On our first date, we probably shared a box of four dollar SnoCaps while we watched Sibling Rivalry in a now demolished theater.
The night he proposed, I was much more focused on the ring on my left hand than I was on the fancy food served on restaurant china.
On our wedding day, we missed the food I was anticipating the most, because our stupid photographer had us pose like dorks in front of our hotel room. I still cringe at the last photo in our album; Matt is on one knee, and I’m sitting on the other with my finger up to my lips, making a “sshhh” gesture. What I’m really trying to say is “get the heck out of my face and let me have dessert!” But I was 23 and still respectful of my elders. By the time we returned to the party, all of the dessert had been whisked away.
We did feed each other a bite of wedding cake (no smearing on the face), but the real treat was eating the top layer on our first anniversary. The dense chocolate cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting was surprisingly fresh after twelve months in the freezer, and we shared it at our Ikea kitchen table in our little townhouse.
The summer that I was pregnant with Gwen, we took after-dinner walks around our neighborhood, holding hands and talking about cribs, baby monitors, and onesies. The heat of the day was fading, but the Maryland humidity and the extra twenty pounds stuck to my abdomen took its toll.
At least twice a week, I would squat and grunt my way into the car, and Matt drove the seven minutes to the snowball stand. Not sno-cones, or shaved ice – in Maryland we eat snowballs. Coarsely ground ice in a styrofoam cup (so un-green in 1998), syrup seeping down the mound so that the last spoonfuls had to be slurped. I always ordered chocolate; pregnancy had no effect on my sweet tooth. As the summer trudged on, I could rest my cup on my belly to minimize the distance between spoon and mouth. I still dribbled syrup on my shirt – snowball eating is messy business.
We never went back to that snowball stand after Gwen was born. Six years later, we visited a different snowball stand near our new home, and introduced our two children to the delicious marriage of ice and sugar. I ordered chocolate again, but I let my own snowball melt while I helped my three-year-old son tackle his very first one.
Aw, I love your story and your sweet tooth! I for one ate my cake at my wedding, but I was 36, and respected myself as the elder;)
As you should!
A lot of my memories revolve around food – I guess it’s one of my loves. This is very “sweet” – well written and perfect for your “scrapbooking via the blog” project. Well done!
This retreat I’m in has so many good prompts for that project…which I am definitely going to do starting in January. Stay tuned!
Awww, this was so lovely it made me sigh with contentment. Your memories clearly are being cherished. I love the part where you say that your snowball melted because you were helping your three year old…ain’t that the truth. I remember those days when I had to hold my pee in until the kids were in bed 🙂 Beautiful post Dana!
Thank you so much, Sandra! I was sighing with contentment as I wrote it. And then I got hungry.
Great memories! Oh, the photographer…unforgivable! Go get a fancy cupcake to make up for it 🙂 Then you can eat it in your bedroom, take a selfie saying, “ssshhh.”
Ha – exactly! Although I have a white blanket on my bed…that won’t end well!
Such sweet and delicious memories.
Thanks, Christie!
Wow! Loved reading about your past and how precious those memories are 🙂
xoxo
Thanks Ruchira!
We too missed our wedding food for the very same reason…that the photographer could get some dorky shots of us from 10 different angles!! What a great idea to freeze a part of the wedding cake so that you could enjoy it at leisure later!!
I was surprised how good it was – and I got to eat it in my jammies, which was an added bonus!
This post makes me want a snowball – or my childhood version, shaved ice! I loved them with ice cream in the middle 🙂
Yum – better yet, just give me the ice cream!
Thank you for posting this here, Dana! Love the sweetness your memories evoked. And now I know what a snowball is 🙂
Yes, it is quite the unique and odd food item. Certainly not culinary excellence, but still.
Awww that was so sweet! I was right there with you like it was flashbacks in a movie. Sorry you missed your wedding dessert while taking pictures. I feel like I didn’t get to eat period. We had a mingling reception and had everything out so our guests weren’t waiting around while we took pictures. So by the time we sat down of course everyone was done eating. Everytime I put something to my mouth someone came over to speak.
Anyway this was a SWEET piece, makes me what a eat a chocolate syrupy snowball.
