Childhood Food Memories-The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Not sure if you mean patties or pate but there are various really cool recipes out there for pork based pate and confit too. I've a fav cookbook for making them but of course it's in storage...this excuse it getting pretty old for me...sigh.

No... “pattes de cochon” = pigs feet.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

The one thing that stands out in my mind was BAD and UGLY - what I now call "tuna slop." A lovely concoction of tuna mixed with cream of mushroom soup and a can of peas. A layer of that at the bottom of a meatloaf pan, then a layer of Ruffles potato chips (HAD to be Ruffles, nothing else would do), then another layer of tuna-peas-mushroom soup, Ruffles on top, and bake it. My grandfather loved it, so we had it at least every other week

To this day, though, I love macaroni and beef. Gram used to make it with just ground beef, a couple cans of tomato soup, a little sugar to reduce the acid, and elbow macaroni. My mom and I have turned it up a notch, adding a can of stewed tomatoes, finely chopped onion, and sometimes a can/bag of mixed veg (my MIL's idea).

 

[OhMari]

This face cracked me up, when I read some of the worst.

The bad
My mom didn't want us to get fat, so she never had buns or bread.
She would make sloppy Joe's and instead of a bun, she made Instant potato's from a box.
The grease from the hamburger seeped into the potato's, since she served the meat on top of them.
Ugg, it grossed me out.

The Good
Her chicken was ok, since she baked it in the oven and used shake-n-bake, but again, instant potato's
Every meal we had instant potato's with whatever meat we had.

 

[luvsJack]

The one thing that stands out in my mind was BAD and UGLY - what I now call "tuna slop." A lovely concoction of tuna mixed with cream of mushroom soup and a can of peas. A layer of that at the bottom of a meatloaf pan, then a layer of Ruffles potato chips (HAD to be Ruffles, nothing else would do), then another layer of tuna-peas-mushroom soup, Ruffles on top, and bake it. My grandfather loved it, so we had it at least every other week

To this day, though, I love macaroni and beef. Gram used to make it with just ground beef, a couple cans of tomato soup, a little sugar to reduce the acid, and elbow macaroni. My mom and I have turned it up a notch, adding a can of stewed tomatoes, finely chopped onion, and sometimes a can/bag of mixed veg (my MIL's idea).

Your tuna slip reminded me of another of my Mom’’s dishes. Tuna gravy and rice

I do not know what possessed her to make gravy from canned tuna fish but she did. Guessing it was one of concoctions she came up with when the budget was beyond tight back in Daddy’s early Air Force years.

Anyway, I don’t even know how she started the stuff and never wanted to know. But for some reason my brother loved it. The only thing I could figure is that it was one of those memories from childhood that was actually better in memory than in real life.

Even as adults if one of us was sick, Mom would cook and bring us our favorite meal and that was always his choice. I cannot imagine wanting what looked like cat food when you are sick but there he was eating it.

 

[ols386]

My mom was a pretty good cook. Her fried chicken was my favorite. She slow cooked it in a huge pan on the stove top. She rolled the individual pieces in flour, and salt and peppered them. She browned the chicken first and then cooked it on a low temperature for hours. She always served it with real (not instant) mashed potatoes with the chicken gravy.

She made good pies too. Homemade including the crust. She usually made fruit pies like apple, peach, and strawberry. It was fresh fruit, not out of a can.

She worked outside the home, full time, so lots of week day evenings we ate out, weekends she cooked at home.

Can’t think of anything she cooked that I didn’t like.

 

[kimblebee]

My mom was a homemaker right from the 50’s era so we always had home cooked meals. I could probably count on one hand the number of times we ate out that didn’t involve a family celebration. I don’t remember any duds that weren’t due to my pickiness. She was not going to make two meals so you ate what was in front of you.

I enjoy cooking and baking too so I’d like to think my family doesn’t have a good, bad, ugly list for me.

 

[powellrj]

My mom always thought she was a wonderful cook because when she had people over, the serving dishes were wiped clean. The truth was she never made enough food and people were starving. My DSIL started bringing almost whole meals with us when we went there. One thing you could always count on was chopped head lettuce. We had it at every dinner growing up and when we were adults.

