Just Like Mom Used To Make...
My mother was a whiz at making casseroles, everything from Tuna Noodle, Baked Spaghetti, Mac-n-Cheese and some things I haven't seen replicated or attempted since. She had a knack for being able to put things together that were inexpensive but really delicious. She was so good at it, to this day I call her now and then to find out what she had that week for dinner and steal an idea or two.
That being said she was really bad at cooking meat to death! My mother, a self described meat hater from way back could take the juciest most succulent cut of meat and turn it into a barren wasteland of charred protiens. Any meat, she would "parboil" chicken before grilling it, take thin cuts of liver and turn them into something more closely resembling the sole of a shoe than a delicious piece of offal. Steak wasn't a cut which we had often, and my folks being of the quantity over quality crowd never got the best cuts of steak. So when you cook cheap steak till all the juice is gone you will develope a set of jaw muscles that would make a pit bull blush! My dentist even jokes I have the jaws of a gorilla... Thanks Mom! Whenever I am back home visiting, my father always tells my mother "let your son cook the meat".
Ok so growing up one of your parents were probably really good at making something just as much as they were equally bad at making something else. Now's your chance to heap your praises on Mom/ Dad for that really good dish....and/or give a little jab for the.... well.... not so good dish!
But keep in mind.... no miracle berry dishes allowed!
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
28 Comments:
My mom and dad went out to dinner every Saturday night and she'd often experiment with what she or my dad ate.
Fortunately, she was an amazing cook and so we had clams oregonata, veal piccata or parmesan, French onion soup , Coquille St. Jacques etc....and all of this was back in the late 50's and early 60's when it wasn't even popular yet....She and Julia Child would have been great friends had they met.
She just loved to experiment.
My dad did a great job in taking us out for pastrami sandwiches, knishes and Dr. Brown cream soda. He couldn't boil water.
Nonny at 11:15AM on 12/27/08
I have to be honest and say that my mom was a better baker then a cook. Certain things just never came out right. Her meatloaf was always a brick, and the noodles for a casserole were always mushy. She is amazing at making chili and stews though, and awesome at salsbury steak. I always crave it!
Lilartist at 11:16AM on 12/27/08
My mother had an exceptional miracle berry pudding! It was served with a catish farmer and kona coffee. Delish!
izatryt at 11:29AM on 12/27/08
mom made great meatballs and gravy. but kinda like your mom Pav she would cook meat to death. I always thought I hated fish growing up because is was tough and chewy or gummy and mushy. Turns out I love fish just hated moms. She also made an incredible mac and cheese casserole, somehow it always came out wonderful. she would layer cooked elbow macaroni in a casserole with dried out ends of cheeses she had saved and a little flour s&p and some hot sauce then splash milk on the whole thing and bake it, the stuff was always incredibly perfect.
huneybumper at 11:30AM on 12/27/08
My mom makes the best pancakes in the world. I don't know exactly what it is she does to them, but no matter how many times I watch her, mine never taste like hers. I'm pretty sure the butter has something to do with it, but even more than that, I'm positive it's the frying pan she uses. All I know is that I don't even try anymore. I only eat pancakes when I'm at her house (unfortunately, not all that often), or very occasionally in a restaurant where I know they're good. I could list a bunch of other things, but her pancakes are definitely at the top.
kimberlymac at 12:06PM on 12/27/08
my mom is a great home-style cook. but one thing she never did well was meatloaf. so i started making it when i was pretty young. that got me started on this whole thing.
coolname at 12:10PM on 12/27/08
My Mom was and still is a horrible cook ... lol.
caramel at 12:33PM on 12/27/08
My mom makes the best minestrone and spaghetti sauce. Although I think I come darn close to making both things equally as good.
