Ghosts of Bad Food Past

My daughter, Helen, read my last entry and called to lecture me on the need to simplify my menu a bit and told me how she gets a bag of frozen fish fillets at Costco and bags of ready to steam vegetables. She probably also keeps little ziploc bags of cooked Japanese rice in her freezer just like me. I had to chuckle and tell her that I know very well how to make simple food. After all, she as my firstborn child back in the last 70's should remember well the way I cooked for her. I reminded her of the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with Oscar Mayer beef hot dog dinners (that was when I didn't care about nitrates!) or the fried bologna, egg, and rice. What about the fish sticks and french fries? Or canned spaghetti-o's? Nearly everything I cooked came from a box of frozen prepared foods or boxes of ready made mixes like Rice a Roni or Shake and Bake. I'd almost forgotten those days before my food snob ways took over my life. Simple was not so bad though. I went to my shelf of now well over a hundred cookbooks and looked for my early cookbooks. I had 3 cookbooks! I can't believe I only used those 3 cookbooks for years. Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, and a 2 part set of Better Homes and Gardens
Oh, make that 4, I also had The Joy of Cooking too. In the Betty Crocker cookbook I found a clipping of a newspaper recipe of a cheese ball covered with Amour dried beef. Yuk, did I really eat that? I remember making the same things over and over and relying on those handy mixes that I no longer buy--the ones I banished from my pantry a couple years ago, you know the "spaghetti seasoning mix", "taco seasoning mix", "meatloaf seasoning mix".
Now I have to research the dish I want to make by browsing my vast collection of cookbooks, binders of recipes, and Internet recipes before I get started. I prefer to use fresh ingredients, toast my spices, grind things in the spice blender, on and on... So although it's not so simple I have to admit my food is soooo much better now than when the kids were young.
But, Helen, every now and then I make a simple meal of fried rice, not with bologna, but a little leftover chicken, scallions, and scrambled egg with plenty of soy sauce and I remember the simpler times.