Cake and Biscuits...

I think my selective memory may be worse than Jeff's. I don't remember details very well but many of the memories I do have of my childhood involve either making or eating food.  As everyone else has shared, I remember Jeopardy! and the "zings" from Dad about the food - maybe because it needed more barbecue sauce. And I'm glad that you can buy Sonny's now because nearly every other sauce is better than Bull's-eye (which I remember having frequently) in my mind.

I remember having superhero cakes as well, but I thought the batman cake was mine.  I think my favorite cake of all was a teenage mutant ninja turtle cake. I don't know why I was so fascinated with TMNT but I was and Mom was willing to make the cake to make my day a special one. As a parent now myself, I am amazed at the amount of time that Mom spent making our cakes.  When Annika decided that she was going to have a Cat in the Hat party for her 3rd birthday, we outsourced the cake making because we didn't think we'd have the time to make it and do everything else to get ready for the party. Yet every year, Mom had our cakes ready to go - whether the cake was a soccer ball, a TMNT, or another superhero. Annika's already let us know that her 5th birthday party will have a Paris theme - anyone want to make an Eiffel Tower cake for us? Mom?

The dish that I remember having most frequently was Chili Chicken Success. I just googled it and found that it is a common name.  I think I grew up thinking that Mom called it Chili Chicken Success because she could throw some chili and chicken in the crockpot and it was a success with both the kids and more importantly, Dad. I don't even know if it was made in a crockpot, but I remember a lot of crockpot chicken meals.

I liked Sunday dinners the best because I could help make dinner. I loved to make the biscuits. When dating Erica I think I could still make them without a recipe. I told her that I could never marry someone that can't make biscuits so I taught her how to make them. Unfortunately, we don't have them often and I'm now craving biscuits. When I met Erica's family, her Mom asked me if there was something that I would like to eat with dinner. Without hesitation, I asked for biscuits. Erica's family gave me some incredulous looks when I asked if they had any syrup. They took a liking to waffles with ice cream the next morning though.

So, I would like to thank you Mom for not only providing and accommodating our wants, but making it fun and allowing us to participate in the experience. You've done a great job teaching our kids in the same way you taught us - all three of my girls expect me to be able to teach them to draw because of the time that you spent teaching them. Annika asks to make Nani's cookies because of the times she spent making them with you. So, partly thanks to you, my kids are learning the skill that I mastered quickly - sprinting into the kitchen to eat desserts fresh out of the oven, a critical skill in any Holland household. In all seriousness, I really do appreciate the time that you spent with me - teaching me to cook and bake - and wish I could be making you a meal with biscuits tonight.  The first recipe I post on the blog will be the soup that you've asked about often.

I love you and Happy Birthday!

Brad

John's Food Memories

What foods come to mind when I think of my childhood? Biscuits and honey, mashed potatoes, salsa and chips on Sunday afternoons, and lots and lots of cookies.  I remember my teeth getting dyed black from the frosting on a soccer ball cake. I remember using the broth from black-eyed peas as gravy for potatoes even though I refused to touch the peas themselves. I even remember that the jalepeno kind made the best gravy.

Mom, you made us thousands of great meals over the years and fulfilled countless orders. Looking back, the atmosphere that you created with those meals was more important than the dishes themselves. There was a family dinner every night, no matter how busy you or the kids were. Those dinners left a deep impression on us all- you need not look farther for evidence than our bizarre family habit of hooking our elbows around the backrest of the chair when we're done eating. 

There was a lunch packed for me every day up through my senior year of high school. I can't tell you how jealous all of my friends were that my mom still packed lunches for me. A sandwich, an apple, fruit snacks, and a drink were waiting for me every morning. My favorite cereal was always in the pantry, seemingly in an infinite supply. The milk was always in the fridge, just as infinite as the cereal. Only now do I really understand that those things run out, and fast. 

Mom, your work keeping us all feed as what made our house a home. We always congregated around the food, most of the time devouring it in minutes. Remember when Tammy came to meet the family and brought a decorative box full of gummy snacks? She was shocked that we polished them all off in a matter of minutes. I remember how I used to eat the frosting off of cakes, Wendy would eat the crust, and Brad would eat the middle. I'm grateful for all of the work you did for us, I wish we had thanked you more at the time. Hopefully, this blog will help you see some of the influence you had on us.

Happy birthday!

Love, 

John

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I've been reading a ton of autobiographies lately, and the thing that impresses me the most is the detailed memory of the authors.  They describe in full detail meals from when they were five years old.  Granted, Justin reminded me that people generally have better memories of traumatic experiences, and the stories I've been reading have been filled with trauma.  So, the good news is, my childhood was never traumatic!  In fact, the most vivid memories I have of eating together growing up include: falling out of my chair while eating fishsticks and busting open my lip, thereby missing church and going to the Urgent Care, discovering blood in my chicken casserole either the night of or sometime around Jeff's graduation, and sitting for hours at the dinnertable because I refused to eat my dinner.

