What My Weekend Tasted Like

Food is big in my family. Not just what we eat, but when we eat and how. For instance, my mom and I hate to eat after about 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We call it the Bewitching hour, and it's that time of day where, if you eat any later, you won't be hungry for whatever awesome meal you've planned for the evening. In our family, if you've forgotten to eat lunch, you're out of luck until dinner. There's no looking back. It's on to the next food adventure.

Because we live apart, when we get to share the same space for a few days, we feel pressure to stuff everything into a short amount of time, including foods that remind us of when we lived together. I stuffed all my family into three days this past weekend--in Oklahoma City, Wichita Falls and Austin--and, to reciprocate, they stuffed many of our favorite foods into three days as well.

For example, on Friday night, my brother, his girlfriend Lindsay and I weren't that hungry because we'd eaten a big near-Bewitching hour lunch. But Brandon and I went to the store to pick out fish to grill anyway. We picked amberjack, which our family used to grill all the time.

"Give me three of those," my brother said to the man behind the counter.

The man held up three huge steaks. Brandon and I looked at each other.

"Ummm, how about just one," Brandon said. "Just one of those."

The three of us couldn't even finish half the piece we bought. We did, however, each manage to down one of the Rice Krispie treats Lindsay and I made while he was grilling.

The next night, in Wichita Falls, our dad cooked out. He had asked us what we might want to throw on the grill. My brother suggested a few options: steak, pork loin, chicken. I told my dad all those sounded good, thinking he would pick one. He picked them all--and added a few links of sausage, which used to be my cook-out food of choice. The grill wouldn't shut there was so much meat underneath the lid. Later, I was full to the brim, but I had a bowl of Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream anyway because it is my all-time favorite and it was only in the freezer because I was in the house.

On Sunday, my mom and I drove to Austin. We shared a Dr Pepper over ice. Because I can't drink a Dr Pepper without something salty, we stopped at a gas station and bought a little bag of Cheez-Its*. A few miles down the road, we drove past a Dairy Queen.

"Mmm, dip cones," I said, remembering the chocolate-dipped vanilla soft serve cones we used to get on road trips when I was little.

"You want one?" my mom asked.

"I don't want one but I do," I hedged.

We looked at each other. And then my mom made a U-turn and we went back and got one. She let me have the first taste. I bit the top of the chocolate shell and sucked up a mouthful of vanilla goodness.

That night, despite the fact that I could not imagine putting another bite of food into my body, I ate some of everything our best friends made for us, including three of the stuffed mushrooms that my second-mom Marilyn burnt in the oven, a near-disaster that would have reduced her to tears if she cried. Because she never cries, she let out a string of curses instead. But, as my mom pointed out, we like a lot of things burnt or near-burnt--hot dogs, popcorn, s'more marshmallows--and we all agreed the mushrooms were delicious.

Anyway, just for fun, this is what my weekend with my family tasted like:

Doritos and Dr Pepper; celery and carrots with ranch dip; a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios; an oven-baked sausage and arugula pizza; bites of cheddar cheese with cherry tomatoes and avocado on crackers; grilled amberjack, salad and crescent rolls; sticky-gooey-wonderful Rice Krispie treats; a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios; Doritos and Dr Pepper; Ruffles with homemade dip; a plate full of of ribs, pork loin, sausage, fried okra and Texas-baked beans; Blue Bell mint chocolate chip ice cream; hash browns, a biscuit with gravy and two breakfast burritos; black licorice bites; a chocolate-dip cone from Dairy Queen; Cheez-Its and Dr Pepper; stuffed mushrooms, steak, ceasar salad and roasted potatoes; a bowl of plain yogurt with fresh frozen peaches and a glass of whole milk; several slices of aged cheese, a handful of dried figs, Melba crackers and green olives wrapped up in a piece of cellophane.

*Not even I, in my own blog, can digress enough to get my favorite Cheez-Its story into this post. Please see subsequent Cheez-It post.