Those little things that your mum or dad used to do?

[dragnlaw]

Never heard of Manhattans either - to me they were/are just 'Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches'.

and Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches were always open topped (no bread on top)
but Hot Chicken Sandwiches always had both (top and bottom)
and both always with Peas!

 

[taxlady]

My hot chicken sandwiches are open on top, but I'm rebellious that way.

 

[Jusa]

My hot chicken sandwiches are open on top, but I'm rebellious that way.

My husband likes most sandwiches open faced. I am whatever, either or is fine!

 

[Marlingardener]

My mother billed herself as a good cook. She wasn't.
I learned to cook when I got married, and followed recipes in the one and only recipe book I had. I've evolved and love to cook, have lots of cookbooks, and like to experiment with new recipes.

 

[dr morbius]

My mother was a pretty good cook. She over-relied on recipes, in my opinion, but some of the things she did invent on her own were excellent. To this day I make breaded pork tenderloin almost exactly the way she did (I steam them in the oven, she just baked them at low temperature), I make a pie with pork sausage, onions and mashed potatoes almost exactly the way she did (I use Pillsbury pie dough, she made hers from scratch), and I make her "Macaroni casserole" (pork sausage, mushrooms, tomato soup and tomato sauce, with macaroni) exactly like she did. My green bean casserole and tuna casserole are no different than hers.

But she made fried perch, which I hated then and have never tried to make. She made fried liver with onions. Ugh. For years she made chili with kidney beans. It took years to get her to change that. For years I thought I hated spinach. Actually, I love spinach. I hate canned spinach. She stuck with canned vegetables at least ten years longer than she should have.

I learned a lot about cooking from my mother. When I left home and started cooking for myself and my wife, I learned more.

 

[gerardj]

My parents couldn't cook, pre-made potato pancakes and tinned beans was typical for dinner, or soup poured over a plate of chips with salt and vinegar.

 

[taxlady]

My husband likes most sandwiches open faced. I am whatever, either or is fine!

If someone else is making my hot chicken sandwich, I certainly won't mind a piece of bread on top too. It's when I make hot chicken sandwiches that they don't have that piece of bread on top.

 

[Kathleen]

Never heard of Manhattans either - to me they were/are just 'Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches'.

and Hot Roast Beef Sandwiches were always open topped (no bread on top)
but Hot Chicken Sandwiches always had both (top and bottom)
and both always with Peas!

When making Manhattans, Momma was trying to stretch a meal, so there was always a piece of bread on top and bottom. (She always stretched meals.) She would then place beef between the layers, cut it on a diagonal, and put mashed potatoes in between the two halves before adding gravy over it all. Manhattans looked like this:

 

[dr morbius]

My mother's idea of a Manhattan involved whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. With a maraschino cherry, I think.

 

[Albert2]

she added a layer of béchamel sauce between the pasta and the meat

 

[Aunt Bea]

My mother's idea of a Manhattan involved whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. With a maraschino cherry, I think.

Mine too!

 

[Aunt Bea]

My mother was an excellent cook and she relished the compliments that came from it.

Her only fault, IMO, was that she never was willing to make a full disclosure when it came to sharing her recipes with family and friends.

When she became legally blind in her old age she destroyed all of her recipes and notes rather than pass them on.

The only time my father or stepfather set foot in the kitchen was to make repairs or improvements.

 

[dragnlaw]

I had a "friend" who was like that Aunt Bea - then one day when she was rather ill, her sister came over and found her kitchen full of 'instant' foods. Canned soups for sauces, etc. things like that which she swore she made from scratch!

LOL - we had a good chuckle over that for ages. When she was better, we never let on that we knew. Her cooking was still complimented - mainly because it DID taste good. You would never know they came out of tins and boxes, she could work magic with them.

 

[taxlady]

My mother's idea of a Manhattan involved whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. With a maraschino cherry, I think.

Mine too!

Yup, same in my family.

 

[pepperhead212]

My mother's idea of a Manhattan involved whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters. With a maraschino cherry, I think.

Looks like we have more of us that remember the liquid Manhattan, than a sandwich type. Mom used to buy LARGE jars of maraschino cherries, and I think she put extras in the drinks. She used to save all the jars for me, for storing a lot of things in my pantry.

 

[CharlieD]

My mom is a good cook, even though she doesn't cook anymore. She is in a nursing home. And even though I can ask her advice, I don't. If I do she immediately tells me to bring her home and she would make it for me, and then for the next week she begs me to take her home. Breaks my heart.
But she really was a great cook. She loved cooking, she loved feeding people. She knew all her recipes by heart. She was really quick. And her foods were always excellent. I leaned a lot from her. I always gage my cooking by compering to hers. And it's never good enough for me. And if I am happy with it, then I know it is excellent. But also I cook a lot more ethnic foods. That, she always loves when I make it. And when she praises me, it is the biggest compliment in my book.

 

[taxlady]

Charlie, do you think she might like a visit? Or do you think that might make her more miserable when she had to go back to the nursing home?

 

[CharlieD]

Charlie, do you think she might like a visit? Or do you think that might make her more miserable when she had to go back to the nursing home?

She gets more upset.

 

[Xocolatl]

Cooking was very important in my family growing up, and the heritage I have received is immense. I can only mention a few things here because the list is too long to talk about.

First thing coming to mind for me too is homestyle fried potatoes the way my mother makes them. In the Netherlands fried potatoes are leftover potatoes you fry in a skillet with butter, more commonly known as sauteed potatoes. We'd eat them with garlic and fresh parsley as a final touch, and I've never wanted it any other way. Most Dutch don't season their fried potatoes with anything but salt, and that's so boring to me!

Also worth mentioning is of course my Indonesian heritage coming from my Mom's family line. When there was a party we would be in the kitchen for three days, preparing traditional Indonesian foods and most importantly, putting satay on skewers that would go on the barbecue at the party.
I learned to make my satay sauce from her, Nasi goreng, sajur lodeh, gado gado, sambal goreng tempeh, pisang goreng, karee telor etc etc. A lot. And it's still very important food to me to this day.

My mother also was a very good baker, she's make us mostly homemade cakes and cookies year round. I have shared our family apple oatmeal tart recipe on here before, and there's many more. One of my favorites was a holiday cranberry tart she made, very nice to have around Christmas.

I definitely inherited my fondness for cooking from my mom, and a lot of knowledge. My mom made almost everything herself and I continued that tradtion at my own home these days.

 

[CharlieD]

...

My mother also was a very good baker, she's make us mostly homemade cakes and cookies year round. I have shared our family apple oatmeal tart recipe on here before, and there's many more.

I think you should start sharing All of your mom's recipes. Indonesian foods are so full of interesting flavors. Would be really nice to learn from somebody who knows how to do it right.