I saw something yesterday on Facebook that reminded me of my childhood. It said poor peoples bun, and showed a piece of white bread with a hot dog on it, and a hamburger on it. It hit home! One thing I always hated was a birds nest. Mashed potatoes and gravy with peas on top. I love mashed potatoes and gravy, put hate peas. I spent many nights staring at a pile of peas.

The good was my grandmothers cooking. They were both great cooks.

 

[sasywtch]

My mom was not a good cook however, she could do Thanksgiving/Christmas. Turkey, stuffing and her fruit cake was really good. (her fruit cake was really an English brown cake with raisins and nuts). We continue to make her stuffing 20 years after she passed. She also made good beef stew.

Bad-she tried to make pies once. The crust had huge chucks of sugar in it. She made torched rib eye steaks and pork chops until they were a burnt crisp.

I have changed up making steak and pork chops where you can still see some light brown on the pork chops and a tinge of pink in beef.

 

[barkley]

reading through this I realize-I don't ever remember my father cooking a single thing. meal planning and preparation was strictly my mom's thing, but dad definitely influenced what we ate. I never had lamb until after he passed away b/c he couldn't tolerate the idea of it (bad mutton during ww2), pizza was a 'treat' but it never constituted a dinner (and it was usually one of those boxed apian way ones-with just the cheese dust that came in the box and maybe some salami), and 'chili' was NEVER to be misconstrued with anything that contained beans (that was 'chili beans').

worcestershire sauce(my dad put it on EVERYTHING

mine used it liberally as well-it and a bottle of tobacco were always on the kitchen table for every meal.

 

[mom2rtk]

mine used it liberally as well-it and a bottle of tobacco were always on the kitchen table for every meal.

That must have been back before all the Surgeon General warnings.

 

[BrianL]

GOOD: My grandmothers hamburgers or sometimes just served as a burger patty with other sides, something called "hamburg and peas" which was ground beef, over potatoes with green peas.

BAD: Honestly, other than hamburgers/ground beef, my grandmother wasn't amazing in the kitchen. There were a lot of bland New England foods like a traditional boiled dinner with ham or the (better) corned beef and cabbage, and severely overcooked pork chops or steak. My Grandfather liked them that way.

UGLY: For years as a kid I was under the impression that I hated Chinese food. I learned later in life that it was really just because of the place that we always got it from. It has to be the nastiest Chinese food that ever existed! For some reason that was the go-to place and always seemed popular. Maybe it was just cheap!

 

[Lilacs4Me]

The good -

homemade chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles
Swedish meatballs
my dad's cheeseburgers - topped with green olives and a little bit of chopped onions
homemade chicken and dumplings

The bad - my mom left us when I was 11, so my dad had to learn how to cook more than just burgers. There were many fails lol:

canned tuna and miracle whip that was a ratio of about 10 parts miracle whip and 1 part tuna, on white bread
liver and onions, served with canned spinach
cold tuna pasta salad - wasn't so bad the first night, but he would make enough to fill this HUGE bowl we had, and we would eat it every night until it was gone. It usually took about 3-4 days. yuck!

The Ugly -

MOM: chicken and rice, and the chicken was rubbery (I always thought it was undercooked) and the rice was crunchy with pieces of undissolved chicken bullion cubes in it. She always tried to cook when she didn't have enough time to do it right.
DAD: squirrel. Seriously NOT kidding. Luckily I had already moved out to my mom's house, so this is more mi sisters' story than mine: My one sister walked into the kitchen one night and he was pulling out a skinned squirrel that someone had given him. He was trying to hide it from the girls lol but my sister made him tell her what it was and she said she was NOT eating that, and if he tried to make them, she would tell the other girls what it was and not let them eat it either. He agreed and threw it away and then took them to McDonald's lol, but OMG!!

