Linds, Suz, G’ma, Lo 1996
Today, we know cigarettes are full of badness. In 1971, not so much.
Grandma used to make me
It was a treat.
My special treat; breakfast cigarettes.
She would toast my bread.
She would butter my toast.
She sprinkled a bit of sugar and cinnamon on it.
She would slice it into 4 strips.
Voila: Cigarettes.
She would call me to the breakfast table:
“Suzanne, come get your cigarettes”
And I came a-runnin’ for my morning Crazy right?
Crazy delicious.
Guess what we *cough cough* had for breakfast today.
My Grandma smoked until she was 75 years old.
You may recall that she just left us this past September.
She was 96 years old.
Apparently sprinkling cinnamon on your smokes takes the badness out.
I need to tell the Surgeon General.
And no, this did not cause me to smoke.
did you get crazy food as a kid.
Beer? Raw hot dogs? Cigarettes?
Might be I said.
What a hoot!!! Grandmas are funny! The silliest thing I remember from my childhood were those funny little vienna sausages from a can. Yum! Not.
ReplyDeleteI got such a kick out of the adorable pics below of your Cocoa vying for attention from "Dad". Made me laugh out loud.
And kudos on the new house color. It looks fantastic!
M.L.
We used to LOVE those candy/gum cigarettes! There used to be some that had like, I don't know, powdered sugar between the gum and the wrapper, so you could blow in the end of them, and "smoke" would come out. How hilarious is that!?
ReplyDeleteWe never really had any "weird" things, since we weren't allowed to eat anything that wasn't traditional Italian food. But, I'm certain some of those things would be considered weird by "outsiders." ;-) Battered and fried zucchini flowers, anyone? YUM!! You have no idea what you're missing! I'm sure I could think of a million more, but I don't want to share all our secrets... :P
Like ML, I remember "pigs in a blanket" (vienna sausages) - ooohhh! I also remember candy cigarettes - sweet white sticks with pinkish-red painted on the tip - can you imagine if someone tried to sell that candy today???
ReplyDeletei love this sweet story about grandma :) you never cease to make me laugh with a story about her! i wa actually thinking baout you this morning... and so glad you were not travelling back and forth across the alley...
ReplyDeleteanyway... my gramma made us dough-boys :) (fried dough with cinnamon & sugar, no ashes) and it used to be a real treat to get to eat a frozen hot dog. gross, huh?
Hi Suz, My Daddy smoked for 50 yrs. and it did kill HIM (Emphasema--or however you spell that).. I remember in high school that I would hide Daddy's cigarettes from him. It upset me so much-and this was the late 50's. Thank God I NEVER EVER smoked. We all have our 'crutches' --and mine is FOOD... Sigh!!!! ha
ReplyDeleteI loved Cinnamon Toast.. Still do!!! Cinnamon is good for us.. Crazy food which I ate was Peanut Butter, Mayo and Banana sandwiches. I know--sounds horrible. Blame my mother for that one!!!! But--I still like them!
Hugs,
Betsy
well to start, my aunt margueritte was a smoker. when you saw her, you saw her with a permanently lit ciggy hanging off her lip. she'd talk with it, sew with it... if she could sleep with it she would of. she used to cook with it.. and mind you, she NEVER butted her ashes.. they would just land where they landed. it used to gag me... ugh. so, as she cooked over the stove her wonderful canadian stews, soups, roasts, whatev... those ashes would fall in and no one was allowed to say nuttin. she could talk up a storm with that thing pursed off to the side of her lip and not lose a beat....
ReplyDeleteour wierd food which i used with my kids and still do today was....
wait for it.....
buttered toast cut into lil squares with a sliced piece of banana on it.. like a lil hor'doerve... and sometimes if we sat under the kitchen table ma would feed us one at a time under there like we were lil hideaways... or criminals.... or heathens depending on her mood. sometimes we broke out of jail but i always wanted more. i never had enough of them. i can still smell the coffee she drank as she ate her toast n bananas, taking a sip with each bite. is that OCD or what... there would be a regular pattern... crunch [the bite], sip, [the coffee] tap [the cup set on the table] then a hand would appear under the table with our lil square [we'd take it] and you'd hear her swallow n start all over again. by the time we chewed n swallowed her hand would appear again...
isnt it funny what you remember?
i dont know if i needed the food the most or her attention or just the fun of the whole thing. today i wouldnt be comfy under the table with a hand feeding me my lil square.... diane doesnt like breakfast that way BWAHAHAHAHAHA.
as for the cigs.. i ALWAYS hated smoking prolly cuz everyone in my family smoked.. and stunk like it... yuk.
also, my favorite aunt germaine [non smoker] would walk me to the lil corner market on her block and buy me lil paper saks of freshly fried french fries and they poured a lil gravy on them in the bag... you could smell them via the lil grease stains on the paper sak... yummy.
i could tell ya a million STORIES AND MAYBE ONe DAY I WILL... but i'll stop now.
HEY! WHO YELLED OUT in the backround "THANK GOD SHE STOPPED"?
fess up, now!
i'll find out.
i ALWAYS find out....
c
I can't remember any weird foods as a youngster. (Remember that was a LONG time ago in my case!). I do remember those candy cigarettes, but both of my parents disapproved of them, so we didn't get them very often -- only when an uncle sneaked some to us.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE CINNAMON TOAST! Had to put that out there. I don't remember any weird foods from my younger days. I'm sure there were plenty, or maybe I still eat them, so I don't think they are weird. Does peanut butter on pancakes qualify as wierd? Or my Granny would mix karo syrup and peanut butter to put on toast to make sandwiches.... yea, that sounds kind of weird. But Gosh they were good :)
ReplyDeleteButter (actually margarine) sandwiches. Spread butter on the bread, sprinkle with sugar and cut in half. They were so good. And we're not even related to Paula Deen! : ) I remember roasting weenies on the gas stove too. Cut up and eat with mustard. Those were good too.
