First favorite meals???

AdahPotatah2024
AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
in Food and Nutrition
What were your favorite meals growing up?
*And what country are you from? If from the US, what region?

Replies

  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    edited July 15
    My family is from the Midwest, but raised in Southern US. My favorites (in order of deliciousness) were cathead biscuits with butter, grilled cheeses, and an Orange Julius strawberry smoothie w/plain hotdog, Stouffer's chicken tetrazzini and turkey potpies...my dad's chicken SOS over toast and potato soup and my mom's canned corn with butter, plain macaroni with ground beef and pepper,and my Grandma's Waldorf apple salad and mayonnaise chocolate cake on holidays. My favorite restaurant was a local Chinese buffet...
  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    edited July 15
    I'm in pretty good health for not eating hardly any vegetables!
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,986 Member
    edited July 15
    Central Europe. None, really. Other than liquorice and crisps. My mother was a miserable cook and also the kind of food they bought was not good. Turkish bread, maybe. I had to learn to like food when I moved out.
  • FeatheredEmpress
    FeatheredEmpress Posts: 10 Member
    England - chilli con carne was a staple growing up that I loved and still love, although my version is a much less rich affair filled with veg and beans and a minimum of carne.

    Also spaghetti bolognase, my mum liked to make giant vats of both that we'd eat for a week straight.
  • herblovinmom
    herblovinmom Posts: 441 Member
    My family is from the Midwest but I was born and raised in the southwest. My mom didn’t cook but she worked in a bar and I often got to eat beer battered onion rings. My dad was a cook in the restaurant and he made the best steak. My grandma made most of my favorites like fried chicken and mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese with cheese hotdogs and steamed broccoli and these tiny pie dough cinnamon rolls.. mmmm mmm 😋 can’t forget about flavored instant oatmeal or chili mac, meat and beans chili poured over top plain macaroni noodles topped with shredded cheese and crunched saltines..
    grandma’s are the best 😊 they fed me well 😉
  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    That reminded me of my favorite sandwich when I was in middle school! I was babysitting my mom's boss' 3 kids 2,5, and 7 for $10 per week. I'd get this ham and cheese sandwich with curly fries from a little shop across the street and chocolate with the money, haha.

    Imagine having having a French pastry chef as a father!💕
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,620 Member
    US, Great Lakes area, rural upbringing, mostly Scandinavian heritage.

    It's hard to remember. That was over 60 years ago!

    What comes to mind:

    My mom's baked beans, which were unlike any others I've had. There was minimal sweetening, just a tiny bit (maybe tablespoon or less each) of brown sugar and molasses, prepared mustard, salt. Great northern (white) beans. On top, a solid paving of side pork (not bacon) strips.

    Asparagus, fresh from the garden in season. Actually, lots of things fresh from the garden in season, but the asparagus was a special treat.

    Strawberry shortcake (on baking powder biscuits, with real whipped cream).

    Midwestern-type goulash: Ground beef, macaroni, tomatoes, mild seasonings; cooked in an electric frying pan; a little cheese added and mixed in.

    There was also a casserole I was wild for when maybe middle-school-ish age: Sliced potatoes with layers of ground beef, I think cream of mushroom soup concentrate (?), bread crumbs and cheese on top for a crunchy topping.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,682 Member
    edited July 16
    Deep South. Without question, fried chicken. Mom cooked strips in a deep fryer. We’d be at her elbow trying to sneak pieces the instant they came out. Lots of salt. The best part was the crumbs of crust on the paper towels she’d drained them on.

    Moms recipe? An egg and two glugs of milk. If you ever had home delivery milk in glass bottles (our one luxury), you know a glug.

    Minute rice lavished with butter and salt.

    Mom was an uninspired, chronically tired cook on a tight budget, due to having special needs kids. She did make a good beef stew and also a great spaghetti.

    I remember a couple of times she made an epic layer cake from a Hersheys recipe calling for cocoa and sour cream. And good chocolate chip cookies.

    Fails? The period we couldn’t afford meat and she tried to make a ghastly meatless eggplant Parmesan. And those unforgettable salmon croquettes made from canned salmon, with bones in them. The stuff of nightmares. Fried spam was pretty awesome, though, and she made killer grilled cheese sandwiches.
  • Hobartlemagne
    Hobartlemagne Posts: 603 Member
    Grew up in Texas, but my mom's cooking traditions were from Kansas.
    I loved her Beef Stroganoff.
  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    Not my favorite, but we used to like the Hamburger Helper stroganoff. I thought about buying some just to see if it tastes like it did in the 1980s.
  • p8m6bwghh9
    p8m6bwghh9 Posts: 264 Member
    Pierogies! Church ladies made them every Friday.
  • VegjoyP
    VegjoyP Posts: 2,773 Member
    AdahPotatah2024 wrote: »
    What were your favorite meals growing up?
    *And what country are you from? If from the US, what region?