@izzy--is that 100% Kona coffee??
buffy at 12:48PM on 12/27/08
My Mum was a brilliant cook and hard as I think, I can't come up with any "bad" dish she ever made. I did, however, find it odd that the mushroom sauce she'd make for potato croquettes was always sweet-ish, even though I learnt to love that sweetness. The good? Pretty much everything. I have the most fondest memories of her soups, latkes, pancakes, crepes, pasties, salads, roasted anything (the memory of her roasted goose/duck, in fact, triggered one of my New Year's resolution - to find a goose and roast it the way she used to!) and anything with sauce/gravies that was served over mash or roasted potatoes or other roasted veg. Oooh, I really need to make pasties more often!
@iz - how did she cook the farmer, well-done or medium rare?
brooke29 at 1:12PM on 12/27/08
my mom doesnt cook much at all anymore, but when she does she makes the best skirt steak and shepherds pie
ssultan23 at 1:16PM on 12/27/08
Pretty much everything my mom cooked was good. Which may simply mean that the stuff she was bad at got weeded from the menu before I was born. But she did soups, roasts, casseroles, and all the usual stuff.
She didn't do any baking, though. I think the only cakes she ever made were the boxed kind that she let me make when I was a kid. And somewhere we got a recipe for "wacky cake" which was the recipe with vinegar and you'd make three wells the the flour -- but again, I think that was me making the cake and her supervising the oven use.
I recall a story about a time that she and my dad each made a pie crust and his was so much flakier and better because he didn't overwork it, and she just didn't get the concept. But that was when they were first married, from what I remember of the story, and that was the end of the pie-making saga in their marriage.
dbcurrie at 1:19PM on 12/27/08
The dish that my non-cooking mother served me that is truly 'I can't believe she put it on the table' was her pancake. Yes, pancake. She would make a full recipe for the Aunt Jemina pancake on the box, fry the entire mix in a huge pan with butter, until it was speckled black and yellow on the outside, rawish in the middle because it was an inch thick, put a pat of butter and some Aunt Jemina maple syrup and serve that to me as 'pancakes.' Later, she would say--'you always liked McDonald's better,' and when I noted 'well, I couldn't believe how thin and light they were compared to yours,' she said it too 'too much trouble to make more than one pancake.'
She was proud she microwaved meat and served chicken pink and only used salt, pepper, and paprika as spices--yet oddly enough made very good meatloaf (when I ate meat) unlike many of the other mom cooking stars in this thread. I think it had to do with a liberal use of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, slightly stale crusts of rye bread, and garlic salt, pungent substances which are only really good with meatloaf, perhaps, and not overcooking it as because of her impatience, she ALWAYS undercooked EVERYTHING.
My father? You mean, a traditional Greek patriarchal man TOUCHING food to cook it, when there are women around? Surely you jest, Pavlov!
When my stepmother is away in Greece, he waits to get his morning coffee at the office, despite being a hopeless addict, and when she goes she has to cook all of his meals for him--literally every single one.
HeartofGlass at 1:25PM on 12/27/08
My Mom was a great cook - every night we had roasts, chops or whatever, with potatoes and two veg - always gravy - her pastry was to die for - she made steak and kidney pie and steak and kidney pudding, Lancashire hotpot - she never followed a recipe, she had a light hand and was not afraid to take chances - she couldn't get butter during the war in Britain and when she moved to Newfoundland, butter was totally cost prohibitive, so when we moved to Ontario, and the butter was cheaper than margarine in Newfoundland, she swore she would never buy margarine again and didn't - no wonder her five kids all battle high cholesterol levels, but we were the best fed kids in the village!!
She didn't have a clue how to make casseroles with tuna, or chow mein noodles or cream soups or pasta and I was always trying to get invited to somewhere else for dinner because I always fancied them! It seems you always crave what you can't have.
bareneed at 2:21PM on 12/27/08
my mom is THE most amazing cook. not a single complaint ever warranted.
my dad believes in cooking everything in bacon fat, so i can't front on him either.
gastronomeg at 3:51PM on 12/27/08
My mother is a good cook although I think she is a bored cook lately. She did overcook fish and chicken to be on the safe side. Same with red meats except for steaks and most pork.
