I wrote this as an assignment
from the Writing Memoir Group
No packaged food in my childhood memories.
I don’t remember to have seen
packaged foods when I was a little girl, when mom took us to the
market, there were very few packaged items, they were mainly in
big sacks, like flour, sugar, salt, oatmeal, but the rest of the
staples were in big barrels and you could buy different type of
beans, lentils, etc. by the kilo, even the cheese was in humongous
blocks.
What is fresh in my memory is
that when we children came home from playing or from school, before
we opened the door we heard the rhythmic sound of my mother making
home made tortillas; the “clap, clap, clap”, sounded
like music to our ears, when the tortillas were made, mom made
tacos, she filled the tortillas with some meat left over from the
day before, topped them with cheese, lettuce and salsa picante; and
rolled them tight, for dessert we had
delicious baked sweet jams with honey and cinnamon. I never heard
anyone of us saying we didn’t want that, in fact we ate them
so fast that we were told to slow down, if there were some tortillas
left, they were spread in a cooking sheet to dry, later on, mom put
them in the oven to make tostadas, when they were ready she spread
in each some refried beans, lettuce, cheese and guacamole, what
could be easier and tastier than that? Mom had to make sure to use the leftovers
because we didn’t have a refrigerator, just an ice box, I
still remember a man coming once a week to deliver a huge block of
ice so we could save some of the perishable food. Of course, lots of
the Mexican cuisine can be very elaborate, but it those years, and
with so many kids, simple tacos and tostadas were just right. Well,
you will have to excuse me, but I am getting hungry, let me run to
the freezer to see what I can find. Maybe some Old El Paso TV dinner?