RPCookin
Executive Chef
Mom was a decent home cook. She was mostly self taught, and lot of it from The Joy of Cooking. She was not very adventurous, but then I'm not really either, so I guess I get that from her. One of my absolute favorite summer foods was her tuna fish salad - not sandwich spread tuna but made with Creamettes brand small rings pasta (anellini), tuna, celery, onion, green peas, Miracle Whip, a squirt of ketchup and about 1/2 tsp of horseradish. After we moved to Montana when I was in high school, we couldn't get Creamettes brand pasta any more, so she starting using small shells instead, but it really wasn't the same.
I make her salad myself and now I have the luxury of ordering the proper ring pasta from Amazon, so it has the right texture and density and proportion of pasta like it did 60 years ago in Minnesota. Eating tuna salad for lunch can still transport me back to our lake cabin in Wisconsin, even though I'm 100 miles and 60 years removed from it.
Really miss her roast pork and roast leg of lamb, always with mashed or roasted potatoes, and gravy made from the drippings. When I make it myself, I know that it isn't really any different from hers, but I guess it's just missing the Mom factor.
Absolute dislikes? I'll join the lima bean rejection group, but I'll add that I'm not a big bean person anyway, except for green beans. I also don't do liver or most offal (Rocky Mountain oysters are quite tasty), and have never liked sauerkraut since they cooked wieners in it in the school cafeteria, thereby ruining a perfectly good wiener.
A more modern dislike is soybeans (edamame) - don't see any redeeming qualities in that.
I make her salad myself and now I have the luxury of ordering the proper ring pasta from Amazon, so it has the right texture and density and proportion of pasta like it did 60 years ago in Minnesota. Eating tuna salad for lunch can still transport me back to our lake cabin in Wisconsin, even though I'm 100 miles and 60 years removed from it.
Really miss her roast pork and roast leg of lamb, always with mashed or roasted potatoes, and gravy made from the drippings. When I make it myself, I know that it isn't really any different from hers, but I guess it's just missing the Mom factor.
Absolute dislikes? I'll join the lima bean rejection group, but I'll add that I'm not a big bean person anyway, except for green beans. I also don't do liver or most offal (Rocky Mountain oysters are quite tasty), and have never liked sauerkraut since they cooked wieners in it in the school cafeteria, thereby ruining a perfectly good wiener.
A more modern dislike is soybeans (edamame) - don't see any redeeming qualities in that.
