As I look back and think real hard, my all time favorite kid foods were in this order:
1. Pancakes with real Maple syrup
2. Home-made waffles with real Maple Syrup
3.Grilled Cheese sandwiches made with Velveeta
4. Poached eggs from my Grandpa's egg-poaching pan and the cups filled with butter before dropping in the egg, served on top of toast.
5. French Toast made with sugar and cinnamon in the egg mixture.
6. Any kind of pizza, even Chef Boyardee kits, as long as pepperoni slices were added.
I'll stop there. But I had to make pancakes number 1. My Dad made them with Aunt Jemima mix. They weren't as light and fluffy as I made them. I loved them anyway. I'd sit down and eat a stack of eight or so. My dad also lilked to fry up some breadfast sausage patties on the side, and spoon some of the sausage grease over top of the pancakes. Neither he, nor I have ever had problems with cholesterol. In fact, pork fat has less bad cholesterol than does real butter. Sometimes, dear-old Dad would add drained, canned corn to the batter. He'd then call them corn fritters.
Oh, and did I mention his goulash? This wasn't the true Hungarian dish, but rather was a combination of either elbo-macaroni, or rotini pasta, with a sauce that included ground beef, mushrooms, diced onion, tomato sauce, garlic, diced green peppers, and a bit of Itallian Spice mix. Of course I make my sauces with seperate herbs and spices. But I gotta tell ya. That goulash was some good stuff.
My Dad, could cook up a storm. The only thing he messed up was pork-chops. Like many in his generation, he believed in overcooking pork to kill any nasty microbes or parasites.
My Mom was an equally good cook, but did it so infrequently. But she couldn't make a steak tender to save her life. Other than that, she could cook anything.
My Grandpa, on my Dad's side, was a great cook as well. His specialty was cooking up a mess of pan-sized trout, or smelt, or whatever fish we had to fry up. But he was no slouch with a Thanksgiving dinner either.
Coming from such a family, I guess it was jsut a natural thing for me to start cooking at the tender age of about 7. My first dish, why pancakes of course. My teacher, my Dad.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North