I don't know how you think of them but they're terrific!

OK, out in the country, we called the area "the islands" out in the California Delta where I grew up on my grandfather's asparagus ranch operation.

Nonnie, his widow, made us eggs sunny side up, in olive oil with salt and pepper! Can you just imagine the taste and smell, olive oil?

I did not, however, care for the stalk parts of asparagus nor the fatty parts of roast beef or the cloves flavor in ham.

But eggs in olive oil, well!!!

I did not care for my grama's beef stew,we ate it too often.

I was a pretty hungry kid and basically ate what was put before me.
But I do have a favorite...and we usually had it on Friday being my mother was a devout Catholic...and that was creamed cod fish on toast....I just loved it...could smell it cooking and my mouth started to water.
The cod fish came salted and dried in a wooden box and it had to be soaked first...but it sure was good.

We ate what we had. Anything to do with pasta was my favorite. Pasta has always been cheap so it was good thing I liked it!

Mostly my mother baked all our bread and made pies and sometimes noodles...and dumplings.
But today I love pasta and eat it often, probably too often.

(don't laugh!) Since my dad liked them, occasionally on weekends he'd suggest having cod fish balls for dinner and help make them. They are made by taking the cod fish out of its wooden box, soaking it to get rid of the extra salt and rehydrate it, mixing with mashed potato, forming into meatball size balls, and deep frying. They had little bristles of crisp fish on their golden surfaces, and were very tasty.

Mashed potatoes were also one of my favorites.

She made a layer cake of dark chocolate with a light icing of dark chocolate heavily flavored with coffee.

It was probably an early contributor to my arteries getting clogged up decades later, but what a way to go!

Least favorite: my mom, usually a brilliant chef, sometimes made a creamy ham stew served inside a
baked pineapple ring. I could handle the pineapple ring, but the creamy ham stew made me ill. It was
the cause of more than one bitter argument at the table!

I still don't care for them, except for fresh ones cooked in lots of fatback, like the little, old lady who used to live next door made. And, a recipe I have that calls for using brown sugar and bacon. One could probably use any kind of bean, but the recipe calls for dried limas. It's very tasty.

is only good if it's bread pudding. But it's not really all that soggy, so I guess it doesn't count...

My mom made the best "poor man's" mac and cheese. Basically, she boiled the macaroni and layered it in a casserole dish with slices of american cheese and added milk, then baked it.

I loved eating it, and I loved the buildup to it as the macaroni boiled in the pot...I just knew what was coming from it...


Least favorite food:

I hated hotdogs and beans with brown bread. OMG brown bread!!!! Yech. most hateful thing out of a can (because that's how she bought it).

The other disgusting thing she made was this fried hamburger concoction with an awful dishwater-looking gravy made from the drippings and cornstarch. I swear it looked like dirty dishwater...it was actually gray. Anyway, it went on top of mashed potatoes. puke puke puke.

There was this other thing she made, and I only remember it being served once. Fried hamburger in tomato soup ladled over mashed potatoes. I actually vomited after a mouthful. The only time red and potatoes goes together is ketchup on french fries. Otherwise...

bleurgh...

One of Mom's many favorites. Pot roast made with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. Meat loaf. Knockwurst and barley (from a recipe on the side of a barley box). Chicken Bombay (also from a recipe she found on something). I did all right.

I won't even do ketchup and fries. I don't get why people like that combo, it turns my stomach. Some curry's combine red and potato with moderate success, but that's it.

Just to clarify.. the brown bread and hot dogs... Are you saying the bread came out of a can? Because I saw bread in a can the other day, and it kinda baffled me as to who/why thought that was a good plan.

B & M Brown Bread

I guess it's been disgusting....er..."delighting" New Englanders since 1867

http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/store/jump/productDetail/Food_&_Candy/Pantry_&_Canned_Goods/Breads,_Crackers_&_Snacks/Brown_Bread_in_a_Can_%28Set_of_2_Cans%29/H2657

So.. its just as good as it looks at first glance on the shelves, eh?

If you ate the label off the can, you'd get a good idea of what the inside tasted like.

mmmmm.....

