Tag Archives: Blast from the past

A Blast from the Past

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My son at age four and half at our riverfront property in Washington State that my grandfather bought for a few dollars during the Great Depression.

I am facing a chore I’ve put off for years. I have stacks of photo albums with many of the same photos and duplicates from my high school years through raising kids — before digital photos became a thing. We had a photo developer a few blocks from our house in Palm Springs called Double Photo. Yes, you got two photos for the price of one for every roll of film you brought in. I’d walk to the store, pushing a double stroller with kids plus rolls of film treating them like treasure. Hence my abundance of photos and closet full of photo albums. I’d mail the double photos to Mom, but after she passed, they were all returned to me.

I’m finally addressing the elephant in my closet by tackling one album a day. I take out the photos I want to keep and put them in a photo box. The album with remaining photos gets tossed.

Here are a few photos I found this week that bring back memories:

Here I am at our property with both kids, my daughter aged 18 months, throwing a punch?

My son before little sis was born, bathing in the kitchen sink.

Baby Kat at our park for the Fireman’s annual egg hunt.

My son eating steamer clams we dug together in Washington at my mom’s house. Funny, he’s allergic to all seafood now.

My husband and I took a rewards trip to Hong Kong thanks to the company he worked for. This is the parking lot of the Peninsula Hotel. I couldn’t believe their fleet of cars. Or the flowers for a wedding.

Wow! I’ve never seen a wedding with so many flowers before. I guess it goes along with the cars.

Then in typical China fashion, this was a side of pork at a local open air market. Such a contrast between the haves and have nots.

A picture of me in Hong Kong. We were all turned around time wise and I tripped on the curb outside our hotel — my first steps outside — and sprained my ankle. We have lots of photos of me sitting on that trip wearing an ace bandage. Kind of foreshadowed our trip to the lake in Eastern Arizona last month!

What do you do with photos from the past vs. digital photos?

A Classic

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Remember the Monte Cristo sandwich? I went to a cooking class Friday and the menu included a Monte Cristo, salad and Harvey Wallbanger cake. This is a Monte Cristo I made at home for hubby and me. The class was held at Sweet Basil Culinary Center.

A neighbor who is president of the charity I’m involved with invited me to a second cooking class. Unlike the first one, where pairs of us were given assigned recipes to prepare, this class was called “Lunch and Learn.” That meant we sat and watched a demonstration and then ate lunch. It was fun and relaxing with no pressure.

I remembered Monte Cristo sandwiches from my younger days. They were popular and on many restaurant menus. Then they disappeared. Poof!

After eating two Monte Cristo sandwiches in two days, I figured out why the sandwiches are no long en vogue. Our dietary tastes have changed. It’s not a sandwich for light eaters. It’s on white bread with mayo, ham, turkey and cheese, dipped in egg and milk batter and fried in butter — the original ones were deep fried! Then sprinkled with powdered sugar and a dash of raspberry preserves. I could feel the sugar rush through my brain while the cholesterol roared through my veins.

At the class, they served an amazing salad that was light and citrusy and made a perfect contrast to the heavy sandwich. The Harvey Wallbanger cake (another blast from the past) was moist and delicious, but I could only manage a few bites. They served the cake in baby bundts, one for each student.

Here’s the salad recipe:

FYI, the instructor said the salad dressing keeps for up to two weeks in the fridge. It was really good. I plan on making some today.

What foods do you remember as being popular that we don’t often see anymore at home or in restaurants?

My mom used to make Oyster Stew and Liverwurst Sandwiches — haven’t seen either of those since my childhood.