Moms old recipes/meals

[BoldPelikan]

Ham Pot Pie

If you are ever in central Pennsylvania, you should check out Traditions restaurant in Martinsburg. Ham pot pie is one of their PA Dutch specialties. You can also buy the pot pie noodles at various groceries in the cove. They are basically just thick squares of egg noodle dough. Heavy but delicious!

 

[HGTVFanatic]

I use uncooked noodles for lasagna, too. For the newfangled labeled “non-cook” ones I just follow the directions. For the regular noodles I just make sure they are covered in plenty of sauce before putting the next layer on. It helps to have the noodle directly in contact with the more liquid ingredients.

I used to boil the noodles first but wow, what a time saver to find out it wasn’t necessary!

For regular noodles, I put the amount I’m using in a baking dish and cover them with boiling water. By the time I’m done with the meat sauce, they are soft.

 

[aja8888]

I mentioned on the Dining Out forum that mom just didn't cook and that sandwiches were about the limit of her skill.

How does tartar sauce on Wonder Bread sound for a school lunch?

Yeah, we grew up in restaurants.

Marko, I recall the same sandwich with the tarter sauce. That was when we ran out of baloney, which was frequently. Sometimes we had just "sandwich spread" instead of tarter sauce. Sandwich spread had chopped pickles in it.

We were kind of poor when living in the housing project. Not much to cook at times.

 

[rodi]

My mom had some great cake/cookie recipes. For meals I remember not liking her meatloaf or pork chops - but she did a great roast chicken, turkey tetrazinni (after thanksgiving - using leftovers), and got seriously into wok cooking when I was in high school.

I inherited her box of recipes on index cards. Most treasured (and most requested) recipe is the carrot cake recipe. Totally yummy.

DH does most of the cooking in our house - and I love his meatloaf. His lasagna (he's italian) is awesome - and he does precook the noodles.

 

[pacergal]

We're from PA and chicken pot pie is a staple here. I have to remind myself that most people have no idea what it is. Its a Pennsylvania dutch thing. Same with shoofly pie, its also PA dutch.

I would also say I remember mom's chicken pot pie. She rolled hers out and cut into large squares. We make it by scooping the flour mixture and dropping it into the boiling liquid. Its really sticky but the hot water makes the mixture fall all the spoon. Im surprised you havent been able to make it...its really hard to screw up.

I have a theory about not being able to replicate recipes. First of all, food is usually better if someone else makes it. You can love to cook but food is just better when you dont have to do anything. The other reason and this is probably the most true, a combination of our memories are terrible and our longing for nostalgia. It reminds us of a parent or loved one, and that automatically makes the food better in our minds. Thats the reality.

If you are ever in central Pennsylvania, you should check out Traditions restaurant in Martinsburg. Ham pot pie is one of their PA Dutch specialties. You can also buy the pot pie noodles at various groceries in the cove. They are basically just thick squares of egg noodle dough. Heavy but delicious!

Yes! PA Dutch--that was also my moms side. She rolled her dough. I may try again and make sure the broth is boiling. Its been so long since I have tried--two attempts and I was done .
And shoo fly pie--yum.

 

[EastWest Gal]

My mom was Russian, and my sister and I both have copies of her church cookbook. The feast section at the end is a riot-recipes designed to serve 600 people. I have my Italian aunt's spaghetti sauce recipe, and the small amounts of the spices make it amazing. But mom took a Chinese cooking class when I was in high school. Her Chinese meals were to die for. Maybe that's why our boyfriends were always wanting to come over for dinner...

 

[audreyh1]

My mom was Russian, and my sister and I both have copies of her church cookbook. The feast section at the end is a riot-recipes designed to serve 600 people. I have my Italian aunt's spaghetti sauce recipe, and the small amounts of the spices make it amazing. But mom took a Chinese cooking class when I was in high school. Her Chinese meals were to die for. Maybe that's why our boyfriends were always wanting to come over for dinner...

My mom also took Chinese cooking lessons from her Chinese friends when I was younger, and the family enjoyed the meals for years afterwards. A standout was some kind of soy-sauce braised chicken in a pot that DF would then gleefully chop into chunks with a Chinese clever, so they both learned skills.

 

[Born2BRetd]

My grandma was a great cook, but she used the TLAR method, so not many of her recipes survived.

My mom was a good cook but nothing really stands out.

I never got married until mid-30's, and she didn't cook, so I taught myself. I ended up specializing in killer desserts (mainly chocolate), which always went over big at the potluck dinner parties my friends threw every month!

Let us know when you want to come to a potluck in San Diego
I can see why your dessert goes over big!

 

[BarbWire]

My mother was from a very small town in Oklahoma, and her 1930s childhood culinary memories included the skinned squirrels, naked white with head on, in the frying pan...

But she escaped that and, encouraged by my Welsh father and the culinary wonders of the SFBay area in the 1960s became an excellent cook. I particularly remember a Russian Salmon Pie (layers of salmon, hard boiled egg, bechemel sauce, and lots of dill in a double crust) from the Sunset Cookbook. Best eaten cold, we would take it to Stern Grove for the picnic-on-the-lawn performances of Gilbert and Sullivan. Every attendee in the immediate area oohed and ahhed ... and got a small portion!

Now, 50 years later, it is my "party piece" for fancy bring-and-share events. Still gets "ooooh" and "aaaahhhh"

 

[audreyh1]

DMIL and her siblings grew up on squirrel in the depression - meat was scarce. DH was served them occasionally growing up.

 

[PandaBear]

My maternal grandmother died a few days after my moms birth, so I obviously never knew her. My paternal grandma was born in Italy and she was a wonderful cook.

Both my mom and dad were good cooks. My dad did Saturday night dinner when I was a child. He liked to make Mexican food and fried tortillas to make his own shells. As we kids got older, he and my mom were really gourmet cooks. They got Gourmet magazine every month and tried lots of recipes.

My mom was a good cook but a much better baker. She made beautiful cakes and wonderful pies. She’s famous (among our friends) for her caramel corn.

We loved their fondue, Santa Maria BBQ, prime rib and my dads scalloped potatoes (my boys make them now, calling them “Papa’s potatoes”)

My dad and mom were both mathematicians and they compiled their recipes on a blog. Because they were mathematicians (I think) they followed recipes. And when they didn’t, they wrote their changes down! So luckily we can try and recreate their cooking.