Thank God it’s Monday, once again. As always, I look forward to every Monday. They’re my 52 Chances a year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with you. Therefore, I hope this brings you a happy Monday, too.
We’re in the middle of Family Fun Month and Happiness Happens Month. What a fitting pair of celebrations, as family fun is definitely a source of happiness! This kind of happiness helps build lasting emotional bonds. Laughter and play are known to lower stress and anxiety levels. They also enrich our health, as they release feel-good endorphins in our brains.
Family “fun time” is known to lower the risk of behavioral issues, depression, and academic trouble in kids. Likewise, positive childhood memories from family fun are also known to improve life skills like empathy, communication, and problem-solving. Simply put, family fun creates happy and healthy environments.
FAMILY FUN & HAPPINESS
Shared traditions and fun events are known to strengthen family bonds and create lasting happy memories, while individually building strong character and elevating self-esteem.
Even through the turbulence that some families experience, the smallest moments of family fun and closeness can bring light into the darkness and produce memories worth remembering – a backyard cookout or making a craft together.
More family fun ideas include recreational shared adventures and quality time spent together, having a weekly indoor/outdoor “game night” and/or “movie night”; as well as going camping or to a waterpark, beach, zoo, fair/festival, arcade, or family-friendly show.
FAMILY FUN & BEACH TIME
Almost all of our family vacations included beach time – swimming and building sand castles, as well as looking for fossilized rocks and seashells. I shared these same family fun traditions with my own children and then with my grandson. By the way, in less than two weeks, on Sunday, August 30th, it will be National Beach Day.
Living and traveling in Michigan, it’s not hard to find a nearby beach anywhere you go. Water-related activities are the most favored, among Michiganders – especially when the summers are hot and muggy. In fact, many small towns have invested in “splash pads” for their community parks and some bigger cities have built full-scale water parks, too.
FAMILY FUN & FITNESS
Walking or biking together is yet another happy way to have family fun and exercise, too. When my kids were young, we’d go on a hike after dinner, to the park near us, instead of watching TV or playing their PlayStation games. The park had a playscape that the community helped build together and a small patch of woods, with almost a mile of trails to wander.
Like I did with Mom when I was young, we’d collect pine cones to take home and string together with fishing line to create wreaths or we’d turn them into bird feeders, by covering them in peanut butter and bird seed and tying a long piece of yarn around them, for hanging them in the trees in our yard.
FAMILY FUN & FOOD
When I was young, it was a special treat for our family of seven to go to Capri’s, down the road in Pearl Beach, on Friday nights to share an extra-large, family-size pizza and two pitchers of root beer. Also, my siblings and I would each get a quarter to play any three songs of our choice on the jukebox, which would just fill the hour that we spent there.
When we couldn’t afford to go out, Mom created her own copycat version of our pizza night out, right at home – minus the jukebox, of course. To make it fun for the family, all of us kids got to help make the dough and put the sauce and toppings on the pizza before Mom baked it in the oven.
Additional fun-in-the-kitchen ideas include making Sunday sundaes and banana splits together, collectively planning and cooking a weekly meal together, or baking cookies together. By the way, National Bake for Family Fun Month is celebrated in February but it can be honored every month of the year.
FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 71). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
[FAST FOODS & FAMILY]
ABOUT THE ONLY THING not governed by, nor subject to, time is love. So, “Fast Foods” arrived when it could be most appreciated and most recognized. “Fast” indicates – or, at least, implies – that there will be time left over one would not ordinarily have with food that was NOT “fast”.
Most food preparations require a lot of time. But “Fast Food” was capitalized on by the promotional people as being something the on-the-go generation could enjoy and would buy, because they had better things to do than sit around restaurants waiting to be waited on…
Instead, they could run in and out with a meal and be on their way to the fun things in life – or on the way to the more time-consuming things in their life, such as work or business of one kind or another.
But with the extensive research into the effects of stress, pressure put upon many people from having too little “time” to be relaxed, to enjoy leisure, freedom from worries, there has been a turn-around in the fast food promotional field.
Now they are gradually – without you hardly even being aware of it – changing to a “family” restaurant theme. They want to bring back the old-fashioned, close-knit, solid family unit.
Back and forth, like the pendulum of a clock, the gimmicks are given a new face and flavor. The public will eventually become conditioned to the new theme and “fast food” will take on a cosmetic change that we will hardly even notice.
The kitchen really is the heart of the home. There are many benefits to be had from preparing and eating meals together, as a family. To start, it builds stronger bonds because it gives us more time to slow down and talk to each other, share our thoughts and experiences. It also helps us focus on eating healthier, using more fruits and vegetables.
Additionally, the kids learn social skills and team work by participating in making the meal and setting the table, as well as cleaning up afterward. Good table manners are also a learned social skills benefit. It’s fun to have themed nights like “Meatloaf Monday”, “Taco Tuesday” or “Fish-Fry Friday” – just to name a few.