 

[BrianL]

The one thing that stands out in my mind was BAD and UGLY - what I now call "tuna slop." A lovely concoction of tuna mixed with cream of mushroom soup and a can of peas. A layer of that at the bottom of a meatloaf pan, then a layer of Ruffles potato chips (HAD to be Ruffles, nothing else would do), then another layer of tuna-peas-mushroom soup, Ruffles on top, and bake it. My grandfather loved it, so we had it at least every other week .

The Tuna Slop sounds so bad...and yet, I kinda want to try it!

 

[Elle23]

My mom was a very good cook. I honestly can’t remember anything I didn’t like (I probably blocked it out...)

Every birthday I requested that she make the same thing: chicken fried steak, fried mushrooms, and mashed potatoes. I look back now and realize how much work that was (and how messy!) But man was it good!

I make spaghetti sauce from scratch, and my kids love it, but we loved my mom’s spaghetti growing up. It was canned spaghetti sauce mixed with cream of mushroom soup and cooked ground beef. I’m craving it now! It was a little tangy and so good!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Luckily my mom and grandmothers were good cooks. So is my dad and grandfathers.

I just can't do pigs feet or "patitas" as we called them. But the people who did eat my moms or grandmas patitas always raved about them.

 

[Chime]

Most of what I ate growing up was very bland and over cooked. My mom didn’t believe in seasoning things. She called all seasoning, even salt and pepper, “spices” and would talk about how much she hates using spices in her food.

My dad didn’t cook often, and what he did make was weird, but I always loved it.

The Good: My dad would cut up bologna and cook it in tomato sauce or tomato soup. We’d pour it over instant mashed potatoes. He’d also make really good snacks. My favorite was puffed rice. It’s a kind of cereal that he’d toast in a skillet with some butter and salt.

The Bad: Thanksgiving potatoes. My dad is sooo proud of these. He makes them every Thanksgiving. He bakes some russets and some sweet potatoes by wrapping them in aluminum foil and DRENCHING them in olive oil. They end up so greasy and just tastes like oil. One time I made the holiday meal for 8 people and he brought over about 45 of these potatoes.
And my mom makes “lettuce salad” for cook outs and birthdays. It has very little lettuce, some bacon bits, and about two jars of mayonnaise.


The Ugly: When my mom made soup. She takes whatever leftover meats are in the fridge, adds a can of peas, a can of green beans and maybe corn...and then adds them to a big pot of water. So much water. Nothing was seasoned. No broth. Just bland old food boiled up in water.
She even makes chili this way, no seasoning or flavor - just a can or two of ingredients and LOTS of water.

 

[Kitty 34]

Wasn't a big fan of my Mom's cooking but that's because I'm VERY fussy!! I did loved her rump roasts and mashed potatoes and corn. But best of all I love her chocolate bread pudding with her homemade icing.

 

[bushdianee]

The good: my mom would make her own spaghetti sauce. she would make a huge pot of it at least every other week and we'd eat it almost every other night. I still use her meatloaf and homemade hamburgers cooked in tomatoes.

the bad: anything with cooked cabbage or saurkraut, I hated. She'd make a huge roaster full cabbage rolls that were cooked in saurkraut instead of tomato soup, every St. Patrick's day the huge pot (that she made her sauce in!) full of ham, cabbage, potatoes and carrots. all boiled together for hours.

The rest of the time she'd cook from boxes or cans. Vegetables were always canned peas, green beans or corn, never fresh. She didn't like broccolli or cauliflower, squashes etc so we never had them. Lots of instant potatoes but I always liked them. Some of my siblings still won't eat them. It is no wonder that all of have severe weight problems.

 

[BLAZEY]

Both my mum and and grandmother were really good cooks. With 3 people in our family allergic to fish/seafood, we were spared any type of tuna slop casserole. We had porcupine meatballs(Ground beef meatballs with rice in tomato soup sauce) Chicken, broccoli pasta casserole with homemade cheddar cheese sauce.

 

[AustinTink]

My mom was an excellent cook, so nothing to complain about there. BUT and this is a big But... there were 7 kids in my family and she tried to cut corners on our long car trips in the summer. So that meant we didn't stop at restaurants for lunch along the way, we stopped at rest stops for the dreaded POTTED MEAT sandwiches. I shudder just thinking about it.