Favorite food dishes from childhood

[ahk]

So my last post I talked about what my ma cooked me when I was a kiddo. I came from a family who divorced when I was younger. My nana (dad's mom) cooked a lot too when I would visit my dad (every other week).

Some of her dishes I loved was--

Shepards pie (still love, but make my own version)
Mac/Cheese with scrambled meat/mushrooms and canned corn.
This casserole she made with chicken, green beans, mushrooms, dill, and a bread topping. It was amazing good.
Hamburger soup.
Corn pancakes served with sausage, real butter, real maple, and peanut butter. YUM.

My mom-- she wasn't a huge fan of cooking but she did it.

The meals I remember of her--

Spaghetti with broccoli.
Pizza night every Friday with orange soda.
Hamburger night every Wednesday with grape soda.
Chicken stew with biscuits.

Ma's mac and cheese with bacon

Braised steak and dumplings

Crumpets and chestnuts toasted and roasted on an open fire

Egg custard (custard tart). My Ma baked every weekend from as early as I remember and only stopped once the three kids had left home.

Heinz oxtail (my pref) or tomato (my bros pref) soup with a few chips in (chips>fat fries). Usually given upon return of appetite after being poorly-sick.

[MsTinkerbelly]

I started cooking at 7 (mostly as a girl scout project), but also because although a pretty good cook, my Mom really didn't want to cook.

By 10 i was a much better cook than she was, but i still can't make her chicken and dumplings or her shepards pie as well as she did. Perhaps i didn't really try hard so she would still cook sometimes.

[JustLovelyJenn]

My grandmothers on both sides provided my favorite childhood food memories!!!

At Grandma and Grandpa's house...

... Instant oatmeal with Grandpa
... Eggcake and eblaskiva at every holiday
... Carrot pudding
... and Rainbow sherbert!

At Grandma and Pappys...

... cabbage and milk
... fresh corn on the cob (us kids spent hours in the back yard husking all of it)
... bread and butter (because thats how you get the butter on your corn)
... manti turkey
... fresh plums off the tree

[theoddz]

As a kid, a few of my favorite foods were:

1. My Aunt Nadine's ham casserole.

2. Underwood Deviled Ham Sandwiches (still a favorite of mine).

3. My Pop's special pan fried Chinese noodle chop suey.

4. Mother's swiss steak (still the BEST I've ever tasted!!!).

5. Mother's shrimp and lobster sauce over rice.

6. My sister's cheddar corn biscuits.

.....and so many, many more, as everyone in my family loves to cook and is damned good at it!!!!!

I really miss my dad's cooking, though. He was the best cook in our family, even besting my mom.

~Theo~ .......loves to eat!!!!

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Brock

Yes Yes about the boxed Chefboyardee boxed pizzas. I loved those when I was little. My mom would chip up hot dogs into tiny pieces and put on the top.

I had not seen this in decades until a few months ago at one of the dollar-type stores. Couldn't wait to make it. When I opened the sauce can, I tasted it ... %?*@&%# ... they changed the flavor of the red sauce ... Bye bye, the whole thing went into the trash can. Talk about a let down ... I felt slam-dunked.

Really? Damn it. I was seriously going to order it off the internet after seeing nyc's post.

[RockOn]

my grandmother's large white lima beans ... she was a short little Indian woman and I can see her at her stove right now in my memory ... she is the only one I miss from my family ... I could depend on her to tell me like it was and always the truth ... I remember when I was about three years old, I would wiggle in church (hyperactive) and if she told me she'd pinch me if I did not get still, *laughing* then I knew it was coming. I really loved that old woman! Everyone did!

[RockOn]

Man, I am really so sorry but it was not the same. When I tasted it, I was like wtf??? Why they had to go messing with a great product like that ... I don't know.

[RockOn]

oyster stew

I stayed with grandparents a lot growing up ... when I was with Charlie's (charlie is my father's name)parents, sometimes I would walk down to the bottom of the road and stay with my great grandparents. They would make what they called oyster stew. Here is their very simple recipe: Take 2 cans of oysters and pour into a pot, then add however much milk, a pat of butter, a pinch of sugar to cancel out bitter flavor of oysters, bring to a slow boil stirring frequently, serve with crackers broken up in your bowl. Sweet tea to drink.

