Did I ever tell you about the time...?

You know the scene that usually plays out when you go home for Thanksgiving? The one where your older relatives start getting nostalgic and telling stories about the past? If your family is like mine, it looks like this: Great Aunt Thelma settles into the cushy arm chair after dinner with a cup of hot chamomile in one hand and a crossword puzzle in the other, adjusts her glasses, and says, “Did I ever tell you about the time…?”

In my family, she would begin with the classics, like the one where uncle Mike, when he was 16, snuck away in Grandpa’s Lincoln Continental and drove doughnuts and figure eights through the neighbor’s front yard. Then she might jump ahead 15 years or so and pull out a picture of me when I was four years old, dressed up as an 80’s rocker, chomping on bubble gum, and banging kitchen pots and pans with wooden spoons.

It’s a nice feeling, walking down memory lane, hearing about events that took place long before you were born as well as those that happened just last year or last month. Looking back on your family’s past gives you some context for what it is today and some gratitude to know how it’s grown and changed. (Check out the photo of me with my Grandma in North Carolina!)

Today at work, I had a similar nostalgic experience without leaving my desk or speaking with any wise elders. I scrolled and clicked through eight years of musings, stories, big announcements, and photos of Brainfood’s past in our “Bite of Brainfood” blog. Though the blog has only been around for eight of Brainfood’s nearly 15 years, it's one of the closest things we have to Great Aunt Thelma, and it’s got some real gems. In this post, I’m listing some of my favorite entries from the past to share with you. So grab yourself a cup of chamomile and stroll down memory lane with me.

How to be a Brainfoodie 

This is one of Brainfood’s very first blog posts. In this post we reflect on words used to describe food enthusiasts, including “Foodie,” which back then we framed as catchy, comfy, and all-inclusive, earnest in its simplicity. This blog author writes that “everyone can be a foodie. Being a foodie is ultimately about curiosity over expertise and appreciation over pretension.” Eight years later, what do you think of the word “foodie”? I’m on the fence, and I tend to using another term to describe one who is enthusiastic about food. What are some terms you use?

What did you do during inauguration weekend? Me, I went to the White House

This post documents our Community MVPs first trip to the White House for cookie decorating, a trip that we had the honor of taking for several years in a row. Our MVPs spent time at the President's house frosting, decorating, and individually packaging dozens upon dozens of beautiful White House cookies. What a great memory!

Things that make you go eww: Fear Factor at Brainfood

I love this one because it's something we haven't done in a while at Brainfood, and I'd definitely like to bring it back. Brainfood students tasted their way through 24 different "mystery" foods. The challenge was to get beyond the "good" and the "nasty", and really articulate the many elements, like texture, smell, and appearance, that influence how we experience new foods when we can't easily identify them as familiar dishes.

Summer starts with a BANG!

Stir fry, second graders, and the first Community MVPs workshop