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Farm Kitchen:  My Momma used to make ...  |
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Mollie
True Blue Farmgirl
88 Posts
88 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 08:58:10 AM
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How many of the dishes you make now are related to something your Momma used to make? Do you cook like your Mother used to cook? Do you cook the same foods your Mother used to cook? Do you serve the same "go together withs" as your Momma used to serve?
For instance, my Momma used to serve green beans with meatloaf and apple-something or other with pork . . . why? Because "Momma used to . . ."
Feel free to substitute Aunt Effie or Grandma Rose as not everyone cooked like Momma.
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 09:15:05 AM
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I cook some things like my momma does. She always served green beans with chicken and meatloaf and applesauce with pork (like many moms out there), so I do the same. I have updated many of the recipes to include more organic foods and more vegetables that are fresh. My mom baked a lot and I enjoy that too. She made the BEST apple pie and we used to get up in the night to sneak some (especially when it was the long rectangular kind-called apple bars) and it did not matter where she hid them, we always found them.
I make my own bread and desserts too. I have a great recipe for apple pie bars now and my mom found the recipe the same weekend I did and we both called to tell each other about the best apple pie bars ever! :)
I wear an apron, but my mom does not. I got much of my joy of caring for a family and home from her. She is still like that even though it is just her and my dad at home now. |
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MariaAZ
True Blue Farmgirl
203 Posts
Phoenix
AZ
203 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 09:31:46 AM
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My mom used to make "pflaumenkuchen", or plum cake. It is a yeast sweet bread rolled flat with halved prune plums pushed into the surface and sprinkled with sugar before baking. This was my most favorite pastry as a child. She hasn't made it in a long time, I'm going to pester her until either she makes it or gives me the recipe!
Mom is Bavarian, and so I grew up with a lot of German dishes like sauerbraten & spaetzle and kartofelgemusse (sliced boiled potatoes and Polish sausage heated in a sauce similar to what is used for biscuits and gravy.) I make these as well as other "Mom" dishes with some frequency. It took Hubby awhile to get used to my cooking, but he doesn't complain.
Visit my blog at www.craftyfool.net |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 5:59:25 PM
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My mother was a fabulous and adventurous cook, and she taught me well. While there were things she never tried (she never got into baking breads) she did all sorts of things I've never tried. Once she called to consult me about a menu she was putting together for a luncheon for the bishop. She mentioned a few options, and I was trying to figure the logistics so I asked her how many she was expecting. And she said, "Oh, about three hundred and fifty." I knew I was out of my league. 
Yes, there are many favorite dishes that mother made. Her mother was Amish and her mother-in-law was German, and she was raised in the South, so lots of different cuisines were present when I was small. Then a neighbor moved in across the street, a lovely family from Alsace, France, and they brought lots of offerings that were mainstreamed at our table. She always used high quality ingredients and wanted peak flavor, regardless of how simple or complex the recipe. From simple lamb stews to towering croquenbuche in a halo of spun sugar, she could do most anything.
My mother has been gone for ten years, but it's such a treasure to find recipes in my recipe box in her handwriting. If it was good enough for her to want to share, it was certain to be delicious. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 6:25:44 PM
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My mom never liked to cook much..but I do make tacos alot like she did. I learned most about cooking and other homemakerish/farmgirlish stuff from my grandma. I cook more like she did. Lots of southern influence there..she was from Oklahoma. I miss her every day.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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sweetproserpina
True Blue Farmgirl
535 Posts
meg
Vinemount
Ontario
Canada
535 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 6:51:25 PM
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Well, I grew up mostly with my daddy-o and he is a pretty good cook. I almost always do my green beans with parmesan cheese - just like he does.
Fella requests I cook like his Mama sometimes- so I have a little Norwegian cookbook and every so often we have Norwegian pancakes for supper, yum! - still working on the lefse though, and getting the meatballs just right. 
"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world."
http://theprimroseway.blogspot.com/ |
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Alee
True Blue Farmgirl
22941 Posts
Alee
Worland
Wy
USA
22941 Posts |
Posted - Apr 22 2007 : 8:43:20 PM
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What an interesting topic!
I cook a lot like my mom and grandmother do. In fact I am calling at least a couple of times a month asking for specific recipes (I really should write them down on more lasting pieces of paper...) or asking for advice. I do like to experiment a bit more than my mom and grandmother do and I will eat lamb which they don't.
