Stuff Your Mother Never Made You

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danemodsandy

danemodsandy

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Let's face it, those of us who grew up in midcentury households where Mom was always home had a serious handicap - Milady was not only wife and mother, but Keeper of the Family Palate. If Mom didn't like it or make it, her hubby and kids usually didn't get it, at least not at home.

In our house, Mom didn't approve of a lot of the packaged convenience foods that were so heavily advertised at the time. We never saw Stove Top stuffing or Shake 'n Bake or Hamburger Helper, for instance.

I can't say that those three were any deprivation, but there were two things I loved that were never on our table. One was Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Mom just didn't do mac 'n cheese, period, in any form. We either got it at school, or at my grandmother's house (both homemade, though the school version was pretty glutinous and burnt), or best of all, at my Aunt Priscilla's house, where we got - Hallelujah! - Kraft!

The other was Rice-A-Roni, which I didn't become acquainted with until I was out of high school. But once I wrapped my lips around that San Francisco treat - well, it was like certain folks getting around heroin for the first time, total instant addiction. All through the first half of the '70's, I patiently stirred the rice and vermicelli until it was the perfect deep golden brown, and then added hot water and the sauce packet so that I could complete its final simmer and - WHAMMO! Rice-A-Roni goodness.

Does anyone else have similar stories of Mom-based deprivation? P.S.: I can still enjoy Kraft Mac 'n Cheese on occasion, and the Spanish Rice variety of Rice-A-Roni is still to be found in my pantry.
 
I don't have many fond memories of my mothers cooking because she was a dreadful one. Everything was boiled to death the English way. If we had spaghetti it was floating in a sea of water on your plate. Spices? unheard of except for salt and pepper.
I loved Rice a Roni Spanish rice though and I still do. There's always a couple of boxes in the cupboard . Not too fussy about the other flavors. To be honest I'll eat nearly the whole thing as a late night snack sometimes LOL . It's even better if you use Rotel canned tomatoes to spice it up even more.
 
Vienna Sausage

I luved them,Kraft mac&cheese and fried Spam.I still have a can in the cupboard with a key on it.Swanson boned chicken sandwiches,I swear my grandmother could take one large can and feed the masses.Simple days!!! Oh and black cherry Jello,with real whipping cream.
 
My mom came to America from Italy in 1947 at 33 years of age. As with your Mom, danemodsandy, she did not like processed foods. No boxed anything. She also didn't like Mexican food, so our dinner table never saw a taco, enchilada, or burrito. She wouldn't eat gravy, but she'd make it for the rest of us when mashed potatoes were served. When I asked for macaroni and cheese, she'd boil some wide egg noodles, add butter and a handful of grated Parmesan cheese.

She was an excellent cook, but didn't stray far from her Italian/French (her mom was from France) heritage.
 
It Was Odd....

....My mom's frotz wasn't processed foods in general - she was very comfortable with products that were completely prepared and needed only to be heated. She was quite capable of feeding us kids Swanson's pot pies (very different to today's - much more meat and veg in them, plus they made a tuna variety I'd kill for today), Campbell's soups (she would not buy Heinz, for some reason), TV dinners, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee ravioli and Gorton's fish sticks. No problem with any of those.

But if the product was a side dish, or needed to have something added, she was not going to use it. As in Don't Ask. We kids begged to try Rice-A-Roni, after seeing the commercials and hearing our classmates rhapsodize over the stuff. No dice. What was weird was that Mom had a rocky relationship with rice anyway; she feared real, "raw" rice and always used Minute Rice, something I cannot abide now. For years after I left home, she marveled that I could cook "raw" rice. I even showed her how (it's absurdly simple) and she squirmed, clearly totally out of her comfort zone.

Strange.
 
Mac 'n' cheese (Kraft or the kind yoiu made yourself with the cheese sauce and baked). Apparently my dad didn't like it at all, so it never got fixed. I had to get it at the cafeteria when we did go out to eat once a week. My paternal grandmother was quite a cook She made all sort of pies. After her first stroke when I was about 9 or 10 years old, I could only get creame/meringue pies such as chocolate or coconut cream at the cafeteria. Fortunately by thiws time, my sisters began making cakes. I didn't know what home made bread or rolls were until I as almost 15 same with real banana pudding with baked merinque or whipped creme on top. Until I was out on my own, I didn't know you could make a pumpkin pie that wasn't from the freezer and baked. Also real ice cream. I consciously don't remember the real thing until I was in jr. high or later. Our treat was either DQ or she'd buy (spelling) Mellorine flavors at Walgreens. Even at school, the "ice cream" were little cartons from Carnation.
 
