Cider and Donuts

Posted by Jennie | September 3, 2009 | 24 Comments

Maybe it’s just me but a lot of my memories involve food. This time of year, this almost-autumn-not-quite-summer, always takes me back to Michigan where I grew up. Michigan flip-flops with New York as the #2 apple-producing state in the country. Meaning that cider mills across my home state are springing into action right about now.

We had a cider mill near the town where I grew up. On sunny autumn days we’d dangle our feet in the stream and watch the giant mill wheel go around and around until the bees clamoring for squashed apples chased us away. This year the mill celebrates it’s 176th year in business. That’s a long time to be making cider. My father used to live down the street from this very same cider mill as a boy, and he’d ride his bike over almost every day during the fall.

I like cider just fine but my favorite thing about the mill was the fresh donuts, dripping and hot from the fryer and handed out in paper bags. I’m quite partial to anything deep-fried but I’m telling you, those donuts were out of this world. Each year I try to recreate the recipe, partially because they tasted so good, but also hoping to harness a little sliver of my past. So far my recipe re-creations have been one big FAIL. I’ve even resorted to calling the cider mill and saying ridiculous things like, “I’m planning on stopping by the cider mill this afternoon, but I’m allergic to cinnamon, so I just wanted to know if your donuts have any.” (I am not allergic to cinnamon, I’m just trying to narrow down the list of ingredients.) The cider mill employees are annoyingly tight-lipped.

It appears, sadly, that the cider mill donuts will stay in my memories, along with dozens of others foods, some delicious, some not (like the time we were at a fancy dinner and I tasted a pickled artichoke heart for the first time. It was a bit overwhelming for my unsophisticated palate and I threw up at the table.)

So is it just me or do you have favorite food memories too?

Category: Daily Special

Comments

24 Responses to “Cider and Donuts”

FoxyJ
September 3rd, 2009 @ 8:53 am

I think most of my memories revolve around food too. It’s been ten years since I left on my mission and I still think about the food there. Yes, some was scary (blood sausage!) but a lot was so tasty. Like the donut vendors who had carts on the corner during the winters. Mmmm… My family can get together and talk about food for hours; we love to eat and love to talk about it. This has been a little weird for me with my husband’s family because none of them are like that–they just don’t think about food in the same way.
S.P.
September 3rd, 2009 @ 9:06 am

Mashed potatoes almost always trigger happy end of summer food fight memories for me. Those food fights are probably the reason my kids get happy, expectant, looks on their faces every time a soft flingable food is served at dinner, and is probably more than half the reason one of my kids would rather eat mashed potatoes than any other food on the planet.
Tay
September 3rd, 2009 @ 9:13 am

Typically when I think back on memories, most of them are centered around something fabulous that we ate. Like one time at my aunt’s house with her home-made chicken noodle soup and I put too much pepper in it (but it was still fantastic). Or every Christmas Eve and Mexican food we home-make and eat at my Grandma’s house. Or last Thanksgiving when I learned how to bake the most amazing caramel-apple pie ever. And how the food is tainted by bad feelings on my dad’s side of the family. Popsicles at Grandma’s when I was sick. Summertime at the cabin with lots of watermelon.

Sure I have memories without food in them, but oh the memories with food!
S.P.
September 3rd, 2009 @ 9:16 am

oops, all you grammar freaks out there, remove that one “is” (and (is) probably more than) and replace it with “are”.
Melissa M.
September 3rd, 2009 @ 9:27 am

Jennie, I loved your description of the cider mill, the bees, the donuts. Lovely. I, too, associate fall with yummy foods. Pumpkin soup made with leeks and cream; fresh apple pie cooling on the kitchen counter while we watch General Conference; the smell of roasting pumpkin seeds wafting through the kitchen as we carve jack-o-lanterns; roasted butternut squash drizzled with butter and brown sugar. I think I’m ready for fall.
Amira
September 3rd, 2009 @ 10:16 am

I grew up a block from a small fruit farm and their apple juice is one of my best food memories of growing up. I always hope to visit my parents in the fall so I can get some of that juice.

