My sister and I were reminiscing about our childhood recently and especially some meal ideas that we never hear about any more. Some we liked and some we didn't.
Mom was a trendsetter as we had sourdough items for many years. Pancakes and waffles as well as bread. I've never been a breakfast eater so I would be delighted when we had breakfast for dinner. Especially potato cakes (from last night's mashed potatoes) and eggs. Potatoes were a great low cost side dish and I can eat them in ANY form. I've never met a potato I didn't like. Except I was always the peeler of the family and I still hate peeling potatoes! My fingers would be shriveled.
Mostly the children had cold cereal for breakfast during the week. Weekends might be oatmeal or warm rice with cinnamon, raisins and sugar. If eggs were on sale, oh yummy!
With 5-6 kids on a blue collar one income family, beans were often on the menu. A simple one that my Dad continued to love was simple baked beans with browned hamburger. One of my least favorites. Have you ever had kidney beans on toast? In a light cheese sauce and during Lent, meatless meals were always on Friday. I still love it and I might just make some for myself soon.
Salisbury steaks? Yes please. Cabbage rolls? Still love them. When I would go back to Ohio in the summer for a week or two, I'd ask them to make me a list of some freezable meals they rarely made any more, so I could cook up a storm and they could enjoy for a month or two. Dad had a huge vegetable garden so another frequent low meat meal was green beans, potatoes and ham. We had two huge freezers so they would freeze fresh stuff to enjoy all year. Although for some reason she still canned tomatoes and tomato sauce.
Leftover veggies were saved in a tupperware carton in the freezer and when it was full, it was time for vegetable soup. She had a sweet tooth and was always trying poke cakes, wacky cakes and pudding cakes. Jellos desserts with Cool Whip too. Bread pudding was the best ... she froze all the ends and old slices and when she had enough, good enough to die for. She made the best pies, too. In fact, I always chose cherry pie for my birthday and Dad chose lemon meringue.
Tuna patties and tuna noodle casseroles were two of my favorites. Home made chicken and dumplings as well as potpies. Spaghetti and meatballs were best of all.
OK, now I'm hungry. Don't even ask how many dozens of cookies were made for Christmas in just one or two weekends!
That's all so interesting as a former Buckeye girl myself. You got me to thinking about all the foods Mom used to make. I especially remember chipped beef on toast, toasted cheese sandwiches, soup beans with ham and cornbread, shredded chicken in a gravy sandwiches, many more items I won't go into now.
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