<p>I just remembered that I helped compile a church cookbook several years ago. I was amazed to see how many recipes for the Campbell’s soup/pasta dish we received - all sorts of variations - with beans, with hamburger - everyone had a “special” name for it and it was a family favorite for so many. We didn’t include it in the book, though, because it did not seem to actually require a recipe to make - isn’t it on the soup can label?</p>
<p>an incredibly icky mexican cassorole</p>
<p>Mirical whip (i like hellmans/best foods dang it)</p>
<p>beer battered fish and onions (oh i could so go for this… if only i wasn’t gluten free)</p>
<p>Meatloaf (mother uses tomatos in it which means i can’t eat it anymore yay for allergy of tomatos)</p>
<p>beets (ew… just ew)</p>
<p>when i was like 7ish i used to combine milk and applejuice at school. I don’t know how i lived that one lol</p>
<p>Boiled cabbage</p>
<p>Sauerkraut</p>
<p>Chipped beef on toast</p>
<p>Brussel sprouts</p>
<p>Fish of any type (back then, in central Texas, it was NOT fresh!). I will eat fish now if I’m in a city next to the ocean (Portland, Maine has many wonderful restaurants).</p>
<p>Liver and onions. I love it and still make it (though not often because my husband is much less enthusiastic about it than I am).</p>
<p>Tuna casserole vanished off the menu many years ago, mostly because neither of my kids would ever touch tuna. I don’t think it will be coming back now that we’re empty nesters.</p>
<p>My mom’s meatloaf was horrible. Practically raw on the inside. She liked it that way. Fortunately, this was before E. coli got into beef!</p>
<p>We had meatloaf, which was made with canned Spanish rice. I remember liking it OK.
We liked a dish my mother called “goulash,” although it was really just macaroni and ground beef.
We also had creamed turkey (or chicken) on toast–especially when we were sick.
My favorite thing was roast beef cooked in the pressure cooker.</p>
<p>My mom’s tuna casserole included homemade noodles. I have made it a few times with the homemade noodles, but one of my friends said,“Tuna casserole is supposed to be easy.”</p>
<p>My mom made the best fried chicken. I don’t have the heart to even try to make it. It was perfection.</p>
<p>Our goulash was the macaroni and hamburger version too. My dad made Spaghetti-Os that way too.</p>
<p>brussels sprouts, caulifower, turnips.</p>
<p>My top five “never-again” hit parade:
- Liver and onions.
- Creamed onions. (Jarred while onions in a plain cornstarch white sauce. Yuck.)
- Creamed chipped beef on toast, made with beef sold in those little glass juice jars.
- Tripe, or kidney pie.
- SPAM. (Grandfather used to take SPAM-and-grape jelly sandwiches off to work.)</p>
<p>The corollary is that having gone through the experience of being forced to stay at the dinner table until said disgusting food was eaten, our D was raised under a completely different rule: you have to try one taste, but that’s it. I wonder what she’ll do when she has kids?</p>
<p>Things I DON’T make…cow’s tongue, liver and onions, Cheese Whiz sandwiches with green olives, peanut butter sandwiches with green onions, Spam or bologna sandwiches, or Campbell’s soup (only use in casseroles now). Believe it or not, my mother is an amazing cook now, so either I didn’t appreciate her in younger years, or she’s really improved. I do remember my beautiful birthday cakes. She took a cake decorating class and made cakes that looked like baskets, filled with various flower. And who could forget Barbie, planted in the middle of a beautiful cake?</p>
<p>coss-posted with arabrab on the Spam :)</p>
<p>My mom’s tuna casserole was nasty. She used to make it on Halloween and we had to eat it before we could go trick or treating :(</p>
<p>My mom called her ground beef concoction slumgullion-meat, macaroni. I didn’t like it. She alternated between chili and spaghetti on Saturdays. Loved her spaghetti sauce but she didn’t have any recipe written down and she died last year so that’s that. The secret ingredient seemed to be worcestershire sauce but my sister and I have never really been able to duplicate it .</p>