Alee |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 03:22:55 AM
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| Jenny, I think it's interesting that your mom didn't care much for cooking, but you clearly do. Who was then your role model for cooking? And in what sorts of other things did your mom serve as role model? |
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mtngirl1
True Blue Farmgirl
51 Posts
Kimberly
Roseland
Virginia
USA
51 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 05:22:36 AM
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| My mom never let me cook- I just did all the cleaning and laundry. My husband likes country cooking pretty much and that is how I cook. |
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Beemoosie
True Blue Farmgirl
2077 Posts
Bonnie
New York
USA
2077 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 05:48:02 AM
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I find that I do it more and more! Applesauce with any meat and veggie meal; still trying to make stroganoff they way she does...I know there's more!!
Ever find when you are asked the question, all the answers disappear!! LOL!
My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Luke 1:46,47
www.beequilting.blogspot.com
http://beemoosie-picture-diary.blogspot.com/ |
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KYgurlsrbest
True Blue Farmgirl
4853 Posts
Jonni
Elsmere
Kentucky
USA
4853 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 06:11:20 AM
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My mother wasn't much of a cook, though she did do her best. My father was super finicky, so we had a lot of repeat meals, and she worked, too, so there was a lot of "instant" type pre-prepared things (hello 1970's). She did always make a pineapple cake that I still make in the summer (sheet cake with cream cheese icing) and she always made creamed peas with meatloaf and mashed potatoes (a lot of starch, but yummy none the less!) My husband loved peas, but had never had them creamed, and now he gets mad if I don't make creamed peas everytime.
My grandmother didn't cook either, but my great gran did. I guess I got the "fever" from her, because I love to cook (and eat). I make her sugar cream pie, which is the only recipe that survived her. Actually, cooking is the only thing I will give myself credit for!
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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_Rebecca_
True Blue Farmgirl
568 Posts
Rebecca
OK
USA
568 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 06:34:22 AM
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Nope. I don't cook like my Mumsy. She cooked LEAD in your butt meals for my Dad who worked like a dog. She had a set of waterless cookware and a very nice set of cast iron skillets that retained all the wonderful flavors. She cooked him fried pies (heaven), cobblers, fry bread, regular fruit pies, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, plumber's steak (like chicken fried steak), hoboe dinners (foil dinners), gravy & biscuits, fried potatoes, fried squash, fried okra, beans & cornbread, steak for breakfast, porkchops for breakfast, goolash, spaghetti pizza, fried chicken and lots of other things. Orange cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pb cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies. Cakes & ice creams from scratch. Homemade rolls. Homemade cheeseburgers, banana splits. She worked at a drug store/soda fountain as a youth.
Also, lots of foods were cooked into patties. Fish patties, potato pancakes, etc.
Yeah, I need to get my cholesterol checked!!!!
I married a man who grew up eating fast food. He isn't a potato guy at all, prefers pasta, rice. Doesn't go for beef much. Loves pork and chicken. Loves spicy and ethnic foods. Loves salads and pasta dishes. Fish and citrus. Doesn't eat that many sweets or desserts and hates creamy/starchy foods. I tried cooking for him like my mom cooked for my dad and he gave me lots of strange looks. I figured out quickly that wasn't going to work.
.·:*¨¨* :·.Rebecca.·:*¨¨* :·. |
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EmmJay
True Blue Farmgirl
352 Posts
Mary Jane
Amherst
Nova Scotia
Canada
352 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 06:47:43 AM
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My mom was and still is my favorite cook. You could walk into her kitchen and find absolutely nothing, but within an hour, she had such a wonderful meal ready.....it was amazing. She remarried after my father, to a man with three children, so that made 9 of us.....
When I first moved in with my first husband, there were only the two of us, and I was constantly calling his parents over for dinner. His father would answer the phone just after 5 pm and say,,,,"Dinner is ready! We'll be right over." I always cooked (still do) WAY too much. The good thing about that is no one goes hungry around me...
MJ
"Thank GOD I'm a country girl"
http://s119.photobucket.com/albums/o134/EmmJay07/ |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 06:58:21 AM
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My mom is an amazing cook, too - my favorite, as well, EmmJay! I TRY to cook like she does, but I have a few years of experience to accumulate! I'm still learning to be a good cook, and so I often call her and ask her how to do this or that, or what her recipe is for whatever I want - so, yep, I cook like my mama because I still have to frequently ask her how to cook (and, yes, I'm in my mid-thirties, but I'm learning!!!
XOXO, Libbie
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar..." - Helen Hayes |
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mom2knk
True Blue Farmgirl
321 Posts
Blanche
So Cal
321 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 07:11:03 AM
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| Both of my parents were very good cooks but my Dad did the majority of cooking while we were growing up. They both worked and Dad was very good about helping out since Mom usually worked nights and took care of my 4 sisters and I all day before going to work. My Dad's family is also Italian so it was usually the men that were in the kitchen cooking! He always had a pot of sauce on the stove and we ate lots of pasta! He also really like meat and potato type meals. When I was first married I cooked like my parents and I also picked up on some of the things my MIL cooked to keep dh happy. 22 years later I don't cook like them at all anymore. We eat more lean meats, chicken, turkey, very lean red meat. Also lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I don't make the heavy sauces or gravy type dishes anymore. |
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Amie C.
