Family foods I thought was normal

[HotMelly]

My mom and dad (R.I.P) had some strange food habits which I really didn't realize until I got out into the "REAL" world. Pumkin pie had to have maple syrup poured over it, which I thought was normal, I loved my mom's green tomato pie, which I thought was normal, chili had to be served with peanut butter only, which I thought was normal,we had this yellow circley stuff for breakfast served with maple syrup on it, dad called it MUSH., which I thought was normal.

Anyone have their own weird foods growing up that they thought was "NORMAL" ??

[GraceW]

I didn't like sandwiches growing up (still don't really care for bread--unless it is a baked-good thing).. so my mother always made me turkey-slices wrapped around a pickle to take for lunch. (And yes, you can well guess I was never sat at the 'Popular' table.)

Anyone else: turkey wrapped around a pickle for lunch?

[The Professor]

Never tried it, but it sounds delicious. Especially if it is wrapped around a _good_ non-cooked deli pickle.

[davis_sq_pro]

Sounds reasonable.

When I was in high school my step father and I used to enjoy a weekend afternoon snack of a turkey slice wrapped around a scallion. Which I've not tried since then, and which sounds a bit odd. But I might give it a go this weekend!

[turnerm3]

In my house, the juice from vienna sausages was pure gold. I also never ate beans without "weiners" and didn't experience meat in my Ragu/Prego until I left home. My husband jokes with me now, since I'm so into food. Though I've grown up and my tastes have matured.. potted meat still holds a place in my heart.

[staughton]

So, did you put some sort of potted meat (sounds British) in the spaghetti sauce, too? I'm still howling over "the juice from the vienna sausages was pure gold." Yeeeeee HAW!!!! How about the "sliced franks" in the Spaghetti-O's? lol

[al b. darned]

My Mom used to do that as a special treat!

[LadySafire]

Growing up my grandma always put a bottle of maple syrup on the table for the family to drizzle over the meat...

[John E.]

Did you live in Vermont or other maple syrup country?

[staughton]

Reminds me of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and Walter Cunningham. lol. Where was your grandmother from?

[Caroline1]

At this writing, this thread is going on four years old. For me, the problem with the premise is that if you grow up eating what you think is "normal," you may NEVER find out it's not! So now I'm curious about something. I grew up in a family that often had sunny side up (poached in bacon fat) fried eggs for breakfast. My grandfather always anointed his with either Worcestershire sauce or A-1 Sauce (what the English, and he was that, call "brown sauce") and my mother (his daughter) and father liberally doused their fried eggs with ketchup. So now I have to ask.... Is this "normal"???

[pie22]

i personally hate ketchup but really enjoy in on runny eggs (with toast for dipping). normal in my house, lol.

[sandylc]

My mother claims to not understand why anyone would ever put ketchup on french fries...!

[John E.]

I don't know about the A-1 but the ketchup on eggs things is not abnormal. My father was a mess cook in the army long enough ago that they cooked on a big cast iron stove that would burn either wood or coal and he spoke of men who put ketchup on their eggs. Nowadays, it seems that a lot of people put hot sauce or salsa on their eggs.

[Caroline1]

Thank you guys, for the reassurance. That means that we weren't so far off with ketchup on our eggs, but our breakfasts were still pretty bizarre because my mother refused to lock her Mexican yellow head parrot in his cage during breakfast, and that damned bird was a cannibal! Mickey wanted every runny yolk on every plate for himself. But once we got ketchup on our eggs, he lost interest and spent the rest of the meal standing on top of his cage eating a toasted heel of white bread.

[Blush]

We always put ketchup on our eggs. I grew up in SW Ontario.

[NellyNel]

lol!!
I can imagine the scene!

[Tangerina]

I was raised on milk toast and I didn't realize it was fairly well unknown in the South. My G'father brought it with him from Kansas.

[a_s_mackay]

This wasn't something we had all the time, but canned smoked oysters were a must in our Christmas stockings. They were eaten with HP Sauce on them, and preferably on top of Triscuit crackers, with plain cream cheese. I still adore this combination! I'm Canadian - not sure if you get HP Sauce in the States, as it's a British thing. My husband (from the Prairies) is horrified by canned smoked oysters, ha ha.

[a_s_mackay]

Now that I've read the "Do you have a favorite I'm-alone-now-so-nobody-will-know favorite dish?" thread, I see that smoked oysters is not such an unusual food to enjoy! Good to know I'm not as sick and twisted as my DH thinks. :-)

[pang]

In my Christmas stocking, I would always get macadamia nuts and cocktail onions!

[kubasd]

That is definitely odd.... but one that I would wholeheartedly welcome!!

[cantbeatgoodfood]

Spam also lol,my mom would put it on the table in the 1960's ,would either put it on the table like a roast LOL!! or would actually serve it like a breaded chicken cutlet,she also served a salad dish which was odd leafs of iceberg lettuce with miracle whip and i think white vinegar,Augh!!!!!

[cantbeatgoodfood]

In The 1960's & 1970's my mom made chopmeat and beans [she called it this] guess it's sort of chili??? brown off a pound or more ground beef in pan,add can pork & beans,add half cup to cup there abouts ketchup,add garlic seasoning,onion seasoning,salt,pepper,cook abit,usually served with fries and a tossed salad lol,tried to make it few years back,wife said it looks like SLOP lol!

[nikkihwood]

Mine did the same, except with a can of B&M baked beans, and maybe a quarter teaspoon of Gebhardt chili powder. I was totally shocked the first time I ate 'real' chili. Garlic bread alongside.

[And she made this for our wedding rehearsal dinner, a very cas affair, and the crowd went wild. Go figure.]

[cantbeatgoodfood]

nikkihwood,
Wow i thought no one ever did this lol,what did you think of it,i actually liked it ,Me,If my mom served it at my wedding,i would have been mortified lol.Not that i 'm so special

[nikkihwood]

Our very New England family didn't know any better - we liked it!

[And it was just the wedding rehearsal dinner, thank heavens. but in CA.]

We spent 10 days in New Mexico last year, and I was in NM chili - and chile - heaven...

[luxzilla]

My mom always but lemon pepper in mac & cheese. I always hated it and never liked mac & cheese until I grew up and realized it's not supposed to be like that...Mom was just ruining it all those years!

[Vicky464]

Fried macaroni - leftover pasta with a ladle of sauce fried in a pan the next morning. Yum
Girl Scout Stew - sliced hotdogs, corn and baked beans cooked in a pot til warm.
Italian bread and salad with every meal, even if the meal was Asian, or other ethnicity
Graham crackers crushed in milk for breakfast - instead of cereal.

[DrMag]

My grandfather used to make us ginger ale and milk as a special treat. I finally got my hubby to try it and he agreed that is it awesome- it tastes like vanilla ice cream!

[BrightRedMud]

In my family we put molasses on hot cereal, as well as on popcorn. I've yet to meet anyone else who does this. (And I still like it to this day).

[frannieface77]

Molasses on popcorn? That sounds delicious! Like a gingerbread-y caramel corn....mm...

[tardigrade]

Rice soup: rice cooked in hot milk - no sugar or other flavoring except for salt. We used to have this on Fridays, especially in Lent.

[marymanchester]

When I was in school my mother would make cream cheese (no jelly, just cream cheese) sandwiches and spread mayonaise on the bread. It was awful. When I asked her why she did that she said that the bread just seemes so dry. My ex-husband's favorite breakfast was cold hot dogs on toast. One day I brought home "hot dogs" made of tuna and I thought I was going to get thrown out in the street! My son liked Bacos in tuna fish and my girls like to eat their green beans with ketchup.My favorite is peanut butter pretty much on anything bread or cracker like with raisins.

[pine time]

I used to make my sister sick with my b'fast: over-easy fried egg, topped with lots of ketchup. Break the yolk, swirl the ketchup, and watch sis turn green. I think that last part was the major appeal.

[quirkles]

I just read through the entire thread hoping to find my "weird" combo. As long as I can remember I've eaten scrambled eggs with applesauce. Everyone has always told me it was strange, and I can't figure out where I got it from. Anyone else do this?

[Boychucker]

We ate that sometimes when I was little. I haven't had it since then, though. But sometimes it sounds good.

[quirkles]

Did you grow up in New England? Or are you from an eastern-European background? I've got to figure out where I got this from!

[Boychucker]

No, grew up in Seattle. I'll have to ask my mom where she heard of this. She's a mix of English/Irish/Scottish and was born in Idaho but raised in Washington. My dad is German, born and raised in Seattle.

[quirkles]

Hmmmm. I wonder if it's a German thing. I'm German on my dad's side.

[The Professor]

Strange? No, strange is in the eye (or palate) of the beholder. I haven't heard of the applesauce/eggs combo but have heard reports of omelets made with jelly, jam, or preserves.

There are those that think my peanut butter and raisin sandwich (on seeded rye bread) is an odd combo too.
No matter. They don't know what they're missing! ;-)

[sandylc]

I love cream cheese and cherry jam on pumpernickel!!!

[The Professor]

Now THAT sounds really good. Gonna give that one a spin.

[meems_PDX]

Chocolate gravy with biscuits
Savory french toast, never sweet (my mom used eggs, salt, water or milk and a ton of artificial vanilla flavoring with white bread)
My dad always ate tomatoes with his biscuits and white gravy, I thought it was weird as a kid but like it now!
Never any fresh veggies with dinner, only canned or bagged frozen (my mom hated and still hates things like steamed broccoli! It's a wonder I like anything green or healthy).
LOTS of TV dinners, canned foods, boxed mixes, etc.
I don't think I had a non-boxed cake or dessert of any kind until I was a teenager and made them myself.
My grandpa put cornbread in a glass with buttermilk in it up until the day he died!
TONS of bread/carbs every day (EX: bagel for bfast, sandwich for lunch, garlic bread with spaghetti for dinner!!!)
Poptarts as a food group, same with soda!
Lasagna made with TONS AND TONS of cheese and eaten with a side of white rice (LOL, this was a thing my mom got from her 2nd gen Japanese-American friend. We lived in the deep south, so ppl though they were nuts!).
My grandma made this atrocious mixture of strawberry gel (the kind that goes with strawberry shortcakes), peanut butter. cool whip and something else that I am forgetting...maybe table sugar?

[MoxieLouise]

I haven't seen mine on here yet...every Thanksgiving my mom would make scalloped corn...with oysters. I thought it was perfectly normal until I started having people over for Thanksgiving when I grew up. I saw the horrified looks as they noticed the black blobs in the corn. My weird family (German descent) still likes it so nowadays I make one scalloped corn with oysters and one without. It's good, really!!!

[Munkipawse]

Oysters go black after cooking?

[MoxieLouise]

They stay the same color as when they come out of the can, dark grayish blackish greenish, but very easy to spot in the yellow corn. Not a big favorite of most kids...wish I knew where this recipe originally came from. I've never heard of anyone else doing it.

[grammywheels]

This might be the weirdest thing of all..as a New Englander I have never seen nor eaten an oyster out of a can although my mother would sometimes add fresh oysters to an herbed bread stuffing for a turkey.

[MoxieLouise]

You're lucky...being raised in the Midwest I've never seen anything BUT canned oysters. Not the same, I'm sure. And yes, we did the oyster dressing too...It's making my mouth water thinking of all the fresh seafood you must get. YUM! Clam chowder! And lobster! And shrimp!

[fruti]

Ashkenazi/Peruvian background

-oxtails with lots of onions
-tripe stew
-hot sauerkraut soup with bacon, onions, garlic sausages
-savory French toast
-cottage cheese with chopped tomato/cuke, sometimes sour cream
-sour cream and banana with brown sugar
-grilled cheese with pickle relish
-sardine or liverwurst open face sandwiches with mustard
-limberger cheese
Buttered rye/pumpernickel
-canned plums with evaporated milk poured on top
-jello with same
-ceviche
-leftover chili with a fried egg on top for breakfast
- pancakes for dinner

[burgeoningfoodie]

I have had Sauerkraut soup but not with bacon. Do like bananas with sour cream and sugar. Blueberries and strawberries work too.

[TeriPie]

Well, I too did NOT know as a young child that salads consisted of anything BUT leafy green lettuce and thinly sliced red onion or could be dressed in ANYTHING BUT olive oil and red wine vinegar!?....wondered when at a friend's house: what WAS that CREAMY WHITE STUFF and ...CROUTONS?....what the heck? LOL...

Growing up in a spanish/Basque household it was also "normal" to watch my Mom (American, all the way) prepare for the oven: an ENTIRE lamb's head, split down the center with the BRAIN EXPOSED then poked FULL of fresh garlic cloves in all the "meaty spots" (like the cheeks, tongue, brain) then roasted and served to my Dad (Spanish/Basque, ALL the way!) in its ENTIRITY, both halves on a platter as we looked on in awe, watching him, knawing on that SKULL to get every last bit of "meat" possible, sucking every last bit of brain out of the sockets AND enjoying EVERY minute of that LAMB HEAD like it was a GOURMET TREAT!!......ahh...never knew it was "STRANGE" until we saw the looks on the faces of our MORTIFIED friends when they'd come over on one of those "Lamb-Head Dinner Nights"!! ....yeah on those nights Mom would make us scrambled eggs for dinner....hooray..Dad wasn't about to share "HIS" dinner with us "UNAPPRECIATIVE" kids! LOL..........true story btw!! :-)

[buttertart]

I can well imagine, we were in the central market in Athens one New Year's and they had trays and trays and TRAYS of lamb heads for sale - somebody had to be eating them!

[pmelvoin]

Recipes galore on this one.
Google: recipe: sheep"s (or goat's) head.

[dijohn]

My grandmother made chicken soup with all parts of the chicken and my father enjoyed the feet. The butcher always included a few extra chicken feet with our order since no one wanted them. Not surprising. I thought they were good too and didn't know how weird it was until I was a teen.

