According to San Geraldo: First, you tear up the bread and dump it in a cereal bowl. Then you sprinkle the bread very generously with granulated white sugar. Then, you pour milk over it. The sugar, according to San Geraldo, is the most important ingredient and I didn't mention it. I suppose he's right. For most of us, it's the only ingredient that tastes good.
But San Geraldo has another favorite from his childhood that's even worse. He started enjoying it when returning home from the orthodontist after having his braces tightened.
Wonder Bread and Pepsi.
For my international friends who might not be familiar with Wonder Bread, it was one of the early heavily processed white breads (1921) to be packaged in the United States. Around 1930, the makers started packaging it already sliced. Unheard of at the time. As the ads said, it had "red, yellow, and blue balloons printed on the package." It also supposedly helped "build strong bodies 12 ways" because they began to "fortify" it with 12 vitamins and minerals. (My opinion: It never really tasted like bread, but it was great for wadding up into clay-like action figures.)
Worse than the combination of bread and cola, Jerry enjoyed this concoction from a Tupperware drinking 'glass.'
I'm sorry, but I don't think anything should be drunk from Tupperware. I tried drinking from a Tupperware glass the first time I visited his parents and it just didn't taste right. Even water tasted sour. Also, I'm not a dunker. Seeing semi-solid masses of somethings floating in my beverage... blech!
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| THE COBBLES ARE BACK IN PLACE. I HOPE THAT MEANS NO MORE BREAD AND MILK FOR A WHILE. |
San Geraldo has a relative who loves Colorado Bulldogs. Milk, Pepsi (or Coke), Kahlua, and vodka. I've never seen her drink one from Tupperware. But I wouldn't be surprised.
My mother, who is a M.D., would make me what she called "Milk Toast" when I was sick.
ReplyDeleteAmerica=Wonder Bread
Stephen:
DeleteAnd you liked it? (I remember Perry Como being described as a Milk Toast...no wait... that was milquetoast).
Stephen and Mitch:
DeleteI got something similar but it was called Toast Water and was just that -- toasted bread torn up and put in a bowl with tepid water. It was supposed to settle the stomach but not put any strain on the digestion. I firmly believe that there is not one iota of nutrition in Wonder Bread. Nada.
Will:
DeleteYou mean you don't believe Wonder Bread helped build string bodies in 12 ways? They can't lie about something like that, can they?
Not a dunker myself either...but there is one exception and this one is considered to be very bad manners in Spain....I take small pieces of bread, dunk them in the red wine and eat them...try it...not for the faint of heart or those concerned with acting with decorum.
ReplyDeletesaludos,
raulito
Raulito:
DeleteI won't be trying it. All I can picture is soggy bits of bread floating in red wine!
I love the old advertisements - although the final one must be tongue in cheek... I can't say I fancy trying any of the recipes though, the addition of sugar just makes it worse. Sorry, San Geraldo.
ReplyDeleteElaine:
DeleteThat last ad is legitimate. Hard to believe, I know.
San Geraldo grew up in South Dakota. Maybe that explains it.
I'll go with the Kahlua, milk and vodka; but please leave out the Pepsi!
ReplyDeleteOooh, a White Russian. That used to be my favorite drink. Or, leave out the milk and it's a Black Russian. (But I definitely agree about the Pepsi... I tasted a Bulldog once; one little taste was enough.)
DeleteAll I know is that I covet that gold and white bathing suit in the first Pepsi ad. I want it SOOOO bad!
ReplyDeleteMaria:
DeleteIt's supposed to be 105-108 here beginning Sunday. I just want the pool.
Whoa! That is a lot of food for thought! (pun intended) I totally agree about Tupperware glasses making stuff taste bad. I thought it also made everything taste warmer. Anodized aluminum glasses were awful too! Milk toast was a common thing around our house when I was a kid, and my dad liked to make it for a snack so I guess the milk and bread is sorta the same. I couldn't believe the soda pop ad for babies! I read about moms putting sugary pop in kids baby bottles and rotting their teeth at a very young age. I'm glad my mom didn't buy me pop as a baby.
ReplyDeleteMs. Sparrow:
DeleteI agree with you about those aluminum glasses too.
When I was a kid, we had milk and we had toast!
Please tell me that second ad is tongue in cheek!
