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**CaptainMike** · November 19, 2022, 07:01 PM

Great topic that I failed to blabber on. Both of my parents were decent cooks and each had their specialty, mom made great soups and casseroles and dad did the grilling as well as bread baking. Dad was a seasonal heavy equipment operator and was home most of the winter. He got into baking some really good bread and his best was a dark pumpernickel.

Now don't get me wrong, it was the 60's and 70's so they had their shoe leather pork chops and weeknight Hamburger Helper feasts as well, but the one thing they really collaborated on was Friday Night Tacos. Our neighbor, Mrs. Flores, was native Mexican and she shared a lot of her family recipes with us. The best were her chorizo tacos and the whole family would get in on making them every Friday night. We'd whip up a mess of messy tacos, plop down on the living room floor and watch Sanford & Son with that beautiful orange chorizo grease running down our chins and forearms. Oh yeah, Those Were The Days!

**Oak Smoke** · November 19, 2022, 07:14 PM

We lived on a farm that depending on how much rain we’d had and if it had hailed the wheat crop out dictated our menu. Dad was one of those noodler fishermen. He would reach back in a hole under the bank and convince what ever catfish was in there to bite his hand. Some of those fish were huge, the biggest I ever saw was 86 pounds. He was an outstanding fish and hush puppy cook, all cooked in an old cast iron wash pot in the back yard. I think it held about 5 gallons of oil. Mom made great home made tartar sauce. Sundays were either pot roast or fried chicken. Her fried chicken was great, but her roast were boiled to death then served, not good. Mom’s baked goods and pies were second to none. Grandmother taught her how to make home made butter scotch. Oh my word home made butter scotch pie is incredible. The last three years I lived at home were tough times, lots of hamburger and noodles dishes.There were so many other families in the same shape we didn’t feel bad about our lives.

**JoeSousa** · November 19, 2022, 07:20 PM

I can remember three meals we had on a somewhat regular basis:

1. "Goulash" - Basically some noodles with a tomato type sauce, some cheese (my dad would always use Velveeta and my mom didn't care for that), and maybe some meat?

2. Roast chicken - Since I was the youngest I got the last pick of the pieces. My parents took the breasts and my two siblings would always go for the drumstick. So I was left with the thigh/back.

3. Stroganoff - Egg noodles, some ground beef, and some cream of mushroom soup. I am sure there were a couple things added to that but I honestly don't know what.

I didn't hate any of those unless my parents went too crazy with the onions in the goulash. Don't remember loving any of those either except for the roast chicken.

**RolfTaylor** · November 19, 2022, 07:47 PM

Grilled Chuck Steak (they used to be cheap and we had a big family),

Spaghetti and cheese casserole (layers of cooked spaghetti, a dusting of flour, slices of cheese, repeat. Cover with slices of cheese on tops plus a bit of milk.

**bordercollie** · November 19, 2022, 07:54 PM

Not bragging but my Mama cooked everything well. I think my favorite was her fried food. ( Like Chicken, porkchops, catfish) Her chicken n dressing was made with yellow cornbread and was awesome as well. My favorite special dessert was her Christmas pudding... It was a mix of angel food cake pieces/chunks edit : homemade custard: pecans , maraschino cherries ,coconut , pineapple chunks and whipped topping.

When I close my eyes and reminisce, I can also still find joy when I think of her broiled steaks, and chicken and dumplings. ( along with a piece of that cornbread to sop up the dumpling juice).

**radiodome21** · November 19, 2022, 11:08 PM

My mom cooked a lot but it was usually overcooked. I never liked steak until I actually learned how to cook it. Don’t know what i would put down as her signature dish.

my dad couldn’t cook anything. My mom was a night owl and he was the early bird so breakfast was on our own. But every now and then he’d pitch in. His contribution? Toast with velveeta cheese. 🤢

**mrteddyprincess** · November 20, 2022, 12:32 AM

My mom graduated from Trafalgar High School in Johnson Country, Indiana, USA in 1964. She was the daughter and granddaughter of farmers who raised tomatoes, corn, soy beans, hay, chickens, cattle, and hogs.

She learned to type, was good at math, writing, and reading, and when she graduated from high school she was able to find gainful employment. She married my dad, her high school sweetheart, the following December.

They provided the ideal home for children. My mom was the cook in the kitchen and my dad was in charge of the charcoal grill outside. Mom made breakfast every single day feeding us bacon, sausage, pancakes, and eggs in her regular rotations.

Mom was a product of Home Economics courses she took, and she was led to believe that boxed kits were the way to go, so we had a lot of Hamburger Helper, spaghetti, frozen French Bread, etc. One of her go-to meals was salmon patties, using crackers and canned salmon to make hamburger like patties. My dad hated those things, but I loved them.

