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Mom's red enchiladas were the best....

Fried chicken like my grandmother and Aunt Grace used to make. My wife is a great cook, but she can't fry chicken like they did. But, to be fair, it may have a lot to do with the chicken. We ate a lot of soup beans and cornbread, and that's good stuff. My Granny made a brown bread that she cooked in the metal Calumet baking soda cans, and served it with a sweet sauce. I could literally eat my weight in that stuff.

One of my favorite meals when I was a kid was fat back, pinto beans, and cold slaw.

Grandma's fried chicken and tater cakes. Mom's fried pork steaks, fried taters and onions, chuck roast with carrots and taters, white beans and cornbread.......
Can close my eyes and still smell it all cooking .... Great memories.

Interesting thread - I had never really thought about the topic, and now that I have, I don't really remember any specific dishes from home. We ate well, and I enjoyed what we had, but there isn't anything that stands out. I do remember the chili dogs from A & Root back when they were made with real hot dogs and the orange chili instead of the red chili that they use now.

Just bought some orange cream, ice cream bars a few days ago.

Sure brought back memories.

Used to get them at the snack bar when I was in Jr. High in the 60's

10 cents back then.

Virgil B.

I suspect my father never married my mother for her cooking...some things are best forgotten. For his sake I sure hope the wifing was better than the cooking.

My mom used to buy that in a square box. Neapolitan flavor. Slice it off instead of dipping it out.

Mom and Grandmother used to bake Polish items for Christmas. Those kolaczki's don't resemble what folks call them today. Were what we kids called bow-ties. There were some other stuff I never cared for all that much. Same with Golabki ( though I remember calling it something else) - a cabbage filled with meat and rice..... meh...

Mom did make a mean chicken noodle soup. I will make it for the wife, noodles and all, especially when she isn't feeling good but I don't have mom's recipe and cannot duplicate the same unique taste of hers.

When kids we ate on the cheap. Fried bologna and plain elbow noodles- sometimes added Ketchup. Flavorless as heck but with six kids.....

Two 'flavors' I will never get back . First sip of beer while fishing with Dad ...and that marvelous hoppy foamy taste-...don't tell your mother..... and the other is smell of uncle's pipe tobacco. I tried a pipe a few times thinking I could relive that smell-taste- never worked for me.

Grandma's hamburger steak and gravy.

Fried okra that Mom made. When I was about three I'd help her choose the ones we'd eat that day.

Manuel's hot tamales when we visited my great aunt in New Orleans, or the chop suey she'd make for us.

Fried perch or walleye with ‘tartar sauce’ made from miracle whip and pickle relish, creamed morels on toast, venison loins pan fried with onion and bacon. All things mom excelled at. Typical lunch was fried bologna with ketchup.

Old70

School pizza! Although ours didn't have oregano on it like in this pic. Gertrude and MayBelle back there in the kitchen had never heard of oregano.

Ours usually came with corn, or canned tomatoes (gag), or carrot sticks (double gag). Compared to the rest of the glop they served, the pizza was a gourmet meal.

Yep. 1970s school pizza was awesome:

We loved third grade school pizza. The lunch ladies did a pretty damn good gumbo too.

We had pizza on a bun..

Always the day after sloppy Joe's.

Dab of SJ mix on a bun half, slice of cheese and baked.

Watercress from a crick, dandelion, endive, or just tough leaf lettuce, with
Hot Bacon Dressing. Mashed potatoes, ham or deer steak.


Common in my childhood.

Wife learned to make it, sh and kids love it as much as I do.

Gravy bites, (gravy and bread) common as a kid in tough times.
Thought everyone ate it.
Don't miss that.

Love a hot roast beef though (can afford meat now)

My grandmother used the zucchini and summer squash, but a simpler preparation where she just sautéed the moons or discs of them
with some roughly chunked, super ripe, garden tomatoes of whichever variety, smashed garlic clove, a little good olive oil, salt n peppah. Maybe some basil at the end from the garden. A little fresh oregano or dried iieu of. Not too wet and sloppy, but just soft and saucy enough from the vegetables juices. Quick preparation. Not simmering down on the stove for more than 10 minutes. I still love that. If the fresh tomatoes were out of season or unavailable, she would do same with some canned San Marzano whole tomatoes, coarsely broken in her fingers and then drained a bit through a sieve.

Favorite side dish in summer next to anything. But best in a small bowl, what she called a ‘monkey dish’ lol. So the juices don’t go all running into whatever else. Unless there’s rice or polenta on the plate as well.

The there’s stuffed, fried Zuchini Blossoms/flowers. But that was not an everyday kind of thing.

This will probably sound weird. My sister & I would peel a raw potato, drop it in a glass of water and then refrigerate. After it was chilled, we’d slice it, add salt, and eat them like french fries.

My wife cuts zucchini and squash into strips, drizzles a little olive oil on em, gives em a good shake of sea salt and crushed red pepper, and sprinkles parmesan cheese on them. Then she roasts the strips in the oven. Delicious.