True Blue Farmgirl
2099 Posts
Finger Lakes Region
NY
2099 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 09:48:58 AM
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My mom didn't teach me to cook, but most of the things I think of to cook are things I remember from childhood. Often I think back to what they tasted like and what I saw going on in the kitchen, and then I try to recreate it. Surprisingly, that works pretty well. I bluffed my way through french toast, apple pie, and spaghetti sauce without ever looking up a recipe.
Now I'm baking bread, just like my mom used to do way back before I started school. I had to find recipes for that though!
If mom ever gets a free day, I would like her to teach me how to cook some of the things she learned from my Italian great-grandmother, like pasta fazool (sp?) and rice pie. |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Apr 23 2007 : 1:30:05 PM
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My mom hated to cook. We used to tease her and say she could burn a boiled hot dog! Grandma taught me everything about cooking and gardening. I still make her peach kuchen and apple pie. I even cut wheat stalks into the top of the crust like she did. I make all the stuff she did for breakfast: Eggs (any way you like em), bacon/sausage, hashbrowns, oatmeal, cream of wheat and my favorite buckwheat pancakes. I still dress my hams they way she did with whole cloves and brown sugar. I even can the same way she did. Though she never technically "taught" me how to can (I wasn't allowed in the kitchen during canning) but I always watched from her step stool at the one end of her galley kitchen. I never really thought about how much I have followed her direction until now.
I also learned some things from my mom-in-law since I grew up with German type foods and my husband grew up with Mexican foods. I learned how to make most things except tortillas. They turned out like pie crust! Hubby likes most things I make. Sometimes I go on a "need something different" spree. Some new recipes are keepers and the recipes my family doesn't like go in the trash.
We come from Nature, we go back to Nature; health & happiness in between requires intimacy with Nature. |
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faithymom
True Blue Farmgirl
360 Posts
Faith
Sandpoint
ID
USA
360 Posts |
Posted - Apr 24 2007 : 10:19:27 PM
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I do some things like mom, but not quite as healthy most of the time.
My mom would bake bread all the time and I am doing that now. But she'd always bake whole wheat and I usually don't do whole wheat.
She is a good cook. When we were growing up my parents were hippies and health-nuts...no sugar on our cereal (YOU try mixing honey into cold cereal!) very little sugared cereal at all, lots of tofu (I love it), beans, brown rice, oatmeal(love it), CAROB instead of chocolate(hate it!), etc.
I try to feed my family healthier, cooked from scratch meals, but I do love my sweets and the occasional fast food meal. I should do it better, because my oldest and I need to drop some pounds, but I have yet to find an acceptable (to me) sugar substitute.
Faith
"All television is educational television. The only question is, what is it teaching?"-Fmr. FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2007 : 04:59:01 AM
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Faith, I actually prefer drizzling honey on my cereal, if it requires sweetening! I criss-cross thin lines of it on the cereal when it's dry, and then it sticks much better than sugar does. Sugar sinks to the bottom, and the honey stays on the cereal.
I think it's interesting though; the common thread here seems to be not so much about food, but about a sense of connection to the loved ones who went before us. I know that's why I take such pleasure in cooking certain foods. There's no real need to cut the wheat pattern in the piecrust, but it makes the pie like Grandma made, and when the pattern is there, Grandma is there. I wonder who cut wheat patterns in their pie before her, or if that's something she just thought was pretty?
I love hearing the stories about the cooks in the family! |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2007 : 2:14:35 PM
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Mary Ann, you made me cry (but in a good way) I never thought about the fact that I cut that pattern into the crust was a way of keeping Grandma around. But upon reflection, that makes a lot of sense. She's been gone 18 years now but I think of her often, especially when baking. She was my best friend when I was growing up and into my 20's. Now that I think about it, I think it's why I enjoy baking so much. Grandma was ALWAYS in the kitchen.
