View Full Version : Favorite meals as a kid?
SouthPaw
05-11-2016, 11:46
I saw a thread with the word "shingles" in the title and it reminded me of childhood food my mom used to make for my grandpa, shit on a shingle. Basically ground beef in a gravy over a piece of toast.
Some of the other things she made was fideo, goulash and a chicken, rice and potato casserole thing. What do you remember as child eating that was a home cooked meal?
Snowman78
05-11-2016, 12:07
Mac and Cheese
SouthPaw
05-11-2016, 12:28
Pierogis [Dinner]
My uncle used to make some on the grill that were incredible!
Believe it or not, the school cafeteria meals when I was growing up were pretty good. Guess that's what you get from small town Nebraska moms and grandmas. Mac and Cheese with Gov't cheese was almost as good as Kraft, or maybe the chemicals had me a little high - one or the other. Chili day involved everyone putting sliced pickles, carrots, etc. from the side dishes in the chili and dipping your PB+honey half-sandwich in it. LOL. Awesome times.
The thing I miss the most is the soup my mom used to make a lot.
Fried chicken. When's the last time you had homemade fried chicken? Dang.
Is it lunchtime yet?
OldFogey
05-11-2016, 13:33
SOS!
sellersm
05-11-2016, 13:47
Kinda like our chipped beef on toast. Mmmmmmm.
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Great-Kazoo
05-11-2016, 14:01
Oddly enough our mother was lacking in the kitchen, like seriously. When asking my sisters what meal really stuck out that mom could cook. The reply was Mrs. Paul's fish sticks and spaghetti . Her Christmas & Thanksgiving meals were spot on, everything else mediocre.
To be fair her PB&J sandwiches along with liverwurst, lettuce, tomato on a hard roll........... award winning
Brian mentioned school / cafeteria lunches. Hot buttered noodles with brown gravy. The white rice with carrots and turkey was a winner. Once i went to HS. who had time for lunch.................
OldFogey
05-11-2016, 14:09
HS meals - burgers and hot dogs, because our cafeteria ladies made home made buns. Dang drool on the keyboard...
SouthPaw
05-11-2016, 14:28
Oddly enough our mother was lacking in the kitchen, like seriously.
Kind of the same situation. Mom wasn't as talented in the kitchen because Grandma always had that covered. My grandmother always, and I mean ALWAYS, every Sunday made a fresh batch of hot pork green chili and beans. The pans she used to cook were HUGE as she would make enough in one batch to feed 4+ families. She would pair it numerous other dishes which could vary from molle, caldo, menudo, salsa, pesole, fresh tortillas, homemade biscuits, spanish rice, chicken legs, over easy eggs, fried potato's with ground beef (my favorite), beef pot roast or anything else she could come up with. That lady was truly gifted in the kitchen. I always remember walking into her kitchen and hearing the valve on top of the pressure cooker going crazy.
sellersm
05-11-2016, 15:14
School lunches? Mine came in a paper sack from my locker! Tuna fish in the winter, PB&J in the warmer months (which aren't very many in NY). It wasn't until I was much older that I found out that stew wasn't supposed to be mostly water and vegetables... My fav thing my Mom cooked was her pumpkin pie: it was made like custard (on the stove) and not baked. I still don't like baked pumpkin pie.
My mother was terrible in the kitchen.. still is to this day. Most of the food I had growing up was from Schwans. Pizza and corn dogs.
theGinsue
05-11-2016, 15:35
My moms goulash (which I can make almost identically), fish & chips and spaghetti. Give my mom a piece of meat (ground beef, pork chop, etc.) and she'd cook it into fine fine rock or piece of leather.
My grandmothers "fried corn" and new potatoes & peas (wish I had the recipes for those).
Income in our household while we were growing up was often seasonal, so things were pretty creative. I fondly recall many things being made with tomato soup, as it was $.25/can (or less, with coupons.) Sloppy Joes were a favorite. Any leftover meat could be recycled into chili the following day. We kids would also devour elbow macaroni mixed with a can of tomato soup like it was going out of style. Government/commodity cheese made the BEST grilled cheese sandwiches. Hotdish ranked right up there, too.
