Mom's Best Meals

[buckytom]

That's interesting. I never really considered VA a "southern" state.

wow, my bil would have a massive problem with that.

even though he was born and raised in jersey, then served in the navy all over the world, he ended up settling in western virginia and is such a proud southerner that he gets in your face about it at every opportunity. confederate flag displayed at all times, lol.

when my mil passed away and he swallowed his deep, southern pride to come north and slum it with a bunch of yankees, he went a little nuts after he couldn't find a certain nascar race on tv or radio. i teasingly offered to drive him around the block a few hundred times making left turns, and even pull into a gas station to have the tank filled and tires checked by someone else (lol, you can't pump your own gas in jersey) and he went off on me.

anywho, he hasn't been back since. good riddance, but i'm kind of sorry to wish him on decent southern people.

i watched a good show called something like "do you know dixie", and i loved when trace adkins said that florida wasn't really a southern state. it used to he connected up korth, but broke off and floated down and reconnected to georgia. lol.

 

[taxlady]

My mother was an excellent cook. I loved just about everything she cooked. If I went camping or on some other trip, I could hardly wait to get home to her food.

The only thing she couldn't cook properly was liver and onions. Now, a lot of people enjoyed the way she cooked it, but I discovered, as a young adult that liver was an edible food - just don't cook it for an hour. She did make good leverpostej (Danish liver pâté).

One of my favourites was holidays when she would stuff a bird with meatloaf. Oh my, that was good stuff. She thought Yankees were being cheap when they used bread in their stuffing. She also laid an amazing smørbrødsbord / smörgåsbord. It had Danish and Swedish specialties because she was Danish and my dad was Swedish.

 

[buckytom]

i'm curious, taxy, what was in your smorgasbords? or is it smorgasborden?

as a side note, my son recently told me that english was derived from french. i almost hit the ceiling!

i told him that the closest language to english was germanic and latin, with french words sprinkled in.

i can't wait until the next parent/teacher conference day.

 

[Snip 13]

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

I love learning more about everyone on DC
Must say only my mom and gran ever cooked. I took over most of the cooking duties when I was 6.
My dad made use dinner one night and burned down the kitchen "literally"
He put hot oil on the stove for chips and fell asleep in front of the TV. I still remember him waking us all up and running us through the flames in the kitchen
Almost lost the house. He never cooks food without burning something!

Thank you everyone for posting and sharing your lovely memories

 

[CWS4322]

i'm curious, taxy, what was in your smorgasbords? or is it smorgasborden?

as a side note, my son recently told me that english was derived from french. i almost hit the ceiling!

i told him that the closest language to english was germanic and latin, with french words sprinkled in.

i can't wait until the next parent/teacher conference day.

Yes, English is a Endo-germanic language, however, 60% of the words in English are derived from Latin and French. I can't remember the exact % of French off the top of my head. PBS had a great series on the History of the English Language. Not sure if it is on the web site or not. I have a textbook about the History of the English Language (one of the many courses I took in Grad school). I'm not sure in which box it resides...the cookbooks have taken over my bookshelves and the language books have been packed away (except for the ones I use for work...about 50).

English grammar structure is not based on French. I want to say it is closer to Greek and Latin, but I might be confusing that with German grammar. It is early and I haven't had my cup of Snip's Put Hair on Your Chest tea, yet.

 

[taxlady]

i'm curious, taxy, what was in your smorgasbords? or is it smorgasborden?

...

There was a table of mostly stuff to put on sandwiches: fried fish, pickled fish, smoked fish, shrimp, hard boiled eggs (and a slicer), sliced tomatoes & cucumbers, cucumber salad, cold cuts (my mum probably made the Scandinavian ones like "rullepølse" and "sylte" [it's Swedish and sort of like head cheese] and Danish liver pâté [leverpostej]), and cheeses. There might also be something warm, like meatballs. I forgot, of course bread: heavy rye, crisp ryes, Norwegian flat bread, and probably some whole wheat Wonder Bread.

Smörgåsbord is both the singular and the plural. Smörgåsborden is both the singular and plural, but in the definite, i.e., the Smörgåsbord.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

There is a reason I get elected to cook when I go visiting my family...out of 6 people in the family, I am the only one who has any experience with real cooking. My Brother is teachable if all he has to do is run the grill...

 

[GotGarlic]

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

Trust me, mah deah, there are plenty of Virginians who are still unhappy about the Late Unpleasantness I am in the southeast corner near the historic triangle of Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg, and people here are obsessed with the state's history. It's very different from Northern Virginia. Closer to Pa., many people are transplants from other areas who came for government or NGO jobs up there.