[grammywheels]

All these wonderful things are not in the least "weird" just cultural diversity. I grew up in northern New England in traditional Italian family, My mother adopted and adapted many traditional recipes of the region and also served us many traditional Italian dishes. We had lambs head and polenta and lobster stew and boiled dinners. The one thing I now find fascinating is that so many of my mothers italian dishes, especially the frugal meals, pasta carbonara for example, are now considered "gourmet specialties" and demand quite a price at restaurants. But for most of the "weird" foods served in families, there are quite logical reasons of how they evolved from the many cultures which have mixed and melded over the generations. Buttering bread for sandwiches served the purpose of sealing the bread so it did not absorb juices from meat or tomatoes, etc. and become a gooey mess before being eaten. Try it, it works...Food and cultural anthropology are fascinating studies and worth doing some reading on the topic.

[wintersweet]

I think most people posting are aware of this, and are using "weird" as shorthand for "not shared by most people in the culture around me," which would quickly grow repetitive and annoying. ;) Your post is a good reminder, though.

[c_james]

Excellent post, grammywheels! Reading this thread made me realize that my typically British (English) family....my mother boiled or fried everything!! Taste? Texture? I see all the links in her cooking to her ancestors, but reading this post made me wonder how someone who grew up eating fresh......I never even realized the amount of "convenience foods " that were on hand. How did my mother become so accepting? But when you take a good look at history....this was people embracing change (granted for convenient or lazy reasons) but still....and then I always think of that Stone's song : "Mother's Little Helper". "and she bakes an instant cake....and she buys a frozen steak" ....I'm a language freak myself, but yes, food and cultural anthropology are indeed fascinating.

[gingershelley]

When I was growing up, we had a big - I mean a REALLY BIG bowl of salad served AFTER dinner every night. a nice salad, with lots of veggies, and homemade viniagrette, etc. My dad just loved salad, and we weren't allowed to leave the table until Dad was done eating salad. Sometimes he would eat two whole plates full. I didn't think much about it until I had friends come over for dinner, and they were just amazed at the huge pile that had to be put a way before we could be excused! I now cherish that memory, as it really kept us in tune and caught up on what everyone was up to, as the dinner talk had to go on until the salad was gone! :)

[crowmuncher]

nice memory; i was surprised to find out that Italians eat their salad after their dinner. I was invited back in college to a home cooked Italian meal and when they brought out the salad last I thought it was so odd. I totally got over it when they brought out expresso and tiramisu after that though :)

[hill food]

that is nice.

[pmelvoin]

A French fellow who I knew in the states invited me for a visit to his family's places on the outskirts of Paris and in a small town in the Loire Valley.
He usually prepared a simple salad, generally a butter lettuce or similar, lightly tossed with a mixture of just olive oil, vinegar, wine, Dijon mustard mustard, sugar, salt and pepper.
I was told that salad should come last.
I have followed that of late, and find that having a large salad on top of a modest meal otherwise works well for me

[KevinKS]

For special breakfasts, we'd have soft boiled eggs over dry rice crispies with salt and pepper. As an adult I sometimes substitute over easy or sunny side up eggs for softe boiled, but it's never as good.
It's best if you mix it all up to coat all the crispies in yolk.

[crowmuncher]

never heard of such a thing, but it makes sense... I really enjoy eating sunny side up eggs over rice and love it when the yolk coats the rice

[KevinKS]

With the rice crispies, it's kind of like eating them over minced toast.

[crowmuncher]

yeah, i see how that would be like minced toast...

[hill food]

I had to stop and think (and that makes my head hurt) but soft eggs on krispies makes a kinda sense.

[ansluasi]

Sounds like an odd combo, but as a kid, we always cut those little powdered sugar donut rings in halfbagel fashion and put grape jelly on them. Mmmmmm, it was yummy:) That and my mom would make "chip dip" by mixing peanut butter and raspberry jam together. I would dip potato or corn chips in it. Also very odd but surprisingly tasty.

[guilty]

The doughnut thing sounds like an improv jelly doughnut to me--not odd at all.

[crowmuncher]

I thought it was okay to overcook pasta and add some "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" to it. I know now that THAT's just not right...

[PeteSeattle]

Attempt to use "I can't believe it's not butter" or "Shed's Spread" as a frying medium and see what happens. (It won't melt, it bounces around the hot pan)
Do that once and you'll never use that fake stuff again for anything. Will it even quiet a squeaky hinge? Or just rust it away?

[crowmuncher]

I Can Believe That Happened To Your Not Butter

[alkapal]

liquid country crock is useful to smear on the outside of a reuben before you griddle it under a press. just sayin'!

[PeteSeattle]

Try putting some of your country crock in a frypan by itself and melting it and see what you're doing to yourself! You damn the technique with faint praise, saying it's "useful" and I ask "useful for what? Making roofing shingles?"

[alkapal]

yes, i made roofing shingles! how did you know?

[The Professor]

nahhh...too watery.
Use clarified butter. Or better still, some bacon fat.

[pmelvoin]

Bacon fat was not in my home as I grew up.

But my mother would use all of the others.
Being of peasant stock and frugal, pretty much dictated this.

*Every* other sort of freshly (and some ancient) rendered fat was present in a jar, or cup, sometimes uncovered in the back of the refrigerator.

Most particularly, that which was rendered from a chicken.

Chicken fat, mislabeled, "schmalz," was a standard in Jewish households as both as an oil for light saute's and as a butter substitute on bread.
It is also an essential ingredient in matzoh meal dumplings.

Strange portions of veal fat, beef fat, left-overs from roasts long gone, all camped until being used straight-up on bread, for panbraising, etc.

Only as a secular adult did it dawn on me that most families did not render or reuse fat.

It's hard to describe the transition to using pork fat in its variety.
Bacon fat, as the Professor said, is wonderful for all sorts of flavorings, and yes, straight up on crackers, bread and toast.

Rubbed on items which should crisp up in an oven is another use.

All fats are now a part of my diet, along with butterfat in all of its many incarnations.

[hill food]

pmel: slightly edited that could be a manifesto I'd sign.

[Rodzilla]

scrambled eggs and maple syrup (the equivalent has been mentioned) waffles with cream cheese - then maple syrup (my sister)

[Cynamar]

We were pretty poor and my mom was raising four kids alone (three teenagers) so we never had just mac & cheese. It always had tuna and Veg-All mixed in--a cheap one-dish meal. My brothers still make that sometimes as comfort food. Their kids love it. Ick.

[cmztrav]

Jelly and butter sandwiches, "butter breads" with every dinner, butter and tomato sandwiches, milk always on top of chocolate pudding, butter in any oatmeal/shredded wheat breakfast. Generally, milk and butter with sides of other, less important items.

As an adult, I realize that is the only possible way to live correctly. ;)

[buttertart]

Where did you grow up, if I may ask? That's rather like my SW Ontario upbringing, except for the butter in shredded wheat (pour boiling water over it before eating, right?). My great-grandpa ate butter and salt in his oatmeal porridge. I never saw anything but butter on sandwiches until I was grown up.

[cmztrav]

Hi buttertart! I'm Pennsylvania Deutsch. No water on any cereal that would be alien to my family hehe. Only milk, and then the butter. My mom likes mayo on sandwiches and doesn't like oatmeal of any kind but she isn't the german half either! I always grew up with butter, so that's what I mostly prefer. I have taught myself to enjoy olive oil, or a half-n-half mix for cooking.

Is SW Ontario big on farming? Maybe that's a common thread. My area in PA is very rich farmland.

[tracylee]

cmztrav, my heritage is Pennsylvania Dutch, and a number of relatives migrated to Ontario, where they still are today. We haven't discussed similar foods, however, since my Dad left PA as a kid, and I've only visited once for a conference.

[cmztrav]

That's cool. My immediate family comes from Reading/Berks/Lancaster. I dream of shoo-fly pies and cho-cho's. What I would give for some cho-cho's now is probably obscene. And Crystal Palace hotdogs. Oh my!

[buttertart]

SW Ontario is very big on farming (a lot of the processed tomatoes available in the States come from there for example), and there are a good number of Mennonite (and other similar denominations) folks there. So it's quite similar in that way.
The boiling water over the shredded wheat was to soften and warm it, you just pour it over and pour it off, then add the milk and whatever else. It seems to me the package used to have instructions on how to eat it hot this way.

[cmztrav]

That's interesting to know about Ontario :). For the shredded wheat, I never knew about that trick. I think we always just used scalded milk.

[buttertart]

Probably it was just a Canadian thing, because people always had their electric teakettles on the go for tea in the morning anyway!

[Blush]

Also from SW Ontario, and yes, the Nabisco package does still give the hot water instructions. Brown sugar is a must on mine.

[pmelvoin]

My Russian immigrant mother who grew up during the Great Depression combined peasant flavors with frugal wisdom.
Everything which could make a stock was saved and duly turned into a sauce, gravy, soup, whether jelled, cold, tepid or hot.
With grains and beans all things were possible.
One person mentioned brains: my mother duly cooked them both sauteed as well as cold, cubes in a salad.
Never found it odd to eat something that soft and delicate.

She would offer us raw eggs on the way back from the country-side where purchasing eggs without a coupon, during WWII rationing, was possible.
A hat pin, always a feature of her coiffure, would be used to poke a small hole in each end of the egg and we were abjured to suck the white and yolk out .

I have not had a chance to talk about this for many, many years.

Her favorite afternoon snack: a hand carved slice of Schvartzebrod smeared with sweet cream butter, topped with a slab of cured herring, and a cold boiled potato on the side with a blob of sour creme.

[cmztrav]

That's an amazing experience to share! Thank you!

[heathercheryl]

I grew up in Montreal where everyone used real maple syrup. I put it on Aunt Jemima Buckwheat pancakes, on cornbread, on hot cereal like Cream of Wheat and on oatmeal. Since moving to Toronto I cannot find it on grocery store shelves. People here seem to prefer artificially flavoured syrups. So, I bring some back from Montreal each time I visit.

[hill food]

hc: seriously? in a city the size of Toronto? sheesh even in poky stores in the States you can find it.

[buttertart]

I grew up in London, Ontario (110 miles southwest of Toronto) and we always, always had it (as did my parents long after I left). I bought it at a grocery on Bloor St when I was at UofT. t has to be in the grocery stores in Toronto now.

[S_K]

I like balut (kai louk). I like red cooked pork...with a family twist of some cleaned, boiled, sliced intestines added. Grosses out my friends...mmm...more for me.

Not a family food but a strange habit: when I get the individual packet of ketchup, I tear off a corner of the packet and squeeze the ketchup on each fry to control the ketchup:fry ratio for each fry.

[richburgfoodie]

This thread has been running for a good while and I know I'm a little late getting in but I feel compelled to share. My first grilled steak of any kind was at the age of 16 on my first date. Until then "steak" was cubed steak, fried and served with rice and gravy.

We had pork brains and eggs about once a week for breakfast. I was probably 13 or 14 before I realized what I was eating. It was breakfast!

We had fried livermush a lot for breakfast. This is a concoction, similar to scrapple, of pork liver and cornmeal highly seasoned. It's a southern thing

Growing up my grandfather ran a dairy and I was probably somewhere around 12 or 13 before I had store bought milk. At the time I thought it was so nasty and tasteless. All of our dairy, poultry, pork, beef and most of our vegetables were home grown. We only bought flour, salt and sugar from the store.

[buttertart]

Nice memories, especially the dairy. This has been running for ages, should somebody start a part 2?

[PeteSeattle]

Those are all standard dishes from the Southern United States from the 1930's. And yes, they're all "Normal" for that time and place. You may also remember buttermilk with cornbread broken up in it. (I do)

[al b. darned]

In or house "fried chicken" was leg quarters dipped in milk and put in a bag of corn flake, potato chip, or cracker crumbs, and shaken to coat. They were put on a baking sheet and baked until GB&D. When they came out with Shake 'n' Bake we thought, "What's the big deal? Mom's been doing this for years."

"French fries" were frozen from a bag baked in the oven.

When I went to work for a diner after flunking out of college, I was surprised to see the tiny pieces of chicken passed off as a "large portion."

And what was deep frying? Not something that was ever done in our house. I was surprised to see what went into the Fryolator...and this was in Vermont.

Growing up, hot dogs were done on the grille, inside or outside. With grilled or toasted buns...New England style, only, thank you. At the diner hot dogs were put in the Fryolator and finished on the grill.

In contrast, DW always had boiled hot dogs, and never had them grilled until she met me. Buns were never warm.

[hill food]

al: that was my (upstate NY) grandmother's technique - "boiled weenies" on plain white bread. god love her.

[achtungpv]

A misnamed "Denver Sandwich".

Saute ground beef with onion and bell pepper. Scramble in some eggs. Mix in a bit of mayo and mustard. Serve on white bread.

[inaplasticcup]

rice + kimchi + <insert odd protein here including bacon, hot dogs, spam, baloney, scrambled eggs>...

What didn't we eat rice and kimchi with?

[merg01]

My family has always eaten Apple Banana Salad. The dressing is an equal mix of mayo and peanut butter (though I prefer a bit more PB). Then it's just diced apple and chunked banana. Mom sometimes added mandarin orange slices and Dad preferred chopped nuts in his (but only ever got a small bowl of nuts to had to his serving since the kids didn't like nuts). My 92-year-old father remembers his Mother making it when he was a kid. Not the most appetizing to look at but we always serve it with roast chicken or baked ham. My nephew likes the leftovers for breakfast.

Peanut butter on toast with sliced banana is still on my breakfast rotation. When we were kids Mom would squish the banana on but sliced is much more appetizing. Mary Ellen

[bac0n]

My Chinese family... we really wanted to assimilate well. Boxed Mac & Cheese with hot dogs and canned chili with hot dogs are strictly breakfast items. I never knew that's not the American way... Just last year, as I was heating up a can of chili for dinner, my mom tells me, "You're so weird! Isn't that suppose to be for breakfast???"

[hill food]

HA! but chili dogs for b'fast are cool in my book.