ReplyDeleteMy grandma made us "greasy bun burgers." You fry up the patties (NO lean ground beef allowed) and then put the buns in the grease, put the lid on for a minute and let the buns soak up ALL the fat. OMG--was it delicious!
ReplyDeleteOH SUZ you are the FUNNIEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWe didn't get raw hotdogs but we would roll up a slice of bologna and cheese together. Kind of looked like a hotdog. My brother ate raw hamburger...yuck!
ReplyDeleteI love cinnamon toast. My conservative mommy did NOT call it cigarettes though :).
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you have so many wonderful memories of your Grandmother. I cry when I think of your loss. My heart hurts for you!
Oh this is so true. I remember eating raw hotdogs! Gross. My Hubbys parents used to give him toast with butter and spoonfuls of brown sugar mashed in.
ReplyDeleteOf course I can't talk....my Dad makes my girls his "special" toast when they sleepover. Peanutbutter on toast with smarties on top.
bologna sombreros. we would fry the bologna until the middle popped up and it would look like a mexican sombrero, i hate bologna but i would fry me some up and eat a sombrero any day!!
ReplyDeletei miss your grammy too, did you ever get that naughty light switch?
My mom one time accidentally bought potted meat, fed it to us, told it was cat food, watched us go spit it out into the sink in horror, then laughed at us for about 10 minutes straight. Maybe your grandma and my mom should have been friends!
ReplyDeleteAAAh Suz, why so pretty? Why so funny? You pretty. You funny too!
ReplyDeleteI love it.
You have an infant in your lap and you look AMAZING. How come all the recently pregnant ladies I know or see look like a truck ran over them? Luuuuuuuuuuuuucky!
So, weird food? Please. Where I come from, it is not weird to crave fat sheep testicles roasted on a charcoal griller/smoker. It has to be a fat sheep. Seriously. Top it with a solid helping of roasted garlic and onions, and a giant dollop of sour yogurt with cucumbers. Ball Gyros. That's what my cousins and I called them. Deeeeelish. Ed won't let me make them in "our" home. Pfffft. I say to that, harumph!
You say you wanna be just like me, well, right back at YOU Floridian sistah. Seriously. Williams Sonoma has the green pot, it's called the Lemongrass color. :-) I love me pot.
Oh, and buttermilk marinade, yes, it is THAT good. It is such a healthy drink too. Sounds fattening, but it is not at all. Extremely healthful. You should Google it.
When I'm not drinking it, using it in pancake/cake/muffin/brownie batter, for homemade ranch or other salad dressing, and stews and chowders, I use it to marinate chicken, lamb, and depending on the cut of beef, that too. If it is a filet or something tender along those lines, the buttermilk will practically make it melt. Seriously.
There are so many recipes online for its use. My basic is buttermilk, s & p, garlic, and whatever other herb/spice will be the dominant one in my dish. If you try it, let me know.
Or, you can JUST COME OVER FOR DINNER ALREADY!!!
P.S. God bless your precious Grandma. Always.
ReplyDeleteI heart your Grandma.
ReplyDeleteLove it! Those "cigs" look yummy. Smoke 'em if you got 'em, right? Haha My dad use to let me drink the foam off the top of his beer every time he'd pour a mug full when I was little. I think it helped grow hair on my chest. Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteI grew up when everything had to be done that one particular way so the neighbors wouldn't talk...so, no weird food.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, when I was 5, my dad sent me down the street to the corner drug store to buy him cigarettes. My head wasn't high enough to clear the check out counter. It was only the one time, but it was just. so. wrong.
Never cigarettes or beer, but plenty of other weird stuff!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks sooo good!
ReplyDeleteWanna laugh?
http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/
I got to about page 19 before I blinked, LOL!
Why did she bother to quit?
ReplyDeleteIt gives me hope, though. Maybe I should wait until 75 to give up any bad habit I have acquired?? I am so not kidding here.
Totally hysterical! We had candy cigarettes. LOVED 'EM. Hey--how do you get those great fonts for your blog posts??? I gotta know.
ReplyDeleteYour grandma must've been a riot!!! Love it!! I had the "candy cigs" as a little girl. But I'm glad I didn't grow up in my hubby's hispanic family - they were always eating weird parts of animals (intestines - crap like that! Ugh!)
ReplyDeleteI had one great-grandmother that was generous with the Nyquil, chicken noodle soup and Pepsi whenever we were sick. HATED the Nyquil, but you had to take that in order to get the good stuff!
ReplyDeleteMy sisters ate cheese and grape jelly sandwiches. Never could stomach that myself!
They were selling candy cigarettes at our State Fair this year.....wonder how they got away with it??!
Seriously, times have really changed, haven't they? Remember those candy cigarettes? I used to beg my mom for those, but she wouldn't buy 'em. Not even back in the late 70s.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, sweet picture...I love stories about your grandma...thank you for still sharing stories about her...I know you must miss her terribly. ((((Suz)))))
ReplyDelete