The keeper of the lore: little sister guest blogs

The floodgates have opened. My sister (you have met her twice already) also has five childhood memories of food. Fancy that.

So, introducing my sister Amy. Amy, take it away.

1. Kosher-for-Passover Manischewitz chocolate cake. We always have one at the second seder because that's when the Sad Billionaire was born.

2. The banana popsicles I used to get when I had strep throat. Also, the Wonka nerds I ate in absurd quantities when I had the chicken pox. As I remember it, if you sent in 4 nerds boxes they'd send you a yellow "I heart nerds" t-shirt. I so wish I still had that t-shirt. It would have been SO summer 2005 and it would have been so much cooler than everyone else's because it would have been genuine vintage. Sigh.

3. Japanese soup- Ichiban or Ramen. We called it jap soup until Mom told us it was offensive. Not in the styrofoam cup- we preferred the kind that came in the crinkly plastic package, with a brick of curly raw noodles and a foil flavor packet. We cooked it in the small green saucepan and we ate it with big ceramic Asian spoons which Dad may have brought back from the Orient or else maybe the parents bought them for the Japanese meal they hosted for the gourmet club. The Sad Billionaire ate his soup with Durkee's red hot sauce and Haverchuk used to crack an egg into his right before the noodles were done, much like he does with his above-mentioned ratatouille.

4. All the foods that my babysitter Gullie used to make for me. A favorite lunch consisted of a boiled hot dog and boiled potato lying on a plate with ketchup. (Maybe the little fella got it from me.) She had the best way of peeling oranges. She'd cut them in half and remove the outer skin but leave behind the white pith so I'd have something to hold onto but wouldn't have to taste the gross bitter peel. She loved the Perl's potato knishes pictured above but she couldn't quite pronounce their name and with her West Indian accent it came out sounding like kee-nish. And we loved the Carribbean foods she sometimes made for us, like fried plantains and shortening bread which had a different name that I don't remember. Something like johnnycakes.

5. For 2 summers in the 80's we took RV vacations on the West Coast. Haverchuk only came on the first of these trips. Dad chewed lots of cinnamon gum because he wasn't allowed to smoke in the camper. We made campfires every night but the only thing we ever cooked on them was marshmallows. Instead we purchased many of our meals at fast-food chains. (Our kitchen at home was always kosher but but all bets were off when we left the house.) One dinner that particularly stands out consisted of a bucket of KFC chicken and a package of Double Stuf oreos. One night we made parfaits with our cousin. We probably got the idea from the Pee Wee's Playhouse episode where they make parfaits. Haverchuk and I spent an afternoon picking blackberries wearing our new Washington Huskies sweatshirts and I remember the tragic moment when we had to throw away our leftover berries away because we'd discovered we wouldn't be able to bring them on the plane. Dad bought SB a bottle of Durkee's red hot on the condition that he promise to finish it by them time we flew home and SB was so determined to hold up his end of the deal that on the last few mornings he added Durkee's to his Fruit Island cereal, immortalized by the classic slogan "A yumma-yumma!"