Your Mom's Worst Meals...

[MIGrandma]

My mother did not inherit my grandmother's cooking talents. My paternal grandmother was an excellent cook too. But not my Mom. The worst thing I remember was her macaroni and cheese. She would boil the macaroni (elbow) then throw some of it in the bottom of a casserole dish. Then she would cut up slices of cheddar cheese and put them on top, more macaroni on top of that, more cheese chunks, and then douse it all with milk. Blech. After it baked some of it was cheesy and some was just plain macaroni.

She also made potato soup sometimes and it was very watery. I remember her meatloaf was okay.

I basically grew up on Chef Boyardee though (ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs, spaghetii-o's, etc.).

 

[Kitty 34]

Wasn't a fan of Mom's meat loaf or any of her soups/stews. The ingredients always seemed to be anything she wanted out of the fridge!!!

 

[daannzzz]

We were on a tight budget, not that I knew that at the time, so we sometimes got things like creamed tuna on toast (which I still like) as well as hamburger pie (Ground beef with tomato soup and peas in a casserole dish with mashed potatoes on top). Just because I hate peas and mashed potatoes didn't mean she couldn't cook. My Mom also had issues with the pork chops. We got the super thin budget pork chops which curled up, and dried up, when cooked. Served with apple sauce they were palatable I suppose but I never wanted pork chops until... I was in my my 20's in a restaurant and had one ( I have no idea why I would have ordered it) that was about 5 times as thick as the ones we grew up on, and cooked to perfection. These are as good as a great filet mignon for me. Mom also used to cook the vegetables to death.I think that is how Dad likes them but I didn't know how good they could be until dining out and a nice place and they were al dente. Mom is a very picky eater so most of what she cooked was seasoned minimally. Her spaghetti sauce is hamburger, salt, pepper, a little Italian seasoning and tomato sauce and paste. I still like that sometimes but appreciate all kinds of recipes for spaghetti sauce. mom and Dad are in their mid to late 80's and have moved in with my sisters but she still cooks. Burns stuff more often and mis-seasons things but I still enjoy some of her cooking. Oh and I love her meatloaf!

 

[DizBelle]

I don't remember what it tasted like (or if I even ate it) but I remember my mother baking a chicken with this glaze on it that was made from Heinz 57 sauce and honey. I bet the recipe is still on the back of the bottle. I thought it smelled AWFUL. It stunk up the whole house.

 

[luvsJack]

We were on a tight budget, not that I knew that at the time, so we sometimes got things like creamed tuna on toast (which I still like) as well as hamburger pie (Ground beef with tomato soup and peas in a casserole dish with mashed potatoes on top). Just because I hate peas and mashed potatoes didn't mean she couldn't cook. My Mom also had issues with the pork chops. We got the super thin budget pork chops which curled up, and dried up, when cooked. Served with apple sauce they were palatable I suppose but I never wanted pork chops until... I was in my my 20's in a restaurant and had one ( I have no idea why I would have ordered it) that was about 5 times as thick as the ones we grew up on, and cooked to perfection. These are as good as a great filet mignon for me. Mom also used to cook the vegetables to death.I think that is how Dad likes them but I didn't know how good they could be until dining out and a nice place and they were al dente. Mom is a very picky eater so most of what she cooked was seasoned minimally. Her spaghetti sauce is hamburger, salt, pepper, a little Italian seasoning and tomato sauce and paste. I still like that sometimes but appreciate all kinds of recipes for spaghetti sauce. mom and Dad are in their mid to late 80's and have moved in with my sisters but she still cooks. Burns stuff more often and mis-seasons things but I still enjoy some of her cooking. Oh and I love her meatloaf!

I wonder if the pork chop thing was just a sign of the times?

I do remember Mom baking them to death but not so much when she fried them. And dad was her butcher so we would have these thick chops and some fat still on them. Mom would dip them in egg/milk and then in seasoned flour and fry and they were so very good and tender.

But for some reason when she baked them, she would use the thin chops and they would end up all hard and leathery

We had the casserole you describe except it was green beans not peas and it had cheese on top of the potatoes. Not bad really. But I like anything that is tomatoey and has any cheese.