Oh man - my mom came from a big Missouri farm family, and they were po'. So she grew up learning how to cook, and do the best possible with what they had to work with. As a young adult, she went to some cooking school and really honed her skills. By the time I came along in '56 she was pretty damn good at it. Dad was an electrical contractor and it took a few years before he was really successful, but mom always had what she needed for the kitchen. To say we had plenty of calories is an understatement! We didn't eat fancy, but we ate well and it was always homemade. No wonder I'm a fat boy.
She made a chicken and dumpling dish with big, fat, thick homemade noodles in it that was to die for! Some simple cabbage, potato and pork stuff in the crockpot that I still dream about. Spaghetti and homemade meatballs and sauce. Her SOS was made with tuna, and just killer. And the cakes, pies and cobblers - jeezus.....
So much, this really brings back some memories.
blacklabel
05-11-2016, 17:13
Chicken fried steak and eggs.
Always wanted to try SOS.
theGinsue
05-11-2016, 17:24
I forgot "slop". "Slop" was nothing more than tuna casserole, but the sound it made when served onto the plate sounded sort of like "slop", so that's what it got called. My mom made a great tuna casserole.
Hotdish ranked right up there, too.
What's "hotdish"?
theGinsue
05-11-2016, 17:27
Always wanted to try SOS.
True, original, SOS was made with chipped beef. Never cared much for that version, but the ground beef version was quite tastey. Easy and cheap enough to make. I'm sure there are recipes all over for it too. Do yourself a favor if you make it, use Texas Toast versus regular bread for the toast under the creamed beef.
My mom's meatloaf was awesome. So is her chili. And she also makes the best haggis.
Every Wednesday was spaghetti night growing up.
StagLefty
05-11-2016, 17:45
I was blessed with a Mom who was an incredible cook-too many favorites to list mmmm
Steak sandwiches. Just sliced roast cooked in butter on toast.
Roger Ronas
05-11-2016, 18:30
Family fav but I never liked was applesace and noodles with toasted crackjers on top of noodles.
great cook though.
Too many favs to name the best.
Baked goods off the hook.
Roger
Mac and cheese with tomato soup mixed in.
hurley842002
05-11-2016, 18:46
School lunch: Frito pie/Cinnamon roll day, Burger day. Unfortunately dictator Michelle likely ruined either of those things for the current generation of kids (ironically enough while getting my haircut the other day, I overheard a high school aged kid complaining about how much better his Freshman year was, because they had lot's of good choices, but that Michelle Obama ruined it for them, lol).
Home: Spaghetti night was always a treat, Mom's homemade potato soup rocked, beef hash. Lot's of good choices but those are the one's that stand out at the moment.
Only thing mom made that I couldn't eat was liver and onions. I think she overcooked the liver, but I couldn't stand liver no matter how it was cooked. Still can't. Oh, and yams/sweet potatoes. Gross.
Had other relatives from big farm families that were killer cooks too, that whole Depression-era generation. My paternal grandmother was born in the 1890's and god-damn she could cook!
BuckeyeNative
05-11-2016, 18:51
Bucket Steak
theGinsue
05-11-2016, 19:22
Mac and cheese with tomato soup mixed in.
Never had that, dad wasn't a mac 'n cheese guy, but since being on my own I love to add ketchup to mac 'n cheese - tastes like Spaghetti-O's to me. I enjoy Spaghetti-O's.
I forgot "slop". "Slop" was nothing more than tuna casserole, but the sound it made when served onto the plate sounded sort of like "slop", so that's what it got called. My mom made a great tuna casserole.
What's "hotdish"?
Hotdish is serious stuff. :) I'd explain it, but there's a far better description here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish
I was blessed with a Mother who was a great cook and foodie. I'd forgotten about chip beef on toast. We didn't call her's SOS. Made with the salty pink beef that came in a jar. Still wish I could match her chicken dumplings. I can come close to the spaghetti, meat loaf and mac and cheese. Too many more to list.
School lunch was not memorable.
We always went to a diner that served the best chicken fried steak. Still chasing that dragon.
Peach cobbler, cooked it a dutch oven, on coals from a camp fire.