To get back on topic, another favorite dish from childhood is my dad's German sausage cooked in sauerkraut with beer - his family is German. Yummy stuff. One of our German exchange students told me his mother makes it with caraway seeds, so I started adding that, too. And Russian teacakes at Christmas were my favorite. I made them for the first time a few years ago and was amazed that they tasted just like my mom's.

 

[CWS4322]

There was a table of mostly stuff to put on sandwiches: fried fish, pickled fish, smoked fish, shrimp, hard boiled eggs (and a slicer), sliced tomatoes & cucumbers, cucumber salad, cold cuts (my mum probably made the Scandinavian ones like "rullepølse" and "sylte" [it's Swedish and sort of like head cheese] and Danish liver pâté [leverpostej]), and cheeses. There might also be something warm, like meatballs. I forgot, of course bread: heavy rye, crisp ryes, Norwegian flat bread, and probably some whole wheat Wonder Bread.

Smörgåsbord is both the singular and the plural. Smörgåsborden is both the singular and plural, but in the definite, i.e., the Smörgåsbord.

Ours has cold dishes--pickled herring, gravlox, (sp), shrimp salad, all kinds of open-faced sandwiches, beet-pickled herring salad and other salads. There have to be 7 different things. The "warm" table usually has meatballs, ham, Jansen's Temptation, roast beef, cabbage rolls, venison roast, and I can't remember what all. There are usually 7 cold "main" dishes and 7 "hot" main dishes and ALWAYS 7 cookies/desserts on the dessert table. It takes a good three hours to eat your way through it.

 

[taxlady]

Ours has cold dishes--pickled herring, gravlox, (sp), shrimp salad, all kinds of open-faced sandwiches, beet-pickled herring salad and other salads. There have to be 7 different things. The "warm" table usually has meatballs, ham, Jansen's Temptation, roast beef, cabbage rolls, venison roast, and I can't remember what all. There are usually 7 cold "main" dishes and 7 "hot" main dishes and ALWAYS 7 cookies/desserts on the dessert table. It takes a good three hours to eat your way through it.

Well, the open-faced sandwiches were made by each person for their own consumption. My mum used to do more hot food, but we never had room to finish it. Of course there was stuff like pickled beets as garnish.

 

[Kylie1969]

My mum also cooks a really good Hoiken Chicken, Steve especially loves it

 

[CWS4322]

Well, the open-faced sandwiches were made by each person for their own consumption. My mum used to do more hot food, but we never had room to finish it. Of course there was stuff like pickled beets as garnish.

When I do the "spread," my brother always wants to know when the Swedish army is arriving...

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Mom made too many yummy things to list them all, but there are two dishes I haven't been able to get close to duplicating. The first was her roasted, cut up chicken. Have never gotten the cooking/seasoning/roasting just right. Must be the falling-on-the-floor part that makes it special. (True story: then-boyfriend's family was over for dinner. When Mom got all the chicken on the platter it shifted, causing quite a few pieces to hit the floor. She looked at his Mom, his Mom said "I take it you washed the floor?" and when Mom answered yes his Mom said "well work quick before someone sees!" and they picked them up. Didn't marry him, but I sure loved his Mom.)

My other favorite but can't copy dish was her beef stew. I have tried every imaginable thing to make it taste the same and have given up. Instead, I make a mean beef Burgundy, and enjoy the fact that my Mom always told me SHE just couldn't make HER pot roast taste like mine.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

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.

My Mom did liver and onions and cooked them in bacon grease. The only way she could get me to eat that danged liver was to bribe me with the bacon. Couldn't have any until I ate my piece of liver. Child Abuse!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

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...

Must be trying to inspire all of you to make your souls as white at the new-driven snow. Or as white as the sauces and whipped cream!

 

[Cooking Goddess]

City chicken. Back then you didn't have a hard time finding them with pork AND veal. The gravy she made was out of this world, only using the water she boiled the potatoes in. Something I can only get close to using broth or stock.

Oh My, I haven't thought of this for ages! Not even sure if I've made them since our (now 32 years old) kids were born. Ohhh, now I have the worst taste for them. Look for them to be a "Dinner...." thread soon.

 

[pacanis]

I think I'll pick some up soon, too, CG.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I keep meaning to ask...what is "City Chicken?"

 

[pacanis]

Pork (and sometimes veal) on a stick.
It's breaded, fried, then baked. I might have a picture around somewhere...
You can make your own, but up here it's often sold already on the skewer.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Thanks!

Never had it.