Red's Wrap
Happiness. It's relative.
Fry Me Up Some Cheerios
This is a memory straight out of Wackyland.
When I was a little kid, and I mean little, like maybe four or five years old, I remember pulling a kitchen chair over to the stove and frying Cheerios in a cast iron frying pan with a stick of butter and a cup of sugar.
Where were my parents?
My mother might have been sewing in the basement or holding her head in her hands at the dining room table. She did a lot of both. My father would have been at Sears selling washing machines and praying for a raise. Or he might have been out playing a gig in some dance hall. He played a million instruments.
My brother and sister – no idea. My brother was always riding his bike around town. If I was five, he would have been fourteen and doing that thing where he’d get his bike going as fast as he could, then he’d put his feet up on the handlebars and his hands behind his head like he was lying in a hammock. So, he could have been off doing that.
And my sister, who would have been eleven, was intensely boy crazy, so she was probably, you know, walking to the corner store past Bobby’s house to get something real important -Twinkies or a popsicle. Or she was at Krystal Kate’s Dance Studio learning a new tap dance. She had black tap shoes with ribbon ties and a sequined skirt my mother made when she wasn’t holding her head in her hands. Purple sequins all over the basement floor.
Anyway, the Cheerios would stick together making a kind of weird cereal brittle that stuck to the frying pan like cement and had to be pried off and it was delicious. I remember having a cooking partner who was also standing on a kitchen chair. Another kid. My little friend came over and we fried Cheerios. And then we ate them all.
I have Cheerios in the cupboard. I always have Cheerios in the cupboard. I could fry some up right now.
8 Comments on “Fry Me Up Some Cheerios”
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Snow Door | wisconsinacademy.org
Listen to Jan read her essay “Billy” presented on WUWM’s Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “At the Breakfast Bar” on WUWM Lake Effect
Jan’s essay “The Parish Hall,” on WUWM Lake Effect
“Fury Cannot Touch Me,” Modern Love, NYT, 9/29/11
Fried Cheerios recipe from my Indian friends:
To make Mixture, fry three red chilis with two dozen curry leaves until they darken, and when they cool, grind them up! To this powder add sugar (2 tsp), salt (pinch), mango powder (1.5 tsp), and stir it around.
Next make two tsp of mustard seeds sizzle in three tbs of oil, then toss in a pinch of asafetida (fun word), about a cup of red-skinned peanuts, half a cup of raisins, three or four broken red chilis, two or three slit green chilis, and three cups of Cheerios (or cornflakes).
Stir it around on low heat for a few minutes until crispy.
Wow! That sounds amazing! Who knew?
You Cheer-ri-ohed me up first thing on this weary, dreary morning! Love the pic of your mom with her head in her hands… Yup. THANK YOU
That actually sounds good. Different times, for sure
Holy crap Jan! I’m all for kids being independent and taking initiative but maybe a few more years under your chefs hat would have been advisable…
Standing in the kitchen laughing out loud as I read your story with my iPad on the butcher block as the snow continues to fall, remembering my own fried Cheerios stories. We never used sugar but we did use a whole stick of butter and lots of salt. Maybe I’ll have to get some cheerios tomorrow…
I so love that you did that and it’s really quite a clever recipe. it’s amazing we all survived all of the things we did
Same cheekbones, same smile! 🙂