Grits with milk and sugar.
Aloha_Shooter
05-11-2016, 22:00
My mother was great in the kitchen and my father was skilled with the grill and oven. Favorite meals as a kid included Korean short ribs, roast beef hash, stir fried lotus root with pork belly and mushrooms, Chinese spareribs, Chinese poached fish, spaghetti that would make a Sicilian proud, dah bin lo (what you guai lo call "hot pot" ... [Beer]), and of course a breakfast with rice, eggs, and Portuguese sausage. I prefer crisping the rice in a pan with the eggs over easy on top of the crispy rice and topped off with a dribble of oyster sauce.
Dlesh123
05-11-2016, 22:18
Mom was a great cook, paternal grandmother as well. Favorite was roast beef cooked with potatoes, onions and carrots every Sunday.
Potato salad that Mom made to my personal tastes. Brownies that I will always remember. Loved the pies my grandmother made from scratch. Deviled eggs, ham, caseroles, Mac and cheese, all good stuff.
Hotdish is serious stuff. :) I'd explain it, but there's a far better description here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotdish
TheGrey must be from Minnesota. That's the only place they call it Hotdish that I know of. LOL. (I work with a lot of MN peeps).
I miss the yellow gravy they use to put on mashed potatoes back in school.
Forgot about boiled roast with potatoes and carrots. Add flour to make a gravy and white bread for sopping. Mmmmmm
Never heard of hotdish, ever. I never had green bean casserole til I moved to OH ('85).
I still make corn casserole at Thanksgiving (I'll post the recipe in the "Recipe for the Day" thread).
hurley842002
05-12-2016, 00:22
I miss the yellow gravy they use to put on mashed potatoes back in school.
You had the yellow gravy to? Good stuff. That reminds me of Salisbury steak, except they used brown gravy for that. Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and a home made roll, great meal!
It took me a few days to remember, but I always looked forward to stromboli day in the cafeteria.
Adobo, pancit, sio pao, and fried lumpia. Didn't have them all the time, but they were the favorites.
My favorite Sunday after church lunch was going to visit the hospital cafeteria where my dad was making rounds. They had delicious fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
TheGrey must be from Minnesota. That's the only place they call it Hotdish that I know of. LOL. (I work with a lot of MN peeps).
Yah, youbetcha!
And it's completely different from casserole. Completely. :)
sneakerd
05-12-2016, 11:48
Chipped beef on toast with a glass of milk and Fritos on the side. Used to ride my bike home from school every day for lunch. PBJs were another staple.
blacklabel
05-12-2016, 17:44
You had the yellow gravy to? Good stuff. That reminds me of Salisbury steak, except they used brown gravy for that. Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and a home made roll, great meal!
Salisbury steak and rice was another go to for dinner for us.
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BushMasterBoy
05-12-2016, 19:14
BBQ pork spare ribs made by my dad. It really didn't matter to me what it came with, but usually corn on the cob and baked potato.
sneakerd
05-12-2016, 19:25
I hate that. Everybody I know BBQ'ed with their Dads when they were kids. They grew up BBQing and smoking meats and butchering their own from the kill. My Dad was the best man I've ever known. But he couldn't cook for shit. Used to roll out the dirty, cobwebby nasty old grill once a frikking year. Either the 4th or Mem'l day- but not both. Throw some burgers on there. That was it. Pretty sure they sucked too. To this day cooking meat is all guesswork for me. I don't know if it's going to be good until I take a bite. Moving in a month, after I move, I'm getting a smoker. I keep trying.
My dad wasn't a griller either. Mom usually did the steaks under the broiler. They didn't season them either. I make a damn sight better steak than they did, we didn't eat much steak. Now pot roasts are another story!
Grant H.
05-12-2016, 21:51
Dad could make about 3 meals, otherwise it was mom or Mac and Cheese.
My favorite meal as a kid was "picnic night", usually a Friday night. We'd make popcorn, guacamole, get out the salsa and chips, crackers and cheese, etc and have a "picnic" with a rented movie.
Basically just finger foods of all kinds in picnic form on the floor in the family room.
Cheesy chicken crescent rolls.