[honorelle]

Chocolate semolina. Ever try explaining semolina to people as a dessert? "It's kind of like rice pudding, but a bit gritty like couscous, it's basically a bit like pasta, and it's cooked in milk and sugar."
You turn them off of eating (oh well more for me) and they look at you weirdly. People I know are split into three camps:
- those that tried semolina and hated it, (usually school dinners)
- those that refuse on principle to try it, (either because they've *heard* of semolina, or we tried to describe it)
- those that like semolina but think the way my family makes it is too weird to try.
That is, most people eat it vanilla with raisins and almost an equal amount of dried semolina and sugar. We eat it chocolatey, and with *maybe* a quarter as much sugar as semolina. We like to let it go cold and thicken and get a skin on top.

Also, my mum's way of making instant coffee - the water and the milk are poured in at the same time in near-equal amounts creating a latte texture - she's been doing this since the 80's, and I was taught that was how you made instant coffee.

[kittyangel]

I personally don't consider this strange, but I've never heard of anyone else making it. My mom took a big can of baked beans and mixed in ketchup, mustard and brown sugar. Then she took a pack of hotdogs, sliced a couple and mixed them in, then wrapped the rest in Swiss cheese, placed them on top, and baked it in the oven. You can also use Provolone cheese. We ate it with butter bread. I love this meal and sometimes make it myself.

[Isobel_A]

My Dad used to make marmite and gherkin sandwiches. I really loved them, but the idea makes most people make the oddest gagging and retching sounds. . .

[kittyangel]

What is marmite???

[Isobel_A]

It's a sandwich spread popular in the UK (and there is also a version of Marmite and something called Vegemite in New Zealand and Australia).

It's called a yeast extract, and it's salty and savoury and extremely delicious. It's best eaten on hot buttered toast.

It's also an acquired taste and the whole ' you either love it or you hate it' is a running joke and part of the advertising strategy. Personally, I always say 'never trust a man who doesn't like marmite' ;)

[loveballet101]

My dad's side of the family (including me) all love raw potatoes...Whenever someone's slicing some potatoes to mash, we take a 1/3 inch thick slice, shake on some salt and snack away!

[BobB]

You are not alone: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/304121

[kittyangel]

Chili with PB? Hmmm..... We always had it with cornbread or butter bread. The only weird thing I can remember growing up (I'm guessing since we didn't have a lot of money), was a thick cheese sauce - probably Velveeta - over garden peas on toast. I actually think of it every now and then and would like to try it again. (I'd also like to try your mom's green tomato pie...recipe)???

One thing most people that I know think is strange is Pig Stomach (Hog Maw), but this is one of my favorite meals!

As for saltine crackers, we spread PB on them, but my boyfriend keeps saying his mom spread mayo on them and that they were good. Haven't tried it yet....

And tuna with hard boiled eggs. Where I come from, you either have a tuna sandwich (sans eggs) or a tuna salad sandwich (with eggs), so I was surprised to hear so many have not heard of it! (In fact we just had these today with Tomato soup. Yum!)

[emu48]

When I was a kid, I had a friend whose mom always served us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with a slice of Swiss cheese in it. They said that in their family, they never ate PB&J any other way. I remember it as pretty good, though I've never been tempted to make one myself. I prefer peanut butter and hot Indian pickle sandwiches, myself.

[guilty]

Yes; nut butter and achaar make for a great sandwich.

[staughton]

So, I'm not the only one who eats PB & Indian pickle sams (mango is best, but remember to remove the shards of pit)... I thought I came up with that one all by myself, high. lol. I have to hide to eat that one when no one's around for fear of getting caught. It's good with some raw onion, too.

[pie22]

it wasn't till college that i learned milk and cookies were not a common breakfast combo.
the rule was one cookie per glass of milk when we were younger - the glasses were maybe 8 oz and pretty much the only way i would drink milk so good looking out fam!

[pine time]

We had 2 odd breakfast items: either peanut butter mushed with some pancake syrup or butter with the syrup. Both were eaten with little little bits of white bread. Didn't know that it was "odd" until I mentioned it to a friend!

[Pzz]

While growing up in Baltimore, my family absolutely insisted on having sauerkraut with their Thanksgiving turkey dinner. I was well into adulthood before I was made aware that this was considered unseemly most other places. Unfortunately, my current girlfriend despises sauerkraut and howls endlessly if she even thinks she can smell it.

[jbsiegel]

We ALWAYS have sauerkraut with Thanksgiving and Christmas turkey dinners - it MUST be there! (Of course, both my parents grew up in Baltimore, so that explains it.) My husband now insists that it be there too - he's a convert. We also always have succotash.

[Pzz]

After inviting down family members from Pennsylvania over the holidays, they embraced the turkey with sauerkraut concept and have now made it part of their mandatory side dishes. I think the sauerkraut thing is spreading...

[merg01]

After 45 years living in Baltimore, my PA born father STILL complains every Thanksgiving about people eating sauerkraut with turkey. Sauerkraut belongs with the New Year's Day roast pork, mashed potatoes and applesauce. (kraut goes ON the potatoes). Mary Ellen

[jbsiegel]

Sauerkraut goes with most anything in my world!! The thing I think is awful is applesauce on pork. Somehow that fruit / meat thing DOESN'T do it for me!

For Thanksgiving - nothing better than a bite of sauerkraut, succotash, stuffing and turkey - all at once.

[firstlady]

Eating crackers with spaghetti and meat sauce. Also, sprinking salt on watermelon before eating it. Oh, and putting chopped, hard-boiled eggs in tuna salad.

[gaffk]

Do you mean there are families that don't put hard boiled eggs in tuna salad?

[cleobeach]

Love hard boiled egg in tuna salad! Actually I don't remeber the yolk in the salad but just the white in tiny cubes.

I just read through much of this thread. Too funny! My best friend's mom put oleo on all sandwiches and I thought that was odd.

I grew up in a rural, agricultural area and everyone's family stretched their food dollars so I don't know that my family's "weird" was any stranger than anyone else's "weird" No one would have remarked on oddities.

Prior to meeting him, my cousin's wife thought oleo/margarine was the same thing as butter. She grew up hearing margarine called butter. When they moved in together, my cousin was horrified to see a tube of margarine in the fridge. They had sort of a "who is on first" conversation about butter/maragine until he ran to the store, bought butter and had her do a blind taste test.

As she put it - "he changed my life with that butter. How could I have lived to 30+ years old not knowing about butter?"

[gaffk]

I am so happy to hear that poor woman finally met your cousin. Her cooking and baking skills probably increased 100% just from that one discovery.

[kittyangel]

I never even heard the word "oleo" until I was in my 20's or 30's. We always had butter and margarine. What exactly is oleo?

[buttertart]

The full word is "oleomargarine". Oleo is a US usage I believe (we called it margarine in SW Ontario).

[hill food]

yes, the name is a derivation of oil, during the rationing in WWII the makers were legally denied from adding coloring so as not to be a real butter competitor by looking like it, stuff looks like lard in the real world (which I would prefer in fact).

[BobB]

Later it was allowed to be sold with packets of coloring that you could mix in at home to make it look more buttery. Later still pre-dyed margarine became available and remains so to this day.

[hill food]

wow I forgot that detail. thanks!

[firstlady]

I made tuna salad w/egg (the way my father still makes it) and my co-workers were aghast. Even my boss was turned off by it. Outside of my father's tuna salad, I've never had it with hard-boiled eggs.

[hill food]

re tuna and egg: it makes sense to me, I like a Nicoise, so why the hell not?

[kittyangel]

It's not officially tuna "salad" unless there's HB egg in it!!!

[just_M]

I have never tried or even seen tuna salad w/egg. But thinking I like both egg and tuna salad I think I'll give it a go. What goes into it? Just mayo?

[decolady]

My Mom always fixed tuna salad with hard cooked eggs and so do I. Ingredients: tuna, chopped hardcooked egg, sweet pickle relish, sometimes some chopped celery, mayo, a little mustard, and a touch of vinegar or dill pickle juice. My daughters don't like sweet pickles, so I just use dill relish.

[The Professor]

I like it with just mayo, salt, pepper, maybe a dash of celery seed powder, and a hint of lemon. Chopped onion is ok, as is finely chopped celery (but both are very optional), but I save the pickle relish for the ham salad. Tried it in the tuna, don't like it.

[just_M]

Thanks - my usual tuna salad profile is similar to The Professor so I think I'll do a side by side w/ decolady's more deviled version. Mmmm sandwich time :-)

[1sweetpea]

When I was in Tunisia I had a delicious breakfast sandwich that included all of the following: tuna, hard boiled egg, potatoes, olives, capers, preserved lemon, peppers, tomatoes, onions, cucumber, parsley, olive oil and harissa. I'm pretty sure butter was available as well. The potatoes seemed like needless filler to me, but the rest of the ingredients were like magic together. I now do endless riffs on this combination in salads and sandwiches. I've also substituted the potatoes and eggs for navy or great northern beans, using an oil and vinegar dressing instead of the harissa, for something more Italian.

I grew up eating my mother's tuna salad, which consisted of solid white tuna mashed with mayo, sweet pickle juice, onion powder and not much else. Though the pickle juice did something interesting to it, it was otherwise pretty dull. I haven't used onion or garlic powder since the day I moved out, save for in chili powder blends, which I rarely use. To be honest, since I discovered dark tuna in olive oil in jars, I've had a hard time even considering buying the super dry stuff in cans. Yes, yes, I know I'm a tuna snob.

[hill food]

oh I like that Tunisian dish mention, sort of a variant on Nicoise.

[jbsiegel]

My mom always made "Tuna Surprise." This was tuna, Miracle Whip, sweet pickle relish, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, Velveeta cheese, and hard-boiled eggs run through a mouli grater. Stuff all that in a hot dog bun, wrap it in foil and cook at 350 for 30 minutes - yum!

[guilty]

My grandfather would eat Saltines with everything, including pasta. He was famous (within the family) for bringing a box of Saltines to Chinese restaurants. I didn't realize it was odd until it was 10 or so and noticed we were the only ones with crackers . . .

[L987]

hmm i think most food we ate in my family was normal, I have some weird sandwiches ive learned from friends, some r really good.

butter, marmelade and cheese
butter, chocolate (drinkmix) powder
creamcheese, applesauce, ham
meatballs, beetsalad (pickled beets, apple, mayo)
butter, icingsugar

[The Professor]

The creamcheese/applesauce/ham combination sounds very tasty.

[fryerlover]

Hash, yes we ate hash. Hash was basically all leftover thrown into a frying pan and fried in some butter. It could be carrots, cabbage, meat, potatoes.....anything left from last nights dinner. I thought it was horrible and come to find out later we had it due to budget. Also, my dad ate molasses with white bread which I tried a few times but did not like it and could never touch it now.

[NicoleFriedman]

Pasta with ketchup. My parents still love it but I shudder now:}

Matzo brie with maple syrup- still yummy!

[BamiaWruz]

I love adding a drop of ketchup to my tomato sauce for pasta. I don't know but the flavour reminds me of my mum's friends sending over dishes of pasta from time to time and I always wondered what made it so sweet but tasty. Recently I figured out it's ketchup and lots of "spices" .. I just love it, reminds me of my childhood so I make it from time to time.

[L987]

I always have ketchup with pasta.. (even if it has its own sauce) i thought that was normal (it is where i live) but when I was in the US and ate spagetti and meatsauce with some ameican friends they kinda looked at me like i had lost my mind when i put ketchup on my food..

Here (sweden, europe) we even have a tv commercial that says "you should always eat ketchup to everything, everyday."

[just_M]

I had friends that added mayo to their spaghetti - I thought yuck! but I of course tried it and its not bad, just not my thing.

[davis_sq_pro]

Matzah brei with salami + onions (sauteed), with maple syrup. Everything you need in breakfast (about three days' worth), in one tasty dish.

[NellyNel]

Wow!
That sounds delicious!

I have got to try it!!

[micahg]

Matzo meal with milk as a bed time snack- we called it mishmash. I still eat it

[burgeoningfoodie]

I can't even fathom that..

[gentlyferal]

Once or twice a year, our family would have bacon feeds. Really - mom would fry up a couple pounds of bacon, dish up a little apple sauce, and the four of us would eat it all.

[staughton]

I'm a year and a half late, but that sounds like pure bliss. Next time my family gets together, we're honoring yours by having a bacon feed.

[ZenSojourner]

"Spanish Noodles", made from egg noodles, hamburger, chopped onions, and campbell's condensed tomato soup

"Sloppy joes", made from hamburger, chopped onions, chili sauce, and ketchup.

Salt on fresh watermelon.

"bologna salad", which was chub bologna put through the meat grinder with whole gherkins and I forget what else, but involving lots and lots of mayonnaise eventually.

and milk toast, which was toast shredded into a bowl and then drenched in scalded milk with butter, salt and pepper.

Milk toast is the only thing that has followed me into adulthood.

[decolady]

Salt on watermelon was done by some of the people in my family, but not all of them. We also had milk toast and milk noodles.

[jmckee]

My mom salted canteloupe.

[elle7573]

My dad put salt AND pepper on canteloupe

[alkapal]

i do, too.

[kittyangel]

I thought everyone but me put salt on watermelon, cantaloupe and garden tomatoes. (I probably don't because when I was little my mom had high sodium and practically eliminated salt from our diets.)

[BobbyG]

This is an older post, but the bologna salad cought my eye. That is basically what "Fleischsalat" is in Germany, though there the bologna is sliced or cubed. I get it regularly at my local German deli and it's great on German bread for lunch. Oh, and growing up, salt on watermelon was common where I grew up...though I don't do that anymore.

[elle7573]

Dad always put sugar on the mac and cheese

[Purrkins]

Kidney stew. My grandmother would make it for me, well-cleaned young beef kidney, floured, pan-fried, with cut-up potato and a few other spices (I'll have to look at my recipes when I get home), started on top of the stove, and finished with lemon slices on top in the oven in a cast-iron skillet.

Yeah, I know, it's KIDNEY! Ewwww. There are some things that I've read on this topic that make me ewww. Each to his own.