But my real food memories are meals I’ve shared with people in Asia. So much of our social interaction, in the US and everywhere else, revolves around food. One of the best was in the Gaza Strip, 14 years ago.
Faith.Not.Fear
September 3rd, 2009 @ 10:21 am

I remember contraband ice cream (cheap chocolate is still my favorite) eaten when my mom was out and Grandma was in charge .
And the “payday” pizza — pepperoni and mushroom — my dad would get from the same place every payday. Haven’t found a place that can replicate it yet.
The ice cream sandwiches from the vending machine in the dorm basement!
Then there are the wonderful smells of Thanksgiving and Christmas!
No fair — this is making me drool!
Even just the smells bring back sweet memories!
Andrea R.
September 3rd, 2009 @ 10:50 am

My family has a special recipe for cheese enchiladas that we’d have at family get-togethers. It’s the ultimate comfort food for me.
Human Bean
September 3rd, 2009 @ 11:15 am

I just loved this post! Immediately I was overwhelmed with so many of my own memories involving food. I grew up surrounded by southern women all of whom were strongly rooted in the culinary traditions of the South. My mother taught me the same kitchen secrets her mother taught her- whose mother taught her- whose mother taught her…and, well- you get the idea. 90% of the dishes I create in my own kitchen today are thanks to those many generations of women. In our house it was the meal prep. time that signified family unity more than any other activity. Mama leaning over each one of us in turn teaching us to stir the roux just so and where to place our hands on the onion so as not to lose any fingers- the grandmas teaching us to wash and separate the greens and declaring with some regularity that motorized kitchen mixers were “For the birds.” It was a time of curiosity and culture, of cooperation and mutual satisfaction. It was the only time we were all happy to be in the same room together. It was almost sacred for us.

These women have all since passed away- including Mama. But I was left with the essence of who they were and the finest treasures they had to offer. Now, when my kitchen is filled with the heavenly aromas of collard greens, squash casserole, black-eyed peas and ham, buttery cornbread cooked in Mama’s cast iron skillet, turkey stuffing with clams and chestnuts, sinfully decadent pecan pie…I can feel them, (my mother, my grandmothers) like a soft breeze bustling around me in aprons and oven mitts. I can almost hear their voices somewhere in the sizzling of the bacon grease and the hissing of the tea kettle. I live for these moments. And I hope someday my children will too.
sean
September 3rd, 2009 @ 11:56 am

Ooh! Waking up on Christmas morning to a cinnamon sugar pull apart. Fresh, warm donuts on cold mornings as we ventured to seminary (As they did devotional we would sit in the back and let the warmth fill our mouths.) And then there was the thanksgiving experience. Every Thanksgiving we would return to my mother’s home just outside Elko, NV and my mother and her aunt would cook all sorts of delightful treats. We would come in from the fields and the feeding of the cattle to the smells of fresh baked goods. When mom died a few years back I was saddened by how few of those recipes were written down.

Thank you so much for this post. My mental pallete is just a wash in tastes of this late summer – all of autumn – and early winter foods.
wendy
September 3rd, 2009 @ 11:57 am

I love food memories. One time when my sister came to visit (from out of state), we probably talked about food for hours our first day together . . . food from home, from our grandmas’ kitchens, recipes we like, restaurants we’ve enjoyed, things we wanted to try, etc., etc.

I didn’t have time to read everybody else’s comments, so I’m probably being redundant, but I think so much of life centers around food, it’s difficult to not have food memories. Many of my visits with our older relatives included meal time, and they made scrumptious foods we didn’t normally eat, so there are many fond memories of food from those parts of my childhood. In fact, I even define my two grandmas by the type of food they prepared. One was raised on a farm and made everything from scratch . . . the best fried chicken in the world, fantastic doughnuts, etc. The other was more hip and did more processed foods . . . packaged cookies and chocolates, lunch meats, packaged gravies, etc.

Anwyay . . . this is such a fun topic, it’s taking more time than I have! Better go! Great post!
Michelle L.
September 3rd, 2009 @ 12:12 pm

this is a great post Jennie. We’re just too wrapped up in body image on the old thread to talk about food yet.

I have lots of food memories: eating fried whole-belly clams with my dad on Cape Cod, the pie at Manny’s that was covered in ice cream, homemade tortillas at my sister’s house, my mother’s famous huckleberry jam…

And somehow the tastes that are no longer available are always the sweetest.
Jenny
September 3rd, 2009 @ 12:49 pm

first day of school=warm chocolate chip cookies.
birthday dinners=favorite dinner (mine is lobster)
Most of our traditions are heavily centered around foods. Makes me wonder if there truly WILL be food in heaven?
Jennie, this thread would be unfairly incomplete without your donut recipe; even if it doesn’t exactly match the donuts of your childhood memories.
(please?)
FoxyJ
September 3rd, 2009 @ 12:52 pm

Now you guys have me obsessing over a sandwich that I ate on my mission. There was a chain of sandwich shops that one month had a special chicken sandwich. It was a baguette with a grilled chicken breast, grilled onions, and brie cheese. They were also running a two-for-one special at the time that appeared on the back of Metro tickets, so my companion and I would look on the ground for clean tickets to collect and go buy sandwiches. We ate one for lunch almost every day for that month. Now I’m craving one and I’m not even supposed to eat brie cheese since I’m pregnant. Dang!
Jennie
September 3rd, 2009 @ 1:19 pm

Human Bean–can I come and eat at your house? My mama was all about Hamburger Helper!

