The Great American Dinner Experience

Growing up in a family of seven, my parents were masters at making the dollar stretch as far as it could go. Of course, at the time, we had very little appreciation, if any, of how creative they were, and how lucky we were that they were able to be so resourceful. (What do little kids know anyway?) Their culinary inspiration for meals is one I personally remember only all to well. I have blogged about their home made macaroni, and hinted about my dad’s pasta, but they were bonus meals in comparison to the Spam inventions and the various innovations we had to eat on a slice of toast.

My dad was an ex-navy man, who knew all too well what meal rationing was all about and how effective it could be during the tougher times. Those meals at sea would make most heave, but when times are tough (and seas are rough), one learns to deal with it. He had to, and so did we. So it was quite often that we were “treated” to a navy meal on dry land! Of course, at the time, when we were little, we were easily tricked into believing we were eating something other kids were not so lucky to experience. So we thought.

One of the meals were we served often was Spam. My parents could take a slice of Spam and lead us to believe we were being fed something from a five star restaurant. However, not all Spam meals were equal. When times were good, we were lucky enough to have not only a ring of pineapple on the spam, but a maraschino cherry topped the pineapple ring. When times were a wee bit tougher, the only thing that graced that Spam was a tiny bit of brown sugar. The Spam was broiled to allow the brown sugar to glaze. Even without the ‘extras’ my siblings and I all thought it a good meal.

The other gastronomic delights my parents made for us were something ‘creamed’ on a slice of toast. Usually it was a mixture of tuna and peas in some creamy white sauce piled on a piece of white toast. The truth is, when you are hungry, and not much exists for dinner, you will eat anything. Now as a kid I never remember going to school to tell the kids what we had for dinner. I am not sure if it was because of the possible scowled faces we might have faced, or it wasn’t anything a normal kid shared with their peers. No wonder it was dubbed S.O.S.

“I had creamed tuna and peas on toast for dinner last night!”

“Wow! Can I get that recipe from your mom?”

See. It doesn’t really work into a playground discussion. So you grow up wondering, at times, if you were only kid that had to eat that crap. Years later I find out through real culinary dialogues at work with grownup peers that we were NOT the only kids on the planet to eat such divine treats. It seems most of us growing up had hard working parents just trying to make ends meet the best way they knew how.

Spam found its way to a great many American homes with large families. No wonder it was such a hot commodity, and apparently still is...perhaps there are many parents out there still trying to make ends meet the best way they can these days. And IF things continue in our country the way they are going, perhaps we more of us will be eating these great American staples.