"I hated hotdogs and beans with brown bread. OMG brown bread!!!! Yech. most hateful thing out of a can "




I loved that stuff, sliced, toasted and slathered in butter. It was delish with my grandmother's homemade Boston Baked Beans with ham hocks

They were molassesy, crispy on the outside, and chewy on the inside- and Great with baked beans!

hamburger gravy should be made with flour, not cornstarch (and it needs a lot of pepper too)
and it should be served over biscuits - although like you I hate soggy bread so I eat my hamburger gravy thin in a bowl (cream of hamburger soup?) and my biscuits on the side with butter.

totally with you on the red + mashed potatoes

my mom made a macaroni and cheese caserole that had egg in it. basically cooked pasta layered with grated cheese and maybe a little finely chopped onion and then a combo of milk and egg poured over, more cheese on top and then baked. I hated it as a kid but love it now. I think if I wasn't out of cheese I would go make some RIGHT NOW!

that's the thing...

the cornstarch thickened the gravy, but it remained sort of transparent/translucent. Like dirty dishwater.

If it had more substance to it, it probably would have been more appealing.

My favorite gravy in the whole world...

KFC gravy with the biscuits dipped in it.

mmmmmmmmm.....

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Watery. Blech..
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"Chicken in spicy peanut sauce". She, I think, took cream of chicken and mixed in peanut butter and...chili powder?...then cooked chicken breast. And poured the sauce over it (you can chop up peanuts and put them on top too, not bad) and cut up some leeks to throw on top. Also white rice on the side. God that stuff is good. I'm going home from college next month, I gotta talk to her about that...

Except Cheerios, of course.

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... p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pizza!?!?!?!?!?
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Say it isn't so!!!
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it's rectangular.

I might have been as old as 4 before I realized round things other than Cheerios - pizza, grapes, cookies, etc. - could be consumed without any deleterious effects.

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A man walked into a bar with his pet monkey.
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The bartender said, "You can't bring that monkey in here!" The man replied, "Don't worry, he won't
cause any trouble."
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Within seconds the monkey jumped on the pool table and swallowed the cue ball. The bartender yelled,
"Hey, he just ate my cue ball. No one can play pool anymore! Get out!" So the monkey and the man left.
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The man left but came back one week later with his monkey. He apologized to the bartender and promised
no more trouble. The bartender let him and the monkey stay.
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Later that night, the monkey walked over to a bowl of grapes, put one in his ass, and then ate it. The
bartender said, "That's disgusting! Why did he do that!"
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The man said, "Since he swallowed the cue ball, he sizes everything up before he eats it."
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Now I love 'em.

Always hated tomato soup. Nasty.

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... was "Tomato l'Orange Soup".
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Started by blanching and peeling and seeding fresh tomatoes. Just onions, chicken broth,
one or two spices, frozen OJ and cream.
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Lost the recipe and have looked for it for years -- can't find anything close.
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That could work.

Thai chicken soup has coconut milk and lemon grass.

I hated the canned cream of tomato soups. There was always so much sugar in them.

Loved beef stew, spaghetti, chop suey.

My mom was a good cook.

I still don't like peas much.

fried baloney

guess which is which

I still beg my parents to make them when they're around (or I'm around).

Least favorite

eggs-- When I was in high school, we ate eggs for dinner on an almost nightly basis. To this day I won't eat them unless in cooking.

Cucumbers--- a favorite of my mom's, they were always at the dinner table. The smell alone makes me want to vomit. To this day, both my parents insist that cucumbers do not have any smell (I tell them to go to any store and tell me how many cucumber scented products are in the bath aisle).

My mom also never cooked veggies, and I would not eat them as a kid. As an adult, I realize that I have texture issues (I'm not one for crunchy foods) and I probably would have eaten cooked veggies had they been available.

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It's simply thinly sliced cucumbers (I halve and seed and -- gasp -- peel them) covered with a
LEETLE sugar (I use Apriva now -- not as good) and a lot of rice wine vinegar.
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Very tasty and very refreshing -- almost like a sorbet palate-cleanser between courses.
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My mother would say to me, "Eat it or wear it." I had many a bowlful of that crap anemic food product dumped on my head as a child. Thanks mom for the awesome eating disorder you tried to give me!

In contrast, I had a "one bite" rule in my own home with my own kids. If they refused to eat something, the rule was they had to take one bite and then they could decline eating it. Sometimes they found out they liked the food they initially rejected and sometimes the one bite reinforced their aversion.

Spaghetti was my go-to food as a kid.

i'm 30, my sister is 27, and it is still a rule at the table. i'm usually the one who has to follow it

And her mother was worse yet. They both tended to overcook or boil everything that was boil-able and seemed to try to make everything as soggy and gloppy as they could. It was disgusting. I was a terrible eater and very scrawny till I hit my mid-teens.

At least we went out to eat reasonably often and I could get whatever I wanted, and that usually meant seafood for me. I did like pasta too; my father at least prevented her from overcooking that.

One thing that grosses me out, even now. Hot dogs that are boiled, not grilled or even steamed. Blech!!

