Macho Macaroni
“When I was little, we were invited to a BBQ while visiting family in Michigan. We were supposed to bring a homemade dish, but it turned out we didn’t make anything. My mom brought an empty Tupperware dish with us in the car. We stopped at KFC on the way and picked up several orders of their macaroni salad. My mom dumped them all in the Tupperware, and we were on our way.
“At the BBQ, everyone remarked how good the salad was. My uncle particularly liked the pasta and asked my dad what brand it was. My father’s reply: ‘Macho Macaroni!’”
Pancake Math
“For awhile my parents would eat pancakes every night for dinner. My mom always made the same amount of batter. She’d fix pancakes for both of them. Then she’d ask how many pancakes my dad would like for seconds. If he wanted 1, she’d make one large pancake with the remaining batter. If he wanted 2, she’d split the batter into 2, and so on. He never realized that he was eating exactly the same amount every night; the pancakes were just different diameters!”
Happy Birthday Fred
“My dad loves white, store-bought birthday cake. Every once in awhile we’d make our way to the grocery store to buy a few things, including a cake from the bakery — white cake with white frosting — for no other reason than wanting a piece of cake. He picked out one with pretty blue flowers, and the baker asked whose birthday it was. At a loss for words, my dad said, ‘Uh… Fred.’ Ever since, whenever we’d get a sweet treat for no reason, it was ‘Happy Birthday, Fred.’”
Gooey Buns
“According to my mom, it was my grandfather’s cousin who introduced the Gooey Buns recipe. My grandma would make them every once in a while, then my mom started making them at Christmastime. (In fact, she still makes them.)
“It’s not what you think: it’s not cinnamon buns or sticky buns or anything like that. It’s bologna, sweet pickles, onions, mustard, and shredded cheddar cheese, brought together courtesy of your trusty kitchen meat grinder; then butter some hamburger buns, spoon on the resulting mixture, and store the assembled buns in the fridge until time to serve. In Grandma’s time, she wrapped them in foil and baked them in the oven; today, however, the mighty microwave can give you that gooey yumminess in just 20 seconds!
“I remember liking them when I was little, but I haven’t tried one in a long time. It’s not too bad if you have the ingredients in their normal state, but putting them through a meat grinder just seems weird. It’s a tradition, though: about 50 years of Gooey Buns in the Cook family.”