Furthermore, you could play a game like “20 Questions” or “I Spy”, during mealtime, to make it extra fun. Mom was really good at those games – probably because of her writing career. Or you could always change things up by cooking and eating outside in the yard and, if it’s raining, you could have a picnic on the living room floor.
Any way you look at it, you’re creating happy, family-fun memories and it’s often those kind of traditions that are the ones that get passed on, from generation to generation.
MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 295). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
A MEAL BY ANY OTHER NAME
FAST FOOD RECIPES were not published in the best-sellers – and these were the restaurants where families were apt frequent if they wanted a meal that was affordable! Paul and I could take all 5 of the children to Capri’s, an Italian restaurant down the road from us in Pearl Beach…
We could feed the whole family for less than $10, providing we ordered the large pizza with only pepperoni and cheese on it and one soft drink for each of us. It was not for substance that we ate out. It was for entertainment.
We could take the kids to McDonald’s and it did the same thing for us that going to the movies did for our parents. It was an affordable pleasure. It was a diversion from meatloaf and pot roast and peas and carrots. It was a treat.
We looked forward to it. We felt good about the experience and even better after it was over. It carried us through a long week of paying the utilities, insurance, house payments and car payments and grocery expenses.
When we had to have our 10-year-old station wagon repaired, we had to skip eating out that week. If one of us had to see the dentist, it might be 2 or 3 weeks before we could afford to eat out again. We made do with what we had. We could make the most of what we had.
OUR KIND OF PLACE
WHERE DOES THE RESTAURANT SLEUTH EAT?
“EVERY TIME I TALK to a radio audience I am asked the same question – ‘What restaurant do YOU like to eat at?’ When we travel, we look for Big Boy Restaurants because we can depend on their prices, and I know the kids will be pleased.” – Gloria Pitzer, as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Secret Recipe Report (Secret Recipe Report, St. Clair, MI; Issue 84, December 1980; p. 7).
Big Boy was another restaurant that we’d often go to for Sunday breakfast or special event dinners because of their family-friendly atmosphere. When I was in elementary school, I remember being a member of the Big Boy Kids Club (aka: Big Boy Birthday Club) for many years.
With the membership, I always got a free kid-size meal for my birthday. They didn’t have a jukebox but I loved getting their comics and coloring books, with which to keep occupied, while we waited for our meals to be served. Likewise, I enrolled each of my kids in the birthday club, too. Going to a “sit-down-and-be-served” restaurant was always a big treat.
AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…
As seen in…
Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 136). [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3rd Edition).]
EATING OUT AT HOME
GOING TO A RESTAURANT is like going to a movie, a way of escaping your day-to-day environment in the office or at home or at most functional places. Restaurants should be places that make you feel separated from your daily environment.
Many restaurants are successful because their design is theatrical, suggesting another time, or a more environmental experience that makes you feel far away from your problems.
McDonald’s has been successfully employing the theme of total decorating concept into their units for many years with the family as the center of their attention; whatever appeals to family groups, children, parents, grandparents.
Their concept is warm, functional, attractive and wholesome. They have set the trend in the fast food industry for this type of the core, always emphasizing their immaculacy concept.
LAST THOUGHTS…
Thanks for visiting! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my memories of my mom, her memories, and other related things. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at therecipedetective@outlook.com. You can also find me on Facebook: @TheRecipeDetective. I look forward to hearing from you!
IN CLOSING…
In honor of Saturday, being Never Bean Better Day, here’s Mom’s copycat recipe for “Baked Beans”, like Boston Market’s; as seen in her self-published “Secret Recipes Bulletin”, #102, Imitations Of Boston Market Dishes (Secret RecipesTM, Marysville, MI; 1998, p. 1).
This recipe was originally featured on this website when my brother, Mike, took care of it for Mom and Dad. However it didn’t transfer over, along with about a dozen other recipes, when he transferred the website to me, in the summer of 2018. As always, I’m asking only for proper credit if you care to re-share it.
P.S. Food-for-thought until next Monday…
The month of August observes… National Dog Month, Get Ready For Kindergarten Month, International Peace Month, National Back to School Month, National Brownies at Brunch Month, National Catfish Month, National Crayon Collection Month, National Goat Cheese Month, National Golf Month, National Panini Month, National Sandwich Month, Romance Awareness Month, and more.
Today is also… National Massachusetts Day and National Thrift Shop Day.
Tomorrow is… National Fajita Day, National Ice Cream Pie Day, and National Pinot Noir Day.
Wednesday, August 19th, is… National Soft Ice Cream Day and National Potato Day.
Thursday, August 20th, is… National Radio Day and National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day.
Friday, August 21st, is… National Spumoni Day and National Senior Citizens Day.
Saturday, August 22nd, is… National Be An Angel Day, National Bao Day, and National Pecan Torte Day.
Sunday, August 23rd, is… National Sponge Cake Day and National Cuban Sandwich Day.
Have a great week!
…33 down and 19 to go.