My dad didn't like casseroles so we never got them. I like casseroles as an adult and make them whenever I think it is a good idea. What dad didn't like, I guess we didn't either? lol Gary
 
Mom never figured out--despite vocal protests from me--that you have to SAUTEE onions to make them edible. Unless that is, you like a mouthful of gritty battery acid. She ruined countless dishes that should have been good, with those damn raw onions.

There were also vegetables that never made the hit parade. Like sauerkraut, the smell alone should tell you not to eat it. Boiled okra, fried MAYBE but NOT boiled. Brusselsprouts, too close to sauerkraut. At least she made cheese sauce for cauliflower and broccoli.

But at least she COOKED. Lotta kids today never had a "cooked" meal. Her spaghetti was above reproach. It was the first thing I learned to cook when I went to college, followed by fried chicken. I still make spaghetti, but chicken is too much mess, I just buy it.
 
Weeeell.....

"What dad didn't like, I guess we didn't either?"

Well, you have to remember that the usual arrangement back then was that Dad worked to bring home a paycheck that supported the entire family. In our house, one 21-inch TV had to do for the five of us. When Dad wanted to watch something, that was what got watched - it would not have occurred to any of us to question it. He was breadwinner, we were dependent on him, and it was only right that he got what he wanted around his own house. And - use of the TV for sports aside - he really didn't ask for much.

He got really angry about only one thing - being awakened by noisy kids on a Sunday morning. We'd try to keep it down, we'd forget, and YEOW! Here came Dad, loaded for bear.

I understand now, Dad!
 
Pork Chops

Mom cooked for Dad-Mom-7 children, so everything was pretty much big batch. Her idea of pork chop was to layer them in a roaster in the oven, pour a can of Campbell's Chicken Rice soup over them (??????????) and roast until well done (Dad's liking.) Talk about dry and chewy as shoe leather! I never liked a pork chop until I learned there were other ways to cook them, and better cuts of meat, after I moved out of the house.

 

Mom also never knew any cheese existed except Velveeta. And being Catholic, Fridays meant Mrs Paul's Fish Sticks, I never knew fish could be done any other way. Tartar sauce was Mayo-ketchup-pickle relish mixed together.

 

She did know every Jello dessert recipe available. One of her Christmas/Thanksgiving specialties was 2 cans of pineapple rings, drained, one can filled with red Jello, one can green Jello. Then can-open the far end and push out one green and one red "loaf" of pineapple rings. She thought it was great, and one of us surviving kids makes it very time we all get together, it's good for a laugh and memories. We don't do the fish sticks.

 

Mom was wonderful and loved us all dearly.

 

Dad often cooked the Sunday brunch, after church, which at times was scrambled eggs with an entire can of Spam added in. I think I will now go vomit.

 

 
 
Well, in regard to Spam,

ya know, a lot of our parents were Depression-era children, and knew how to stretch a buck.

I can honestly say we never went hungry, even in the leanest of times. Kids from the neighborhood always hung around our house, because Mama hated to see anyone hungry. This explains my weight struggle, most likely, but I'm not complaining. Food wasn't fancy, EVER, but there was enough.

We were a "use it til you can't fix it again" household, I don't see many of those today. One thing Mama never fixed that I LOVED was box dinners. Every other family in America was eating some kind of "Helper" and we weren't. I felt very deprived at the time, now I realize how lucky my siblings and I were. And I would give up a body part to have my Grandma's pickled beets once more. *sigh*
 
Well...

Since Mom worked and her Mother lived with us,grandmother did most of the cooking, we got standard old country food...which was fine, To her credit, She made the best pie crust/pastries ever,her fruit pies looked like a picture in Gourmet magazine and were every bit as good as they looked, mostly apple,peach, rhubarb and sometimes strawberry, NEVER CHERRY! which I loved and She hated,She made lemon or chocolate once in a while, and also made wonderful cakes, mixes were blasphemy to her, I never saw one in our house, but on the down side, no matter what meat was cooked...except for good fried chicked, meats were fried to death, pork chops were hard rubber,as were any type beef, and She as well as my Mother made the most vile cornbread ever devised, now, Grandmother did turn out the very best bread and yeast rolls I ever saw, my Mother on the other hand, could never get the hang of Southern cooking, but give her something difficult and gourmet, now that she excelled at, we had Chicken Kiev, a recipe she got after she ate it at the Russian Tea Room years ago on a business trip,always for my birthday we had Beef Stroganoff which was and is one of my favorites, and we had great italian dishes often, None of us liked Mexican food,"I tolerate it because Don loves it" but if I never saw a bite of it again it would be too soon!LOL, My Mother made me eat two scrambled eggs every morning,,,,and we had liver once a week, because it was "Good for you", If any of you ever see me take one bite of an egg or liver, you will know ive lost my mind!!lol.
 
