Stuff Your Mother Never Made You

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Odd juxtaposition

My mother was a competent but not extravagant cook but ironically my grandfather was a Chef at the high-end Chicago hotels. (Mom's side is French).
He, however, fell to wine, women and song. He ended up cooking for a brothel.
I do have Chicago stories to tell...
I think somewhat Mom was rebelling against her dad and never got into fancy cooking. She really worked at keeping the food healthier. LOTS of vegetables. Artichokes were frequent (good for your liver!)
She did make a mean Pot au Feu. And we still use Gramp's turkey recipe to this day.
Her cooking was designed to be basic without "artificial stuff' which she detested.
She did succumb to Shake-N-Bake.
No fish was ever cooked aside from fish-sticks. Fish stinks up the house. (She was right)
No deep-fried anything. Deep frying stinks up the house. (She was right).
And she would experiment. Campbell soup casseroles sometimes. I do not like casseroles. I am not Lutheran.
And she hated gadgets. Her Sunbeam frypan, Coffeemaster were unused. In fact when she moved in 1961 she never plugged the range back in. All the gadgets on the 1958 Universal gas range never worked throughout her life. As long as she had a flame she was ok. I guess she got that from Gramps.
But she kept us happy and fed and our weight in check.
We were allowed Swanson's TV dinners on special occasions when the parents were out at some Hotpoint gala or when the Miss America pageant was on. LOL !
 
Kevin:

I'm having visions of that "Family" sketch on The Carol Burnett Show, with Betty White telling Eunice, "That wasn't FRIED CHICKEN we had fuh suppah!" and Eunice banging her head against the doorframe and yelling,

"FLUH-fee!

FLUH-fee!

FLUH-fee!

FLUH-fee!"

You poor kids.
 
 

 

Oh Sandy... I can see that in my head too and I am still laughing as I type this!

 

Thanks for the great laugh!

 

Kevin

 

P.S... fortunately she only tried that "it's chicken" thing once.   I got wise to her tricks!   LOL
 
My mom was a good cook and I never felt deprived, she was willing to make me something even if she didn't like it. She made fairly equal use of boxed dinners and home made. She was from Massachusetts and as such I have a fondness for New England style foods as well as Southern. I still make her incredibly simple clam chowder and I usually make Yorkshire pudding when I make a beef roast. She used her mother's old American Woman's Cookbook for a lot of her home cooked meals. I have it now and use it too.
 
Geraldine and her six kids

With all the dietary restrictions, you'd think we were Jews. NO pop (soda),** NO wonder bread, No pre-ground beef.* NO TV or any other frozen dinners. NO Beefa- Rice- a or any other kind of rony, or any other prepared foods. None, ever! NO Mc Donald's, NO Miracle Whip. NO Kool-aid. Any new item that was popular in all our friends' homes, Spaghettios, for example that we'd want her to make was met with instant almost comical derision. "EWWWWWWWWW," She'd shriek, "Never!" Total food snob! LOL

To her eternal credit, though, she made everything from scratch, and it was all so delicious. Beef Burgundy with home made French Bread. Broiled Lamb Chops. Chili Sauce. "Pa" Soup (her father's beef & vegetable). Butter cakes twice a week. Indeed, she would make French Fries, but we had to cut the potatoes in this giant metal contraption. In fact, she pretty much included us in the cooking, and the Friday night vice was potato chips & dip with milk shakes. Home made, of course.

I distinctly remember when she'd be making a single pie dough recipe instead of the usual double, because that meant Chocolate Cream and Lemon Merangue pie, and we'd all get a piece of each. How I LOVED those chocolate & lemon days. Normally, it would be the double for 2 fresh apple, peach, cherry, or one meat pie and one mincemeat pie.

All six of her kids can cook an none is overweight, and we'd all die before we'd eat at Mc Donald's.

But I AM going to go out tomorrow and buy a box of Rice-a-Roni. Never had it. Only Spanish, though, right, and skip anything else?

