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

[CdnCarrie]

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.

Why would someone cook instant potatoes when real ones are dirt cheap and super easy to prepare. Peel and boil. Puncture with fork and baked. I don't understand instant potatoes.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Why would someone cook instant potatoes when real ones are dirt cheap and super easy to prepare. Peel and boil. Puncture with fork and baked. I don't understand instant potatoes.

I used to love them because my mom over-mashed her real ones - with a hand mixer. They came out like glue. The boxed ones were much fluffier.

But she made the best split pea soup! All from scratch. And wonderful homemade fried chicken!
And dad still makes the best big breakfasts...or egg sandwiches, or anything to do with breakfast, really.

I also remember that we almost always had both salad (which I loved) and a cooked vegetable (most were fine, but I remember hating carrots) with dinner.

 

[mjkacmom]

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).

I’m going to give my mom creds here, she made creamed tuna on toast with a béchamel sauce (butter, milk, flour), topped with peas.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

My mom didn't really cook, she was more of a "dump a bag of frozen fish sticks and a bag of frozen french fries on a cookie sheet and bake until semi-burnt" kind of cook so the only thing I can think of is that neon orange spray cheese in a can. My mom always had it in the house when I was a kid and I remember i loved making my own Ritz cracker sandwiches with a layer of the stuff in the middle. So as a joke I tried it with my own kids one night as a family activity and it was awful, a very disappointing experience and not at all like what I remembered!

 

[ronandannette]

I wish I had realized then how lucky I was. All the women in my lineage were very good cooks and we ate "farm to table" out of necessity before it was a thing, with hearty, homegrown ingredients. It was a very "meat and potatoes" diet though, and every dinner consisted of roasted, fried or stewed meat, a starch (pasta and rice were an exotic treat!), vegetables, gravy, a salad and home baking for desert. Every.single.meal. I took it so for granted and disdained much of it as a kid. I pined for the processed, pre-packaged crap I saw advertised on tv. My dream was to take a packed lunch to school that consisted of a Spam sandwich on store-bought bread, Oreo cookies and a canned pudding cup. It never happened!

THE GOOD:
Honestly, it was all good but my DMom was renowned for her homemade bread and buns. She'd make 10's of dozens of buns at a time for family and community functions. I'm a pretty good cook too but I can't raise dough to save my life; the altitude I live at makes it tricky. I'd love to be able to reproduce those buns.

THE BAD:
Not at my house, but I used to routinely eat at with my best friend's family and they had roast beef and boiled potatoes practically every night of their lives. I can still remember the unique grey colour of that dry, overcooked meat.

THE UGLY:
In the world of my childhood men simply didn't cook but my DDad really liked puttering around in the kitchen. He loved to put together what he called "picnics"; a weird collection of evening snacks he wanted us to enjoy with him. He'd put some really crazy combinations together; the worst I can remember off the top of my head were saltine crackers with HP sauce and bowls of cornflakes topped with pancake syrup and shredded coconut.

 

[loves to dive]

I grew up one of six kids, in the 50s and 60s and my Mama didn't work so money was always tight. She loved to cook and loved to experiment, evidently the Donahue show would always have a receipe of the day and she loved trying them out. She was a very good cook and was a master at making anything with hamburger. I don't like to cook and as a result I'm not very good at it and don't do it very often, I have two brothers who are chefs and one who was a line cook. All my brothers cooked and my Daddy did to so there really wasn't much reason for me to get into it (I can clean better than anyone around though).

The good - just about everything Mama made was good so it would be hard to pinpoint one thing but she made a mean curry, chili and spaghetti.

The Bad - meatloaf, I hate meatloaf and wouldn't eat it if it was the only thing available and I hadn't eaten in 3 days. Swiss steak, I think it was the tomatoes on this, I like tomatoes in just about every form but just yuck to swiss steak.

The ugly - my Daddy's fried Spam and SOS, just why to both. He was in the Navy during WWII and both were served often on the ships, if you don't know what SOS is google it, it stands for poop (I cleaned that up) on a shingle and the shingle could be anything and everything, Daddy usually used toast, my brother liked it on a baked potatoe.

 

[luvsJack]

I grew up one of six kids, in the 50s and 60s and my Mama didn't work so money was always tight. She loved to cook and loved to experiment, evidently the Donahue show would always have a receipe of the day and she loved trying them out. She was a very good cook and was a master at making anything with hamburger. I don't like to cook and as a result I'm not very good at it and don't do it very often, I have two brothers who are chefs and one who was a line cook. All my brothers cooked and my Daddy did to so there really wasn't much reason for me to get into it (I can clean better than anyone around though).

The good - just about everything Mama made was good so it would be hard to pinpoint one thing but she made a mean curry, chili and spaghetti.

