Most memorable dinner(s) your mother made when you were a kid

My mother was a good cook and almost everything she made was very good.  I remember most, her lasagne, swedish meatballs, and creamed chicken over waffles, all served up on Fiestaware in the 50's

My mother made something once and never again.  It was the best thing she ever made and she was a good cook.
 
It involved chicken, fresh button mushroom and green linguini in some sort of a red sauce.  Something about it made it stand out and above anything else she had made prior to it or since.
 
Other than that it was her tamale pie that I still make although I've tweaked it to my liking.

I remember my Mothers cooking. All of it was cooked to Hell & back. She could burn water!

Homemade green pea soup. I took a bite, gagged, choked it down, and mom made me continue eating because I was just being "dramatic". After the third bite, I got real dramatic... all over the table. I couldn't touch the stuff for years, now I love it.

My Mother was a fantastic cook. She was way ahead of the times,especially in the 70s. She had been pairing lettuce, fruit, cheese and nuts way before it was popular. She made her own macaroni and cheese( I never knew Kraft existed unti I was 20 and out of the house) The only "boxed" items in her home were noodles.

We called my mother Lucretia Borgia. She was the worst cook the world has ever known. We'd draw lots to see who had to eat the food she cooked. Loser got to partake. The best thing she ever made was Kraft Dinner. It was just barely edible -- but even that was better than death on a plate. To give you an idea, she considered meat cooked till it would shatter on impact when dropped to be too rare.

Grilled cheese sandwich & Campbell's tomato soup...even she couldn't screw it up.

My mother cooked all the time and she made many memorable meals.  I guess the best ever was Thanksgiving dinner complete with her fabulous cornbread dressing. 
 
Or maybe it was the pinto beans, fried potatoes, fresh sliced tomatoes, and cornbread. 
 
Or every Sunday morning we had egg gravy with hot biscuits and bacon. 

Memorable good: her corned beef and cabbage.
Memorable bad: her traditional Christmas breakfast (scrambled eggs with a can of cream of mushroom soup mixed in).

my mom cooked everything to death and then some - nothing memorable about any of it.   she did make a good grilled cheese sandwich, though.
 
one year, she decided to make prime rib instead of turkey for thanksgiving.  now, THAT was a good meal - the meat was cooked absolutely perfectly!  i'll never understand how she managed to not cook it to a crisp!

felix4067


Memorable bad: her traditional Christmas breakfast (scrambled eggs with a can of cream of mushroom soup mixed in).

Is there a story behind this tradition?  Was it an alternative to getting coal in your stocking?
 
Brad

I have told this story here before on another thread years ago. My mom was a fantastic and creative cook. She would scour the newspapers, magazines whatever for recipes and then would make them with her own twist which meant totally different. She made her own ketchup, mayo, salad dressings, canned fantastic pickles and so many things. She was the only girl in a family of 5 boys during the Depression growing up in a Chicago tenement doing all the cooking while her mom worked for outside families doing wash, cooking and sewing. Even though my mom's roots we very basic, she could manage making higher end stuff when she married my dad and had a lot more money after WWII. It was not unusual to have lobster bisque at home when I was 6 or 7. My mom didn't have any ethnic exposure other than her German/Hungarian background so when I was 20 she did not understand my fascination with Mexican food, after all she never met a Mexican! I was living away from home and had a nice Mexican neighbor who would cook for me from time to time so I began to really love the food. So.... after this long back story, my mom made her most memorable meal for me for my 22nd birthday. She found a recipe in a magazine and my mom made enchiladas even though she had no idea what they were or even how to pronounce it. They were wonderful and became a staple in her cooking rotation even though she called them "en-che-la-las"

Fried Chicken. I have tried for almost 40 years and still cannot come close to my Moms's.

Thats what I am talking about, kland.Mom was totally experimental, and she made awesome food, most of the time. I just wish I had her chili recipe, which was made in a pressure cooker.She also made wonderful country style ribs cooked over sauerkraut.
Fishtaco, I have never mastered fried chicken-Mom made an oven fried chicken that was fantastic. Havent masterd that, either.

ScreamingChicken

felix4067


Memorable bad: her traditional Christmas breakfast (scrambled eggs with a can of cream of mushroom soup mixed in).

Is there a story behind this tradition?  Was it an alternative to getting coal in your stocking?

Brad

 
 
Could very well be! It was tradition long before I came into the picture, though, so I can't be sure. What was worse was that my dad used to counter the eggs by making cinnamon rolls from scratch on Christmas morning, but he left when I was seven so I was just stuck with the eggs.

ann peeples


Thats what I am talking about, kland.Mom was totally experimental, and she made awesome food, most of the time. I just wish I had her chili recipe, which was made in a pressure cooker.She also made wonderful country style ribs cooked over sauerkraut.
Fishtaco, I have never mastered fried chicken-Mom made an oven fried chicken that was fantastic. Havent masterd that, either.

 
That's my problem too Anne. My mom wrote little down which is sad because she was a genius with recipes. Just being a home cook for our family of 4, she had no problem just jumping in and taking over the Legion Post's fish frys and steak fries and cooking for 100's. She was a great baker too but I hated sweets so she baked for the workers and customers at my dad's hardware store. Sadly she died of cancer 33 years ago when she was only 54. I try hard to duplicate my memories.

I agree with the votes for pan-fried chicken. My mother grew up on a farm in Central Illinois and was very particular about the chickens she'd use. She always went to a specialty butcher -- she said supermarket chicken "smelled funny" -- and cut up the whole chicken herself.  She cut the breast into two pieces crosswise -- a wishbone and another piece of breast.  I've only seen it cut up that way at Hollyhock Hill in Indianapolis.  We always had mashed potatoes and pan milk gravy, and a vegetable -- whatever was fresh -- with the chicken, as well as sliced white bread to tear up into bite sized pieces and over which to pour yet more of the gravy.  I have tried and tried to replicate her chicken.  My husband thinks my version is great, but I know it pales next to my mother's. She, in turn, used to say the same thing about HER fried chicken -- that her mother's (my grandmothrer's version) was better.
 
My brother, however, didn't like fried chicken.  And sometimes, my mother would fix sauteed calf's liver and onions for him.  She'd have two separate frying pans going simultaneously.  How she managed to do that and retain her sanity is a mystery to me. 
 
Fried chicken, with or without a side of calf's liver, was strictly a Saturday night dinner treat. She never fixed it any other night of the week.
 
She had other great, homey dishes, and did a marvelous job roasting the wild ducks and pheasants that my father hunted.  We never had turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas -- always the wild fowl my father had shot.  The one recipe I wish we could have found after she died was her recipe for alphabet noodle soup made with chunks of leftover pot roast. We've scoured the kitchen and recipe boxes, and never found it.

My mom's chuck roast.  I might have talked about it before, it was essentially a pot roast, but she never called it that, she'd just say she was cooking a chuck.  My biggest regret is  I was young, not interested in cooking, and can now only remember parts of how it was made.  She'd start with a bone-in, large, chuck roast, cut slits, stuff it with garlic and salt, then into the oven.  While it cooked, she'd make a roux in a large cast iron skillet, turn off the burner, then push it to the back of the stove.  When the roast was done, she'd the add roux to the drippings and a couple cans of mushroom slices to make a wonderful, rich gravy.  The roast would be so tender, and moist, and would be served in chunks.     

Sloppy Joes. Just a simple loose meat sandwich with a tomato/mustard sauce, on a homemade bun. I would give anything to be able to make them taste just like my mother did.