Memories Of Our Dads

[JoAnn L.]

Did your dad cook a meal that was your favorite? On Sunday before Mass dad would put a beef roast in the oven. When we got home he would make mashed potatoes and then he made a plain lettuce salad, but the way he cut the vegetables into small pieces, it made it so special. Dad was a very gentle and kind man. I could talk to him and he would really listen. I miss him very much.

 

[middie]

Yes he used to make steak on the grill with beer poure onto it lol.
He also made me potato soup which he knew I loved. Especially
if I went to visit him during the winter time. I'd walk in and the soup
was ready. It's only been a little over 3 months since I lost him and
I'm still in shock. I feel lonely, empty, and abandoned. Still having a
very hard time. It's even worse when I pick up the phone to call him
which I still do from time to time.

 

[Chef_Jen]

My dad was a pastry chef.. he made Cupcakes for school we had a cupcake day and all the teachers would buy my dads as they had 3D characters made out of gel icing on top... parents were asked to make a dozen every other week

LOL my dad ended up having to make 6-7 dz each week

Im fortunate to still have my dad.. and whenever we do get togheter we try to bake a cake.. its how we communicate.

 

[txoldshirley]

My dad was the greatest. He wasn't a cook, but he built a bbq pit out of brick with great smoking capabilities and mom always did the bbq with homemade sauce. I always baked a dessert for my dad (almost every day) when I was a kid. I miss my dad too. He's been gone since November 1993. He was my best friend--I miss my friend.

 

[licia]

My dd didn't do much cooking but a few things he did very simply. I remember when I was 5 years old and got a new baby sister, he let me stand in a chair and wash dishes while he dried them. I think I played in the water more than washed the dishes and he had to mop the floor when I finished, but I felt like I was really something. I am the oldest in my family and dad was always my biggest fan in whatever I did. At my recitals, he clapped the loudest and when my report card came home, he was always proud of me. He has been gone 16 years next month and I still miss him. My sister and I were priviledged to take care of him the last months of his life and he knew how much we loved him.

 

[bethzaring]

My dd didn't do ANY cooking, come to think of it, neither does the DH . My dad was the kindest, gentlest person I ever knew, he has been gone over 18 years now, and I think of him every day, it just doesn't ever get any easier, does it?

 

[pdswife]

Do you guys know how very very lucky you are?

 

[ChefJune]

My Dad was not a cook in any real sense of the word, but man oh man, did he enjoy a great meal, and didn't hesitate to compliment the cook! It really made you want to do it all over again!

He did make 3 or 4 things... Herring with Sour Cream, Cocktail Sauce and Thousand Island Dressing (the only salad dressing he would eat -- on a wedge of iceberg! ) When I wrote my cookbook, I included the salad dressing AND the cocktail sauce. He was surprised, but he really liked that.

Middie, I understand.... I talked to my Dad every day for the last year and a half of his life, including the night before he died. It was a long time before I stopped picking up the phone every night at 9 to call him.... He died 4 years ago next month, just 11 months after my mom.

 

[amber]

Oh my favorite was my dads clam chowdah and clam cakes. Wish I had his recipe, it was so delicious. That was about all he cooked, my mom was the cook of the family. Sadly both are gone now, but the smell of their delicious meals lives on

 

[Loprraine]

I got up every morning at 5 with my Dad. I'd watch him make his coffee ( boiled in a pot gack),. It was my job to get his lunch bucket out of the fridge. We would sit there as he drank his coffee, me my milk, and I'd send him on his way. He could fry eggs, but not much else. Gawd I miss him.

 

[Andy M.]

My dad was a chef. He owned and ran a diner type restaurant and, later ran a chain of inplant cafeterias. He didn't cook much at home except for shish kebab on the grill. He didn't have to, Mom was a great cook.

He used to dictate recipes for the cafeterias to me and I would type them onto notebook paper for him on an old protable typewriter.

He died when I was 16.

 

[VeraBlue]

My dad, who recently retired to Florida always worked two jobs, and then spent the entire weekend working around the house. However, he loved to make breakfast on Saturday morning. (Sunday was always breakfast from the bakery after church). His specialty was pancakes. He used the Aunt Jemima mix and blended it in the blender. ( I shudder at how he overworked those glutens, but that's another post, I suppose) Then, he'd pour that thin thin thin batter onto the hot grill in the most amazing shapes...hearts, airplanes, mickey mouse heads! We'd eat them up like crazy. He did the same for my kids when they were little.

