Mom's Best Meals

[TATTRAT]

Breakfast. Plain and simple. Some of my most "nostalgic" meals are a proper Swedish Pancake, or a buttery homemade waffle. Butter and powdered sugar with fresh sliced fruit, or some macerated berries. Simple and OH SO GOOD!

Now, don't get me wrong, mom made dinner every night I can remember, but breakfast, that was always something special as it wasn't often her schedule permitted being home on a weekend to cook it. As for her dinners, she never, to this day, has made a "bad meal", just some I enjoy more than others.

 

[Snip 13]

My kids love a good cooked breakfast too I don't often have time to make it since they leave for school at 6 am.
My mom was only home about 2 weeks of every month so my gran made most of our meals. She made the best breakfast. Even her porridge tasted better. She cooked it slowly for ages I miss that!

 

[buckytom]

i think having a good breakfast cooked for children is just slightly more important than having a family dinner together.

it sets a tone for the day which is so important once life's real troubles begin in life.

if you wake up happy, you have a chance. if you wake up crappy, you deserve what you get.

 

[CWS4322]

i don't think so. norwegians don't use a lot of spices, save maybe s&p. they like very white food. it matches the environment, lol.

Snip--we also call that "snow blindness." A Lutheran Church supper in Northern MN typically included many foods covered with white sauce or whipped cream (lutefisk, scalloped potatoes, orange jello with bananas on the bottom and a layer of whipped cream on top)...oh, the whiteness of a Lutheran Church supper spread...

 

[MrsLMB]

My Mom wasn't a great cook but she had a way of convincing us kids that something was very good and very special.

Dad worked nights so it was my 2 sisters, Mom and me for dinners most evenings.

She made a tuna casserole that most would be grossed out by but to this day I love it and make it when I need a "comfort food." She did make excellent liver and onions and convinced the 3 of us that it was very tasty .. still love liver and onions. Then there were the toasted tomato sandwiches ... another good job convincing us it was tasty. All cheap meals and still on my favorites list today.

 

[Snip 13]

My Mom wasn't a great cook but she had a way of convincing us kids that something was very good and very special.

Dad worked nights so it was my 2 sisters, Mom and me for dinners most evenings.

She made a tuna casserole that most would be grossed out by but to this day I love it and make it when I need a "comfort food." She did make excellent liver and onions and convinced the 3 of us that it was very tasty .. still love liver and onions. Then there were the toasted tomato sandwiches ... another good job convincing us it was tasty. All cheap meals and still on my favorites list today.

I love liver and onions! My mom only used lambs liver and made the most amazing gravy with the cooking juices

Think I should make some liver and onions with mash over the weekend. You've got me drooling!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I love liver and onions! My mom only used lambs liver and made the most amazing gravy with the cooking juices

Think I should make some liver and onions with mash over the weekend. You've got me drooling!

We had calves liver once a week with a few crispy rashers of bacon, fried onions and mashed.

We used to have a local saloon that had it on the menu but, they finally discontinued it.

I think I will see if I can find some this weekend!

We can have a world wide liver fest!

 

[Snip 13]

We had calves liver once a week with a few crispy rashers of bacon, fried onions and mashed.

We used to have a local saloon that had it on the menu but, they finally discontinued it.

I think I will see if I can find some this weekend!

We can have a world wide liver fest!

Count me in! I love liver Chicken, beef or lamb!
You should try making skilpadtjies. I think you'll like them. I've got my recipe under my threads on my profile here.
It's minced liver and stuff wrapped in caul fat

 

[pacanis]

I love calve's liver. My mother didn't do the whole liver & onions thing though. She simply floured it and cooked it in bacon grease. I couldn't even tell you what the sides were it was so long ago. Probably mashed potatoes and butter for me.

 

[Cerise]

My Hungarian grandmother was a fantastic cook. All her recipes were in her head, she never wrote anything down, & made everything from scratch. She probably emigrated to the U.S. during the 20s, as well. She would tell me stories of how she dressed as a boy & travelled underground to escape from Hungary. My mother worked full time & supported my brother & I, so dishes were usually quick, i.e. meatloaf, mashed potatoes and canned vegetables. My grandmother always had all four burners going, & made feasts for the whole family on Sunday. She even travelled on the Subway in New York with shopping bags filled with homemade food. Some I remember, were her liver & potato knishes, stuffed cabbage, homemade chicken soup w/ matzo balls, chopped liver, & on and on. My mother was very creative with what little she had.

