Friday, February 6, 2009

Sasha Obama Eats Peanut Butter Three Times a Week*

I was such a picky eater when I was young, family history boasts that my then-frustrated mother insisted I make a list of my ten favorite foods (despite one of her standards being "Dry Chicken with Rosemary," her words exactly). Apparently, I could only think of nine, so I added salt to the lineup, and thus a legend was borne. Peanut butter was definitely on that list, and now I'm at a loss, what with the current poisonous peanut butter situation. I've been scraping the bottom of my peanut butter barrel for days now.

I had a peanut butter sandwich (spread very thin, with no jelly or jam), which I made myself, almost every single day of my entire schoolgirl career. I had a friend in kindergarten, though, Lynne Greenbaum, who was even pickier than I; she came to school with a lump of peanut butter—and a spoon!

Shudder-worthy food items for me included any kind of condiment, and particularly mayonnaise, which still makes me cringe. One of my sisters also recoils from it, as does President Obama**, so I'm in extremely good company there. But don't get me started on my brussels sprout trauma.

The List (Approximately)
  1. Peanut butter
  2. White bread
  3. Grandma Piggyback's French Toast (though sometimes was too egg-y, so then I'd only eat the edges. Plus, I liked honey with it, on the side—not atop—and not syrup. I do not have the precise recipe for G.P.F.T., but I can only imagine she'd soak the previous night's challah or rye bread in the eggs waaaay too long. Similarly, those previous nights, there probably would have been a whitefish, nova, and chopped chicken liver spread, but instead, I'd stand on a chair in her kitchen to rescue the lonely peanut butter she kept for me in her super tall Upper West Side cabinets, and put it on a plain—no butter, for God's sake, which my grandma was apt to do—toasted bagel. I was very happy with that, though, much to the chagrin and incredulity of the rest of the table).
  4. Apple
  5. French Fries
  6. Hot dog
  7. Pizza
  8. Ice Cream
  9. Iceberg lettuce
  10. Salt
* http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/more-from-presi.html
** http://blog.al.com/living-news/2009/01/party_like_a_president_ideas_f.html

5 comments:

  1. Lol! Nana would make Pineapple and Mayonnaise sandwich!!!! You probably didn't want me to say that.....

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  2. Love your blog!! It illustrates, though, how people remember things differently. For example, Grandma Piggyback would never have made French
    Toast with rye bread. I don't remember ever eating Challah, in French toast or otherwise, as a kid. I think Grandma used thick white bread,
    and she served it with jam. Mom's chicken was simply "Dry Chicken," which I remember being sprinkled with thyme, not rosemary. And Mom used
    to favor mayonnaise with apricot jam, rather than pineapple, although she may have switched. (For myself, I like a thin spread of mayonnaise
    on chicken, turkey, or hard-boiled egg sandwiches, but I know our other
    sister is phobic about it.) I do remember Lynne Greenbaum (who was then called Lynnie), who asked for the dish "peanut butter on a spoon"
    when she came to play with you.

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  3. I'm getting obsessed with historical accuracy. I think Lynnie called the dish "peanut butter on a plate". Up to you whether to change.

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  4. Actually,I think it was peanut butter with a spoon in a bowl, though she'd put it in tupperware for school. Probably will not change comment , but you can if you want.

    ReplyDelete