[The Professor]

Most people that go "ewwwww' at those sorts of things have never even bothered to taste them. The same people have no problem eating deli lunch meats not knowing that beef anuses and hearts are commonly used (both muscle meats, after all). Ignorance is bliss, I guess.
To put it into perspective, I knew someone that would go "ewwwww" at the mere mention of chicken.
Each to his own, indeed.

[nyxpooka]

I guess its what passes through the kidney that bothers me :P

[kittyangel]

I get the "ewwwwww" whenever I tell people pig stomach (hog maw) is my favorite meal. But it's just loose sausage and potatoes (some people add carrot) stuffed into the stomach of a pig and baked. The actual stomach gets browned on the outside and while I don't eat it, my dad and brother do.

[grlwhoeats]

I spent nearly every day with my grandmother as a kid. Generally, until I went to elementary school, I never ever had a "cold" lunch. Lunch was always a cooked meal- no sandwiches. My grandmother made me pastina with butter and when it got hot she cracked an egg into it, added some parmesan cheese and served it with a side of cooked spinach with oil and red wine vinegar sprinkled on it. And speaking of....we never had salad dressing, just oil and vinegar. Oh, and salad always came at the end of the meal, right before dessert.

[cgarner]

...grlwhoeats are we related?
If I was home sick from school, my mom or dad woudl drop me off at my grandparents house. My grandmom would give me the pastina with an egg and grated locatelli (sometimes it was in broth, like a stracchiatelli) whenever I was sick

[chef chicklet]

My dad was always in the kitchen making something and then he'd name it something goofy, like kasabi. That dish was actually mashed potatoes, white navy beans and sourkraut. I loved it and would eat bowls of it. He also loved to make oyster stew, which consisted of evaporated milk, jarred oysters, lots of butter,salt and pepper. I loved that, I think my brother and sister would hide when he was cooking this, I know they never ate it.

We had fish every Friday night. Mostly fish my dad caught. Mostly fresh water fish like perch and bluegill. The bluegill bigger than your hand. We'd either have homemade fries or hushpuppies, and always a salad and dessert. Yum.

[decolady]

We also had lots of freshwater fish, mostly caught by my grandparents or greatgrandparents. And of course sometimes we kids got to fish, too. Besides perch and bluegill, we also had a lot of bass. Hush puppies, hot green tomato pickles, and some delicious dessert. No fries.

[nyxpooka]

Love love love bluegill! Just about as good as crappies, if you ask me. I miss fresh fish so much, no one will fish or help clean them so I gave up....sigh

[Passadumkeg]

A huge pot of freshly picked Jersey sweet corn, cooked for 2 min. Nothing else, just corn, butter & salt. Summer time and the livin' was eeeasy.

[buttertart]

My mom and dad used to throw big "corn roasts"at the cottage that were actually "corn boils" in midsummer - parties featuring many many beers and other libations and huge pots of corn, burgers and dogs as a side dish, corn was the main thing, sliced field tomatoes and my mom's cookies and squares for dessert. A swell way to spend a warm night near the river under the stars. I could never figure out why my dad could have all the beers he wanted but I could only have one pop. Unfairness to small children.

[stuck in Hartford County]

Sounds like fun! My brother and I used to roll our eyes when mom forced dad to pull over at every darn farm market we passed on the way to the beach or lake, but now we both do the same thing!

[leishakae]

We always had pan-toasted cheerios as a snack for in church when we were little. Delicious.

[burgeoningfoodie]

SOemone else I know loved this as a snack but I think thye sprinkled a little sugar on it.

[Sherio88]

my grandma made ostakaka all the time, which is like warm cottage chees made out of milk straight from a cow... I liked it, and thought it was normal. Oyster stew is another one that Ithought was pretty standard.

[decolady]

Oyster stew was pretty standard fare when I was growing up in Louisiana.

[amylovescupcakes]

I grew up in Southern California, and had Indian and Korean neighbors, whose children were my best friends. Consequently, I have tried many things that my Southern friends now think I am crazy for :) I loved just putting hot cooked rice in salted seaweed wraps with soy sauce sprinkled on it.

[Emmysue]

Some time try baked beans topped with sour cream.

Or Bohemian potato soup made with bacon, onions, diced potatoes, dried mushrooms and barley. It is all cooked together until the potatoes begin to disintegrate Then salt and pepper to taste. The bacon is diced and the bacon fat is not drained away. Just saute the diced onions in it and proceed from there.

[UnderemployedInNYC]

My mom always snacked on steamed green beans salted and dipped in ketchup. I do too- its actually the only thing I regularly use ketchup for. Other favorite family treats? My beautifully svelt grandma makes grilled cheese sandwiches on rye in the toaster oven, and serves them with individual dipping bowls of mayo.

http://underemployedinnyc.blogspot.com/

[Emme]

i used to put ketchup on EVERYTHING. oh how i envy you and your mom. i sorely miss it. damn allergies.

[UnderemployedInNYC]

Woah, a ketchup allergy! Is it the tomato? Or is it whatever fake sugar product makes it nice and goopy?

http://underemployedinnyc.blogspot.com/

[Emme]

yeast and anything fermented... as well as gluten... can't have the vinegar in it. *tear* and *giant sobs in my bedroom*

[The Professor]

What a bummer. How and when were you diagnosed? Was this a late onset sort of thing?

Allergies are strange. Never suffered from hay fever until I hit my 40's, but my M.D, told me allergies can arise spontaneously. I'm always terrified that I'll wake up one day allergic to tea.
I don't know what I'd do!

[Emme]

diagnosed as an adult. i had gluten a couple of years ago. then i lost dairy and casein about a year and a half ago. then the yeast/fermented foods (and coconut - no loss there for me, as i don't like it) about a year ago. i get what i call "african refugee bloating" where my stomach looks like a beach ball pregnancy - it's really unreal.... but i finally saw an allergist... and got the sad, but life-changing/saving news... i eat well. and in fact, it keeps me eating really nutrient dense foods.

[UnderemployedInNYC]

That's rough. My own food allergies are more like annoyances- awful stomach aches, or itchy tongue and palette kind of stuff. Ginger, lavender, pistachio (this one is new and never used to be a problem), brazil nuts... But I don't have any life-changing food allergies- lactose intolerance is super manageable. My doc said I'm lactose intolerant because when I was little I was allergic to milk and milk products, so from not eating it I stopped producing the enzymes to digest it.

http://underemployedinnyc.blogspot.com/

[kittyangel]

Does that mean no beer, wine or tomatoes? I don't know if I could go on living! My heart bleeds for you!

P.S. I ran into a guy in the ER at the Hospital where I work who couldn't eat things like tomato and cantaloupe & a lot of other stuff but I can't remember what his condition was called. It wasn't allergies tho.

[joyjunkie]

Fried corn meal mush? It's called scrapple. My mom would put cooked chopped bacon in it!

[jmckee]

Not exactly. Scrapple has meat products in it, as does the Cincinnati equivalent, Goetta.

[merg01]

Rappa scrapple in MD. I especially like the new spicy version. I'm a thin and crispy girl; husband is more a thicker and soft center kind of guy. Mary Ellen

[DomesticDizziness]

Jello with milk, with a light sprinkle of sugar on top
We ate that for desert. I still eat it on occasion. My husband can't even be in the room.
My mom told me her grandmother from Italy served it to her. I'm not sure if it's because my great grandmother was weird or if this similar to an Italian sweet dish.

[guygirl94]

Gefilte fish. 'Nuf said.

[nyxpooka]

Lutefisk at my house. Just mom and dad though.,,wish I could like it but it just isnt happening...

[Ramesh1314]

All families do this, this is how recipes come about in the first place. There really isn't anything more normal about whipped cream vs maple syrup on pumpkin pie, or a pumpkin pie over a green tomato pie, or oatmeal for breakfast vs what your dad called "mush". In the end the human body breaks it all down to protein, fats or sugars, the various configurations of the various foods are more cultural and social than anything having to do with the normal operation of the human body.

[boyzoma]

My mom made 2 things for breakfast that I thought was normal.

First was Milk Toast - buttered toast, cut into cubes, sprinkled with sugar then hot milk pored over the top.

Second was hot rice, a pat of butter on it, sprinkled with brown sugar and again, warm milk over the top.

I always thought both were delicious, but didn't know almost no one else ate it!

[jAmbre]

I always thought that oxtail or curried goat with rice were "normal" foods. I didn't understand why my non-islander friends would freak out if I mentioned it...

[kittyangel]

OK, I give up. Did you really eat the tail of an ox? Seriously, what is oxtail? I've been wondering this all my adult life. Just last week while at the meat market I heard someone request it, and I was thinking "Geez, that sounds gross." (Like tripe and pickeled pig's feet - altho I guess I shouldn't knock it til I try it.)

[Isobel_A]

It really is the tail of the ox - the fleshy bit at the top where it meets the spine. Oxtail soup is a big thing in the UK - my Granddad used to love it.

[brandywiner]

I've had it twice in South Africa. It really is oxtail, and, more importantly, it's delicious!

[BobB]

I've had it (and made it myself) plenty of times here in the US. Nothing exotic about oxtail - though for the record, here (and I'm pretty sure in the UK as well) it's actually beef tail, not ox, despite the name.

Think osso buco, but with smaller pieces - tough meat, slow cooked to tenderness on the bone. A basic preparation would be a simple stew, more elaborate might involve braising, then shredding the cooked meat and using it in a ragu or to stuff ravioli. Really delicious stuff!

I've only rarely had goat but that's because it's hard to find in most markets here. Oxtail should be available in pretty much any good supermarket.

[buttertart]

And every one catering to Asian or Latin American/Caribbean clientele.

[hill food]

and it's excellent for the base stock of a French onion soup

[woodleyparkhound]

A layer of crumbled up saltine crackers on top of macaroni and cheese before it went into the oven. When I discovered other families put crumbled up potato chips on top, I was jealous!

[Alan N]

Kraft style or homemade? I'm jealous of you, we never used an oven for our Mac (not homemade). Much less a topping.

[woodleyparkhound]

Sorry for the late response; I only just now noticed a huge brain fart in my post. I didn't mean macaroni and cheese (though my mom made homemade mac and cheese - we never had Kraft), I meant homemade tuna and noodle casserole, one of my ultimate favorite meals as a child.

She topped homemade mac and cheese with more grated cheese before it went into the oven.

[joyjunkie]

My Mom used potato chips in her tuna casserole, but not like you would think. She used them instead of noodles! We called it bomb shelter casserole. Here's why:

can of tuna
can of milk
can of mushroom soup
can of peas
big bag of potato chips

crunch up chips, stir it all up together and plop it into a shallow casserole for maximum crunch on top! Still a guilty pleasure! Still wierd as hell!

[stuck in Hartford County]

I used to put plain potato chips on my tuna sandwiches. It sounds gross, but it was pretty good. At least back then!

[NellyNel]

Potato chips are good on ANY sandwich - IMO!

[jmckee]

Years ago on "A Prairie Home Companion," Garrison Keillor and Jean Redpath did a duet called "Tuna Casserole" sung to the tune of "Whispering Hope."

"Tuna casserole / Oh how sweet to my lips. / Tuna and noodles and mushroom and chips."

[Passadumkeg]

I'm surprised I forgot ryebreadbutterandsugar, it was pronounced as one word. Corn rye from Seitz's Bakery, butter and topped w/ a sprinkling of sugar. My regular school day break fast as a child. Seitz's is gone, but I bring back corn rye from Royal Bakery when we visit.

[ilovefood80]

My Mum used to cook corned beef (from a can) with spinach and serve it with rice. I though it tasted good at the time but if someone served it to me now I think I'd vomit! :-D

[BobB]

That sounds kind of Hawaiian.

[ItaliAnna]

Let's see here...some childhood meals and snacks were mac and cheese with hot dogs, butter and jelly sandwiches, tuna sandwiches with potato chips, grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (like grilled cheese, only not), hamburger patties and corn in tomato soup over rice, american cheese melted over popcorn, breakfast for dinner, iceberg lettuce spread with mustard and rolled up, tortilla with cream cheese rolled up and warmed in the microwave; and my favorite: homemade chocolate frosting between Saltine crackers.

At a friend's house once, I was offered spaghetti and a toasted bagel. This absolutely blew my mind! How could they eat a heavy bagel with heavy pasta? Then I remembered that we always had garlic bread, and a bagel is just another type of bread... Silly me.

One thing I like to do now is spread a brown rice cake with guacamole, then top it with Tapatio and agave or maple syrup. I kid you not, the spicy-sweet is so good. I also make spicy fried rice and top it with a fried egg. That's not the weird part. The rice contains a spoonful of jam. Again, spicy-sweet. hmm.

HotMelly, you mentioned "yellow circley stuff"--Would that be quinoa? Or more like circular cornmeal patties?

[ecarrera]

i totally get the guac, tapatio and syrup rice cake! I can't wait to go home and try it.

[ecarrera]

ItaliAnna, I would like to report that the rice cake, guacamole snack is one of the best food combos i have ever tasted. Thanks for the recipe!

[kittyangel]

Mac & cheese - Heaven on Earth!!!

We sometimes had breakfast for dinner on Sunday nights - usually pancakes or French Toast. Sometimes I make my boyfriend creamed chipped beef on toast for dinner - but maybe that's pretty common??? It's great because it's so easy to make!

[merg01]

Creamed chipped beef on toast with fried potatoes and onions and canned peas. Always a dinner item. I'd never heard of it being served for breakfast until I was grown and eating at diners. Mary Ellen

[Diamond]

I'm talking about Greek food all day today - I'm starting to sound like a broken record! But really, I grew up eating baklava and spanikopita, and I'm always amused at how people react. "What the heck is phyllo dough?" "Walnuts and honey?" "Spinach pie?" They usually get it once they taste it though. ;D

[decolady]

My grandfather used to get my grandmother to make him two slices of cheese toast. Thick slices of cheddar on homemade bread. When it was toasted, he sprinkled a good layer of sugar over the top and ate it with a knife and fork. I've never known anyone else to do that.

