Nostalgic musings...

Today for lunch, I made tuna salad sandwiches.  As usual, as I was trying to decide what to put in the tuna salad (I like it with either celery, apple, pecans, sweet pickle relish, dehydrated onions, and mayo...or alternatively with diced hard-boiled eggs, dill pickle relish, fresh chopped onion, and mayo), I started thinking about a seasoning mix that was available when I was a newlywed, the intended purpose of which was to spice up and extend tuna salad.  I couldn't remember what it was called, but I was nostalgic enough to Google "80s tuna salad helper." 

The very first link that came up was a forum discussing Nabisco's Tuna Twist.  Yep, that was it!  Apparently there are a lot of people that still remember and miss it.  There were a few copycat recipes which I saved and may try someday.  I love the coupon photo I found:  7¢, wow!  :)

It got me reminiscing about food from my youth.

A few years ago, my friend, the other Kathleen, and I thought it would be whimsical to make a throw up throwback meal for her daughter's family, and used items that our mothers served when we were kids.  As I recall, that dinner consisted of fried slices of SPAM...  

pea salad...

photo credit: food.com

 and shoestring potatoes.

We did not produce a gelatin salad mold.  Blech!  No thanks.  My mother may have made a dessert jello mold with fruit and marshmallows occasionally, but olives?  ...shudder...  However the photo of the savory mold above brings back a flood memories related to magazine advertisements.

I can clearly picture the cover of a Family Circle (or was it Woman's Day) magazine that had a winter-fruit pie...a lot of dried fruits and maybe some fresh.  Mom made it, and it was FABULOUS!  As I recall, there was no sugar in the recipe, it was just so good.  Sadly, the recipe was lost, and I have not been successful at searching it out either in cookbooks or on the Web.

This was the era when we began to see convenience foods.  Soup Starter was a shortcut to a homemade meal.  It still had to be simmered for quite awhile as I recall, so not really all that convenient.  I'm not sure I ever used it, but I do remember keeping a canister or two in the cupboard...you know...just in case.  So again, the photo makes me feel nostalgic.

photo credit and recipe - Apron Strings

One thing that my mother used to keep a jar of, and definitely needs to be reproduced in my kitchen, is Brandied Fruit.  It's fermented, and a neighbor gave her a starter of it.  It can be used in various ways, but I always loved it over vanilla ice cream.  Mmmmmmm.

So what do you remember fondly that has either been discontinued or gone out of style?  Please share in the comments.  :)