 

[daannzzz]

My Dad didn't cook hardly at all but when he did it was very methodical, much like when he built things in the garage. he laid out all the ingredients and tools ahead of time. He did the BBQ but ocassionally would find some recipe he wanted thta no one else int he hosue was interested in. One was called Pot au Feu which had a pot with a roast, a chicken, sausage, vegetables and other stuff. It stunk up the house and no one but him and his brother liked it. Now when I look back on it it seems fairly benign but the memories of trying to eat it are still here.

 

[toystory1130]

Deer smothered in tomato sauce...so gross! I could smell it as soon as I walked in and she tried to tell me it was beef so I would eat it. (but the smell gave it away)

 

[Diznygrl]

My mom is a pretty good cook, but for some things I just don't know what she's thinking. For example, her idea of macaroni and cheese is to boil the macaroni, put some cut up Kraft Singles slices on top, add a little bit of milk and stir it all together. Blech.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

My mom is a pretty good cook, but there were two casseroles that she made weekly growing up. We had them so often we came to HATE them. The first was a mock lasagna type dish called Hamburger Cheese Bake. It had egg noodles, hamburger, tomato sauce, green peppers and cottage cheese in it. I hate green peppers and this combination was totally disgusting.

The other dish was the hamburger and tater tot casserole with cream of mushroom soup and cheddar cheese. I actually make this now and my whole family lovers it. My mom just made it waaaaay too often. It was years before I could even look at a tater tot!

 

[LBIJim]

My mom is a pretty good cook, but for some things I just don't know what she's thinking. For example, her idea of macaroni and cheese is to boil the macaroni, put some cut up Kraft Singles slices on top, add a little bit of milk and stir it all together. Blech.

It was still probably better than this:

 

[Kimberlyann11]

My mother did not inherit my grandmother's cooking talents. My paternal grandmother was an excellent cook too. But not my Mom. The worst thing I remember was her macaroni and cheese. She would boil the macaroni (elbow) then throw some of it in the bottom of a casserole dish. Then she would cut up slices of cheddar cheese and put them on top, more macaroni on top of that, more cheese chunks, and then douse it all with milk. Blech. After it baked some of it was cheesy and some was just plain macaroni.

She also made potato soup sometimes and it was very watery. I remember her meatloaf was okay.

I basically grew up on Chef Boyardee though (ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs, spaghetii-o's, etc.).

My mom does that same nasty mac and cheese. Everyone in the family loves it but me. My sister claims she uses the same recipe and people gush over it. She claims. The milk makes some kind of gross chunks on the bottom. Makes me hurl.

 

[Jaya]

I grew up thinking I hated Italian food, because my mother made the worst spaghetti sauce known to mankind. I think she had a container of oregano that she had inherited from her mother - lol. Spaghetti sauce was a can of tomato paste with a huge amount of dried oregano mixed with greasy hamburger. All you could taste was oregano and grease. I was in my teens before I found out how good Italian food could be.

 

[barkley]

I grew up thinking I hated Italian food, because my mother made the worst spaghetti sauce known to mankind. I think she had a container of oregano that she had inherited from her mother - lol. Spaghetti sauce was a can of tomato paste with a huge amount of dried oregano mixed with greasy hamburger. All you could taste was oregano and grease. I was in my teens before I found out how good Italian food could be.

your mom must have learned from the same cookbook as a former boyfriend's mom-the only difference in the spaghetti sauce was instead of tomato paste she used undiluted Campbell's tomato soup, and never put any oil in the pasta that she always overcooked.

 

[maxaroni]

OP back...thanks for replying. It should make us wonder what our kids are saying about OUR cooking.

My mother made great Polish foods: pierogis, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa and sauerkraut, etc. It's "American" foods that were the problem. And as for other ethnic foods, Chinese was the LaChoy stuff. Two cans (naturally) taped together, one with the slimy mucilagenous vegetable slop, the other with the greasy crispy noodles. Or they had frozen bags of Chung King that you boiled, cut open, and poured onto the plate.

Pizza was the Chef Boy R Dee boxed mix. No added mozarella, just the grated parmesean that came with it. There used to be another brand, too. Appian Way?