[The Professor]

Never heard of this, but it sounds kind of interesting...the salty nature of the cheddar with the sweetness of the sugar. Come to think of it, it's probably in the same ballpark as cheddar on sweet apple pie...something I never heard of until college in the midwest in the early '70's

[Passadumkeg]

Easting pickled herring w/ onions and sour cream on rye bread for breakfast. All my WASP buddies were horrified, and come to think of it, I still eat it and my Yankee friends are still horrified. I think I'll go have some.

[The Professor]

Sounds good to me. Love the fish things for breakfast...another favorite of mine is a side of kippers with my soft scrambled eggs. Yum.

[hill food]

Passadumkeg: that's entirely WASP (well maybe more Saxon than Angle) and some even Yankee - they've just forgotten their heritage.

[Passadumkeg]

When I worked in Norway, we'd go to an all you can eat smorgosbord breakfast every Friday. I'd eat about 10 different kinds of herring on great breads. All of my Iowan "Sons of Norway" colleagues would say, Eeeewww, Dumkeg, how can you eat raw fish for breakfast?" To which I'd reply, "How can you come 5000 mi. to another culture and eat Corn Flakes?"

[hill food]

losers. more for you.

[nyxpooka]

Ugh, I hate travelling with people like that! Drives me crazy!

[michelleTO]

My mom regularly made french toast with cheese - two pieces of white bread coated in french toast batter with a slice of processed cheese in the middle. Almost exactly the same as grilled cheese but served with pancake syrup. I'm vegan now but when I think of comfort/mom food I think of things like this.

Other not so normal foods my mom would cook - fried bologna sandwiches, mashed potatoes mixed with ground beef and leftover gravy (gross! she called it slop and it was mostly to use leftovers), etc. My grandmother also ate ketchup on toast frequently.

I think if we ever have kids they will grow up and post many of my parters favourite foods on a board like this. He lived in Newfoundland, what more do I need to say...

[foodmongrel]

Jello with milk....

[buttertart]

Hey! We used to eat that too. Red jello pls.

[monavano]

The only salad dressing I knew growing up was French/Russian dressing, which consisted of mayo and ketchup. Maybe a little relish if Mom was getting fancy.
I still make it from time to time and serve over iceburg.

[guilty]

Cheerios with cream cheese as the perfect finger food for toddlers. Or kids older than toddlers. I was a little chagrined when I mentioned this to a pregnant friend and she made a face. I guess it isn't that common after all . . .

[bobbybologna]

My mom used Campbell's condensed cream of tomato soup as a spaghetti sauce, right out of the can. Just plopped it on or heated it up, no water or milk. She called it Jewish Spaghetti. Sweet. I still make it for myself. No one else seems to eat this.

[tiffeecanoe]

my mom made something similar! Clearly we didn't call it Jewish spaghetti as it had bacon in it. It was onions sauteed in the bacon fat, bacon pieces and condensed tomato soup poured over the macaroni noodles. I still make this too, total comfort dish!

[nyxpooka]

I still add tomato soup to my spaghetti sauce concoction...its got about a dozen preprepared foods in it but everyone loves my sauce the best. The tomato soup adds a sweetness you just cant imitate with anything else...I know its weird...

[pantsless]

Canned tuna mixed with mayonnaise. I don't know why, but everyone I talk to about it tells me it's good mixed with shoyu and thinks that tuna + mayo is gross. It's a natural sandwich filling combo, following eggs + mayo and chicken + mayo!

We also grew up eating chicken with ketchup because that's how my grandma ate it.

I also love tomato sandwiches with just a little salt and pepper.

[BobB]

Where did you grow up? In the US tuna with mayo is the most standard of all standard forms of tuna salad. There are hundreds of variations and optional additions, but a base of tuna and mayo is darn near universal!

[brandywiner]

Ditto. At least in North America, just about every tuna salad I've ever seen starts with tuna & mayo.

[kittyangel]

I agree. I'm from central PA and can't imagine tuna any other way, same with egg salad, chicken salad and ham salad. What else would you use? It's found on many salad/deli bars and menus and is a staple in our house. I make it with real mayo or Miracle Whip and like to have it on toast with a bowl of Campbell's Tomato Soup. (I actually get cravings for this!)

Some of the most common additions I've seen are celery, hard-boiled egg, onion, relish and (rarely) carrot. It's also good paired with slices of American cheese. If I have time, I like to chop up celery, carrot and green pepper into tiny bits and mix them in. Good way to get some extra vegi's.

[FreshMango]

The only one I can think of is "Catalina Chicken" basically my mom cut up a whole chicken, glugged a bottle of Catalina dressing on it and baked it. It's actually really good, but none of my friends had ever heard of it, and one of them actually wouldn't eat it. I was really embarrassed.

[alkapal]

i think we had a discussion about something like that, and i believe the one we discussed also had mayo. it was a "famous" dish from somewhere. (maybe it's hidden over there in the "strange combinations" thread). if you deconstruct the dressing (and the mayo) it would be normal, but it is the thought of using the prepared dressing (i guess) that drove some hounds off the cliff.

does anyone recall the thread?

~~
edit: now i recall, it was *french* dressing, like the kraft version. that's pretty close to catalina dressing, more or less. i guess catalina has more tomato?

[buttertart]

Is it more tomato or more paprika? Not sure. More tangy/garlic-y as I recall.

[alkapal]

you're right -- catalina is *tangier.* it's been a long time....;-).

[buttertart]

For me, too. It was my favorite dressing when I was in my teens. The chicken dish sounds...intriguing?

[alkapal]

that's apt! i'm almost tempted to try it. LOL.

[buttertart]

Intriguing being one step away from scary in this case!

[stuck in Hartford County]

My mom used to make something called Catalina Chicken, but I can't remember what it was like- odd, since I remember almost every meal I've eaten. We always had a bottle of that dressing around-sticky, unnaturally red, sweet/tart, totally processed. It tended to glob-up at the mouth of the bottle-repulsive goo. Did she dump it on chicken and call it Catalina Chicken? I'm going to ask. The recipe, undoubtedly, includes margarine in some way or another...

[buttertart]

Well, if you're going to go there, you might as well go all the way!

[rednails]

My mother made that too, I think it was a very common dish from the 50s-60s. One night when I was very short of time I made it and my son pretty much told me not to bother making it again.

[FreshMango]

Catalina dressing does not have any mayo in it, so it isn't creamy, it's kind of "clear" . The ingredients are mostly tomato, vinegar, garlic, and HFCS, with some paprika for color. It's still my favorite basic bottled dressing besides Lighthouse creamy chunky blue cheese.
As for "additions" there were none.
The only steps were :
Cut up chicken (or take cut up fryer out of package)
Place in glass baking dish
Open bottle of Catalina dressing
Pour dressing on chicken
Bake.

[stuck in Hartford County]

Yup, my mom confirmed this when I asked her for the "recipe". Was all cooking that easy back then? I can't bear to think about all the chemicals we (unknowingly) ingested as kids. At least my mom drew the line at King Vitamin. I had to have go across the street to my friend's house for that.

[boagman]

"Salmon loaf". To this day, I've never seen it anywhere else, nor in anyone else's home. Think "meatloaf", only pretty lousy. Edible, yes, but certainly enough to get this guy believing that salmon, in all of its forms, was just bad. Mom used canned salmon for this "dish", and I've come to the conclusion that there's a very specific/important reason that the canned salmon manufacturers use a close-up of a salmon head prominently on the front of the can: they do that because that's probably the only part of the actual fish that they use.

Thankfully, I've learned that salmon is *far* better than this early exposure but still, some things just shouldn't be done. After all: what's that poor salmon ever done to *you* to deserve such treatment?

[stuck in Hartford County]

Hurl! My mom used to make salmon "burgers" with this gross canned salmon that had these small, firm, white, bony things shaped like tiny boat winches, in them- and they crunched! She "breaded them w/grits and fried in Crisco. Once I caught her grinding the whole foul mess up in the blender to "get rid of" the bony things. Did she think I was a moron?! God awful stuff. I refuse to eat salmon to this day.

Bologna, for us, came in a red, plastic cylinder- about 3 inches in diameter. You cut off the amount you "needed". She also bought bologna "loaf" that had olives and peppers in it. That wasn't bad on cheap white bread w/mayo. Maybe I WAS a moron.

[BobB]

We had a variation on those canned salmon "burgers," but my mom called them salmon croquettes. There were pretty much at the bottom of the list in our food rotation, favorites-wise. And yeah, those bones were nasty. Fortunately, being Jewish, I was also raised on smoked salmon so I knew salmon could be good. Just not the canned stuff. Maybe something edible can be made from canned salmon, I don't know, I just can't stand the sight of those cans and have never let one cross my threshold since I moved out of my parents' house.

[brandywiner]

In our house, canned salmon was heated in milk and served over mashed potatoes. Truly awful. Like Boagman, I grew up thinking this WAS salmon, and wouldn't touch the stuff in any form until well into my 20s. (Yet another of my "Is THAT what this is supposed to taste like?" moments.)

[stuck in Hartford County]

No way is canned salmon over mashed potatoes "normal" food! Sometimes I wonder why parents served this stuff- were they like "Why don't I serve something really gross (but "good" for you) w/something the kids love (like milk and mashed potatoes)- maybe they won't notice, since it all goes to the same place, anyway!"

Another food mom mangled was scallops. She boiled them until they were like marbles. "That way, all the parasites are killed". I had my "Is THAT what scallops are supposed to taste like" moment on the Cape one winter, when I was in my 30's.

[BobB]

Now that is truly disgusting. Almost inspiringly so - I'm tempted to start a "worst thing your family did with canned salmon" thread. But if I did I don't know whether I would put it on General Chowhounding or Not About Food. ;-)

[buttertart]

Hold the phone! I as well as I am sure a lot of other people of Canadian origin were raised on canned salmon sandwiches (red sockeye please) (was more common than tuna where I grew up) and like it very much indeed. Canned pink salmon heated in anything IS revolting.

[boagman]

Heh. You, as well as you? You sure about that? You want to check with yourself, first? ;)

Just kidding. I recently tried some canned salmon from a local Costco here, and while it was better than I expected it to be, it was hardly anything I'd call "good". That being said, I have no idea whether it was red sockeye or not.

[buttertart]

I as well as (I am sure) a lot of other people of Canadian origin...it's a childhood thing, one of the few ways fish was served in my house. Maybe tuna was more expensive (and canned tuna is one of the very few things I never got a taste for).

[alkapal]

you all might want to know there are fans of canned salmon "patties" on these boards. they were delicious to me when i was growing up, and my mom insisted on crushing the bones so they disintegrated (good calcium, she'd say). she mixed in a little flour, egg to bind, salt and pepper, and shaped it like a thinner, smaller burger. then she fried it in a cast iron skillet in, most likely, crisco or some vegetable oil. when they came out of the skillet, she put them on a paper towel on a plate to cool and drain. i'd sneak them off that paper towel, i loved them so much.

i think the canned salmon was a food common in the depression, when my mom grew up. i actually looked forward to those salmon patties.

[buttertart]

Same here, child of people who went through the depression. My mom always took out the bigger bones and the skin, and mashed the rest up for sandwiches. Calcium was adduced as the reason for leaving in the smaller ones as well. My mother-in-law makes a very good salmon loaf with red salmon. Have not had salmon cakes, but I bet they would be tasty too. I'm just not keen on creamed pink salmon on anything (grade 8 home ec trauma).

[stuck in Hartford County]

I thought we must be related, due to the fact that seem to agree with about 99.9% of your posted opinions. But then again, you say there are "fans" of these patties out there?! AND YOU ARE ONE OF THEM???!!! I feel so cheated!

[alkapal]

LOL! i love my mama's salmon patties, yessirree!

they make a good sandwich on white bread the next day. (i'll bet that one got ya, too!). ;-)).

[buttertart]

Try my mom's special sandwich: drained and picked-over canned red salmon mashed with a good bit of black pepper, on buttered whole wheat, with a layer of peeled thinly-sliced cucumbers that have been salted, drained, and marinated in cider vinegar. Or the salmon on buttered toasted white bread, no cukes.

[moonmau]

I agree. Always loved Mom's salmon patties, usually served with mac & cheese.

[lewinters]

yes, we called them salmon croquettes.

[JamieK]

Child of people who went through the depression and refugees from WWII as well as a Canadian here and I remember loving canned salmon so much that, as kids, my brother and I ate it straight from the can, bones and all. Had no qualms about crunching down on those bones. Also ate sardines straight from the cans,

My daughter, on the other hand, would not even consider eating salmon bones or sardines in any form, probably more averse than a flu shot to her and she's needle-phobic.

[stuck in Hartford County]

Canned salmon? "I'd rather stick needles in my eye!".
(Jack Nicholson and I)

[JamieK]

That's hilarious. Good call!

[nyxpooka]

She left the bones in? yuck. My mom made salmon loaf with creamed peas...I wouldnt touch it, bones or not...

[Cliocooks]

I had no idea canned salmon was so hated! I wonder why, when tuna is a staple?

My mother used to take the bones out before making salmon cakes--and my brother and I would eat the bones separately as a treat.

Canned salmon with crackers is a very standard lunch for me. Perhaps it's no accident that I married a Canadian.

[RetiredChef]

Veal – my mother loved veal and we ate veal scaloppini with different sauces 3-5 times a week, I just thought it was normal food.

Campbell’s Soup and Jell-o when you were sick, it didn’t matter what you had or what you wanted to eat you were served this, ironically we never ate Campbell’s soup or Jell-o any other time in my house. My mother would make wonderful home-made soups but not if you were sick.

There were only two salad dressing in the world – Green goddess and Russian

My mom made almost everything from scratch (unless we were sick), even bread and pasta, however I was convinced that all cakes must come from a boxed mix.

NOT my house but friends houses when growing up.

Miracle whip was the only salad dressing and it was only to be topped with Bac-O’s (imitation bacon bits)

Vanilla ice cream with BBQ sauce on it.