The Bad - meatloaf, I hate meatloaf and wouldn't eat it if it was the only thing available and I hadn't eaten in 3 days. Swiss steak, I think it was the tomatoes on this, I like tomatoes in just about every form but just yuck to swiss steak.

The ugly - my Daddy's fried Spam and SOS, just why to both. He was in the Navy during WWII and both were served often on the ships, if you don't know what SOS is google it, it stands for poop (I cleaned that up) on a shingle and the shingle could be anything and everything, Daddy usually used toast, my brother liked it on a baked potatoe.

Yep Daddy made SOS once when Mom was sick and couldn’t cook. Yuck! He used toast. Guess it came from his military days.

When I was a kid I like SPAM. And usually fried on bread with mayo.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Am I the only one who likes SOS? I ask my MIL to make it sometimes!

 

[ronandannette]

Am I the only one who likes SOS? I ask my MIL to make it sometimes!

Without getting too graphic, what is it made of? I've heard of it on tv and movies but thought it was a joke of some sort, not a real thing.

 

[lovin'fl]

The good...my mom's...family recipe of sour beef and dumplings, pistachio cake, spaghetti, cucumber salad, deviled eggs and Thanksgiving baked corn dish. My dad made a good kielbasa recipe that he concocted when he was a lighthouse keeper. He also could make some great breakfasts, even with scrapple.

The bad...she made what we called steak and macaroni which was just top round steak fried up with worchestershire and water and put on top of macaroni. It's cheap and easy and not gourmet by any means but I loved it as a kid and my kids loved it too (good for picky eaters...no diced veges or weird spices...add a side salad and easy peasy).

The ugly...my dad's deer meat cooked up in everything, including mom's spaghetti sometimes. And liver and onions.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Without getting too graphic, what is it made of? I've heard of it on tv and movies but thought it was a joke of some sort, not a real thing.

I've had it a few different ways. Most of the time my MIL makes sausage gravy and serves it on toast. I think the more common way is making a gravy with chipped beef instead of sausage and serving it on toast or biscuits.

 

[tasha99]

Am I the only one who likes SOS? I ask my MIL to make it sometimes!

No, I like it. Reminds me of my own army days, and my stepmom makes it for my dad (reminds him of his army days). Only with chipped beef--I've seen people use hamburger, and that's just a no. I like sausage gravy, too, but always on toast rather than a biscuit.

Edit: Ha--we posted at the same time. To me, sausage gravy>SOS, but both are good.

 

[ronandannette]

I've had it a few different ways. Most of the time my MIL makes sausage gravy and serves it on toast. I think the more common way is making a gravy with chipped beef instead of sausage and serving it on toast or biscuits.

No, I like it. Reminds me of my own army days, and my stepmom makes it for my dad (reminds him of his army days). Only with chipped beef--I've seen people use hamburger, and that's just a no. I like sausage gravy, too, but always on toast rather than a biscuit.

Edit: Ha--we posted at the same time. To me, sausage gravy>SOS, but both are good.

Thanks to both of you. Is sausage gravy that white, pasty-looking lumpy stuff on most American breakfast buffets? Off to google chipped beef now...

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Thanks to both of you. Is sausage gravy that white, pasty-looking lumpy stuff on most American breakfast buffets? Off to google chipped beef now...

Well not good sausage gravy, but you've got the right idea.

 

[luvsJack]

Dad’s SOS was made with chipped beef. And it was more like a creamed chipped beef dish. Thicker than gravy.

Sausage gravy and Ground beef gravy, at least for us is very different. Sausage gravy is a milk gravy. Ground beef gravy is made with onions and is a brown gravy. Love both of these. But not SOS.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Am I the only one who likes SOS? I ask my MIL to make it sometimes!

My dad would make it two different ways.
One with chipped beef, with a thick white gravy/bechamel.
The other with hamburger and the thick white gravy/bechamel.
They were both really good. Served on white toast.

 

[tasha99]

Thanks to both of you. Is sausage gravy that white, pasty-looking lumpy stuff on most American breakfast buffets? Off to google chipped beef now...

The problem with sausage gravy, is that it can be delicious, but most is very, very bad. You either need to go to a restaurant known for it, or make your own to get a good picture, because most of it out there is gloppy, not sausage flavored enough, and bland.

 

[petlvr1064]

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).

Am I the only one who likes SOS? I ask my MIL to make it sometimes!

 

[petlvr1064]

No I love sos it is the definition of comfort food to me

 

[petlvr1064]

Without getting too graphic, what is it made of? I've heard of it on tv and movies but thought it was a joke of some sort, not a real thing.

It is just dried beef that u can get in a can or package like u buy lunch meat in butter flour milk and salt and pepper. U put little butter in a cry pan a put the cutup meat un there and let us cook then add the milk flour and rest of the butter .