With marshmallow? I didn’t even mention the marshmallow topping. My kids love it, but it’s become too sweet for me, even with my sweet tooth.
Dana, how completely you painted each portion of this page, your images and emotional touches are sensory. I loved reading this!
Thank you so much!
HA!I have some very similar memories actually! We didn’t get to eat food at our wedding other because the photographer took so long – only he was trying to get tons of Christmas shots because we got married in December. My oldest was born in August, so we did our fair share of walking that summer in the NC heat & humidity, too. 🙂 Here, we do all them sno-cones and I always got for cherry or grape, but then I end up with a red/purple mouth and tongue!
Yes! There is a blue flavor that does that too – berry something or other. Chocolate doesn’t stain the mouth, but it does stain my shirt. 🙁
love it. love the snowball…except chocolate, really? at least it’s not that horribly named egg custard??? why why why is it called egg custard? Z loves it and I cringe every time she orders. food is a part of so many of my memories…powerful stuff. xoxo can’t wait to hang with you tonight- more food, more memories!
I don’t mind egg custard, although you are right – the name is awful.
You would be a perfect fit for this writing retreat, Dana!
Even after living in Maryland for nearly a decade, I still haven’t had snowball. You make it sound so delicious, I think a trip to Rita’s should be on next summer’s bucket list!
But Rita’s is Italian ice…not a true snowball. Honestly, you probably won’t like it. Snowballs seem to be a taste acquired in childhood. Rita’s is still good, but snowballs are chunkier and made by hand – first the ice is ground, then the syrup is put over it.
I had no idea – just knew that Rita’s seemed to be a ‘thing’. Now you have me intrigued about all the different kinds of shaved/crushed ice treats.
Now it’s your summer mission to explore them all!
Hi! I thought about joining that writing retreat, too. But, I don’t know, I’m so burned out on preparing food for my family, that I guess I didn’t want to write about it. Such sweet moments in this post. I remember the day I got my engagement ring. I stared at it all day and thought everybody in the whole wide world was, too. And, I cringe over my wedding photographs, too. Our photographer was so corny, and I’ve never been happy with them. A snowball stand! I’m going to have to tell my kids about that one!! It might keep them outside longer! 🙂
It’s funny – I never realized that snowballs were a regional thing. Every area seems to do their own version of ice and syrup, although I’d rather have an ice cream cone!
Such a sweet post, and love how you combined the two prompts 🙂
Thanks, Bev!
Definitely deliciously nostalgic. Scarlet gets them here at the farm stand but they’re called shaved ice. And no chocolate! They have maple syrup or strawberry and some other ones.
I want a snowball.
The chocolate snowballs are definitely a Maryland/mid-Atlantic thing. My second favorite is black cherry – mmmmm.
So… I’ve done a terrible job of participating in the prompts so far but you and Nicki are making me want to so much! Great job – I love the imagery of this. Love. I’m glad you stuck the sentence in so that you could link up. <3
I’ve only done two, Kristi – and I can’t even handle the FB page. But the prompts will be good to revisit over the holidays, if only just to write for myself and no one else.
Aw!! What a beautiful way to incorporate food in those precious memories Dana! And LOVE that you snuck in the FTSF prompt too. Well played. 😉
Why thank you! I’m nothing if not a multi-tasker.
Dana, this is so cool. I didn’t sign up (too crazy this time of year), but was so curious about the topic. I’ve never written about food! You did great job. I loved this.
Thanks Allie. I’m already falling behind – only 2 for 5 for the daily prompts. But I’m hoping to catch up in the last half of December, at least to write on my own.
Loved your memory of this and you made me think back to my own wedding day, where I truly didn’t have time to enjoy most of the food there either. I totally couldn’t wait for our Venetian hour and yet when the time came I think I tasted on cookie. Ironically, when we came home from our honeymoon, we were looking through pics of our wedding and my best friend stated that she could see the chocolate fountain in one of the pics that we had that night. I was dumbfounded and had truly forgotten about it sadly. Still haven’t had a descent chocolate fountain dessert to this day myself.
We didn’t have a fountain – chocolate fountain plus me equals a big mess!