My Middle School Snack of Choice
It may shock you 🫣
I was deep into my swimmer era in middle school. I had after school practice followed by snacks and dinner in a teacher’s lounge or school cafeteria while I did my homework, waiting for my mom to get done with theater rehearsal or for my dad to pick me up. In the winter I had some time after school to have a snack and dinner at home before Swim Club practice a few nights a week, and in the spring I often had musical practice after school. I did not have much time to myself at home with hours to kill and time to explore or have fun in the kitchen.
So once I had my FACS (family and consumer sciences)/Home Economics (home ec) class with a taste of some time in the kitchen, I was absolutely hooked on sautéed onions with butter and salt. Now I know what you’re thinking - surely you mean that you used the cooked onions as part of a recipe, like as the beginning of a soup. No. I loved just the onions.
The onions I knew and loved were now a regular snack of mine, piled in a bowl and smothered in melted butter with a sprinkling of salt, and I was in heaven.
Everyone made fun of me for it, but I didn’t care. Anytime I had some time at home without something to do (namely homework or learning harmonies for musicals), I sliced up an onion, took out the well worn frying pan in my childhood kitchen, and started melting butter. This was a favorite snack through high school, and I will admit that I still reserve a little portion of sautéed onions when I’m cooking today. If not for that home ec class in school, I would have had a normal favorite snack, like Gushers or Pop Tarts, and where’s the fun in that. 🙃
Home Economics History
Home economics is defined as the art and science of home management, and was created as an essential part of the education system in the 1800s. The home ec classes taught women how to cook, care for kids, garden, sew, and do taxes, and were meant to professionalize women’s work.
In the twentieth century (the 1900s), the goal of home ec was to teach women to be smart consumers as new goods and services hit the market (essential for capitalism 🙄), and to communicate the needs of women in the home to manufacturers and political leaders. The mindset really shifted to think of women who stayed home as people who are doing a job, including some practice with taking apart kitchen machinery and putting it back together (this part is legitimately very cool to me). In 1970, all students were required to take home ec classes, not just women and girls, so everyone would learn the basics of cooking, sewing, balancing a checkbook, and the like. After 1994, home economics classes were referred to as “family and consumer sciences” in the United States.
By the time I took FACS in the early 2000s, not a ton had changed. We learned about some basic finances and bills that a household has, how to hand sew and how to use a sewing machine, and some basic skills in a kitchen. I remember gathering old denim to use to make a class quilt out of everyone’s blue jeans, and learning how to put a quilt together with batting, the gridded top and flannel sheet bottom. We fried, sautéed, and baked in the kitchen that had several stations with awkward middle schoolers huddled around them. It was a strange, but fun and wonderful time. We got to hang out with our friends and make something together. There are certainly worse ways to spend a 90 minute block in middle school.
Simple Ingredients, Luxurious Snacks
Just a simple pan of sliced onions sautéed in butter, sprinkled with a bit of salt can be the most luxe moment in your day, a feeling I’m always striving for if I’m honest. I aim for all my snacks to be as easy, with three ingredients or less. Here are my go-tos that are genuinely always in my fridge or pantry:
Carrots & sour cream dip
Chips & sour cream dip
Cornichons, pickles, and/or olives
Frozen banana blended with a scoop of peanut butter and a splash of any kind of milk
Frozen corn (thawed) with a squirt of mayo and sprinkle of Tajin
Kimchi straight from the jar
Microwave nachos: tortilla chips and shredded cheese
Parmesan cheese slices
Pretzels dipped in mustard
Ritz crackers with slices of American cheese (or whatever cheese you have)
Sliced orange wheels with a sprinkling of flaky salt and a drizzle of olive oil
Soft boiled egg with salt and pepper
Toast with butter and flaky salt
Toast with cream cheese and jam
Whether your snack game lately is a fistful of crackers over the sink or a bowl of sautéed onions you learned to make in 7th grade, I want to hear about it!
We all deserve nourishment, joy, and convenience as we manage our lives and homes.
Things I Like
Joy Oladokun has been one of my favorite musicians for a couple years and I highly recommend checking her out!
I’ve learned of a new crochet project that exists - baby books! Check out an adorable one here.
Finnish salmon, potato, and dill cream soup! Made it for the first time on Friday and it was so good - nourishing and perfect for this spring transition season.
I can’t quit thrifting for cassette tapes, candle tapers, and tablecloths!
This Philly sandwich from local restaurant Peppers & Fries.
look at HER
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣
Tinier Crystal's fav snacks were: sliced bananas with a little bit of milk and sugar, a slice of toast with butter and a Kraft single, several slices off a block of Velveeta, those character cookie dough rolls you're supposed to slice and bake except I'd slice and eat them raw lol, pretzels with French Onion dip, and Cool Ranch Doritos or salted cashews with a Mountain Dew chaser specifically. As a fellow snack advocate, I loved this post, Melissa!