Powdered Mashed potatoes with Chocolate chip cookies served as an accompaniment to our main course of waffles – dessert was celery stalks with honey dribbled on them - she was a strange lady, nice but very strange.

[stuck in Hartford County]

For strange, I think the ice cream/BBQ sauce combo MUST take 1st prize here.

When we were sick, mom always made us 1)drink watery jello mix (you know, before it sets) I used to have nightmares about the jello congealing inside while I was sleeping., 2)homemade Tupperware popsicles (OJ, grape juice, apple juice), and 3)cream of wheat.

I haven't eaten any of those things since, although I might kill to get my hands on those old Tupperware pop molds!

[BobB]

Ooh, we had those plastic popsicle molds too, and made juice pops all summer. Boy, does that bring me back!

And if you really want some - I just checked ebay and there are tons of them out there, cheap.

[buttertart]

Cream of wheat is my personal nightmare food - was forced to eat it by a truly evil nurse after having an operation on my eye as a four-year-old still nauseated by the anesthetic, and awoke to find it on my breakfast tray the morning after being admitted to hospital for tests for suspected rheumatic fever as a teenager. Cannot bear even to look at the package in the store!

[JerryMe]

I haven't read the entire thread but yeah - SIHC - Retired Chef wins the 1st Blue Ribbon.

[alkapal]

ditto on the tupperware pop molds. i can picture the pops from them as if they were in front of me -- dripping from the summer heat.

these aren't tupperware, but they are cute molds: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=popsicle+molds+tupperware&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3093275295&ref=pd_sl_94bc40tuyn_b

mmm, look at some of these frozen popsicle recipes: http://www.mormonchic.com/recipe/recipebox/pages/summer_treats.asp

here's what the new tupperware molds look like: http://wahmshelly.blogspot.com/2008/0...
(fudgesicle recipe looks good, too)

[decolady]

We didn't have the Tupperware pop molds when I was a kid, but I bought those when my girls were little. In the summer I made them popsicles from organic apple juice. Also had a recipe for an apple frozen yogurt that was made with homemade applesauce that they used to like in the pop molds, too. The only time we ever had popsicles was at my grandmother's as my Mom never bought them.

[arp29]

The mention of homemade tupperware popsicles just made me smile:-) We had those made with OJ every summer!

[capicksnw]

re: boxed cake mix . . . i remember being horrified that my mom made angel food cake from a box throughout my childhood. i actually felt like a piece of me died that day . . .

[mickie44]

That reminds me of the time I made an angel food cake from scratch for someone's birthday. When I tried to impress my friend who is known for her baking, she said "You're kidding, right? That's the one thing that's better from a box!"

[CaitK]

Homemade popcorn covered in Brewer's yeast. No butter necessary. This is so popular where I'm from (Northern California) that they even have it at the movie theater!
My famiy ate lamb on all special occasions, and everyone would fight over it. All my friends thought that this was absolutely disgusting. We also ate blue cheese all the time. Never, ever had ranch dressing, american cheese, or white bread. Our grilled cheese sandwiches were always made on either whole wheat or sourdough bread with either cheddar or swiss cheese. Needless to say, the first time I ate grilled cheese at a friends house I was shocked.

[elle7573]

Mmm -- we did the yeast popcorn thing too! We also poured milk over buttered popcorn and ate it as breakfast cereal.

[italgal]

How about taking pickled eggplant sandwiches to school? I was teased and asked if it was dolphin, but I didn't care because they didn't know what they were missing. I also took Nutella sandwiches to school before anyone knew what it was (mid-70s in Michigan!)

[tatamagouche]

More about the pickled eggplant sandwiches please!

[kubasd]

i agree, those sound awesome...

[ntmyslftdy28]

I thought everyone put salt on their watermelon and canteloupe

[alkapal]

we did in s.w. florida! i add pepper on the cantaloupe, too.

[ntmyslftdy28]

we didnt really eat it but...in my house and my grandmothers we gave all the babies chicken bones(cleaned off) to gnaw on when they were teething ...the first time I did this with one of my children I thought my mother in law would pass out!

[JerryMe]

Oh no - you've 'outed' me - we did that in our family to! Of course I don't remember gnawing on the cold bones, but yeah. I remember a sister globbing some chicken gravy on the gnawed on bone and repeating the process. Too funny.

[bathtubninja]

jelly-filled omelettes.
S.O.S. (Shit On Shingles).
chicken gravy on pancakes, plus maple syrup.
cabbage pancakes with soy sauce.
coffee-Cokes with plenty of half&half.
frosting toast!
curried fruit every thanksgiving.

[kattyeyes]

We could be half-related with the jelly omelets and SOS. ;) And more so because I've never had coffee-Cokes or frosting toast, but both sound right up my family tree as to something we would like.

[watch me boogie]

Such a great and funny thread, lots of nostalgia...

We put ketchup on anything and everything: fish, steak, hot dogs, whatever. Except for pork chops, which were served with applesauce.

My Nana buttered all sandwiches, too. She'd also always butter pasta before adding red sauce (at home, though, we never added butter if there was red sauce).

The best was when we'd get tuna fish sandwiches with potato chips on white bread. You'd add the chips and then squish the sandwich down with your palm to break the chips. Mmmm.

[sharmilad]

In honor of my grandmother who passed away in the early nineties, these are some of mine:

Sardine curry (dry w/tomato)
spam curry or spam with pineapple curry (even though we did eat canned polish ham)
Corned beef from can, sauteed wtih onions and chillies
Fried eggs with soy sauce and sambal belacan over rice
and my favorite,
Calf brain cutlets (brain, dipped in Ammachi's particular batter, pan fried)

In honor of my mum:
Cheese Macaroni (yes, in that order) made with Kraft cheese that came in a Blue CAN I think from Australia
Banana and honey sandwiched in whole wheat bread

I'm Tamil (South Indian), but 4th generation Malaysian, (Penang). In general, my family ate really well and variously -- but I think those above dishes are holdovers from the WW2 of my grandparents and my mum's childhood.

Every time,my mum, now in her seventies, passes a can of sardines, she thinks of that curry. Me, I get cravings for spam and corned beef, but have never been able to get it to taste just right. I did share my spam curry recipe with an (italian American) boyfriend in college, and surprisingly, he really liked and "owned" the spam curry. I think he was also raised by parents with a keen appreciation for wartime food. My present husband, Israeli via Soviet Odessa, thinks spam and corned beef are gross. More for me.

[alkapal]

sharmilad, welcome to chowhound. mr. alka is tamil (sri lanka) and we love indian, sri lankan, thai, chinese, etc. i'm looking forward to your posts on the home cooking board!

[sharmilad]

Thank you for the welcome, Mr Alkapal. I'll have to check out the home cooking board. I'm very homesick for Cini Appam and Idiappom right now. Can't find anything like it anywhere in NYC unfortunately.

[tatamagouche]

What else is in the sardine curry?

[mtm7654]

Someone else mentioned this one: bacon baked into the waffle-oh boy, good! A friend of mine got me to eat my liverwurst sandwiches with both mayonaise AND mustard and a slice of tomato. I'm getting hungry for the weirdest things now...........

[capicksnw]

I don't really have "weird" foods sinceI was fortunate to be raised by a foodie dietician mom, ahead of her time. But because of that, I thought homemade salad dressing was normal: I didn't knowingly eat the bottled stuff until I was in college. We had a fresh salad for every meal except when we had tacos, because you basically put a salad in the shell along with the meat and beans (lettuce and tomatoes), I really thought this was the way everyone ate.

[caerphilly]

My mom would give us orange juice with brewer's yeast mixed in - I guess for the vitamins? To this day, when I drink OJ I taste the yeast too. It's not a bad flavor, just...distinct. And not orangey.

[caerphilly]

This is a wonderful thread! I just thought of another one. An ex-boyfriend's family put grape jelly on their mac and cheese. That still blows me away when I think about it- it actually tasted okay, but still seems deeply wrong.

[hill food]

that's something my cousin might have tried - she also did catsup soup (which was really good after nearly drowning one March afternoon - here's to you Nance )

[DallasChic]

Normal foods: Bierocks, Case-Noodle, spare ribs & sour kraut, Kraut soup. My fathers parents were from Russia, but were of German decent.

[hill food]

DC: that would have been good too

[mookie4177]

My mom would make us drink orange juice with a spoonful of bran stirred into it.

[alkapal]

so now all you have to drink is citrucel! ;-).

[stuck in Hartford County]

funny! i was going to post the same thing!

[alkapal]

actually, citrucel reminds me of tang -- until that last gulp.

[stuck in Hartford County]

The drink for astronauts!

[alkapal]

..with diapers.... ;-)).

[smkit]

I was raised in northern North Dakota in Scandinavian country (read: cold), but I thought lefse (Norwegian potato flat bread) and melk suppa (rice pudding/mush) was standard American holiday fare for an embarrassingly long time.

[mickie44]

My mom would buy one candy bar (I remember Milky Ways specifically) and cut it into thin slices to share among the four of us. I don't know if she was being frugal or didn't want us to have too much sugar. Probably the former since we had white bread, butter and sugar sandwiches at other times for our sweet treat. I was in my teens before I realized The Others considered a candy bar a treat for one.

[merrymc]

My grandparents are Irish. They had a difficult time conceptualizing salad, so they would just put together a few leaves of Iceberg lettuce, some tomato slices, and a big slathering heap of mayonnaise (or, worse Miracle Whip) on top. I thought a heap of mayo was a normal salad dressing for quite awhile.

They also cooked everything -- EVERYTHING -- in beef or pork grease/drippings (except on Fridays). Meat. Potatoes. Carrots. String beans. Eggs. Pancakes. They would save the drippings from the roasts to use for later meals. Everything tasted like roast beef, which was just how everyone liked it.

My husband is from Oklahoma. He made something called Watergate Salad for our family Thanksgiving (my family is from Philadelphia). None of us had heard of it. He claims every Midwest family has a recipe (it involves pistachio pudding, cool whip, pineapple...and after that I just didn't want to know). I was dubious, but I figured at least one person on here might be able to back him up.

[buttertart]

The dripping part sounds familiar, but just for meat - my mother would keep the fat in her electric frying pan for several days and just keep frying whatever in it (she was 3rd-generation Irish Canadian). And the Watergate Salad: I'm sure I'll only be the first of many posters to have experienced it in the midwest (my husband's great aunt was the queen of jello salads, some more successful than others). The concept of jello as salad is a testament to the power of advertising in shaping food preferences.

[dogthis]

we had 'watergate pudding' every easter, but it was called something like 'ew, that gross green crap that looks like puke.'

[tonina_mdc]

Oh yes, see my above post! The pistachio pudding concoction is actually delicious, at least the way my mom makes it: the pudding, slightly drained chopped pineapple, chopped mandarin orange slices, chopped walnuts, and some real whipped cream. It may sound weird to the uninitiated, but trust me - don't knock it till you've tried it! However, I don't know how much the cool whip in place of the real whipped cream would affect the taste.

[buttertart]

Some jello salads (made with good ingeredients) would make nice light desserts.

[tonina_mdc]

I have made myself try a couple of jello salads at potlucks. Every time I have tried one, I have regretted it! However, I suppose it's possible a jello salad made with only decent ingredients could prove to be reasonably edible. I just have a low opinion of jello salads in general from past unpalatable experiences.

[buttertart]

I find them edible IF there are no savory ingredients in them (mayonnaise, vinegar, onions, celery etc) or Cool Whip, marshmallows and so forth. The fruit ones can be OK. My mother-in-law makes a nice one with blackberry jello, blackberries, and bananas, and a frozen fruit salad (also uses gelatin) that has a unique texture and is nice with poultry and pork.

[ski_gpsy]

Wait! Lime jello with cottage cheese in it...yum!

Speaking of cottage cheese, pineapple slice on a lettuce leaf, scoop of cottage cheese and a dollop of mayo on top.

[merrymc]

Cool Whip was added at his insistence...it probably would have been much better with real whipped cream (which we actually had, for the pies).

Though that reminds me that my family makes something called "Cheesy Glow" for the holidays...some sort of whipped-up Velveeta concoction with pieces of stuff floating in it. I don't know what stuff (ham, maybe?), as I never tried it. Also, I never heard of it elsewhere, thank goodness!

[alkapal]

oh, i just saw a queso yesterday that might fit the bill. but it looked quite delicious, in a trashy, quickie queso kind of way! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/chile_con_queso/

and a variation: http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitc...

[tonina_mdc]

I'm way late to the party, but I love this thread!

My mother always served circle-sliced cucumbers and circle-sliced white or yellow onions swimming in a bowl of white vinegar. Don't ask me where she got the idea, but every summer this dish would appear, often with produce from our own garden. I'd get a bowl, lade some of the contents into it, and add salt and pepper. It was so cool and zingy that I loved it on hot days.

I've posted elsewhere about our "green junk" tradition at holiday dinners; it took until I was ten and brought leftovers to school one year after Thanksgiving for it to dawn on me that this was not a common dessert in other central Ohio households! It consisted of pistachio pudding, drained pineapple chunks, chopped drained mandarin orange segments, and chopped walnuts, with a bit of whipped cream. I still beg for it to be on the menu for our holiday dinners every year!

[Val55]

I never realized that the rest of the country was leaving Santa milk and cookies while I was leaving him a shot of whiskey and a mince meat tart.

[alkapal]

cukes in diluted white vinegar was a dish on our summer supper and lunch tables, too!

[ekammin]

Alkapal's cucumbers in vinegar is, with just a dash of sugar and salt, a normal Hungarian cucumber salad.

Since my grandparents came from Transylvania, we often had "mamaliga" cornmeal mush usually with Brindza or some other hard white cheese.

But, I think the prize went to a lady friend of mine in Paris. Her mother (from Poland)would set out cups of milk on the windowsill to coagulate. The result wasn;t yoghurt, but just stinky, coagulated milk. They both loved it, and couldn't understand why i often seemed hesitant.

[alkapal]

ekammin, how was the cornmeal mush seasoned? some fat? salt, pepper? yellow or white cornmeal? coarse or fine meal?

