The swan 1-2-3-4 cake recipe is my go to vanilla sponge recipe for cake but it does not work for cupcakes. I am going to try the Hershey sponge recipe as I have never found one I love. My go to chocolate frosting is from Martha Stewart and uses both melted chocolate and cocoa powder.
Oh, the Ritz cracker mock apple pie didn’t make the list. 
I wonder if anyone in history has ever made that. When I was a little kid I used to read that recipe on the box and beg my mom to make it but she absolutely refused.
My great aunt, a nun, used to make a recipe – I think it was cocktail meatballs but it might have been cocktail weiners – that involved a can of coke and a can of cherry pie filling. Details are hazy in my mind, but I was so horrified, even as a small child, that I remember those ingredients very clearly.
@Testingearly If you mean chocolate sponge in the British sense of the word, meaning cake generically and not specifically a “sponge cake”, try Ina Garten’s chocolate cake recipe. Very good but not sponge cake. I think the best chocolate cakes incorporate some sort of hot liquid and some sort of coffee element.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe.html
@nottelling Your aunt nun’s recipe isn’t any odder than what many people use for meatballs which is a combo of grape jelly and Heinz chili sauce. That had to be created by the product people.
Cleaning out MILs kitchen we ran across many 1970s era church & junior league cookbooks, everything called for was canned- green beans, peas, onions, potatoes, yuck! That era was quite excited about what the astronauts used and canned veggies.
I also agree about the cook changing the recipe, my D3 makes tollhouse cookies and they are sublime, she has tried to teach her sisters, overseeing each step, but they don’t turn out the same, guess the sisters don’t stir right!
^Oh, ugh I remember that meatball recipe with the grape jelly. Some things like that are best forgotten. Thanks for the memories, @doschicos
I love the swan cake recipe but if I never see another jello salad with cut up fruit and cool whip I won’t be sorry. Spending summers in the Midwest as a child, I’m convinced I had every possible combination…
I use the cornbread recipe from the back of the cornmeal bag. I’ve discovered it’s basically the same as many cornbread recipes I see in cookbooks. The ones that are different tend to have more ingredients, particularly ones that aren’t staples and add to the dish’s calorie and fat count unnecessarily.
@doschicos, thanks for posting that link. My grandparents were from Mississippi and had a pecan farm and sent us huge amounts of pecans each year. I grew up on that Karo pecan pie recipe and it’s still my favorite today. I think we might add extra pecans as we had them in abundance.
Best way to make a great pecan pie even better is to add more pecans! 
I think we are lucky, @somemom, to be alive now. So many more fresh fruit and vegetable options available to us than during our childhood. Canned veggies, and then frozen, used to be a necessity. I’m all about eating local as much as possible but that is much easier for Californians to do than us New Englanders. In northern New England, eating local in winter would be food you canned or just cabbage, beets, and root veggies. There is a reason why New England Boiled Dinner is an old staple.
My sister used Stovetop stuffing when entertaining. When guests raved and asked her about it she claimed it was a family secret.
Well, the meatball thing is a crowd pleaser hereabouts. You just can’t tell them that “secret.” It’s potluck, when nothing’s going to be gourmet. It has its time and place.
Yes, there is a time and place for the nostalgic recipes.
I still love the onion dip made from the packet of dried onion soup mix with some crudite and Ruffles potato chips.
I have a friend who is a caterer and has worked as a private chef to celebrities. I always liked the signature pasta with creamy tomato sauce that he often serves when catering. I finally got him to share the secret with me. It’s jarred tomato sauce and cream. Throw some basil leaves on it. That’s it. I couldn’t believe it. And I especially couldn’t believe how much he got paid for catering with that secret signature dish!! LOL
Our turkey stuffing starts with the pepperidge farm stuffing bag. Actually, it started with a recipe from the Pepperidge Farm cookbook, from the founder of the company. It was a real place and a real cookbook in the '60s.
I don’t mind sharing recipes, but it bugs the carp out of me when others then bring the dish to something I’m at.
Sauté garlic in some olive oil. Add anchovy paste and stir for about 30seconds. Add jarred sauce and heat, then add fresh basil at the end. Anchovy paste adds that umami to a lot of things.
I used to be able to get Goya chili and onion stuff in a jar. It was the secret to my green chicken chili (along with the rotisserie chicken from Costco). The recipe called for similar ingredients, I just got lazy.
@Gourmetmom , I live near the ocean and surprisingly have very few good seafood restaurants or seafood markets. One restaurant that tourists hold in high esteem makes their lobster bisque with a base of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup ! This is beyond lazy and gross IMO. I have a pet peeve about eating out and being able to make the food better myself at home
I don’t believe anyone’s mentioned the Fantasy Fudge recipe from the back of the Marshmallow Fluff jar. My mom brought some over Christmas Eve. It’s still the best.
I gave a came recipe to a neighbor a few years ago, she brought it to my recent party, with changes!
Nooooo!
Since when do mushrooms, particularly the canned soup variety, feature in Lobster Bisque? Just no, no, no.
I am enjoying all of the posts!
A few of you, though not all, understand the frustration of having a good recipe that you share and
others bring it to all sorts of get togethers. There goes my “go to recipe”…
I spend a lot of time finding good recipes or making them up myself.
If I gave out my pumpkin bread recipe I would not have that “special” gift that friends look
forward to…even to the point of reminding me to start baking. I have even asked for some favors
with the bread as my pay back. It is all in good fun.
But I am certainly not announcing at my annual dinner party that the
sauce is just two jars mixed together 
. I may very well email him the information later.
Some these links are a hoot. My grandmother made lime jello with chopped cabbage and
carrots and put a slaw dressing on it. I did like it 
as a child.