe said his mom also made this same meal.
Joe likes some more unusual pairings: peanut butter & mayonnaise sandwich; peanut butter & bologna sandwich; bread, butter & catsup sandwich; syrup on fried potatoes, and syrup on tuna noodle casserole. Actually, syrup on tuna noodle casserole is pretty good.
We both like anchovies on our pizza and Cesar Salad. Two people who like anchovies were destined to be together.
My dad and I really liked ice cream and we came up with some unique toppings. Our favorite was vanilla ice cream topped with crunchy peanut butter and orange marmalade. He added chocolate syrup to that. Another good ice cream topping was Coco Puffs, especially when the ice cream softens a little so you can mix the Coco Puffs in.
Times were hard during the depression. My dad put milk and sugar on popcorn for breakfast. He packed potato sandwiches for his school lunch. Joe’s mom put lard on bread in place of butter.
Awhile back I wrote about church cookbook recipes and mentioned that my Aunt Kate showed me how to make a Swedish Tea Ring when I was a young girl.
A reader asked about the tea ring recipe and here it is. Making the pastry takes a little work but is well worth the effort.
Swedish Tea Ring
Mix together:
1 cup lukewarm milk
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
Crumble 2 cakes of compressed yeast into the mixture and stir until the yeast is dissolved.
Stir in 2 eggs, ½ cup soft shortening, 4½-5 cups flour, adding the flour in 2 additions, using the amount necessary to make the dough easy to handle. Mix first with a spoon, then with your hands.
Turn onto lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Round up into a greased bowl, greased side up. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in warm place (85 degrees) until double in size, about 1½ hours. Punch down and let rise again, until almost double, about 30 minutes.
After the second rising, roll and shape the dough into an oblong, about 9” x 18.”
Spread with 2 Tbs. softened butter and sprinkle with ½ cup sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, and ½ cup of raisins.
Roll up tightly, beginning at the wide side, making a long roll. Seal well by pinching the long edges of the roll together.
Rolling Swedish Tea Ring dough.
Place the roll on a lightly greased baking sheet, sealed edge down. Shape the roll into a ring and join and seal the ends of the ring together.
With a scissors, make cuts 2/3 of the way through the ring at 1” intervals. Turn each section on its side.
Cover and let rise until double in bulk (35-40 min). Bake at 375 degrees, 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and completely baked through.
While still warm, drizzle a powdered sugar glaze over the ring and decorate with nuts and cherries.
Swedish Tea Ring
Best eaten warm! With coffee.
To be clear, I have not made a Swedish Tea Ring for many years, but after reading through the recipe again, I am thinking about making it for the holidays again.
Maybe I’ll make the Swedish Tea Ring after I master another holiday favorite–my mom’s delicious Rum Cake.
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The Swedish Tea Ring looks and sounds delicious, thanks for the recipe
Author
You are welcome!
Loved your article on food. Reminded me of favorite food stories especially of my dad. Dad liked to cook probably learned out of necessity as his mother died when he was only 7. One of my favorite childhood meals was bread and milk. You took a piece of bread sprinkled a little sugar over the top and poured on ice cold milk. Mmmmm. If it was really cold outside or for special occasions you could heat the milk, toast the bread and add a dollop of rich butter along with the sugar.
One of my favorite memories is cooking with dad on Sunday night. Sometimes we just had oatmeal or popcorn but sometimes we tried new dishes. I still remember clearly the night we tried the new food pizza. We had heard about it and were anxious to try. We got a box of Chef Boyardee (remember those) at the store. We followed the instructions exactly which was unusual for us. Proudly we put our pizza in the oven having even added a strange meat called pepperoni. Mom who was a great cook in her own right came out in the kitchen just as the tangy smells started to drift out of the oven. Suddenly she shrieked, ” You cant eat that, It is spoiled and smells rotten.” She made us throw it out without ever tasting. Well the next Sunday while she was at a church meeting we made it again and ate the whole thing. We went on to create many wonderful dishes. When we didn’t have pizza sauce we used canned mushroom gravy and steak. Hawaiian pizza …made it. Buffalo chicken..made it. As I remember Mom even ate some but she never smiled when we told the story of our 1st pizza.
Linda I love it that you also enjoyed milk, bread and sugar as a child. I always mixed the ingredients in a tall glass and ate it with a spoon. I told Karen about it as she was writing this blog but I think she thought it was too weird to make the cut lol.
Joe
Author
Thank you for sharing your wonderful memories, Linda. I do remember those Chef Boyardee pizzas and they were quite good. I liked their thin crust. They may have actually smelled bad to you mom. I remember when we first started making them I thought the cheese smelled rotten, too. I would pinch my nose so I could not smell it, but I eventually got used to the smell and enjoyed eating them. Maybe certain things smell bad to some people. And Joe did mention that he liked bread with sugar and milk. I just forgot to add it in the post. He confirmed it is really good. Thanks for writing!
I also grew up eating bread, milk and sugar. We also had a dish called soupy potatoes. It is boiled potatoes, (leave some of the water on them) and boiled eggs smashed with a fork. Mix the two together and eat them with butter bread. It’s actually pretty good.
I really enjoyed your blog.
Paula
Author
Bread, sugar, and milk was certainly popular. It sounds delicious, but something we did not eat at home. You can’t go wrong when sugar is a main ingredient. Your soupy potatoes also sounds good. I also like egg dishes. Seems families made do with what they had, resulting in some really good meals and good memories. Thanks for writing!
My grandfather ate fried hot dog and fried bologna sandwiches. I love just plain buttered toast sprinkled with cinnamon sugar! One that I dearly love is friend sausage, the ring kind, and potatoes. My daughter and I love eggs over easy and dip your toast, bacon or sausage in the egg yolk. I also taught my kids to eat chipped beef gravy on toast! Mom used to put peas in it to get us boys to eat more veggies:)
I will have to try the Swedish Tea Ring recipe but of course one must eat it while drinking a delicious cup of hot tea, not coffee.
Rum cake? Mmmm! Recipe please.
Author
Your comments bring back some fond memories. My dad loved fried bologna sandwiches and also liked ring bologna. And you can never go wrong with eggs. We called them “dippin’ eggs.” I’ll post the rum cake before the holidays. Thanks for writing!