Ha, those 'traumatic' experiences aside, I have fond memories of eating together as a family.  I loved that we had that time together every night, and I was always sad for my friends when I went to their houses and they didn't have family dinner, with a prayer.  If fact, my friends were always more than happy to stay over for dinner.  I don't ever remember Mom saying no to any of my friends joining us at the dinnertable, and that happened frequently, whether it was Megan (who made the lemonade first, of course), Liz, Fran, Brett, or anyone else who was around. Good thing we were willing to adjust our "assigned seats" around to include a few more:)

Other pieces of memory in the kitchen include peeling and coring apples and learning how to dehydrate them, mixing cookies or brownies, doing dishes with Brad (who always mysteriously had to go to the bathroom every time we had to do dishes), making lots and lots of mashed potatoes, mixing Country Time lemonade, and making that delicious truffle with pudding and Angel Food Cake (what was that?!  Yum!).  More recently, I remember retaliating against Dad when he criticized Mom's cooking (he's less prone to do so now!), and I do recall a dinner when Brad and Erica were engaged and Dad told Brad he shouldn't go into the guest room with Erica with the door shut, and Brad tried to shift the blame to me, saying that I did worse things, and then Dad said, "Well I sleep with your Mom!"  End of story.

So, Mom, you made mealtimes fantastic.  I didn't know that chicken casserole with rice and a cream of something soup wasn't the very best of meals.  In fact, if you asked me now what my comfort food is, that's it...with yellow rice.  Yum, yum!  I specifically remember asking for that as a special birthday meal one time.  Speaking of birthdays, I had the very best ones ever!  I had a lion cake, a watch cake (can anyone remind me of WHY I would want a watch cake?), and a very amazing golf cake for my 8th birthday party at Putt-Putt golf.  I also remember making pinatas at my 10th birthday, inviting like half the school over for my 14th birthday party, where we had to rent a special building to have the dance party, and then having the most special surprise 16th party!  You made birthdays awesome, Mom!  I hope you have a great one today!  I love you!

Jeff's Food Memories of Youth

I always had awesome birthday cakes, with Superman and Batman standing out from the rest.  I'm not sure those particular cakes stand out because they were my favorites at the time or if it's because they're the ones that would be most popular with my kids now. But as great as the memories of birthdays are, they're surpassed by the memories of the menu of my high-school years.

With remarkable consistency, I think I ate nearly the same daily menu for the better part of high school. For breakfast, I'd have the ggrreeaat!-est cereal known to man, Frosted Flakes. For lunch, a PBJ. For dinner, a chicken-rice casserole. 

Even all these years later, I can picture those dinners with remarkable precision. We'd be gathered around the table with ABC News or Jeopardy! on the TV. At the time I thought the TV was to help us learn current events or random trivia. As I reflect on it now, however, the TV's purpose may have been to distract us from the monotony of our everyday chicken casserole. Served in a white casserole dish with small floral flourishes on the side, the dish had three main ingredients: chicken, rice, and cream of something soup. The soup ingredient kept it lively: Tuesday, it'd be cream of chicken; Thursday, cream of mushroom. Maybe Wednesday would have a little extra black pepper to spice it up. Remarkably, I don't think we ever complained about the meals...we were either too happy just to have food or just maybe the dinner menu wasn't as consistent as I remember.

But one thing I remember for sure is my favorite food--potato cinnamon rolls. How good were they? Embarrassingly, coming home from college on breaks, it was those cinnamon rolls that occupied my mind more so than reuniting with family. Had it been socially acceptable, I probably wouldn't have talked to anybody until I ate them. Typing about them now, I'm starting to salivate and I haven't had them for years. Truly, there's nothing better than a gallon of milk and a sheet of those rolls--and not having to share until I'm done. 

So, thanks, mom! Thanks for having sheets of cinnamon rolls hot from the oven at remarkably inconvenient times, thanks for keeping us all fed, and thanks for teaching us all to be courageous in the kitchen. Most of the time, Tammy and kids appreciate the culinary skills you taught me (and when they don't, it's clearly my fault!). Happy Birthday!

Let's do this!

Welcome to the Holland Family Blog! Here, we hope to post our adventures in the kitchen and share with each other some of our favorites.  We are hoping to compile the best of our easy go-to recipes, fancy meals, quick dinners, fun lunches, gourmet recipes, tasty desserts, and festive creations.  Each Holland (and/or their wonderful spouses!) must post at least once a month to the blog.  Within one year, we'll have at least 60 wonderful recipes to enjoy!  And if we're good enough, we'll all retire early, open a restaurant, and maintain this blog together.  Hey, why not? :)