My mother made great soups and stews. Her italian dishes were very good.
She was not afraid to experiment. One day I must tell you about the blue banana cake.
My mom inspired me to cook and she encouraged it.
She still loves to throw together a lasagne for someone who looks like they need to be fed.
Her main cookbook was Amy Vanderbuilt's Complete Cook Book which was illustrated by then unknown Andy Warhol. I went and bought myself a copy because it shows how to entertain, which we did a lot.
How to set the table, menu selections for holidays/themes. It was a great book if you have many occasions/celebrations at your home.
The oddest thing about my mother is the more people we were having the calmer she got. Then she would leave my grandmother and I to do the bitch work and go get her hair done LOL.
I still have a memory of someone saying to my mom, "I don't know how you have time to get all this done and you look fabulous." and she replied, Oh it is just very organized." Yea that is it, me hunkered down in the kitchen all day was organized.
JerzeeTomato at 11:22PM on 12/27/08
My mum still is an excellent cook and baker. I grew up on pork pies, meat pies, pasties, Sunday roasts, lots of mash, gravy and Yorkshire puds, lovely teas with trifle, butterfly cakes, treacle pudding, jam tart..and whatever could be slathered in custard. We all had a go at making a sweet treat for Sunday teas. My favorite memories.
Back in the states, my dad would keep a jar of bacon fat to cook breakfast, his specialty. I do remember many "dad's goulash" dishes when mother was in the hospital having babies. We ate, and didn't ask!!!
lamora at 12:04AM on 12/28/08
My mother is from old Europe and though she liked a good green salad she did not like "el dente" vieggies, so she cooked the hell out of every side dish veggies to a mush.
pjracz10 at 12:48AM on 12/28/08
@buffy ~ Indeed. 100% Kona. Nothing but the best!!
@brooke ~ We like our farmers medium rare. ;-)
izatryt at 9:34AM on 12/28/08
I grew up with my father, who was/is the worst cook in the known universe. There is nothing he makes well. Nothing. This is why I took over cooking when I was about 12.
That said, my gran was a ridiculously good southern country cook. The best biscuits and gravy I've ever tasted. Banana pudding you'd just want to dive in to and swim around for a while. Fried chicken and potato salad that could bring tears to your eyes it was so good. I think the food was so good because much of what she cook she grew. The chickens came from the coop, the sausage came from the pigs out back and with a few exceptions, all the vegetables were either fresh from the farm or fresh and home canned. Umm, the bananas came from the supermarket.
chisai at 1:40PM on 12/28/08
My mom was a good, regular cook. She learned to make Italian sauces from her old Scilian landlady and made homemade raviolis - of many different shapes and sizes. No molds/cutters for her! She was a terrific pie baker and would make noodles from scratch just because she felt like having noodles. Great biscuits and rolls. Homemade applesauce any old time; great pork roast w/sauerkraut. Really good roasts and chickens, etc. Also, once a year we would have the "white dinner" - stewed chicken, from scratch waffles, mashed taters and cream gravy. We loved it!!
However, she hated eggs and couldn't cook them worth a damn! We started cooking our own eggs at a very young age! She also made the most disgusting "pork chow mein" from leftover pork roast. I hated it and would, of course, make a scene about eating it. Also made lumpy cream of wheat - hated it! I still miss her cooking after 20 years.
duncan1205 at 5:30PM on 12/28/08
My mother was a pretty good cook, as she always made "the best" oven roasted chicken, baked ham, Goulash, Milk Gravy (or) Hamburger Gravy (which we ate this over mashed potatoes) plus she made "the best" stuffing, bread pudding, pies, home-baked breads, potato bread, potato rolls, and caramel nut rolls (which she actually made those rolls using yams, but no one ever suspected that yams was the main ingredient in the caramel nut rolls). But when it came to cooking a beef roast, and making hamburgers, her roasts were always dried and over cooked, as were the hamburgers, but since we were brought up not to ever complain about what was made, and to eat everything on our plates, I don't think our mother ever knew her roasts and burgers were dried out and over cooked.
