Throwback Thursday #13 – Snack Time

Welcome back to Throwback Thursday. I am your hostess this week. Lauren will be back next Thursday for those not celebrating Thanksgiving. If you do celebrate, drop by after your afternoon post-Turkey nap.

If you want to join in, it’s easy:

• Write your own post sharing your memories and leave a pingback to this post in the comments.
• You can use the photo above in your post to make it easier to find.
• Tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhen.
• If you do not wish to write your own post, feel free to tell your story in the comments below.

This week’s prompt is: Snack Time

When I first traveled to Europe, I noticed that the pastries were not sweet like they are in the US. There were great confectionery shops in Switzerland and they made the best truffles and the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. We Americans love our snacks, but what about outside the US. Do people snack as much as we do here? If so, what are some favorite snacks?

Consider these questions when you write:

Did your family snack? Were your snacks homemade or purchased from a store? Did your family bake or make treats for the holidays? What was your favorite? Are you a sweet or salty snacker? What candy or snacks did you like best? Why? What snacks did you deplore? Are there any candies you loved that are no longer made? Do you snack now? How has your taste for snacks changed over the years?

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When I was growing up, most of our snacks were homemade. My grandmother made cookies – usually oatmeal and raisin or peanut butter. She baked them, then stored them in old coffee tins in the freezer. As young children, we did not have free reign in the kitchen – we asked before we took anything to eat.

In the winter, we hoped for heavy snow so we could make snowcream. Snowcream is an ice cream-like dessert made from snow, milk, vanilla, and sometimes eggs. It was a remarkable tasting concoction and took much less time than churning ice cream. We did churn ice cream on occasion. We had an old manual ice cream churn. Rock salt and ice were packed around the barrel and a manual crank was turned and turned and turned until the base ingredients would finally freeze. I loved it, but it was a lot of work!

I can remember all of my siblings and me sitting around my grandmother’s chair while she peeled apples in an old pie tin. She could peel an entire apple and the peel would be in one long strip. She would then core and slice the apple handing each of us a piece, then peel another until we all had our fill.

My mother always made us a banana salad. Banana salad is made from a banana sliced lengthwise, spread with mayonnaise, and topped with chopped peanuts. Sounds strange, but it is so good. Now that I can no longer eat peanuts, I still make it but top it with cashews instead.

Mom was also the best divinity fudge maker in the land. The funny thing is I did not care for divinity fudge. It’s hard to make. But around Christmas time, when we made chocolate and penuche fudge, I was right there. The hot syrup was dropped into a cup of cold water to test for either the soft ball stage or the hard ball stage. We always got to eat the test candy that was dropped into the water.

Our favorite treat from the store was a small Coca-Cola with a bag of salted peanuts to put into the coke. Another classic Southern snack. And sometimes we had Moonpies – a cake-like treat layered with marshmallows and chocolate – always best when enjoyed with an RC Cola.

There wasn’t a lot of extra money to use for buying snacks. We had three small stores in the area so gathering pop bottles to return for the 2 cent deposit was how we got our spending money. We loved to buy penny candies – peppermint sticks, red hots, fireballs, jawbreakers, and bubble gum (mostly for the comics included). Cracker Jacks were another favorite but mainly for the prizes in the box! I loved getting tattoos.

My favorite candy bar was Zagnut – toasted coconut and crushed peanut candy bar. They are harder to find these days, but they are still around in the south at least. I was not a big fan of Mallo-Cups. Sugar Daddy (a hard caramel lollypop – or sucker as we called them) was a good candy that lasted a long time! I also loved BB Bats – a taffy sucker – and Kits – hard taffy squares.

When we traveled to Switzerland, I discovered how much better the chocolate is there. (In America, much of our chocolate has wax in it.) I had a white chocolate truffle in the train station in Zurich and I doubt I have ever had another piece of candy that ever tasted as good.

I could go on and on with this subject. I’m sure I have skipped over a lot I should have included. The truth is, l still love a good snack. I love a good rich truffle or a dish of vanilla ice cream (I actually eat frozen yogurt now). The only real candy bar I eat these days is a Mounds bar. I love coconut in any of its forms.

I fear I have a terrible sweet tooth!