* We would ask Walt, the butcher for 2 pounds of round steak ground twice for burgers, or the same ground with a pork chop for meatballs. Her Spaghetti & Meatballs was and is to die for.

** When they would go out without us, rarely, the sitter was allowed to order pizza and Pepsi. We'd get drunk and giddy on the pop.

Fun, fond memories, Sandy & friends. Thanks.
 
Well....

"Only Spanish, though, right, and skip anything else?"

Mickey:

You may like it, you may not, but your post certainly makes it sound like you've earned the right to try anything you please!

Someone here has said that it's better with Rotel tomatoes, and since "some like it hot," I can say that's a viable option. I myself have been known to saute some extra bell peppers to add to it; there are dehydrated bell peppers in the seasoning packet, but there is simply no such thing as too much bell pepper, right?

And yes, skipping the other varieties is probably a good idea. They're all more bland than they used to be. Or maybe my palate has changed.
 
My Mom was (and still is!) a pretty good cook, but some dishes are better than others. I don't care for raw onions, and she always chops up raw onions in all of her salads (macaroni, potato, coleslaw, chicken salad, tuna salad, and egg salad), and in anything else that might need some. I typically don't even add raw onions to anything, I will however cook with them, and like cooked onions.We always had simple meals when I was younger, but she never made hamburger helper, or any "boxed" dinners. Mom has no problem serving canned soup or canned vegetables though. We also very rarely had any kind of fish, because she said it was too expensive and freshly caught tasted better anyway. My Dad fished, and occasionally friends or family would give us freshly caught fish... Yummy! For most of my childhood, we never had asparagus, becauae my Mom hated it, and refused to cook it, and brussels sprouts because she said they were hard to cook. She didn't make potato soup for over 20 years because shortly after my parents were married, she made it, and my dad complained about it. I have since brought all three of those foods back into our household, by making roasted asparagus, and cooking it properly, my mom actually likes it, brussels sprouts, by cooking them properly, and I have even gotten my mom to make potato soup (with my Grandma's recipe, which is easy and completely foolproof)
 
But truthfully, my Mom's Chicken spaghetti, Lasagna, Beef stroganoff, and all kinds of homemade soups are absolutely unbeatable! She also makes a dish that she calls a "mess", which can, and usually does include anything in the kitchen, which 9 times out of 10 is delicious! It usually includes some type of pasta, rice, or potatoes, Some type of meat (hamburger, chicken, leftover whatever, sausage, ham, pork), a vegetable or several (canned or frozen usually), and some type of sauce (spaghetti sauce, canned soup, gravy, etc), and spices. Pretty much a casserole.
 
Casseroles.....

....Were something else Mom didn't do. I don't think they appealed to her, and they almost certainly wouldn't have appealed to my Dad.

Which was funny in a way, because his Mom, my sainted grandmother Mama Mac, slung a mean casserole, a habit she'd picked up after her son left home.

She made one I still make today - it's raw rice, sliced onions, sauteed hamburger, sliced celery, sliced carrots, canned tomatoes, and tomato juice, all layered in a ginormous casserole dish. Cooks up into the most savory thing you can imagine, and it's actually quite reasonably healthy if you stick to the leaner grades of hamburger, drained well after sauteeing.
 
What a great thread...

My mother and father are both very good cooks. I am from a family of seven kids and pretty much everything that served growing up was made from scratch using produce that was in season. (Basically because they could get large quantities of it and it was inexpensive.) We never were short on food but casseroles and other meals that could easily feed a bunch were common. They never made creamed or fried foods and packaged meals were non-existent in the cabinets.

Things we never had:
1. Real grilled cheese sandwiches. Mom would take sliced sourdough bread, toast it then put cheddar cheese over the top and broil it until melted. When I got to Jr. High where we had a cafeteria with real grilled cheese (butter on both sides, then grilled) I was in heaven. Sheer ecstasy being able to get fried (not baked) fries or tater tots on the side.

