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Pancakes. She makes the best ever. I don't even try anymore, I just wait until I go visit to have hers. Sadly, that's only about 4-5 times per year...

Eggs Saratoga - I never get my cream cheese in at the right time like her.

Oxtail stew, chawanmushi, ashitibichi...other Japanese and Okinawan dishes that I can't think of right now, ranging from consistency to the depth of flavor. She took her recipes to her grave. Oh well...

I will echo @chisai - not my Mum so much as my Gran. Among other things, she used to bake this scrumptious almond cake with dulce de leche filling... Sadly, I don't have a recipe for it, and no matter how many times I try to recreate it, nothing comes close to hers.

Strudel of any sort
Chicken parikash
Goulash
Eggs
Butter cream frosting
stuffing
Sacher torte
A steak gravy she used to make
Kuchen of all sorts
her cookies
chicken soup
the list is never ending

I've got most of it recreated, but there was a weird fruit soup she used to make that's still sort of a mystery. Once, when I asked her how she made it, she told me she forgot.

Banana bread. She had a killer recipe which everyone loved but her memory is going and when I asked her for it she didn't remember where it came from or where it was. Sad )-:

Mom- meatballs!

Dad- turkey and bean chili, tuna salad, french toast.

My mom was never very domestic, but my nana makes flour tortillas that are the best. I know it comes with decades of practice. Everything else I can replicate, but to get those tortillas so thin and so round, impossible.

My dad's homemade, 8-hour spaghetti sauce – even though my sister deduced the recipe by watching him (as I could have done, but never did), I'm not confident I'll ever get it right.

My mother's enchiladas – I'm pretty sure she started with canned enchilada sauce; but it was something altogether different by the time she was done.

My mother's chicken curry – she started with Swanson's canned chicken, too, but it was always hot and had mysterious depths of flavor by the time she was done.

@jmfors: did your grandma make the cold cream-and-fruit-purée kind of fruit soup, or the clear-sweet-broth-and-dried-fruit kind? My grandmother made the latter; it's basically a fruit stew with big pearl tapioca and lots of water.

stir fry, the lady does wonders, and does all the seasoning by eye. sigh..

My mimi is the one whose food will always stand out to me. I wish I could make her meatballs my goodness they were good.

Honestly? Everything.

Her fried potatoes and onions. And her potatoes au gratin.

This may sound mean, but I didn't realize my Mom wasn't a good cook until I got older. Being a little boy in a single parent household, I idolized my Mom.

It wasn't until I started experimenting in the kitchen did I realize that my Mom's cooking was horrible. So now, as a measuring stick, I make sure that all my dishes taste better than childhood. If they taste the same, I've got some work to do.

@gentlyferal - she makes it with a whole lot of water, dried fruit, and then adds a tsp or tbsp of tapicoa and some other ingredients I can't think of at the moment. I've made it a few times now and it's close to what her's tastes like, but there's just something...it's just not the same. :-)

@Perkz- I used to watch Graham Kerr on PBS. I guess it was re-runs. Anyways, I was like 6 years old and completely transfixed. My mom used to say how goofy he was. And, if fact, one time when we were at the grocery store, I asked my mom to buy a bench scraper b/c a) I had seen him use it on TV and b) it was his brand.

I still have it. :)

Mom called them "scrambled" eggs, but they are unlike any scrambled eggs I have had anywhere. She put the eggs in a pots, whisked them very gently, added a bit of salt, butter and milk (or cream) and gently stirred them on low heat - they were soft and creamy and moist - delicious! In the summer she would thinly sliced ripe garden tomatoes to go on top. Nirvana! I am too impatient to make these properly although I have tried so many times.

When I first realized that scrambled eggs to most of my friends consisted of cooking eggs in a frying pan while whisking, I couldn't believe it! When I was about 10, I watched a friend's Mom make them and I had the nerve to tell her she was doing it wrong!

Pasta e Fagoli and ravioli. I have made both according to her directions, but they don't taste as good. She said my dough was too thick, once. But that's not the problem.

@bareneed ~ I remember watching Julia Child when someone (I forget who, but possibly Jacques Pepin) taught her the art of scrambling eggs very slowly to make them creamy. As I recall, she buttered the frying pan, whisked the eggs with a little cream, cooked them at least 15 minutes, then stirred in more butter at the end. They still looked very wet. I have cooked them like that, but it's too slow for me and honestly, too creamy. I compromised and cooked them lower and slower than I used to and take them off the heat just before they look cooked. And, a little extra pat of butter never hurts. LOL

My dad never cooked anything edible (true story: when Mum was away, we'd have spaghetti the first night, with canned sauce, and whatever was leftover would be magically transformed into chili the next.

It was a rude awakening for me when I realised my mother is not the world's best cook. She's good, but I think our old house, with an ancient electric range that took about an hour to heat up, might have killed her game. Everything was cooked on high heat, everything.

And looking back on dishes like Chicken and Rice with Peaches (which was chicken and rice and canned peaches, and nothing else. I mean, not even salt or pepper) I can't believe I grew up to love food.

But there is one thing: bread pudding. The smell of the kitchen when bread pudding was being made (all sweet and cinnamony and lovely) is my mother's true legacy.

My mom was a great cook (as all mom's are, I'm sure) and always tried different things which is where my love of food comes from.
What really stood out was her meat sauce with meatballs, braciole, pork & sausage -to die for--some restaurants wanted her recipe, it was that good!
2) her walnut cake with maple walnut frosting-all from scratch as most of her food..
3)a simple oven roasted chicken---which I was never able to duplicate---skin always crispy and meat always juicy and flavorful--
4) bread pudding--just wonderful and comforting
5) breast of veal with a chopped meat and mushroom stuffing
6) tripe in tomato sauce
7) pigs feet in tomato sauce
There's more but those 7 really stand out .......
Mom always encouraged me to try different varieties of foods & ethnic inspired foods because there are so many wonderful things out there.. Ahhh, she was so wise!

Ouch, Gretchin!