What was your family food culture when you were growing up? I'm still growing up (college freshman). My family's very comfortable, so we've always eaten healthy, quality foods. I consider myself to be really lucky in that regard. My mom grew up eating things like mac n' cheese and fish sticks, so it's her priority and my father's (he works for a food chain) to buy the best that they can. Was meal time important? Meal time is always important. The only time I ever ate alone was when I had an eating disorder my senior year of high school and didn't want to be around anyone when I ate (because I didn't). That really killed them. Besides the bad time though, my parents have always made it a priority that we eat dinner together. They think it's a good time for us to talk about our day. My mom says that meal times are "family bonding". What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? There is none. For us, the whole point of being able to eat together as a family is not being fussy over insignificant things like that. Not to say that we don't have manners, but if one of my sisters did that no one would make an issue out of it. Life is too short! Who cooked in the family? My mom always cooks if it's something in the oven like baked salmon or turkey. If it involves the grill at any point, such as when we eat sirloin burgers, london broil, etc., that's my dad's line of duty. We eat lean meat almost every night. It's very rare that we have pasta or anything very starchy, although I do love an occasional pizza night (my mom always insists on us drinking milk and making a salad though....yuck!) Were restaurant meals common, or for special occassions? We don't go out to eat all that often, mainly we prefer eating at home. We live in a fairly rural area, so there aren't many decent restaurants to choose from. I personally hate eating out just because I'm such a picky eater, and my mom is trying to watch her weight, so we hardly ever do. For my birthday, she and my dad offered to take me to a fancy local restaurant and I said I would rather have prime rib at home. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? We always have the kiddy table at family parties and even though I'm 19, I still sit there. I love being with my cousins even though we get to see each other pretty often. I think there's a part of me that doesn't want to grow up yet. When did you get that first sip of wine? When did you have your first sip of wine? Never; my family's very strict about alcohol. I'm not allowed to touch it until I'm 21, and surprisingly this hasn't made me rebellious. I could care less about it. Was there a pre-meal prayer? Rarely, but when we do we would hold hands underneath the table instead of folding them and bowing our heads. At major holidays though, grace is always essential. My grandmother would probably turn violent on anyone who didn't participate, and I agree with her. I think it's really important to be thankful for everything; life is better that way when you realize that you're actually lucky. Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No, we definitely don't have a rotating menu partly because my mother grew up with one and hated it. Fridays were the worst for her because she was Catholic and forced to eat either Cod or fishsticks---eeeew. That aside, we do eat a lot of the same foods very often. My family is very big on eating fish--ex. salmon, swordfish, shark, etc. We also eat quite a bit of lean beef. We have an English background, so nothing we eat is ever exotic. I don't really like to try exotic or spicy foods though, so that works for me. I love eating with my family.