I remember Arby's Jamocha shakes as being something I always craved. Chocolate pudding too. My mom's quiche, hungarian goulash, and tuna noodle casserole were also really great (I make all of those today).

Liver makes me physically heave. Any kind of organ meat really makes me throw up, literally. Something about it just makes me completely reject it. After trying to force me to eat it (and dealing with the consequences!) I always got a pass at the dinner table when it was liver and onions night. Which meant that lima beans moved up into first place on the shit list.

"Can you stay for dinner?", as I was about to call my mom to ask her to pick me up. The kitchen wasn't smelling very good, so I discreetly asked my friend what they were having for dinner. I don't think I had ever smelled/tasted liver before; it was probably tried out on my three older brothers in previous years and didn't go over well at all. So I called my mom on the wall phone next to their cellar stairs, ducking down a couple of stairs with the receiver, and murmurmed, "they asked me to stay for dinner. What should I do? They're having liver! In maybe the only time I remember my mom suggesting lying she said, "Well, tell them your aunt and uncle stopped by and want to see you."

A couple of times a week we would have fried sliced spam, rice mixed with Campbell's condensed tomato soup and canned green beans for dinner. It filled you up and we didn't know much different. Many years later, in a fit of nostalgia, I made that meal for my wife and myself. It was horrible! Except for the green beans which still seemed pretty yummy to me.

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She was a GREAT 1950's comfort-food cook.
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If it was a SEVERE dislike, you could get away with it.
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NONE of us would, could, or ever HAD to eat liver.
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For me it was asparagus. Also fish. Fish nights, I got to eat PB&J's.
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Still don't like fish (LOVE shellfish), but asparagus is now my favorite by far.
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mom made the noodles from scratch. MMMMMMMmmmmmmm

I also liked what was obviously a dish concocted during the Depression, with Pacific/Hawaii overtones (thanks to Uncles who served in the Pacific during WWII), fried spam with pineapple on top & fried grits. OMG, would we be happy when we saw that dish being prepared. Today, ick. Except for the fried grits.

Least favorite foods as a kid: onions, mushrooms, liver, & any kind of processed meat (bologna, salami). Turns out bologna makes me hurl, as Dad found out to his chagrin when he forced me to eat bologna sandwiches "just like (my) brothers" instead of letting me fix my own PB&J. (That's what he gets for being obstinate; I was already famous in the family for hating bologna.) Fortunately, while we were otherwise required to TRY food, once it was established that we absolutely did NOT like it, we were never forced to eat it again. So whenever liver & onions was on the menu (gag), my younger brother & I got to eat something else.

liquid squeezed out. Chedder yes and sour cream in place of some of the milk.

I was cooking my own food by the age of eight out of self defense.

I remember the first time she tried to make Rice-a-Roni. Must have been after it first came out, back in the 60s...

anyway, she sauteed the rice/orzo mixture a little too well

It was nearly black, and she (and my dad) didn't know it wasn't supposed to BE black.

My dad said it was terrible and told her not to buy it anymore.

hahahahahah

Oh, and her grilled cheese... I like mine nice and fluffy, golden brown.

She would flatten the sandwiches down with the spatula till they were like 1/2" thick (or thin, I should say) and the cheese was melted right into the bread.

Who the hell wants to eat a piece of cheesy-tasting cardboard?

I've never seen anyone else put rice in it.

I sometimes think of frying something, making home made doughnuts as a treat for instance, but never knew what to do with the used oil. Now, there's a biofuel barrel at the recycling center where I can put it!
I love wild rice; I always thought it was fun when we had something kind of unusual for dinner.

I loved her ethnic dishes the best. She always made a big pot of halupki on Saturday night for Sunday dinner. Heavenly!

The only thing I remember not liking was red beets, but I love them now.

I always liked them from the can, but never realized till I planted some in my garden how delicious they are boiled up fresh.

...mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows all over the top.

NOTE TO PARENTS: Putting marshmallows on otherwise good food does NOT improve it. Pouring brown sugar into acorn squash makes it maplesyrup with nasty pancakes. Acorn squash is already almost too sweet.

But hey, they had their women's magazines and all of the "best bets" recipes were on the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter tables. Remember the cross-cut block of spam with cloves in every intersection, a pineapple ring on top with a cherry in the middle and a brown sugar glaze - baked.

Either pasties (not to be confused with what non-topless exotic dancers wear) or roast beef with yorkshire pudding.

Least favorite peas. Fortunately my mom was willing to work around my hatred of peas with one of the other vegetables I like.