Are you a shrink? LOL
We come from Nature, we go back to Nature; health & happiness in between requires intimacy with Nature. |
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windypines
True Blue Farmgirl
4240 Posts
Michele
Bruce
Wisconsin
USA
4240 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2007 : 3:48:48 PM
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| I took a little of this and that from my mom, and both grandma's. And then I ventured out from there. My ma has a fit how I cook, not measureing much, and using both racks in my oven. That one really drives her crazy!!!! I do a whole lot more then she did. My dad is a meat and potatoes guy, so we had alot of that growing up. Meals are always an adventure at our house!!! Michele |
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Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2007 : 3:50:49 PM
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quote:
Are you a shrink? LOL
Awww, not me. But there are several in my family. My mother-in-law and my brother are both psychotherapists, and my stepmother is a clinical psychologist. My brother tells me I'm better at it than he is.
But I think really it comes from just trying to be insightful into behavior. It helps a ton in training horses, and in being a wife, mother, and grandmother.
I know for me, it's always been moving to cook for my family in my grandmother's iron skillet. I think of how she cooked for her family, when my dad was a little bitty guy in the Depression years and my grandfather was a struggling young surgeon, later when they had lavish parties in a huge Tudor mansion, and in their last years when they were in a much smaller house and it was just the two of them again. The skillet went to my mother then, who cooked in it when I was little, and she passed it on to me. Now my married daughter cooks for my grandsons in it, more than eighty years after my grandmother got it. Think of all the bacon and eggs, the burgers, the cornbread, the chicken.... the breakfasts with smiling faces all gathered round, the dinners hearing FDR telling frightened people it'll be okay, the young family in the optimistic and prosperous Kennedy years grabbing a quick breakfast before heading out the door to conquer the world, the Carter years and cooking recipes heavy on bulgur and cheese as inflation went through the roof.... See? It's not just a pan; it's a family history.
Isn't the human experience a wonderful one? |
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UrbanChick
True Blue Farmgirl
331 Posts
Ayako
Atlanta
GA
USA
331 Posts |
Posted - Apr 25 2007 : 4:03:00 PM
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My mom used to make a wonderful Char Shu pork on New Years Day. We are not Chinese but she always made this dish and it was wonderful. It took her two whole days of marinating then slowing cooking the pork tenderloin. I need to get her recipe. She would also make the best sushi when we were little. I don't really do a whole lot of raw fish but when my dad used to do seasonal work in Alaska fishing he would send the freshest fish and caviar you have ever tasted. He would ship it to us and we would pick it up at the airport.
"Courage dosen't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying: I will try again tomorrow." |
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lisamarie508
True Blue Farmgirl
2648 Posts
Lisa
Idaho City
ID
USA
2648 Posts |
Posted - Apr 26 2007 : 09:48:34 AM
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I was only kidding, Mary Ann. Wow, I'm impressed. How fun to think how far your pan has come and how far it will go? Oh, and to answer your other question: I once asked Grandma why she cut the wheat stalks in her crust and she said because her mother did it that way. I have no idea if that practice may have gone back any further, though.
We come from Nature, we go back to Nature; health & happiness in between requires intimacy with Nature. |
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FarmGirl~K
True Blue Farmgirl
512 Posts
Kelly
TX
USA
512 Posts |
Posted - Apr 26 2007 : 10:47:24 AM
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I dont' remember my mom cooking a whole lot when I was a kid. I know she did because we didnt go out to eat except on the weekend w/my gram. (Either to Wendy's or York Steak House usually). I remember her making fish on Fridays. None of my family is big into eating fish, so it surprises me that she made that. As we got older, I remember her making "Poor Man's Pierogi", guacamole, spaghetti, & sometimes lasagna. My gram didnt cook much either. She worked at a bakery & she would bring some treats home from there. A lot of my cooking I learned from my MIL (when I actually cook) & it is a good thing because my DH still loves her cooking. She made things like stuffed cabbage, goulash, a yummy bread roll stuffed with meat & cheese, pork chops & applesauce, & a few other things.
"Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow." ~Benjamin Franklin~
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Reepicheep
True Blue Farmgirl
78 Posts
78 Posts |
Posted - Apr 27 2007 : 07:47:51 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by KYgurlsrbest
My mother wasn't much of a cook, though she did do her best. My father was super finicky, so we had a lot of repeat meals, and she worked, too, so there was a lot of "instant" type pre-prepared things (hello 1970's).
Same here except it was my mom that was super finicky! There were so many things I grew up thinking I didn't like only to learn as a teenager that I'd never even tried any of them (because we didn't eat it at home) - pizza was just one of many!!!!!!!!
So, no, I don't cook like my mom - no prepackaged junk for us. I honestly don't enjoy cooking all that much. I'd rather bake. My dh does the majority of the cooking as it's something he really loves. There are a few things that only *I* make like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and pizza to name a few.
http://www.homesteadblogger.com/merryhearthomestead/
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/onourway/ |
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Farm Kitchen: My Momma used to make ... |
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My Momma used to make ...