Food growing up

I have to laugh at some of this. While my mother was no chef she could and did make many tasty meals for Dad and I. She was not one to make soups or stews, hotdishes were rare, or homemade bread and desserts we still ate well. Especially when company came over.
After I grew up and became a chef that opened whole new doors to food. For the last 15 or so years mom has been asking me how to cook things. I also do the cooking for her when the family comes over for a holiday. I rarely use convenience food as it never turns out as well and takes nearly as long as what I can make myself.
WK78
 
English and Italian

Danemodsandy - my mom was English, like PeteK. My mom wasn't too interested in cooking, but she always gave us three meals. We did seem to get the canned fruit, at times, and canned or frozen vegetables, too. But she used fresh potatoes, corn, beans, asparagus, eggplant, carrots, and other vegetables from the garden or fresh from the store ( A & P market) when in season.

One convenience dessert she made, that I especially loved was Pie-O-My Pudding Cake. It was a mix, where it would get baked in the oven, yielding a cake like texture on top and soft, chocolaty , gooey texture underneath. It was a real treat; we found a recipe that approximates the results.

My mom and dad were Depression survivor. Meat and veggies had to be cooked well (think leather for the meat and near mush for beans and carrots) or he'd tell my mom to return it to the stove. My mom would say, "He thinks I'm going to kill him", and laugh. (turns out, he outlived her by 14 anno/years anyways).

http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcakes.html
ovrphil++4-23-2013-15-47-2.jpg
 
My mother's cooking was notoriously bland.

Most meats were baked or pressure cooked. Salt & pepper and maybe a little paprika were the only seasonings she knew or wanted.

Her motto "If I have never had it before, chances are I won't like it". Another one of her sayings "Never order Lobster...it tastes like soap."

Her pot roast in the pressure cooker came out great as well as corned beef & cabbage. Her meatloaf was really good too. Once per week she would buy this horrible Kraft Spaghetti boxed mix that was terrible. And she'd make it even worse. How? She'd make it up according to the recipe then dump all of the tomato sauce on top of the batch and then stir and stir and stir. It looked like tomato sauce with maggots in it. I can terrorize my sister even to this day with the mere mention of this. Sometimes the spaghetti was undercooked sometimes it was over cooked. You never knew.

And of course my father was the one who said "You are going to sit here until you finish eating all that food on your plate..." And if you weren't quick enough for him he'd dump even more food on your plate and insist that you finish that too.
I am really surprised that out entire family doesn't have weight problems today.

One time when I was home from college I cooked them a wonderful Louisiana dinner.
Red Beans & Rice with sausage, pork chops, rice & garlic bread. It turned out great. My mother even tried some. She thought it was way to spicy and said while it was good "I couldn't eat like that all the time."

Oh well.
 
MY-T-Fine!!

Who remembers My T Fine pudding and pie filling, that lemon pie filling was tHE BEST! it had a little capsule full of lemon flavoring or oil, anyway you cooked the filling and then dropped in the capsule, when it melted and released that flavoring you could smell it all over the house!
 
It's not what Mom DIDN'T feed us.....

 

 

My mother like many, was a stay at home mom and made dinner every night.   She was pretty average cook I suppose.   Oh sure like many other "Moms" out there she'd have her "on days" (extremely tasty!) and her "off days" (just so-so), but we didn't know any better at the time.  

 

Some days she'd make something from scratch, other days out of a box (Kraft mac n cheese, hamburger or tuna helper, shake-n-bake, Chun King chow mein in the attached cans etc) she really didn't discriminate.   My father grew up as a "Meat & potatoes guy" and in a very strict household, was told to eat whatever was put in front of him and to always clean his plate.... and that's what he does, without complaint.   He had little to say about Mom's cooking and when she asked, his answer was and still is "It's OK" no matter what is was.

 

On the rare special occations we'd go out to a restaurant or "get treated to McDonalds" (I shutter at the thought now).   I don't specifically remember any item that she refused to make.  

 

Either my brother or sister had a few pet rabbits over the years (many at one time for a while).    One night my mom served dinner and after sitting down I looked at the plate and asked "what is this?"   Mom said "it's chicken"  "Uh... no it's not, the bones are too small!"  She kept insisting it was chicken.   Just then I remembered the rabbit went missing about a week earlier and putting 2 and 3 together, I realized it was "Cannonball" or one of his offspring.... and I flat out REFUSED to eat dinner that night!

 

Today, there are very few things I won't eat and enjoy many different ethnic cusines.  Just a month ago I had Russian food for the first time!   Yum!

 

Kevin

[this post was last edited: 4/23/2013-19:22]

http://www.yelp.com/biz/euroasia-restaurant-encino#hrid:cqTuc716OtGEPAmvDDJhyA/src:self
 
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.
 

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