What is something that your Mother/Father used to cook for the family when you were a kid that you remember with particular relish?

Chicken soup with kneidlach (matzoh balls)

and roast beef with pan-roasted potatoes

Two things come to mind that my mom would make. Tuna casserole and salmon patties. Om nom nom.
She also makes a pretty awesome grilled cheese sandwich and when I go home to visit, all I have to do is ask and she makes me one. * smiles *

My dad didn’t cook often, but every once in a while he would make some epic chili.

Fried chicken with rice and cream gravy. I don’t eat that these days.

Not much. Neither one were any good at cooking, but my Daddy used to make this awesome salad dressing. I can’t even remember what it tasted like – it’s been about 18 years since I’ve had it – but it was friggin’ good stuff.

I guess my mother’s fried chicken. And her amazing mashed potatoes. How do you get that potato taste? Mine taste bland. She’d hand me the beater bars to lick on and I couldn’t believe how good those potatoes tasted. Maybe she used a lot of butter.

Beater bars?? Those are on vacuum cleaners. Mixer thingies.

My mother used to make buttermilk fudge, she doesn’t make it anymore. Dad makes great liver and onions.

My dad made “special hamburgers”. They were made with ice water, bread crumbs and some spices that I won’t name. He would get them to a barely held together consistency, then broiled them on both sides, reduced the oven heat to 350, and baked for another five to ten minutes. he soaked the buns in the juices, and we ate them with just salt and pepper. The juice would shoot straight up out of where you took a bite and they were amazingly delicious. I can make them, and people always drool over them, but I feel they are a pale imitation compared to what my dad made.

@GrumpyGram Buy your potatoes directly from the local farmer. Those grocery store potatoes are nothing like the ones that used to be in the stores, you can only find them at your farmer’s market, or grow your own.

I’m going with her deep fried herbed chicken, with dressing and baked apples.

daddio always made the most delicious fried breaded chicken cutlets with white sliced potatoes fried in butter with onions, paprika, salt and pepper.

Mom made these incredible “Applesauce Raisin Cookies”.
My wife has come very close to duplicating these morsels. But….

Honestly everything my mother cooked was delicious. Even today at 90 years old, that woman can still cook her arse off. From cakes and pies to the best fried chicken and everything in between. Now for my favorite when I was younger (and we were poor) she use to cook kidneys and gravy with rice and biscuits. Its hard to find kidneys these days, but when I do I pick some up so that she can fix me some.

My dad used to make the best pork roast with mashed potatoes. It was one of the few things he cooked that I absolutely loved. I’d request it whenever I was home from college, and he’d happily oblige. His other specialties were overcooked burgers and steaks well-done. I was married before I realized I actually LIKED hamburgers and steak.

As for my mom, she made fantastic sausage gravy and biscuits. It’s really simple, and I sometimes make it for holiday breakfasts. She also made the best Thanksgiving stuffing. She used the turkey giblets in the stuffing, and it was always soooooo delicious. We never host Thanksgiving, but I buy a turkey and cook it just to make that stuffing to go along with it.

My other childhood favorites were my grandma’s french toast and my great grandma’s chicken and noodles. One day I found out the noodles were just bagged egg noodles and the chicken was from a can. That was a bit of a sad moment, because up until then I’d been convinced she made it all from scratch. I was ten. She passed away when I was twelve, but I still have fond memories of the long drive to her apartment, looking forward to that chicken and noodles!

My mother made great cakes when I was a kid. As she’s gotten older they’ve changed from great to strange.

Nobody can cook a steak better than my dad and my mom’s cheese cake is to die for!

When I was a kid, and after my mother had left, there were times when my dad just didn’t feel like putting something together so he’d make shit on a shingle. Even though it’s not gourmet food, I sometimes get a hankering for it. He won’t make it anymore, though. Probably because it’s getting harder to find chipped beef in a few places.

@mrentropy LMAO! thanks, I’ve heard that phrase before but I never knew what it refered to.

My father made only one thing: extraordinarily delicious scrambled eggs – first cooking bacon, putting that aside when it was done, then scrambling the eggs in the same pan without draining out any of the bacon grease. I’m surprised we didn’t all die.

Absolutely not. And its a shame, too. Neither of my parents were very “parental”. I don’t really have any of these special memories of either one of them. I’ll always kind of resent them for this.

@meagan that sucks. If you’re ever in my town, let me know and I’ll make you a nice brunch of waffles with strawberries and powdered sugar, sausages, eggs, toast, juice and coffee. (My oldest is 26 and she calls a lot wanting to know how to make this or that that I used to make. Back then she made faces, so it’s really gratifying now!)

@mrentropy I was served the same SOS a lot as a kid and now that you mention it I could go for 2 slices of toast covered in creamed meat glop! yum-my!

My mother makes the best meatballs ever but, as they took her so long to prepare (she’d set a good day aside when meatballs was on the menu – don’t ask me why), we only had them as a treat, maybe 3 or 4 times a year tops.

I also loved eggy bread as a kid and every so often I will make it myself just to get that sense of nostalgia.

@Cruiser I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at making bad army food, but I have trouble finding chipped beef around here, too. I haven’t looked too hard, though. The other thing I can’t find is horseradish.

Horseradish is easy – it’s usually sold in the refrigerated section near the pickles. I have no idea what chipped beef looks like, but I’d wager it comes in a can? Maybe near the tuna?

@mrentropy I just looked at your link for the recipe and saw the picture and on second thought will leave it as a simple childhood memory. :O

@Seek_Kolinahr It’s not easy around here. The only thing I see in these parts related to horseradish is a creamy horseradish. That’s not what I’m after, though. I also checked the aisle with Kosher foods, but that’s a no-go also. The chipped beef is usually dried so it should be around the aisle with tuna fish and stuff, but I haven’t found any there, either.

@Cruiser Aw.

@mrentropy Did u look for horseradish in the refrigerated section?
That’s where I found it. But don’t get the “creamy” kind; it doesn’t have the flavor.

@AmWiser Your mother is 90 and she fries chicken????? Wow! What a lady!!! You are So fortunate.

@mrentropy Isn’t chipped beef just a beef roast that has been cooked long and slow until it falls apart? I can’t imagine buying it.

@YARNLADY My mother used to make chipped beef with gravy on toast. I liked it. It came in a tiny glass jar with a lid. You could look right inside and see very thin layers of beef. Nothing “chipped” about it except the slices were so thin I guess they could chip off. I wonder if they still sell it on the canned meat aisle?

@GrumpyGram I’ve looked everywhere. I’ve asked. When I say “horseradish” they take me to the creamy stuff.

@YARNLADY As @GrumpyGram says, it’s dried meat in thin layers. Rolled up into a glass jar.

Do they still serve up SOS in the army?

My parents used to buy the frozen creamed chipped beef and serve it over toast for a quick and easy dinner. It came in plastic bags that my mom would simmer until they were heated through, although at some point she probably switched to using the microwave. What an exciting day that was, when we got our first microwave, haha!

I can’t imagine eating it now. No desire whatsoever.

@MissAusten – that would be Stouffer’s, they still make it. We sometimes had it at school for lunch, and because it made me throw up, I was allowed to wait outside.

I saw the chipped beef today!! It was in a very small glass jar, just like always , on the TUNAFISH AISLE. It was not called Chipped Beef, though. It was still very thin, in layers. By Hormel. I could hardly believe my eyes.
Then in the freezer section they had a “creamed chipped beef” in tv dinner style.

@GrumpyGram Phuh. I forgot to look today, although I know my grocery store doesn’t carry the frozen one. I need to write me a reminder.