 

[JoAnn L.]

Thank you so much

I can't tell you all how much your sharing your memories about your dads has meant to me. I am sitting here with tears in my eyes, but they are heart warming tears. Bless you all. JoAnn

 

[wasabi]

I still have my sweet dad with me, God Bless him. With three daughters, he was a very strict Puerto Rican father, but he has mellowed so much thru the years. He never was one to cook, but my memories of him in the kitchen is of mornings before school. My mom was off to work before he was so he would make cocoa and peanut butter sandwiches or oatmeal for my sister and I, and we would sit at the kitchen table listening to his favorite morning radio show. (those were the days before tv).

 

[Lynan]

My dad died this past May so it is still a grieving time for me right now.

He was not particularly fussy with food as we were growing up..my mum was such a wonderful cook that he was happy to eat whatever she put in front of him. But......he made Cucumber Relish every year. Now this was a time to dread as he messed the kitchen up so bad that mum took a week to get it shipshape again! He would have sticky relishy gunk on every cupboard door, on the floor, window ledges you name it, it was sticky.
Dad often used to cook our Sunday roast, and until the day he left to go astral travelling, he ate every seasonal vegetable at the time, always steamed, with a roast. I once counted 11 different vegetables in the steamers.

Also in these past few years, he took up preserving and baking. Banana Cake and Date Loaf were his specialties. He hardly ever ate them himself, they were given away. His jams and marmalades...well....lets just say a drop of pectin would not have gone amiss lolol. He loved cooking in his final years and that was wonderful to see.

 

[expatgirl]

My Dad was the greatest---when our mother was dying of breast cancer at age 30 he made sure that the four of us (ages 9,8,6,3) were dressed, fed, did our homework, tucked in at night and there to hold us when she finally passed away. Then when dear old Uncle Sam decided that he had to go to Viet Nam anyway, despite this tragedy, no kidding, he remarried and off he went. Luckily, he made it through Viet Nam and went on to be awarded the Silver Star for much bravery under the line of fire---his favorite recipe to cook for us was to take hot dogs, slice them longwise, insert cheese, and wrap in bacon and grill. OMG were they to die for. I miss him. If your dads are alive today let them know how much you love and appreciate them--you'll make their day!!

 

[kadesma]

My dad,
he and I were always like two peas in a pod.I remember he hate to go out to dinner, but did he ever love good food. He didn't cook often, but at times would lend a hand if mom was not feeling well or busy. I remember the hamburgers that he made. They had to be cooked in a cast iron skillet with only salt in the bottom, thick, juicy, med rare, then put on a toasted and buttered bun and he would provide us with cheese, sliced tomato, sliced onion the works to put on it. On fridays he loved creamed tuna on toast, my mom hated it and I wasn't nuts about it, but that was dinner He made the best soup,he loved oysters as did I so he'd get fresh ones, put them in half and half with some butter, salt and pepper and a shot of worchestershire, and pass oyster crackers and the two of us just pigged out. But, the recipe I loved most was the one for his pinto beans. I still make those as even my kids and the grandkids love them too.
Sometime I'll relate the story of the turkey dressing and the 20 or so herbs he got me to make We expect them to always be strong and at arms length, and then they are gone and we feel that ache in our hearts forever.

kadesma

 

[expatgirl]

That's our Dads--aches in the hearts! Moms, too!!

 

[TATTRAT]

All i remember of my pops was when he would make me pb and j's, all on one piece of bread, and he would wipe the knife off on top of the folded bread. Sounds silly, but I didn't talk to my dad for almost 12 years and that is one of the ONLY food memories I have of him. He is now, one of my best friends, and I create the food memories.

 

[kyles]

I still have my dad. I grew up in Australia and my dad was from Yorkshire.

He weaned me on lamb's brains. He used to make lambs fry (liver) and bacon in a thick gravy. He would make mince and Yorkshire Pudding on a monday, using up last nights roast meat. When we grew older he would make a dry Sri lankan curry with the left over meat.

He made the best chips ever, his parents owned a Yorkshire Chippy, so he knew just how to do them right.

Now my dad struggles to make a sandwich, he can't remember the curries anymore...........

But I won't ever forget. he taught me how to use everything and let nothing go to waste.

Oh and there's nothing black pepper and worcestershire sauce can't fix!!!