ReplyDeleteJudith:
DeleteThat ad is the real deal. Their argument was that pre-teens would have a much better chance of fitting in (I guess because they could hang out with a bottle of soda... or as they called it, "pop").
Whoooooa... wait... NO WAY! Are you saying that Jerry DUNKS bread in cola products, and then eats it?? Oh my heavens! Jerry! (Well, listen, you're such a good guy, Jerry, you should enjoy whatever mushy bread concoction you like, but... man... I don't know.... *LOL*)
ReplyDeleteJudy
Judith:
DeleteI don't know why I stay with him! (Well, yeah, I do... But I can't watch when he dunks.)
I'm trying to hold down my Snap, Crackle and Pop Rice Krispie squares...mmm mmm good!
ReplyDeleteRon:
DeleteI never knew Rice Krispie Squares weren't cooked (well, baked in the oven) until our niece-in-law made them in our kitchen about 7 years ago)! That was only the second time I had ever had them. They're goo-ood! Just don't dunk them, please.
Mitch, you don't even dunk a biscotti in coffee?! Unbelievable! lol
ReplyDeleteI have to be in the mood to dunk...my fav is any cookie in hot tea....m-m-m-m!
Jim:
DeleteIf I did, I would have to replace the coffee or tea after just one dunk.
My gram always liked milk and cornbread, never heard of the white bread version....and wasn't it Lavern who loved Pepsi and Milk.....mmmm good ;)
ReplyDeleteMonkey Man:
DeleteIt is so great to see your stretched-sock face! Yes, Laverne loved Milk & Pepsi; she can keep it. I love corn bread, glass of milk on the side.
agreed, on both counts....and my strecthed sock face is happy to be seen :)
ReplyDeleteSan Geraldo has some weird cravings.
ReplyDeleteBob:
DeleteHe sure does.
Funny you should bring this up; I am studying the food restrictions and habits as stated in the Old Testament, and how the professor shows how every culture - including ours - has its desire, distastes and 'oh, yuck' response to other's food stuffs. fasinating topic; what we eat/don't like.
ReplyDeleteUr-spo:
DeleteIt IS fascinating. I look forward to reading about what you learn.
When I mentioned the bread-and-milk thing to Ken, he said, "Well, Jerry has Scandinavian origins, doesn't he?" Hmmmm...
ReplyDeleteWalt the Fourth:
DeleteExactly! We once had a Norwegian/American calendar. One month was dedicated to the food, which was described as white and bland and designed to convey something that tasted better.
I could swallow all of your blog... clear to the end... when I saw the CocaCola ad ... Can you imagine the caffeine high a baby would get drinking Coke? WOW! And I thought my kid was hyperactive... and he never had caffeine. But back to the bread and milk thing... when I was a kid we'd tear up a slice of white bread (probably Wonder Bread) into small pieces and pour just cooked pudding over it... that was a bedtime snack. Now I have a glass of wine instead ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe Odd Essay:
DeleteWine sounds so much better. And as for raising babies on "soda pop," can you imagine what current claims they'll be laughing at and looking at with disbelief in another 50 years?
There were a lot of bizarre ideas floating around at that time. A former colleague of mine told me that when his mother was pregnant with him, her doctor noted that she suffered from hypertension -- and advised her to take up smoking to help calm her down.
DeleteWill:
DeleteI've heard of that smoking advice. Amazing.
Call me old fashioned, but processed bread, especially the kind that stays "fresh" for more than a week is a big no-no for me. I think we're lucky here in Europe with the choice of bread, artisan bread that is.
ReplyDeletePeter:
DeleteWhen Wonder started selling their bread pre-sliced, people were very concerned that the bread would get stale much faster and would never be good. But all that processing and preservation ensured it would arrive fresh. (It just wouldn't be much like bread anymore.)
When I was a small child, white bread soaked in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar was served up when we were ill. My mother called it "pobs". I can hardly remember it so it was probably not very nice as I have strong memories of any food that I liked as a child.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't have cola when I was a child - out in the sticks in England in the 1950s and 60's - the nearest was probably a pop called dandelion and burdock. I can't imagine eating bread soaked in it - yuk !!
Jean:
DeleteDandelion and burdock sounds so charming. I'd like to try some but, I agree, not with bread.