[ntmyslftdy28]

In our house we always had the pistachio pudding dish at holidays too! The only difference is we added marshmallows...we called it "green death"

[ski_gpsy]

Yes! Cucumber and onion slices in a mason jar with vinegar.... YUHUUUUMMM!

Butter and sugar on white bread!

Fries with mayo (lunch today!)

And the best of all; Peanut butter banana sandwich on white bread with mayo, buttered on the outside and crisped in the skillet like grilled cheese, then slathered with Kraft marshmallow creme from the jar! OMG! Elvis was right...

[nyxpooka]

Those are refrigerator pickles! My mom made these in a similar way, but she would also add green peppers and you would cook the vinegar with sugar til dissolved, with pickling salt, celery seed, mustard seed, and some hot red peppers. Dump the syrup over it all. All from the garden and just so yummy, like fresh bread and butter pickles kinda

[mha1]

Some of these have already been mentioned:
Peanut Butter and Pickle Sandwiches
Butter and Sugar Sandwiches (I think this is a dutch thing)
Pizza Casserole, which I later found out contained all of the ingredients needed to make lasagna, just assembled in a sloppy fashion, and cooked stove-top
Peanut Butter and Pancakes (not spread out over the cake, just on the side, so you can get a little bit with each bite)
Ketchup on Eggs, and Steak, and Baked Potatoes, and everything else
Mayo on Fries (again, I think this is Dutch)
Apples and Cheese (a slice of cheddar and an apple slice)
Pickles and Cheese
My family put oatmeal in everything because my dad worked at a grain mill and we got it for free, so I was used to hamburgers, meatloaf and meatballs all made with oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs. My first roommates in college were really weirded out when I did this to hamburgers.
My dad always made ranch dressing out of sour cream and powdered ranch seasoning, instead of buying ranch dressing.
I didn't know that ice cream could be served in a cone until middle school.
I didn't have a corn dog for the first time until two years ago (I'm 22 now).
I thought flavored rice cakes were cookies until I was about 10!

[ChrisOC]

Ah, yes butter on white bread sprinkled with sugar!

[kpaumer]

Collard green or just greens sandwich. Greens with sliced raw onion on white bread. I liked that the bread got all green and moist.

[yse]

Hmm. a) we always had our eggs sunny side up. I thought this was the 'standard' way to cook eggs and would always be dissapointed when a plate of scrambled eggs appeared in front of me at diners.
b) LEMONS! I grew up in an Israeli/Sephardic household so there were tons of foods that we ate that I knew weren't 'normal' but I do remember going to a friends' house as a kid and being very confused that they only had salad dressing. We always just mixed fresh lemon juice/olive oil/salt and used that as dressing, so the fact that she had no lemons in her house was quite shocking to me. I just figured that was something everyone had at their house as a pantry staple [it's still a pantry staple in my place to this day! No scurvy for me!].

[hill food]

lemons - can eat 'em like an orange.

[xxuviolkd]

My SO grew up with slices of green bell pepper, butter and white bread sandwiches. I've tried it, but don't get it.

[tonina_mdc]

That actually sounds pretty good! In summer I sometimes get small crusty rolls, slice up a green pepper from the garden, and spread a lot of coarse-grained mustard on the roll halves to make a sandwich. They're good on days when it's so hot that you just aren't that hungry and can't stand the thought of eating meat and they're economical too.

[keef]

mustard, mayonaisse and peanut butter on white bread sandwiches. do not hate, just try it.

my house was also a liverwurst house. school lunches could be the source of my abuse.

[hill food]

ding ding ding we have a winner lock this thread down (I can see mayo and PB, but mustard?) serve it and I'll eat it. but not a combo I would consider (sober)

[kimeats]

PB and mustard go very well together. I make a spicy pb mustard for dipping soft pretzels in. Don't knock it until you try it :)

[hill food]

oh I'd try it, just prob. not make it. cut me a corner of yours.

[tatamagouche]

My SO eats PB and mustard sandwiches too.

http://denveater.typepad.com/denveate...

As much as I love both things, though, I honestly haven't found the combo I like much. Maybe honey mustard and creamy PB?

[adventuresinbaking]

I used to eat ketchup, relish and mayo sandwiches, on white bread. I should have just gotten the thousand island dressing out.

[db1618]

Yogurt on pizza. In particular, blueberry yogurt on cheese or pepperoni pizza. I can't remember when (or how) I first tried it, and I haven't been able to have it for a long time. I thought it was awesome, though, and I sometimes wonder if I'd still like it...

[tatamagouche]

Whoa. How in the world did you come up with that...and why?

[kimeats]

Some of my weird family dishes have been passed on to my friends.
They include:
Dipping regular potato chips (prefer Utz) in French's yellow mustard

Mayo "sandwich" made with just mayo (hellmans!) on white toasted bread, must be cut in triangles.

Lettuce sandwich, basically the mayo sandwich with the addition of lettuce and some salt and pepper. My dad loved these and passed on that love to me.

Here's the one i get the most crap about: I mix in French dressing (must be Wishbone) to my mashed potatoes. It turns them a lovely shade of orange and tastes wonderful. Don't knock it until you try it. I get a lot of funny looks from this one.

Onion bagel slathered in butter and sprinkled with garlic salt.

My grandma likes to have pea soup for breakfast. My mom always fried things in mayo so I do that too. Most of the things in this thread are normal to me to be honest, not sure how weird that makes me!

[alkapal]

kimeats, you have to see this sub-thread involving french dressing (which i defend, btw): http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/6175...

(the checkout lady at safeway also told me that ranch and french dressings mixed (half and half ) is a delicious dressing...).

[kimeats]

hah! thanks for the link. i don't care for the kraft french though, the wishbone is much better. who knows why? i think the french has more vinegar?
i will try the ranch and french, sounds like a modified russian?

[KristieB]

If I am dressing a salad with blue cheese dressing, I nearly always drizzle just a little french dressing over it. That combo is dynomite.

[meatn3]

I have spent a bit of time in Wisconsin. It is very common to see people combine blue cheese dressing and another, ISTR, thousand Island. So common that restaurants frequently brought them out together so people could mix their own.

[alliciac]

French dressing is my condiment of choice for my potato dishes, especially fries and baked potatoes.

[hill food]

my first reaction was eww, but then I interchange ketchup and mayo on fries, and well what's French dressing except that with the addition of a vinaigrette?

[tracylee]

Ecuadorean street food - Salchipapas: French Fries; sliced, fried hot dogs; ketchup and mayo.

I normally don't eat fries or hot dogs, but this combo works really well.

[CoryKatherine]

i love this thread so much!

I remember when I was sleeping over a friends house as a teenager and they looked at me like i was crazy when I asked for butter to put on my poptarts. I still prefer them this way and so does my sister.

[jchamberlain]

I am so glad to hear someone else does this. My wife thinks I'm nuts for liking the unfrosted ones with butter.

[alkapal]

gotta have butter on the hot out of the toaster pop tarts (esp. strawberry, mmmmmm).! corykatherine, what, were your friends who didn't do this like heathens or something? ;-).

(loved the way it dripped on your fingers, and you'd have to lick your fingers....).

[KristieB]

I remember doing that! I hadn't thought of that in years.

[KristieB]

Anyone who went to the Bruce, Wisconsin school system ALWAYS eats half a peanut butter sandwich with their chili. And they dunk it!

[hill food]

I can kinda see that. never would have occurred to me, but...

[KristieB]

It never would have occured to me either. I did try it once and it was ok, but I'll stick to my crackers for chili.

[KristieB]

Radish sandwiches: white bread, butter, sliced radishes and salt.

Baked Bean sandwiches: Homemade doctored or real baked beans, sort of baked stiff spread cold between sliced of bread.

Fresh yellow and green string beans cooked then drained and dowsed in milk, butter salt and pepper. To be eaten with a slice of bread in the summer months.

Macaroni and milk: cooked macaroni, drained, milk added with butter and salt and pepper. The ultimate comfort food side dish.

[KristieB]

In the green/yellow bean dish above I forgot to add the new potatoes. They all seem to come into season at the same time. So it's potatoes, the beans, milk broth with butter and salt and pepper.

[alkapal]

baked beans on white bread with mayo -- been there, done that. try adding a slice of vidalia onion!

[merg01]

My parents enjoyed dried navy pea beans soaked, cooked and served over white bread...with fried potatoes and onions on the side. I don't recall any meat or seasoning cooked with them...just pepper added at the table. My dad always liked the leftovers cold with chopped raw onion and vinegar. There were always plenty of leftovers. None of the children ate any more of then than we were forced to eat. Mary Ellen

[Jasz]

When I was little my mom would make me raw egg yolks beaten with sugar. It was the only way I would eat the yolk. The sugar not only make it sweet but gave it a great texture. I think it was common Greek fare (tipito avyo); my aunts both here and back in Greece would make it also for the little kids.

[mess]

tuna casserole, made with lays wavy potato chips.
bologna and ketchup on rye.
pnut butter and sweet pickles sandwich. (still love)

[kattyeyes]

Well, I checked your profile and we're not related. ;) My two younger cousins used to do the bologna and ketchup (not on rye, though) all the time when we were kids. Our grandparents owned a deli and we could eat whatever we wanted, yet they were all about bologna and ketchup. I always found this strange. Then again, my childhood fave was ham and onions with a glass of milk, so who am I?! I'm glad I've outgrown this particular combo, too! Nanny and Poppy made THE BEST grinders--the kind with so much meat it can be challenging to get your mouth around 'em. There are so few places that make sandwiches this way anymore.

[brandywiner]

How about: tuna casserole with Russian dressing on top. Specifically, Wish-Bone ruby red Russian (which we never used on salads; then again, green salads weren't exactly a regular menu item in our Boston Irish household!).

To this day, I keep a bottle of Wish-Bone Russian around for those rare occasions when I get a tuan casserole jones....

[PaperMoon]

This is a great thread. In my family, we never used salt for cooking. It was strictly for pickling. Fish sauce was the primary seasoner. My first job was as a waitress at a Vietnamese restaurant for non-Vietnamese people. I was absolutely shocked when my guests were put off by fish sauce because of the name and its smell.

My boyfriend is Native American. When he was 10 he had to stay out in the woods for a few days by himself, kill a deer, and drink its blood as a ritual of manhood. I think he was well into high school before he realized that none of his classmates went through this. I freaked out once when he ate some raw meat that I was preparing. Apparently, his mother used to throw him pieces of raw meat as a special treat when he was a child.

[alkapal]

>>>>his mother used to throw him pieces of raw meat as a special treat when he was a child.<<<<

did he have to "beg"? ;-).

[amethiste]

My Mom used to give me pieces of raw hamburger as a treat when I was a child.

[kpaumer]

As a child I remember sneaking my mother's raw meatloaf mixture and putting it on crackers, good stuff! Didn't know I was eating steak tartare, sorta.

[misspastina]

Not sure I really remember this, or have created a memory out of what I was told - I was found on a Saturday morning when I was around 3 1/2 or 4 watching cartoons and eating raw hamburger with sugar. I'm pretty sure the sugar was a mistake, but didn't know the difference yet between the sugar bowl and salt shaker.

My other favorite Saturday morning breakfast - and this I do remember! - was a carton of TempTee cream cheese. I'm afraid I would still do this, given the opportunity!

[Heywhatsfordinner]

I once accidentally ate a piece of raw bacon when I was about 7. Luckily it was only a small piece and I didn't get sick from it!

[John E.]

The only way the uncooked bacon could have likely sickened you is if the bacon fat disagreed with you and gave you the runs. There are many cultures that eat uncooked but cured pork fat as part of their national cuisine.

[cimui]

One of my best buddies still gets raw meat from his mom as a special treat. His mom is Lebanese American and makes great kibbeh, apparently. I think a lot of cultures eat meat raw.

The raw blood drinking would be harder for me, I think. It tastes so metallic... but I guess if you're hungry enough, it would be delicious. Do you know which tribe your SO belongs to?

Interesting stories, PaperMoon!

[salsailsa]

In our house, you put out beer for Santa. Boy did I ever get looks when I said that in elementary school.

[hill food]

I wanted to post a smart reply, but I have more of a problem with the funny looks than your family's tradition. In fact I'd think it was cute if I were the parent and y'all skedaddled off to bed before it got warm.

so what if the kickstand gets assembled backwards...

[salsailsa]

I tried converting Santa to beer and cookies but just the beer went and he was "too full" for the cookies.

[nyxpooka]

LOL! Love it. Leave santa a 6 pack and I bet you would really rake in the gifts! Perhaps santa was full from biting all the heads off of the gingerbread men and rolled cookies at my house. No wonder I am so messed up...LOL

[Blush]

At our house Santa liked scotch (neat) and shortbread cookies.

[phantomdoc]

The late great Richard Pryor in one of his fabulous routines tells of his two grandmothers. One would give him milk and cookies, the other would give him reefer and beer. Guess which one he preferred.

[amethiste]

My Mom used to give me hot Jello in a mug on cold winter days. We were talking about this recently and it struck me that hot Jello might be an odd thing to give a kid. Did anyone else have this?

[kattyeyes]

My mom used to make hot Jell-O as a drink, too, when I was a kid. If I was feeling under the weather, there'd be that, "tea milk" or bouillon (or some combo thereof as the day wore on)!

[amethiste]

I will tell Mom she was not alone in serving hot jello. She will be relieved

[schrutefarms]

I think I remember hearing something about hot Jello-when kids are sick and can't/won't eat anything, it was believed that hot jello would go down easily, but stick to their bones.

[tracylee]

I vaguely remember it as an aid to strong fingernails.

[vttp926]

my supervisor still drinks this when she is super cold in the winter.

[Glencora]

My fifth grade teacher gave the kids hot jello on our class camping trip. Since it rained the entire week we were glad to have it. One girl got a nasty burn from it, though.

[KristieB]

The only time I remember Mom making jello as a drink was when my sister fell and cut her tongue. Three stitches later she could only drink, so Mom made diluted Jello-water for her. This was in the days before Pedia Sure and all those other products.