Aloha_Shooter
05-13-2016, 14:44
It occurs to me that when I was 6 or 7 and didn't know any better, Ortega -- or even Jack in the Box -- tacos were the best! There was just something about the taco meat seasonings combined with fresh cool chopped lettuce and tomatoes and the crispy shells. I had a few weeks where I had to wear an eye patch and Mom brought lunch to school for me everyday ... Jack-in-the-Box tacos or Roy Rogers' hamburgers were just the best damned thing ever.
ChadAmberg
05-13-2016, 15:24
Hot dog stew was our go to meal growing up...
I was blessed with a Mom who was an incredible cook-too many favorites to list mmmm
My mom was the same way.
We didn't have money, so mom was incredible at stretching that food budget. When I was a kid, you didn't just buy spaghetti sauce in a jar. She would make it from scratch, and it was awesome. She'd make a big batch and we'd have spaghetti for a couple of nights that week. The remainder was put in the freezer...to come out some other time and become a soup base. A big batch of soup had leftovers and went into the freezer...to come out some other time and become a base for another batch of soup. I swear I had soup that might have had some origins going back years....and it was all awesomely good! Mom's soups were like liquid steroids...could heal whatever ailed ya. To this day, she can throw a soup together in no time...and it's a full course gourmet meal in a bowl.
I loved it when she made tacos and pan fried the corn tortillas for the shells. Tacos were my favorite meal.
I found it fun when we would occasionally have 'breakfast' for supper. I love a big breakfast, and that just wasn't possible on most weekdays. Weekday breakfasts were usually Cream of Wheat or Malt-O-Meal and off to school.
Her meatloaf was incredible...and I still can't duplicate it.
We had fish sticks more times than I could count.
The one thing I don't miss was tuna casserole. It was good when I ate it, and a can of tuna for the protein source went a long way...but we had it often.
Someone mentioned school cafeteria food. I was so tired of cold sack lunches when I was in middle school that I worked in the cafeteria for part of the lunch period so that I could get a free hot lunch. Scraping plates into a slop bucket for pig feed was no big deal for a hot lunch. I don't know how they did it, but the flavor of the beef tips over noodles still sticks with me...was wholesome food and you could tell it was made with care.
ETA: I see folks talk about grilling with their dad. I took an early interest in grilling and pretty much took over for my dad early in life. He traveled a lot with his job. He would also get distracted and burn the food...and I wasn't having any of that. I did the grilling and mom would offer advice, and I just learned along the way.
ETA: How could I forget mom's homemade southern fried chicken?! She soaks it in buttermilk beforehand and it always comes out juicy and tasty.
SouthPaw
05-13-2016, 16:12
I guess my SOS was a little different as I have never heard of chipped beef until this thread. Mom always made it with some tomato sauce and ground beef.
speedysst
05-13-2016, 17:45
I loved mom's homemade perogies and kruschickis!
No cafeteria in grade school, but my Jr. High had some good chow. Chicken fried steak day was our fave! Awesome pizza too. Back in the days when they actually cooked everything right there. Big ol' cornfed Okie lunchroom ladies knew how to feed kids!
Just remembered my Mom used to put a couple cans of pork n' beans in a pan with some sliced-up hot dogs, good eats! For some reason I developed a love for scooping up the beans n' weenies with Ruffles potato chips, yum.
hurley842002
05-13-2016, 23:54
Chicken Tetrrozini!
Not sure how I forgot about that one, it was only one of my favorites as well.
Not sure how I forgot about that one, it was only one of my favorites as well.
Actually, it was a reference to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RZxbKvD1YQ
My favorite when I was a kid was my late grandmother's chicken and dumplings with home made sweet rolls. She was a wonderful cook.
BPTactical
05-14-2016, 08:06
Little Friskies.....al Dente'
Jefe's AR
05-14-2016, 09:09
Went to a really small HS/JHS. They were both in the same. One hallway was the Jr. high and the other was the Sr. High. We shared many spaces like the gym and cafeteria. The good was that the cooks/lunch ladies made small, fresh, batches of food. Most of it was gtg but those rolls.[panic]
Got stabbed in the hand by a fork more than once trying to steal one. ;)
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