One of the(many)things I remember from childhood is the white icing we usually made for cakes. The icing was made from powdered sugar, Milnot(canned milk) and???? Was there some butter in it (I think so)? Maybe a pinch of salt? Vanilla? (I think we added Hershey's Cocoa to make chocolate icing.) I haven't made this icing in years; and since I can no longer get Milnot, it probably wouldn't be quite the same.
I liked the icing on cakes, but I liked it even better on saltine crackers (we made certain to make enough for leftovers). Now, eating icing on regular (or any other kind of) crackers may sound strange to you, but I loved the salt and sweet taste together. When my children your young, I made sure to let them have this treat occasionally so that my(fond) memory from childhood would be a pleasant memory for them also.
I think the icing made for carrot cake today is fairly close to what we made - minus the cream cheese, of course. The icing is my favorite part of carrot cake; sometimes I select this cake for desert (even when I would really like to have something else) just to taste the icing.
Another treat we had (I don't think my children had this) was a slice of bread with sugar sprinkled over it (heavily, sprinkled if I remember correctly) and then drizzled with Milnot. I think this was a kind of poor man's cake. Anyway, it was very good. We didn't have it often, but I always enjoyed it. I think this might be comparable to pouring condensed milk on bread, though I doubt that it would be as good.
One last food memory (for today). When Mother made pie crust, we (my sister and I) always waited for the left over pieces of dough to make cinnamon rolls. Now, these cinnamon rolls were not like the cinnamon rolls of today. We formed the leftover dough into a ball and then rolled it out (fairly thin), dotted it heavily with butter, and sprinkled it with (quite a lot of) sugar and cinnamon. Beginning at one edge of the dough, we carefully rolled it into a long strip. This strip was then cut into slices and placed on a cookie sheet or pie pan (depending on how much dough was left over). The slices were then baked for a few minutes until done. I don't know if other families used leftover dough this way, but it made a delicious treat.
What I would like to do right now is to eat some "icing crackers" or have an old-fashioned cinnamon roll; however, since I gained weight over the summer and I have neither powdered sugar nor pie dough on hand (thank goodness), I will resist the temptation. The next time I'm with my Miami grandchildren, I'm going to try to get the boys interested in making old-fashioned cinnamon rolls and eating "icing crackers."
Blessings to all.
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Those iced graham cracker were good but I also remember putting icing on plain saltines which I think was my favorite way to eat that "treat." There is just something about the combination of salt and sweet in the same bite that is terrific. Last Thanksgiving, I taught my two oldest granddaughters how to make pie crust from scratch. It was so much fun. We made pie crust cinnamon rolls out of the dough remnants and the girls loved them! So, maybe this is a tradition that will get picked up and carried on with them. And, maybe sometime in the future Kaitlin or Jaylen will write in their blog about their memories of making pie dough cinnamon rolls with Gramma Barb!
ReplyDeleteYour memories took me back to a further memory. One day my mother visited, when we lived in the small St. Louis apartment. You two girls were still young enough that you were on your knees in a kitchen chair, "helping" me with whatever I was doing for lunch. You didn't get to help with anything on the stove, but with the preparation. You stirred, and did whatever else small hands could do. My mother said she didn't see how I could get anything done with kids in the way like that. You weren't in the way.
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