What did your parents cook?

[Jasminenicole]

My mother, did mostly everything from scratch including baking. There was the odd time, where we would have hotdogs, chicken nuggets and fries but there was never anything like hamburger helper! ever. Lunch times as a child I can remember having grilled cheese, and Campbells tomato soup alot,... I still love that combination.

[Jasminenicole]

sorry, it posted twice :|

[FallenPixels]

There are cucumbers in Tzatziki!

shhhhh she has been tricking him into eating them

[AIDN1]

Nothing. She gave me $2.00 a day to buy chocolate and chips. Other than that there was milk and Cheerios.

Can you imagine what she feeds the kids while I'm at work?

[abbasgirl]

My Mom was a stay-at-home mother of 5 kids. My Dad was a dairy farmer. Mom had a huge garden and most of our meat was tough, hard to chew beef from cows that were no longer producing milk. Not that I'm complaining. I just didn't know what texture a steak was actually supposed to be until well into adulthood.
We did have some processed food here and there - KD, boxed cereal, bologna sandwiches. Our "juice" was always koolaid. But mostly we ate home-cooked foods. I still cook everything from scratch -in some cases even more so than my mother did. Food sensitivities and budgeting have caused me to move away from what I ate as a child though. I don't eat bread or drink milk. I never have beef because it's too expensive. I only eat boxed cereal if I have an FPC.

[Zonny]

Ahh, childhood. I remember being kind of envious of some other kids that got Wagon Wheels and Jos Louis in their lunch, while I had to make do with...homemade banana bread! We just don't appreciate those things when we're kids!

We certainly had bologna. For my Dad, Maple Leaf was the only kind to have, you fried it up and it was yummy with some toast and eggs for breakfast (a daily diet of fried bologna and eggs was probably the reason why Dad had his first heart attack when he was not much older than my current 40 years). That's expensive stuff now! When my brother comes to visit every Thanksgiving, he treats himself to that bologna and makes fried bologna sandwiches, that's the only time it makes its way into my house now. Sure is yummy, my DS loves it but never gets it until his uncle comes at Thanksgiving.

KD was rare growing up, and I never tried Hamburger Helper until I was an adult (last year in fact, and I learned I hadn't missed out on anything, that stuff is disgusting!). Roasts, stews, chicken, meatloaf, those were staples, as well as something that I make now that we called 'sketti' which is just macaroni, a bit of ground beef, some onions and a can of tomato soup. Just like when I was a kid, my five year old DS thinks that onions exist as some kind of conspiracy to poison him and he can find even the smallest bit. He picks 'em out just like I did (although I love them now!). Lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs were normal things too.

[DH666]

There are cucumbers in Tzatziki!

As long as I can't smell them or taste them, I'm OK. I really love pickles also.

[Jasminenicole]

As long as I can't smell them or taste them, I'm OK. I really love pickles also.

I work at a Pita place, and I am always amazed at the customers who say they Loathe cucumbers....but ask for extra tzatziki. It's like asking for extra big mac sauce but not getting the pickles on the burger....

[FallenPixels]

meh, its often about texture

[Patty Smyth]

It's the smell, as well as for the melons, lol. I don't get it but I know when I am peeling cukes or butting up melons I hear complaints lol.

This thread has reminded me of what a terrible cook my mom was, memories of grey stew and sour turkey. SHe had no concept nor desire to cook. Funny enough she worked for a slaughterhouse and we had a freezer full of meat. Once a year we would go through it and chuck most of it becasue she couldn't be bothered to cook. Pretty sad all that waste. Oh and we always got food poisoning because she would put bad coldcuts in our lunches.

[Natalka]

My Mom was a teacher, but stayed at home with the kids once they started comiing - through all six, births spanning from 1947 to 1971.
I'm the fifth child, and before me, they were in small towns. From when I was five, we were in a small city.

All homemade meals, and she was a fabulous cook! Plus, she made homemade bread/buns, baking/desserts, and even homemade noodles (I remember coming home from school to sheets of pasta draped all over the kitchen chairs!) - and no pasta machine!

I remember coming home for lunch (school was about six blocks away), to homemade buns - so amazing!
In high school, when we took lunch, kids were jealous of me having a Tupperware pie container (shaped like a pie slice) with homemade pie! Sure wish I had that still!

We always had a big vegetable garden, one-half of which was potatoes. For other veggies in big quantities in the summer, we would go to a market garden which was about a half hour away by the lake - to get sacks of corn on the cob, cabbage (she made sauerkraut, leaves for cabbage rolls, etc.), beets (for borscht, pickling), cucumbers (pickles), etc. We also would go get fish from there (mostly whitefish). We got eggs from a farmer not far out of the city, or from the Catholic Brothers' farm.
When we did buy bread, it was from a particular bakery downtown - and wow, it was such a treat if we got to go along because we could get a longjohn - and if we were very good, a Marianne!

She did lots of canning; made all sorts of pickles (dill, bread and butter, sweet mixed - gosh they were awesome, with cauliflower! - relish, beet pickles); fruits - peaches, pears, crab apples (we had two trees); and made jams and jellies.
They would buy a side of beef or a pig, so that huge deepfreeze was in good use. Her and Dad made sausage as well.

Her cooking was pretty much all comfort food. The only thing I would/could not eat was liver (even with a bribe from them at 5 cents a bite!).

The only cereals in the house were oatmeal, shredded wheat, cornflakes, and rice krispies. Very rarely, captain crunch or alphabits.

[glowworm2k]

Oh and she used to cann a lot, we had a huge garden, got tired of shelling peas and snipping beans lol Tons of pickled carrots as welll, drooool.

I can so identify with this! Mom loved to get me helping with the canning when we did tomatoes, beans and salsas/chili sauces, but especially for cherry jam, cherry preserves and for pickles (both regular and zucchini). She said I was the best helper for these because I hated cherries and pickles with a passion, and still do!

(LOL, she wouldn't let me help out when it was time to make anything with strawberries because I'd eat more than I'd put into the jam or preserves )

[Pinkypie]

I love reading this thread! My mom was a horrible cook, burnt things a lot, threw whatever she found in the fridge in to a pot (not in a good way).
I am not a good cook either, if it weren't for DH, me and the kids would starve!

[alicia]

something that I make now that we called 'sketti' which is just macaroni, a bit of ground beef, some onions and a can of tomato soup.

I grew up loving this stuff - both my grandmother and Mom made it (minus the onion) and I thought it was such a homey treat. We call it "goulash" though it doesn't really fit the description.

My Mom was a stay-at-home Mom and made good, easy meals. Nothing fancy but always delicious. She also baked pretty near daily (or there was at least always some type of homemade baked goods around). My Dad did all the BBQing and fish cooking.

[xox2010]

Growing up we had a homecooked supper everynight (Mom was a SAHM for most of my childhood). The two biggest dishes she cooked, (and still cooks) were schnitzel and Spätzle .