Every family gathering for as long as I can remember has revolved around food. From the time I was very young maybe five or six, my father would take us down to his hometown of Lamar, Co. for a family visit. Lamar is a very small college town located in southern Colorado. When we would visit, I was always aware that I was referred to as Tim's daughter, it was if I had no identity of my own. My father would take us from house to house and at every location there was always a large array of food, along with any one of my aunt's saying " eat, eat". Everything was strange to me, mostly because my mother didn't cook the traditional Mexican food that my fathers family grew up on. The homemade pinto beans and tortilla's are some of the foods I remember being present at every household. I can almost remember the hushed conversations about how skinny and tiny I was. I was also one of the few children who not only couldn't speak Spanish, I was also the kid who couldn't eat the spicy traditional foods being served at meal time. As I have gotten older I have gained weight, this stems I know from my love of food. I know all my bad eating habits, trying to change my habits has proven to be some what of an obstacle for me. I cannot seem to stay away from the carbohydrates and refined sugars that are in all my favorite foods. I am also not afraid to try new foods as long as their not too spicy. Don't get me wrong, I simply love driving by those chili street vendors with their signs boasting of the best roasted chili's in town, the smell is intoxicating. I just can't eat them. To add to my personal woes, I've developed acid reflux which has led me down the path of sorrow.(www.acid-reflux-cause.net/) Not only do I have to take medicine daily, I've had to reduce my intake on some of my favorite food choices. Examples of these items are chocolate, tomato based products i.e. lasagna, spaghetti sauce, and caffeinated drinks, just to name a few. As each year passes, my weight seems to increase while my metabolism decreases. In recent years both my husband and myself have watched as members of our family have developed health issueshttp://(webmd.com/heart-disease/) which wind them up in the hospital having heart surgery ranging from triple by-pass to having stints put in. This topic opens a level of fear in each of us. My husband and myself have decided we don't want to be sixty or so and having to be in the hospital for heart surgery due to clogged arteries. We have tried to modify our diets which seems to be difficult given the current economy, along with our statis of the ranks of the unemployed. There's nothing more he and I would love to do than eat more organic foods, adding more fruits and vegetables to our diet, however with the rising costs of food, it's virtually impossible. We are both currently unemployed so our funds are much more limited. There have been quite a few times my husband and I would choose to go and spend eight dollars at Taco bell rather than spend twenty or thirty dollars for all the fixings for a healthy meal. When I was growing up I remember my family wasn't the traditional family that sat down at the dining room table and ate dinner together. Every family member in my family had different schedules, at least on the weekdays, so we all ate in shifts. My mother used to say she always felt like she ran a boarding house as opposed to a family home. The only day of the week we ate dinner as a family was on Sundays. Everyone in the family really looked forward to Sunday meals. My mother had her select meals she would serve , always rotating each /Sunday so we didn't have the same thing two Sundays in a row. Our choices were Pot roast with vegetables and potatoes and gravy, or chicken that was either fried or baked served with scalloped potatoes and cooked carrots, lets not forget the meatloaf and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans or sometimes cooked carrots, and last but not least one of my dads favorites were the fried pork chops with fried potatoes and green beans. Mom would always try and have a dessert on Sundays which was something we children looked very forward to. My mom always made her pies from scratch, especially the crust. To this day if I make a pie I pull out my mothers recipe for pie crust. I refuse to use those all ready made pie crusts they just don't taste the same. When I cook I use a lot of recipes my mom used to, however I've altered some of the recipes to match my and my husbands tastes. I have my mothers old cookbooks, the one that is my all time favorite is her Betty Crocker cookbook.(BettyCrocker.com) I have a copy of my own of the same cookbook but mine was published sometime in the 1980's and hers I think was published sometime in the 40's or 50's. Plus her cookbook has character with the cover missing, spots here and there where something was either dropped on the page and wiped off or when mom had the mixer too high and batter went flying. My mom used to love her pressure cooker, and we all remember the day she was cooking beans and whether her heat was too high or they cooked too long, either way the top blew off and the next thing we knew there were pinto beans all over the kitchen ceiling.What a mess that was. With our kids grown and gone I don't cook as much as I used to. Since my husband and I moved back in with my father I pretty sure he's delighted about having home cooked meals once again. My father is eighty and he really doesn't eat too much anymore, I do try and get him to eat something resembling a well rounded meal. I sometimes think he's going through his second childhood, because I can hardly ever get him to eat vegetables. My father insists on making his own plate and thats how he gets away with not putting the vegetables on his plate. As far as cooking goes my favorite time is the holidays for trying new recipes and doing a lot of baking. I simply love all the web sites for looking up recipes. My husband likes the fact I don't have a gazillion cookbooks lying around taking up a lot of room. During the holidays my husband and I usually get together with his side of the family. For dinners everyone is responsible for bringing a dish which leads to way too much food with lots of varity. But thats okay we usually get doggy bags to take home. The holidays are fast approaching and I can already begin salivating over the thought of all those yummy baked cookies and cakes and pies. YUM!!
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