What did your Mother use to cook? Admittedly my Mother at certain points in my childhood went out to work. My Father knew what day it was by what his Mother was serving. Beef stew with Dumplings Steak Pie Sausages and Mash potato Spaghetti Bolognaise Cottage Pie Ham, Egg and Chips Grill Steak - more Steak Haché than Salisbury. Rissoles Lamb Chops with New Potatoes Fish Cod Roe Smoked Haddock Cod in Parsley Sauce Fish Fingers or Fish Cakes Fish Pie As I don't eat fish, and hadn't started eaten Seafood until an adult, I seemed to get sausages, rissoles or burger patties as substitutes. Eating out was rare as most restaurants were European. Pizza was new and came with baked potatoes and coleslaw. There were very take outs, mostly Cantonese or just traditional fish and chips. I grew up in the early 70's in a rural county outside of London.
Macaroni & Cheese Meatloaf Roast Chicken Roast Beef Carnival Hamburgers (white bread and onions added to the ground beef to stretch it for a family of seven) Fried Chicken Cucumber Salad Ham and Eggs Beef Stew And many other simple and delicious dishes. Boy do I miss her. She passed away ten years ago on Feb 24th.
There were six kids in my family and while we never went hungry, my mother is not a great cook. That said here is a sampling she would cook for us ... Chicken or Beef stew Hamburgers served with cottage cheese and chips Cod fish gravy over potatoes Chicken gravy over potatoes, rice or sliced bread Meatloaf Farm fresh Ham Spaghetti Goulash Spanish Rice Beef tongue gravy over boiled potatoes Fried potatoes Squash such as Butternut, Acorn, or Blue Hubbard Macaroni and Cheese Home made Bread, Rolls and Sweet Rolls Fruit pies such as Strawberry Rhubarb, Raspberry, Apple, Peach, Pear, and Elderberry Current Rhubarb Pudding Homemade tapioca, chocolate, vanilla, or butterscotch pudding Homemade cocoa Sweet breads such as Banana, Zucchini, Brown, and Date Nut Cranberry Orange relish Watermelon Pickles Datenut Snowballs A large assortment of cookies and always plenty of fresh fruit There were things she couldn't cook (chicken or steak), but to say she was a bad cook, would be an absolute lie.
My parents are in their mid 70's now. Both still in their right minds and reasonably healthy. Had supper with them couple days ago. Mom did one of my favorite recipes - a stuffed pork roast. She makes cuts deep into a big hunk of pig leg with a paring knife. Into the holes she stuffs garlic & onion covered in cayenne pepper and butter. Being a thick hunk of meat it takes 3 or 4 hours to cook. After it's cooled and sliced, the drippings are made into a gravy and served over rice. The leftover thin sliced meat makes a great sandwich. Before I was exposed to other peoples opinions, I learned to like her calves liver smothered in caramelized onions. The key is to not over cook it, just passed when the blood stops running. Always served with mashed potatoes, and tiny green peas. So many things she makes include onion and bell pepper. I've made my peace with onions except for raw crunchy onions. Still not a fan of bell peppers. I showed her a trick I used when making gumbo for my children. After boiling chicken for the Cajun soup, I'd pull the meat out of the stock pot to pick the bones clean. Using the chicken flavored water, I'd make a vegetable smoothie in the Osterizer. Not chunks for the kids to pick out! The up side is the veggies become one with the soup and the flavor and thickness melds right away, instead of on the second day as they break down on reheating. Mom found a way to get me to eat those bell peppers. Sometimes when I stop by she apologies for serving leftovers. I always tell her her leftovers are better than what many folks serve the first time around.
Meat and potatoes... I didn't know what an avocado (and many other vegetables) was until I moved out.
Roast chicken or roast beef were things mom cooked very well. But the veggies were godawful- always boiled and mushy. To this day I still have to force myself to eat veggies because they are good for me. At one point, she took a course in Chinese cooking. That was great! We never minded eating her homework.
Homemade chili, still the best I've ever had. Also pot roast, pizza from the old style box kits (do they still make those?), Italian beef, fried chicken (also the best), BLT, etc etc. Nothing fancy. That's what stands out in my memory.