Decades later, I nuke mine in my own bowl, only put the juice from the 2 cans in there and toss the oysters in the trash. Add about 24 ounces milk, lots of black pepper ... Sometimes chip up some onion in there when it is hot.

I call it my porridge - it always makes me think of goldi-locks and the three bears.

[kittygrrl]

fish & chips

[DapperButch]

Originally Posted by Brock

Man, I am really so sorry but it was not the same. When I tasted it, I was like wtf??? Why they had to go messing with a great product like that ... I don't know.

Maybe you just remembered it wrong? I don't know...not sure your tastebuds are trustworthy!

Maybe it tastes the same, your tastebuds have just grown up!

[Kenna]

Favorites my gramma made for me...

cream of mushroom soup with toast
grits with butter and brown sugar
plain yogurt mixed with brown sugar
her homemade sugar cookies and ginger bread
The church lady's "love feast" bread and tender roast beef
Amish made apple dumplings and cinnamon bread
Cinnamon sugar coated roasted pecans
and sharing my gramma's Arrowroot cookies with hot mint tea

[MysticOceansFL]

It will always be and I rarely eat it now , Chicken and dumplings with a side of greens and sweet corn bread , and a glass of sweet tea.

[Canela]

My abuelita's (grandmother's) Arroz con Pollo...
oh man, I miss that!
Mine is almost but not quite like hers...

[Bèsame*]

Cinnamon Toast

When I would spend the night at my Granny's house, she would pull out the tall stool and pull out the built in cutting board. I would get to sit there and eat cinnamon toast. Simple, but the memory is sweet!

[Blade]

Papaw, use to fix hamburger, with diced taters and onions all mixed together and cabbage. I guess I liked it cuz it was something Mom never fixed.

I had to laugh at Princess Belle's pea's statement. Mom wasn't an experienced cook when I was growing up and didn't try new recipes.

You could trust and believe that every night there was going to be either cream corn, or sweet peas on the table, rice and gravy and some kind of fried meat. It was hard in my adult life to get away from the fried meat and rice and gravy. It is still comfort food and sometimes I crave it. Let me get down in the dumps and I will fry me up some pork chops and make rice and gravy.

[RockOn]

I thought about that too ... that maybe it had something to do with my taste buds changing. I wish you would give it a go. I really would like to get your opinion. If you try it, please please let me know! Maybe it was just that one box that had the funk on ... I love it so much, if I get a good review from you, I will have to hazard the risk and buy another box.

Thanks!
Brock.

[RockOn]

Now I am wondering if nycfem has tried the Chefboyardee pizza in the box lately ... How about it, we want to know and if so, did the sauce taste like the original?
Thanks in advance.

Who else besides me notices nycfemme thinks up the best topics? I am serious!

[nanners]

Originally Posted by DapperButch

Maybe you just remembered it wrong? I don't know...not sure your tastebuds are trustworthy!

Maybe it tastes the same, your tastebuds have just grown up!

I think there is some thing to be said regarding the "growing up" of taste buds....I think you're right. I believe our taste buds change as we get older. When I was a kid, I didn't like quite a few things, like sweet potatoes, spinach, coconut and coffee. Now I like them all. In fact, anyone that knows me knows that coffee is a must in morning, don't even talk to me until I have consumed a cup!

My childhood favorites....my Mom makes this dish in a big fry pan. It's fried pork chops on the bottom, a big mound of stuffing in the middle, and surrounding the stuffing is a ring of rice with tomato sauce mixed in, and covered with cheddar cheese (melted). Yum!

[willow]

I did not inherit my mothers cooking abilities and that is a good thing because she was a dreadful cook! My mother liked eggs so we ate a lot of eggs, eggs and bread. The 4 staples that were always available to my sister and I were bread, eggs, cheese and ketchup. You would be amazed what we could come up with using these 4 ingredients. We must have eaten our body weight in egg mayo every month while growing up. To this day I can not face egg mayo sandwiches.

Every other weekend we visited our bio father. He made kraft macaroni cheese and served it with pilchards in tomato sauce. My sis and I both still talk about kraft macaroni cheese with pilchards in tomato sauce. We loved it! It is very hard to come by these days though. In fact, now I think about it, I can't remember the last time I bought it. I still look for it from time to time.