[MinkeyMonkey]

My brother and I would fight over who got to make the jello because we would always sneak drinks of it before it would set and while it was still hot! The best way to have jello!

[merg01]

Jello water instead of Kool Aid every summer. Don't know why and never gave it a thought. This was before the sugar free days so perhaps it was less expensive to make the already sweetened Jello. Mary Ellen

[tracylee]

It was also supposed to be good for fingernail strength.

[browniebaker]

Only when I went to college and ate breakfast in a dining hall did I learn that it's not normal to sprinkle granulated sugar on French toast, as my mother always served it.

Also, my mother's potato salad had me thinking it was normal to have either shrimp or diced ham in it, never just potatoes, and never any hard-boiled eggs.

I also thought Manischewitz kosher wine was normal to have at dinner. And we weren't even Jewish!!!

[salsailsa]

That's funny because I know lots of Jews that won't touch the stuff.

[hill food]

hey I once met a member of that family and am pretty darn sure she didn't imbibe either!

[Jacey]

i think it's pretty normal to sprinkle sugar on french toast. restaurants do it all the time.

[alkapal]

restos sprinkle powdered sugar, not granulated sugar, on french toast -- mostly for the "garnish" appeal, i think.

[Stephanie Wong]

Lots of powdered sugar layered in the puddles of of melted butter = frosting!

Loved that as a kid.

[nyxpooka]

Butter and sugar on cold regular starchy type pancakes. I prefer that to the syrup, as did my great grandmother...I was told. But we usually had the pancakes my friends called "kirstens moms flat pancakes" ...they had a whole dozen eggs in them to about a cup and a half of flour, melted butter, and scalded milk. Mom would fry them in sauce pans..which was kinda odd... Some of my friends who didnt like pancakes actually loved those. I still make them once in a while when eggs are on special. I dont know why I worry because they are very rich and go a long way. Most people can only eat a couple or three.

[cimui]

I thought pork sung and mayonnaise sandwiches were normal from between the ages of 1-5; at 6 years old, I realized they were abnormal (and indeed horrifying to some of my friends). But now that I'm here in China, I'm suddenly seeing them everywhere. Normal? Abnormal? I guess it depends very much on whom you ask.

Another one: "pizza sandwiches" made out of a slice of bread, a slice of American cheese and pepperoni. I thought these were real pizzas for the longest time -- which could explain why I hate pizza!

[lilmomma]

I always thought that French toast was served with ketchup. We never ate it with syrup. I still like it that way!

[elance]

I love pepperoni sandwiches! I have them with mayo, lettuce, and cheddar cheese.

[cimui]

you can have mine anytime you like! ... tho actually, the way you prep 'em sounds possibly delicious!

[pinkprimp]

Mom also made these pork sung and mayonnaise sandwiches, except she added thinly sliced cucumbers as well. Actually quite good, with the dry saltiness of the sung and the crispy, refreshing flavour of the cukes. I could go for one of those right now.

[cimui]

Oooh, very nice. I'm going to pass on the cucumber idea to my mom. I wonder if she still eats these!

[Avalondaughter]

It was pretty common in my family to drink milk mixed with root beer or cola. I remember when I was old enough to watch Laverne and Shirley and Milk and Pepsi was Laverne's gross drink, her weird quirk. I thought it was awesome.

Well, you put ice cream in your Coke or root beer, right? The ice cream starts to melt and gives you a very similar effect.

[LJS]

My Nana's go-to meal for all the kids, was mince (we would call it ground round) boiled with some ground cloves and served with peas and homemade apple sauce. And when I say 'with' I mean all mixed up together in a bowl.

Then it would be mashed bananas with Carnation evaporated milk (called 'funny cream') for dessert.

I must try all this again...

[extrasalty]

I’m actually getting some intriguing ideas here, what with the fried pasta and the tuna fish pancakes. My own mother would make these health drinks of raw egg, OJ, milk and honey. They were supposed to be smoothies but since she made them without a blender, or even a beater, they were more like gloppies. Also, ravioli always had to be served in multiples of 3. And on Christmas, when other kids got candy, I was unwrapping anchovies and pistachios.

[hill food]

mmm anchovies "Just what I wanted!"

actually I would like some really good ones now. as a kid? hmm.

[KaimukiMan]

For breakfast we often had hot rice, my dad with milk and a little bit of sugar and maybe some cinnamon, my brother and I with lots of butter sugar and cinnamon. On a hot summer morning, Kellog's frosted flakes with strawberry ice... so refreshing. I had no idea that everyone's mom didn't serve cold leftover pizza for breakfast (that was once i finally learned that pizza wasn't poisonous - I had a deep distrust of melted cheese till I was almost in high school.)

Lunchtime oddities included Bologna sandwiches with butter on one side, mayo on the other, chopped olive sandwiches with mayo, and (only at home) raw ground round with butter and salt on pumpernickel or rye bread (open faced or not.) I don't know how old I was before i realized that you could eat something other than a sandwich for lunch.

For dinner we were pretty normal, although I did discover later that there were a lot of people in the world who had no idea how to eat an artichoke (and didn't everyone's grandfather put his dentures in his water glass at the end of dinner?)

[Sal Vanilla]

"and didn't everyone's grandfather put his dentures in his water glass at the end of dinner?)"

- And didn't every grandchild yank them out of the water and shove them in her own mouth in order to amuse herself in front of the mirror???

[merg01]

Not here....though one of our most entertaining events was when my grandmother would lift her lower plate half way out of her mouth (using her tongue?) just to here the granddaughters giggle. Mary Ellen

[hill food]

my Grandpa did that and to a 5 YO there was nothing funnier...

[pinkprimp]

I love the sound of the hot rice with milk and sugar/cinnamon- it sounds like a hasty rice pudding :-)

[merg01]

Sat on the counter over night leftover pizza for breakfast...still one of my favorites. When our son once worked at a pizza place he would bring home any unsold pizza's. Since he was a late riser, he finally started to take the box to his room so there would be some left for him. Sadly, his bedroom door squeaked. Mary Ellen

[polish_girl]

As a child, growing in Poland, I used to love an open face rye sandwich with just butter and mustard.....And we ate tons of scrumbled eggs for supper, never for breakfast. And potato pancakes were served with sour cream for dinner. Yes, it is and Eastern European thing to serve sour cream with just about anything :-)))
My father used to make for us, kids, what he called a "kogel-mogel"- he would put several raw egg yolks in a cup, with a few teaspoons of sugar (sometimes a bit of dark cocoa if we wanted the chocolate version) and would vigorously stir for about 5 minutes. It was the best dessert I can remember!

[MinkeyMonkey]

That is what my grannie grew up on during the depression, in Canada though. She ate either butter and mustard sandwiches or just mustard sandwiches. Also, they ate a lot of beans...beans, beans, beans!

[dvsndvs]

I really wouldl ove to eat at your house. WOW!

[MattInNJ]

Herrings in cream sauce :-)

[Kate is always hungry]

I'm drooling. Give me a piece of pumpernickel and some butter. YUM

[phantomdoc]

I remember my mother pouring sugar into the herring and onions in cream sauce.

[mcsheridan]

Doesn't Everyone eat sardines mashed onto white bread with ketchup?

Did I Really Eat That growing up? Wow. Wouldn't think of it now.

And surely fish sticks served alongside spaghetti in tomato sauce is normal...sure it is. So's fried bologna as a breakfast meat.

[Sean]

Peanut butter and bologna sandwhiches...

[jmckee]

My grandmother, rest her soul, loved that sort of sandwich, except made with Smucker's PB and grape jelly product, Goober Grape. I can hear her voice in my ear now. "I think I'm goin' t' have me a Goober Grape and baloney sandwich, 'at's the best sandwich I ever had......>"

[MinkeyMonkey]

We ate, and I still do, sardines on saltines topped with butter and gobs of mustard. My grannie started me on that and even though we hardly had butter at my house, I'd ask for it just to have my sardines.

[why_itsme]

I've got 2.

First was Friday night dinner at Gram's. It was always bacon and french fries. NO idea how it started but it lasted for more than 20 years.

The second is what we called "Hamburger mish-mash with rice in the mish-mash juice". In the days before microwaves, to take a pound of ground beef out of the freezer meant you had to wait for it to thaw naturally or cook it while frozen. This meal, we cooked it frozen. You just kind of scrap off the cooked part and keep turning the frozen blob around until it's all cooked and scrambled. Then Mum added good 'ol canned beef gravy. Also, cook up some instant rice and add canned beef gravy to that. Dinner!

[Kinnexa]

My mother was a little strange. In the summer we'd have corn on the cob for dinner - just corn on the cob, a big plate stacked high in the middle of the table. Nothing else. I had to do the dishes and remember seeing 6 or 8 cobs stacked up on my father's plate. If there was "mush" or pancakes for dinner, same deal: nothing else. We also got bologna fried in butter - excuse me, 'oleo' - with Worcestershire sauce, which was the only way I'd eat bologna. She liked (but I never tried) raw onion sandwiches on white bread with 'oleo'. Then there was the "Black Cow": half milk, half Pepsi. Funny, but I don't get nostalgic for this stuff!

[KristieB]

Corn for supper isn't strange at all. In the summer when both corn-on-the-cob and tomatoes are at their peak of flavorfull goodness that is what we have. Usually it's too hot for anything else and those just picked veggies are so good no one wants for anything else.

[kattyeyes]

I had native corn on the cob for breakfast this morning with fresh sliced cukes (also native). I'm with you Kristie, I don't think there's anything strange about it! ;)

[momofthreems]

I always thought that french toast had salt and pepper on it. To this day I don't like it any other way. My mom always liked to eat cornbread in a glass of buttermilk or cold milk. I never did get that...just seemed yucky. When I got married my hubby introduced me to mixing canned tomatoes with mayonaise (Dukes of course) into this gloppy, pink paste and spreading on biscuits. It is pretty good and we eat this quite a bit. My grandmother liked to fix eggs with scrambled pigs brains...and from what I understand, I used to love them. I don't eat those anymore. I am sure there are others, it is just late and I can't think real well.

[umbushi plum]

i know me too! the realization sweet french toast?who knew? ;-)

[Kate is always hungry]

Our French toast always had sour cream, never syrup!??!?! Mine still does--always will.

[juliewong]

saltines with mike and nuked with sugar on top, pasta with sour cream and peas , sweet white onion in vinegar and the best was a sandwich with cheeze wiz liverwurst dill pickle and sliced onion - doesn't everyone eat that? Now I am hungry.

[pellegrino31]

I think my mom made up a few dishes - like this chicken and rice dish she claimed was Filipino (where she is from) and I have no idea how to spell it but it sounds like "lougow" and basically it's just boiled chicken and rice with no discernable taste. To this day, I've never seen anything like it at any of her family's houses or at a Filipino restaurant. I always hated how it looked and tasted - like mush.

But the one food that we had growing up that I do have fondness for are hard boiled egg yolks mashed up with maple syrup until it made a paste. I have lots of memories of my brother, sister and I working hard to get that perfect paste-like texture. I have no idea who in the family started it, I just know we loved it.

[schrutefarms]

What did you do with the paste?

[pellegrino31]

LOL. We ate it eagerly. Just scraped it up with a spoon or fork.

[hijobay]

I have to defend your ma a bit here. Lugaw is truly Filipino food. Lugaw is the Filipino term for what is commonly known as congee, rice porridge, or jook in other Asian cultures. If made with chicken it's called arrozcaldo and if made with beef/tripe it's called goto.

Interesting that your mom's version had no discernable taste. It's usually spiked with ginger and green onion. My family always added lots of fresh cracked black pepper, kalamansi (or lemon), fried shallots, and fish sauce.

I still make this for myself when I'm sick or just want something really warm and comforting. I throw in whatever I have in the kitchen - salted egg, regular egg, fish balls, tofu, etc.

It's not usually served in Filipino restaurants (esp stateside) but I see it sometimes in the cafeteria-style turo turo joints esp during breakfast time.

[focioncroci]

I think you're talking about lugao, and it's wonderful! It's the Filipino version of congee...maybe your mom just didn't know how to make it properly?

[ptrichmondmike]

My Irish American mom loved to serve up canned peaches in sweet syrup topped with lots of sour cream. Her Irish relatives were revolted, but our Jewish neighbors approved.

Mom also had a Depression-era fave -- sliced onion sandwiches with plenty of mayo on white bread. This is still one of my personal comfort foods.

[kattyeyes]

Speaking of sour cream, ever try it in Jell-O? That is a total childhood fave. You can mix it in when the Jell-O is already formed OR kinda blend it in before it gels. I prefer it the previous way. So tasty.

[BobB]

Sounds like kind of a quick & dirty version of Bavarian cream.

[merg01]

Reminds me of my Mom's best friend. We kids loved to be invited to Friday night supper of fried thick sliced fried potato sandwiches with raw onion and mayo on white. Mary Ellen

[jayaymeye]

I always thought that french toast was only served with melted butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar until, when in high school, I saw someone eat it with maple syrup. I still think I prefer cinnamon sugar. :)

[cycloneillini]

Butter and sugar has always been the way to go for me. Never even liked it until I figured out you didn't have to put syrup on it.

[umbushi plum]

everyone knows most people avoid red meat and only eat free range chicken and fish right, oh and never eat the skin or batter on anything or visible fat, and never butter anything only use olive oil or nuttelex. no body regularly has dessert apart from stewed apples and grilled bannanas and never add sugar to anything tea cereal etc... oh and tuna and cottage cheese is a traditional veriation cottage cheese is only savoury and so is french toast of course, and everyone knows you don't eat white bread because its not good for you and sugary cereals are never eaten regularly because they are just sugar.

[alex4lmw]

We always ate fried salted herring, grits and eggs.
froed collard greens and chitterlings...memories

[jcattles]

My dad loved saltines crumbled in a glass and filled with milk. Also had a friend who ate saltines with mustard, while in my family we like them with peanut butter or butter.