2. Rice-a-Roni or any of the Helper (Hamburger, Tuna, etc.) products. Mom had many of her own casseroles that were tasty.

3. Sweetened cereals. We only had thing like Cheerios, Corn Flakes, etc. I loved Lucky Charms and Trix and always begged to get a box. They wouldn't buy them because of the added sugar. (Smart to engrain that habit into your kids. I don't buy them today.)

4. Frozen dinners. Mom made many of her own frozen casseroles that were quite tasty.

5. Hostess or Zinger products. Sometimes my Grandparents would bring them as a treat. It was always a let down when you'd get home after school, run to the refrigerator (box was kept on top), grab the box only to find it was empty because my siblings had already scarfed them down.

Bob
 
Kevin,

Your post about the rabbit for dinner prompted me to remember this scene from the 1956 movie "GIANT".  I think you'll love it.

 
Que Sera Sera

To this day I've never tasted Kraft mac and cheese. Like you, nothing came out of a box. My mother is 87 and she just didn't get into quick foods. In 1970 Sunday nights, we started watching The Doris Day Show. Since the show was set in San Fran, Rice-A-Roni commercials would pop up. I would run through the house singing que sera sera. When I wasn't doing that I was Endora and trying to cast spells. No wonder no one was surprised when I asked from Santa and got an EZ Bake oven. Anyway, I begged and pleaded with Mama for a box of Rice-A-Roni. To this day I love it!!!
 
Ye Gods.

"To this day I've never tasted Kraft mac and cheese."

I think you should rectify this situation as soon as you possibly can. Get the classic blue-and-yellow box where the directions call for butter and milk to be added.

If you thought Rice-A-Roni was fun....
 
Great Discussion

No one in the collection of females that I grew up with could really cook. We always had plenty but ...
As has been said, open the can and then boil for another 30 min. Gray lamb. Pork chops that you could drive nails with. Many of us know the routine. One thing was great cakes both my Mother and my Grandmother did a great job on cakes. Also, my Grandmother did a good job with fish. My Uncle had a boat and we had a lot of friends with private and commercial boats so we had a lot of fish. Mostly baked. And then there was lobster. A friend of my Mother would call and say that her husband just got back from a fishing trip and come get the lobsters. Always wonderful. As I move away I learned that asparagus is really tasty and not limp, pork is wonderful and not rock like, roasts are rare, etc. The end result was whenever I was in Cape May I had the entire family at my house and the question was always: 'Where did you learn to cook like that?' My answer was: 'Self Defense'. My Mother always said that I got it from a great aunt that was supposedly a fantastic cook.
Harry
 
Growing up, my mother was an excellent Neapolitan cook and was not a supporter of any prepared foods. Being Italian, she felt they were not healthful and that they were more expensive than what she could produce - and also being fairly lower income, she didn't have a lot of extra dough to spend on prepared foods. However, she taught us to eat mostly anything except liver, tripe any other organ meats as well as lamb and rabbit. Those were all things she had to endure as a child of the depression and she simply wouldn't eat them. In her defense, she followed what is now considered the Mediterranean diet - lots of beans, lentils and vegetables, some fish and meat (how many kids ate and liked broccoli rabe, artichokes, escarole, chick peas and cardoons?). Even living in Brooklyn, we had fairly reliable access to fresh vegetables - with the fruit/vegetable guy coming around every few days well into the late 1960s. The struggle for her was my father who was from American born parents so was used to a more meat and potatoes diet. He wouldn't eat what he called depression food (pasta &chick peas, lentils and rice, frittatas, escarole and beans, etc...). So meals were an adventure.
When she went back to work, she did cave in to a few convenience items. Yes, Rice-A-Roni was one of them (though I hated it), Lipton Onion Soup (for cooking pork chops and brisket) and occasionally the canned teriyaki or chow mein preparations. Well, it was the 70's...
 

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