<p>My parents were both excellent cooks, and we ate really well. My father was very focused on food, and as an adult I realized he probably didn’t have as much food growing up as he wanted (Depression childhood). My dad was unusual in the 50s-60s because he cooked (and bought all the groceries and always cooked dinner on Sat. nights). He made great hamburgers and barbequed chicken. My mom made wonderful homemade biscuits with honey butter and frequent pies. We seldom ate out or had anything that wasn’t homemade except for bread. Lots of good soups, stew, chili, roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy and butter-sauteed mushrooms on Sundays.</p>
<p>I still make tuna noodle casserole, which my H loves. My updated recipe includes high-quality egg noodles, creamy pesto sauce, capers, a green veggie like asparagus or broccoli. That is a comfort food for me. Hmmm, maybe I’ll make that tonight.</p>
<p>Our standard dinner was a protein, usually a plain broiled meat, a salad made with iceberg lettuce and pale hothouse tomatoes, a canned vegetable, a starch, and a canned fruit for dessert. No way my dad would have tolerated a tuna noodle casserole after a hard day of work. Though I’ll occasionally broil a steak or chop, my meals are far more varied and complex. I can’t even think about canned carrots and green beans and the vilest of all, canned asparagus. And that canned fruit cocktail was petty nasty, too. But all my friends’ families ate pretty much the same way. The fifties and sixties won’t be remembered for the food.</p>
<p>I like Spam…</p>
<p>Still eat grilled cheese sandwiches with a bowl of tomato soup.</p>
<p>My family had Boston baked beans and hotdogs every Saturday night while we grew up. That was one of the first traditions that I ditched upon leaving home.</p>
<p>I don’t like shrimp tempura (had it too many times during my youth). But I love veggie tempura…</p>
<p>I miss tapioca pudding. I don’t miss lung. (And, thank the Lord, it is now illegal to sell it for food.)</p>
<p>My mother (a legendary terrible cook, though she won’t admit it), regularly burned frozen vegetables in a double boiler.</p>
<p>I loved but never fix chipped beef on canned biscuits. Miss my MIL’s fried chicken - the best in the world.<br>
Still eat macaroni and tomato juice, but now I use whole grain macaroni and add some fresh tomatoes. Pinto beans, ham and cornbread is still a family favorite - even my kids make it.<br>
Was never forced to eat icky stuff because my dad was a picky eater; mom cooked liver and onions and sauerkraut, and would invite my aunt or grandma to eat it with her.
My all-time favorite is toast, thick-sliced tomatoes and lots of Miracle Whip. I can’t wait for summer and good tomatoes.</p>
<p>We had fish stick sandwiches on fridays with tomato ,lettuce and mayo on a hamburger bun. Loved them as a kid. Have not bought a fish stick for years.</p>
<p>My mom was an awesome cook. Everything was over the top delicious. The problem was she used a stick of butter in everything she cooked,</p>
<p>I still make many of her favorites. Tuna casserole is to this day daughters favorite meal. My dad had her make it for him the year he passed away.</p>
<p>Grandma’s Chinese food: ground beef, celery cooked through and mixed with chicken chow mein (the vegies in the bottom can, the chicken in the gooky top can) with noodles and rice. Cabbage rolls which I LOVED. And matzoh ball soup…After that food went downhill FAST. Although she tried, she overcooked every vegetable.</p>
<p>My mil made s^^^ on a shingle and lots of casseroles. With all her nonsense she was very much a woman of the 50s. </p>
<p>My mother truly disliked casseroles: she said that they were too much work for so many calories. And…no nutrients.</p>
<p>Spam-no
some casserole with ketchup as a main ingredient with hamburger and mixed vegetables.
sardines, chipped beef on toast-noooooooooooooooooo
rice krispie treats -sometimes
My mom always burned the roast beef</p>
<p>I feel like I’m the only one who didn’t grow up with tuna noodle casserole. Maybe a tuna salad sandwich but never tuna noodle casserole. I haven’t had tuna in years!</p>