 

[Snip 13]

I just love all those peasant style dishes and the meals made with what was available Simple is always best!

 

[Addie]

A lot of those dishes, that weren't from the old country, came out of the depression.

For me, it was anything from the sea. She could make a complete meal with leftovers with what we kids found on the beach in the summer. We brought home clams, crabs, mussels, razor clams, and even lobsters after a Nor'easter. Fish was real cheap then. And the fish pier was located within walking distance of our home. So my mother would send me down there to get the biggest Cod or Haddock I could find. She could make the best fish stew. She made the fish stock from the fish frame after she had filleted it. Joe Pushcart was just a couple of doors away. So that was another errand I had to run for the potatoes and other veggies for the stew. She had polio as a child, so I did all the errands. Stairs were difficult for her. It was from her that I learned to cook all my meals from scratch. I have always found packaged foods just too salty. Yet I still make on a rare occasion for myself, creamed salted Cod with peas over mashed potatoes. My second husband used to salt a filleted Cod up in the rigging for me every so often.

 

[Cerise]

I don't know about peasant or simple. My grandma walked 5 blocks to the supermarket, then to a Kosher butcher, & 5 blocks back home. Cooking went on all day. I was born and raised, lived in & worked in New York City. I vaguely remember my grandma taking me to Essex Street Market on the lower east side, & the fulton fish market (I think it was in NYC back then).

Essex Street Market: About the Market.

We used to make New York City Egg Creams at home, after my mother bought a gadget that made carbonated water. It consisted of, Bosco chocolate syrup, seltzer & milk.

Grandma also made kreplach & rugalach. The dough was all made from scratch. I would help her roll the cookies.

Again, too many dishes to remember.

 

[CWS4322]

My maternal grandmother was a fantastic cook and baker. Nothing fancy, but everything was always good (she didn't use balsamic vinegar or any of those other things we just can't imagine not having in the pantry), but everything she made was wonderful--even those little canned potatoes that she would cover with velveeta cheese and bake in the oven--as a child, that was my FAVORITE dish and she always made it when I came to visit. My mom, on the other hand, would open the fridge when she got home from work and cry "what are we eating!" even though she had a 7-day meal rotation (if it's Monday, it must be spaghetti--I had a dog I took to obedience classes on Mondays--the dog would go and grab her leash when we sat down to eat--even the dog knew if it was spaghetti, it must be Monday). I used to spend a week with my grandma every summer from the time I was about 8/9. The first thing she taught me how to make was pie crust...the next was bread...the next was lefse. She taught me how to "feel" the dough to know it was right. I think the "cooking gene" skips a generation...

In my mother's moments of lucidity (which she does have with her dementia), she will often say "I'm so glad I don't have to cook anymore. I HATE cooking."

 

[Kylie1969]

I love my mums veal parmigiana and french onions potatoes, they are to die for!

 

[GotGarlic]

Snip--we also call that "snow blindness." A Lutheran Church supper in Northern MN typically included many foods covered with white sauce or whipped cream (lutefisk, scalloped potatoes, orange jello with bananas on the bottom and a layer of whipped cream on top)...oh, the whiteness of a Lutheran Church supper spread...

Too funny. A typical Southern potluck is a rainbow of food - sliced tomatoes, corn pudding, smoked ham with biscuits, pimento cheese sandwiches, sautéed greens, deviled eggs, and brownies. Yum.

 

[pacanis]

Too funny. A typical Southern potluck is a rainbow of food - sliced tomatoes, corn pudding, smoked ham with biscuits, pimento cheese sandwiches, sautéed greens, deviled eggs, and brownies. Yum.

That's interesting. I never really considered VA a "southern" state. Sure, I know their history, but I guess PA being so close to VA I never considered them part of "the south".
I don't consider being in the south until I get to the bottom of North Carolina or through TN... but that's me.

Not that y'all can't cook Southern potlucks

 

[Kayelle]

What an interesting thread! Thanks Snip and everyone for the insights.

Actually, my Dad was the better cook in the household and this post and recipe might be something many of you want to try......
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f49/down-memory-lane-german-stew-recipe-80801.html

 

[Kylie1969]

We also love mums Apricot Cheesecake...gee it is good!

 

[buckytom]

We used to make New York City Egg Creams at home, after my mother bought a gadget that made carbonated water. It consisted of, Bosco chocolate syrup, seltzer & milk.
.

did you mean foxes u-bet syrup, m? or bosco.

bosco and hershey's (back then) were just as good, imo. but a lot of purists say it has to be foxes.