She did make a great spaghetti sauce, however. But my father liked the spaghetti boiled into mushiness.

OMG! My MIL invited us for Chinese many years ago. It was the La Choy gook. My parents like mushy spaghetti and veggies. Thank God no canned veggies. My moms spaghetti sauce was Spatini or something like that. Dry spices in a packet. It was watery and burned my lips.

My dad had his own business so worked late. Mom would wait to eat with him. When I was young, mom would feed me early....hormel hash which I hated or Kraft Mac and cheese with ketchup. Yuck.

I had my share of the tough, leathery pork chops as well.

 

[maxaroni]

My mother did not inherit my grandmother's cooking talents. My paternal grandmother was an excellent cook too. But not my Mom. The worst thing I remember was her macaroni and cheese. She would boil the macaroni (elbow) then throw some of it in the bottom of a casserole dish. Then she would cut up slices of cheddar cheese and put them on top, more macaroni on top of that, more cheese chunks, and then douse it all with milk. Blech. After it baked some of it was cheesy and some was just plain macaroni.

She also made potato soup sometimes and it was very watery. I remember her meatloaf was okay.

I basically grew up on Chef Boyardee though (ravioli, spaghetti & meatballs, spaghetii-o's, etc.).

My MIL made Mac and cheese the same way, however, hers was always very milky. Blech

 

[maxaroni]

My mom was a fairly good cook. She loved to try new recipes but dad was always more of a meat and potatoes guy. He'd be afraid to say he liked something for fear of getting it in abundance. My grandmother was an excellent cook, no problems at all.

It was my MIL that takes the prize. All canned veggies cooked to death. Her tuna noodle casserole was dry with 3 cans of Veg All veggies. Blech

 

[mrsheppo]

A Spam casserole. It was a layer of saltine crackers topped with slices of Spam with raw scrambled eggs poured over the top and baked until the eggs were cooked and then topped with catsup.

 

[AKpooh]

I guess I am really lucky that I grew up with good cooks on both sides of the family. my mother is good at something likes her meatloaf and my dad is better at other things. I was the picky one if the family but have grown out of a lot of it. I am grateful that my mom or grandma always made sure if I would eat what was fixed there was something there for me to eat.

 

[ronandannette]

A Spam casserole. It was a layer of saltine crackers topped with slices of Spam with raw scrambled eggs poured over the top and baked until the eggs were cooked and then topped with catsup.

^Winner - or loser, as it were. This sounds mind-bogglingly bad. My condolences.

OP back...thanks for replying. It should make us wonder what our kids are saying about OUR cooking.

My mother made great Polish foods: pierogis, stuffed cabbage, kielbasa and sauerkraut, etc. It's "American" foods that were the problem. And as for other ethnic foods, Chinese was the LaChoy stuff. Two cans (naturally) taped together, one with the slimy mucilagenous vegetable slop, the other with the greasy crispy noodles. Or they had frozen bags of Chung King that you boiled, cut open, and poured onto the plate.

Pizza was the Chef Boy R Dee boxed mix. No added mozarella, just the grated parmesean that came with it. There used to be another brand, too. Appian Way?

She did make a great spaghetti sauce, however. But my father liked the spaghetti boiled into mushiness.

Funny you should say that because that thought has crossed my mind before. I'm considered to be an excellent cook and I really enjoy nurturing people through food. My kid? Practically since birth he's preferred cold cereal or a frozen burrito to anything I put on. As a child he would tolerate home baking, but not much of it. Seriously - what kid doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? Now as a young adult, I've basically stopped feeding him at all - he "scrounges" most of his meals (crackers, peanut butter & fruit, canned soup or whatever) on his own and rarely takes a serving of anything DH and I are having (unless of course it's take-out of some kind). It's actually kinda hurtful.

Jim - thanks for the pizza memories! I loved that boxed pizza . Even getting to sprinkle on that little packet of parmesan was exciting! I was probably 10 or so before I ever had a "real" pizza.

 

[FLSarah]

A Spam casserole. It was a layer of saltine crackers topped with slices of Spam with raw scrambled eggs poured over the top and baked until the eggs were cooked and then topped with catsup.

This made me actually gag. Ick!