The only other thing my mother made which I really detested eating was...hamburgers which she sometimes added an egg and crushed saltine crakers, but I think she did this to "stretch the meal", so to speak. Thank heavens for catsup!
DomesticGoddess at 6:07PM on 12/28/08
In the olden days of yore, when I was growing up, my dad and mom both worked. Needless to say, I was not greeted with milk and cookies when I got home from school. At that time, late 50's - 60's, it was highly unusual for Moms to work at a full-time job. I don't know how she did it sometimes.
My mom grew up on a ranch in California so we ate very "meat and pototoes". We were also pretty low on spendable cash then, and Mom could stretch the heck out of the Sunday roast for the rest of the week. She made a fabulous meatloaf, and she also made a dish she called "gordito" which was kind of a Mexican casserole thing. Oh yeah, the casserole with chicken and rice and Campbell's tomato soup (baked in the oven) was a real crowd pleaser! She did, however, boil the hell out of anything that was a vegetable! I didn't know that you could eat broccoli unless it was brown and mushy until I was on my own.
My dad was good with stews and goulash-y dishes.
After reading all of your comments and remembering dishes from my past, I may have to make myself a meatloaf ...
lindy123 at 6:12PM on 12/28/08
Touching on the Meatloaf idea for a second, in her defense.... Mom makes one hell of a good meatloaf, and I'll be damned if she doesn't throw in just about everything but the sink!
Pavlov at 8:35PM on 12/28/08
My mother was a baker and damn good at it. She was famous for her apple studel and I watched her make it all the time, on the dining room table, how she could get that little ball of non yeast dough to spread paper thin on the entire table without riping it, I don't know. She also made a Sacher torte from a 200 year old recipe she had that had no flour in it, she used breadcrumbs, that was a hit as well. Don't get me wrong, she was a good savory cook too except with the veggies.
pjracz10 at 11:19PM on 12/28/08
My mom makes the BEST pork chops. I've spent years trying to get close. I used to request them for my birthday dinner when I was a kid (oh, who am I kidding? I still request 'em). She's a pretty good cook all around, and definitely encouraged my early foodie leanings.
I can't remember anything particularly terrible, other than the thing she had for Chef Boyardee pizza kits. I suspect that was mainly because she's not much of a baker and couldn't really afford pizza for us kids any other way. The dough and sauce weren't that bad, but all we had was the included Parmesan to top it with. I haven't seen one in her house since my brother and I both left the nest.
jenilowrance at 12:07AM on 12/29/08
I can't say I remember my mother being good at cooking anything other than turkey, dressing and giblet gravy. She did know how to make good fried chicken and potato salad too. My dad, on the other hand, was quite good at stews and such the like. He was masterful at a variety of cornbreads and was the king of camping foods.
czken at 2:40AM on 12/29/08
My mom is great at cooking quick things on a tight budget. That's not really an issue anymore, but she still shops and cooks that way. There are certain ingredients she uses regularly that cause me to just shake my head and sigh. Many recipes include a can of Cambell's Cream of Something soup. She uses bouillon cubes all the time.... bleh. The one that really gets me is the can of Veg-All. Is it really that had to chop up some fresh veggies? That being said, most things she makes aren't bad.
kyle25 at 9:45AM on 12/29/08
My mother was Julia Child in the kitchen, without the high voice. She was a serious, and awesome cook and baker. As was her mother. Her meals were divinely inspired, I swear.
Her steak was way too rare for me. She always said it should take a slow walk through a hot kitchen. I hate overcooked meat, but just searing the meat is not cooking it. Everything else was pure perfection. Oh, and I still don't like dried oregano on my steak. Sorry, Mom!
PerkyMac at 2:08PM on 12/30/08