Mom's grandma was an incredible cook and taught my mom how to fry chicken. My mom's best meal was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans. It's what I always requested for my birthday.

Dad's best dish was steak on the charcoal grill. He had a natural sense of when to pull the steaks and he almost always nailed it without the use of temperature guides or thermometers.

What we do here, discussing food, my parents never had that advantage. They did the best they could, provided love, and no one complained and everybody felt loved. Food, man, it connects us all, doesn't it?

**captainlee** · November 20, 2022, 05:19 AM

Mom was a great cook, nothing fancy, comfort food at its best. The dish i remember most and still make is Catalina chicken. Broiled chicken covered with Catalina dressing as the bbq sauce. Dad lit up the charcoal grill maybe two times a summer, maybe that is why I've been making up for lost time.

**Starsky** · November 20, 2022, 05:43 AM

Every 4th of July my mom had baked beans in a crockpot. They were thick, sweet and sticky. During Christmas holidays she made apple slices with white icing drizzled across the top. Nobody has been able to properly re-create either of those dishes

**Finster** · November 20, 2022, 06:08 AM

Mom made great potato salad.
Dad made awesome mac and cheese
neither were especially good cooks orherwise...

**CHNeal** · November 20, 2022, 06:45 AM

My Mom made something called “ Swiss Steak” which was Im guessing round steak with onions and tomato sauce in a casserole dish. I remember she always served it with mashed potatoes and we loved to spoon the sauce over the potatoes.

EDIT: I just remembered this.

I asked for the recipe once years later and she had forgotten all about the dish but after a few weeks I got a letter with this…

My Mom was a very good yet simple feed the family cook. After my Pop was gone she had to work a couple of jobs so I started taking over the nightly supper for my brother and sisters when I was 8 or 9 to help out. At first she would leave canned goods out ( Chow-mein ) for me to heat up, then meals ready to go in the oven, then it was recipes and eventually it was “ there a chicken in the fridge’….) I remember being so proud that I could help out, been the chief cook and bottle washer since then.

**Purc** · November 20, 2022, 06:56 AM

Chicken or turkey divan using my uncle's homemade curry powder.

**Clark** · November 20, 2022, 09:37 AM

My mom was a very innovative cook and made do with what we could afford in the 40s and 50s. One of the main meals was a huge pot of Navy Beans that would last a couple of days. I just thought she cooked them because she liked them but later I realized it was about $$$. For special occasions, her luxury meal would be a pot roast cooked with potatoes and carrots.

She made the most delicious French Toast that I've ever had.

Dad only cooked starting in the 60s and that was limited to a charcoal grill. He knew two things and cooked the heck out of both.....chicken quarters or sirloin steak.

I went into the Army a month after high school and, unlike many guys, I enjoyed the food....except SOS.

**fzxdoc** · November 20, 2022, 10:02 AM

Mom was a terrible cook, the product of a working mom and a dad who passed away when she was young. Grandma was a working-woman type of cook, and the pressure cooker featured largely in her repertoire, all of which was seasoned with salt and pepper only. Her food was always homemade, but quick and basic were her cooking ideals.

Not surprisingly, my Mother basically made inexpensive convenience foods like Banquet frozen chicken pot pies with exactly 3 peas and 2 chunks of chicken per pie. And the blue boxes of Kraft mac and cheese and fish sticks figured largely in our diet. Dad never prepared a lick of food with the exception of grilling burgers or hot dogs. Even then, my mother would bring the food out to him and take the (over) cooked food back into the house for dinner. I don't think those grill grates were ever cleaned.

Fortunately, I had plenty of friends whose Moms were great Southern cooks, and, growing up I learned a lot in their kitchens and at their dinnertables. I took over a lot of the cooking for our very large family (9 kids total) at a young age, maybe 9 or so, standing on a step stool at the stove to get that deep fried chicken into and out of the dutch oven.

Kathryn

**skipsdaughter** · November 20, 2022, 04:49 PM

When I was growing up, my mom did a lot of the day-to-day cooking. She was at home while I was in school and some of our family favorites were things like this chicken huntington casserole or some kind of meat and veggies and these cheesy hashbrowns. My favorite bar/cookie she makes are these chocolate revel bars (we call them funeral bars). I remember Skip making waffles and pancakes on Sunday mornings or my parents collaborating on hot turkey sandwiches in the days after Thanksgiving. After my dad retired, he's taken on a lot of the cooking -- and grilling -- and found his love of these hobbies supported through the Pit. I'm lucky that both of my parents are really talented cooks and fostered my love of cooking and baking, although my mom and husband might get a little tired of my dad and I talk endlessly about how to tweak a recipe or what might make something "go a little better."

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What were your parent's "signature" dishes (good or bad)?

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