Jenny–my donut recipe is constantly evolving. It really sucks, though. My donuts last year were like lead. I can make other donuts that are pretty good, but the elusive cider donut is really giving me fits!
Nani Lii Furse
September 3rd, 2009 @ 2:40 pm

I loved this post and can so relate to FoxyJ’s comment about sitting around as a family talking about food for the fun of it! I also loved that when our two oldest kids left for college we could always count on Sunday afternoon phone calls that included requests for recipes.

Cooking is one of my pleasures in life and as others have mentioned I associate food with holidays and other good times: fresh peach pie in August, soft sugar cookie hearts at Valentines, and wassail with warm cranberry coffee cake for breakfast on Christmas morning.

My husband always cooks the main course for Sunday dinners; together we have created several recipes including one for seasoned breadsticks (baked in olive oil and melted butter)that are a coveted item when our boys take them to cross country team dinners!

Human Bean (#9), I want to try more southern cooking! Our oldest son served his mission in Cajun country and sorely misses the flavorful food. He brought home some recipes, however, and I have made jambalaya which is a new family favorite.

That just might be on the menu tomorrow when our college kids come home for the holiday!
Selwyn
September 3rd, 2009 @ 4:16 pm

An amazing number of my favourite memories involve food!

My strongest food memory is when I was a teenager in really rural Australia. The whole area was staunchly Aussie stock (meat and 3-vege the customary meal). There was one Italian family that was known as “the Italian family” and were looked at weirdly because of the food they ate, (which is ridiculous considering the entire hydro-scheme the town existed for was built on imported labour, mostly from Italy and Eastern European countries…)

Anyway, we were invited to a birthday party for my Mum’s friend, and the entire banquet was cooked by the German/Black Forrest mother.

She couldn’t speak much english, but she gave me a piece of dark, bruised purple cherry flan/pie. I couldn’t think, couldn’t blink, couldn’t do anything but eat and grin and get another piece. My first introduction to the concept that there were so many foods out there I hadn’t even thought could exist.

I ate so much of that pie and loved every mouthful. It was so rich and mindblowingly gorgeous. Too rich – I threw it up later, and was in tears mourning the waste of such a perfect, enlightening pie.

I haven’t met one like it since. =(
Gerb
September 3rd, 2009 @ 7:23 pm

I also have some amazing food memories. Some of the food I have found I only eat for the memories that flood my mind when I do. Waxy chocolate donuts & peach Clearly Canadians remind me of some wonderful times spent with friends at the beach. Donut holes from Dunkin’ Donuts remind me of things I learned on my own. And Boston Cremes and Maple Bars will always remind me of early morning seminary!

I think I just figured out why I can’t cut donuts from my diet…
Brooke
September 3rd, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

oh jennie, i can’t even think about food right now after reading all those insane body image comments!

but truly there is something comforting about food. i think it’s why i bake. i’m trying to create these memories for my kids in the form of platters towering with warm chocolate chip cookies when they arrive home from school, & sweet breads made with the things they picked for me from the garden. food is just such a lovely, cozy thing.

let’s stop talking boobs and start talking cookies! xo
dalene
September 3rd, 2009 @ 11:23 pm

i’m with brooke.
Leslie
September 4th, 2009 @ 10:50 am

don’t start me on food- and you had me at cider and donuts- I love being in walking distance of an orchard with fresh cider-

amen brooke- give me cookies anyday!

I love it all from homemade bread ot warm cookies, thanksgiving gravy umm I adore food it’s magic and memorable to me
Kayleigh
September 6th, 2009 @ 1:18 am

I have a lot of food associations. Apple cider. It makes me think of working the Christmas tree lot in high school… which is, in fact, a good memory. Chocolate chip cookies also make me feel all safe and happy inside. Milk Duds make me think of the movies. My favorite chewing gum reminds me of the friend who got me hooked on it. Vinegar and salt potato chips remind me of my dad. Beef jerky… I can’t stand it now, but I will fondly remember it as being my favorite food on a hike I went on when I was seventeen. Mmmm. So many good associations with food. Some negative, but I try to focus on the positive… and it’s so easy for me, now.
Sue
September 10th, 2009 @ 11:51 am

Five favorites:

1. The hot cinammon rolls at my junior high and high school.
2. The tuna fish sandwiches, same venue. (I know…tuna?! But it was GREAT!)
3. The chocolate chip cookies at my sorority house in college.
4. The fry sauce at Artic Circle in college.
5. The “lime rickeys,” same venue.

My mom was the best cook ever, but these from the world are listed because they are no longer available to me.
Kate
October 23rd, 2009 @ 6:20 am

Jennie, I’m so glad you posted the link–I loved reading this. I just hope that the doughnuts aren’t a complete disappointment!