    Growing up in New York, Mom Lithuanian and dad Sicilian my foods then are NO Thing like they are now! But, they were- Aunt's Manicotti, New York Pizza, Dads Pancakes, Mom's chocolate chip cookies (Totally the best). Popcorn, Nestley Quick and Carnation Instant breakfast chocolate. Those stand out the most.
    Christmas eve was a favorite, baked flounder, shrimp, scallops, elbow macaroni and bread.
  • davidtoc
    davidtoc Posts: 4 Member
    Mac & Cheese, preferably with hotdogs cut up into pieces. Middle of the east coast, USA.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,836 Member
    Oklahoma
    Chicken and noodles
    Rice with sugar sauce
    Fried potato cake
    All granny made.
  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    @Corina1143 My mom used to put milk and sugar in rice. Is that an Oklahoma thing?:D
  • SafariGalNYC
    SafariGalNYC Posts: 1,584 Member
    edited July 27
    NYC - my Mom’s crispy liver cutlets and Brussels sprouts. Herring and her cucumber, tomato, iceberg salads with French dressing or her homemade vinaigrette.
    Grandma’s roast chicken and potatoes - also Grandma’s rice pudding. Those were staples in our house.

    I still always have liver and herring in the house!
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,836 Member
    edited July 27
    AdahPotatah2024 wrote: »
    @Corina1143 My mom used to put milk and sugar in rice. Is that an Oklahoma thing?:D

    Don't think so. Think it's more universal. It was breakfast. Granny was up and busy at 4am, back in bed asleep by the time we got up. She would cook rice in a heavy pot with a lid until about half done, turn the heat off,leave it on the burner to finish cooking and stay hot.--50's version of a crockpot. She put one egg and 1 cup sugar in a huge bowl in the stand mixer, left it on low. When we got up 3 hours later, it was the lightest, palest yellow sweet sauce that we drizzled in ribbons over our still just warm, not hot, risotto-like rice. So heavenly!
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,836 Member
    Reading this again brought up more memories. We were so lucky. Not rich, but had a cow and chickens in the back yard, so fresh milk daily. A housefull of night owl kids. Mom and dad woke us up on school mornings by hollering up the stairs "milk's here". We raced to get the first glass with the most cream! Dad picked the fattest, best looking calf to butcher. We always had chicken and eggs, cream and butter.
    We lived near a town that was originally settled by Germans from near the Swiss border, so they traditionally cooked with lots of cream, sour cream, butter. My favorites! Love their green bean soup, tomato soup, (German, not Russian) borscht, verenica(cottage cheese and egg dumplings, usually served with kielbasa or similar), schnetka(similar to pie crust, but made with cream, cinnamon roll type bars).
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    AdahPotatah2024 wrote: »
    @Corina1143 My mom used to put milk and sugar in rice. Is that an Oklahoma thing?:D

    Nope. My grandmother and I used to have that for breakfast and she lived her entire life in Texas.
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    Most of my early cooking efforts were Hamburger Helper and Tuna Helper type stuff, so not sure I had a "favorite" food at home. Once I learned more about seasoning meat, I was pretty fond of taco night. I did love my grandmother's fried chicken, fried okra, and banana pudding. My other grandmother made homemade sauerkraut that cannot be replicated apparently. She'd also cook it with diced apple and apple juice. I use those in sauteed cabbage still today.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,836 Member
    There was a well-loved restaurant here in OKC that made barrels of sauerkraut and added just a little applesauce. Not enough you really tasted it, but it made it so good!
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    One of my fav meals growing up was chicken/tuna noodle casserole. Midwest --- my gma also made like...SWEET sweet tea all the time.
  • nighthawk584
    nighthawk584 Posts: 2,024 Member
    From the Midwest, grew up in the 60s/70s

    My Mom was the best cook in the world as far as I was concerned. If she made TOAST , it was the best toast ever! We didn't have much money growing up but we always had full bellies. She would improv most meals to make it go the furthest. Lots of casseroles. Some of my favorites were; beef stroganoff, chicken and dumplings, taco salads, goulash, frosted cake brownies, spaghetti with the best homemade sauce ever, chili and cinnamon rolls.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,836 Member
    edited August 8
    A favorite food memory from childhood.
    Mom would make chocolate cake on Saturday for Sunday dinner. Dad would sneak in the kitchen when mom took the cake layers out to cool. He'd slice off the top, slather it with butter and share it with us kids.
    Sunday cake got shorter and shorter. Mom finally started baking it in 3 layers. 2 for Sunday dinner. One for us to eat hot on Saturday.
  • AdahPotatah2024
    AdahPotatah2024 Posts: 2,447 Member
    @westrich20940 I would complain all the time to my boss at the restaurant I worked at in Oklahoma about not having a sweet tea option! I don't know about now, but when I was there everyone would add the sugar after it was cold..an abomination!🤣

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