I thought this might be fun. This morning I had this flashback to a breakfast dish I was introduced to as a young kid by my older brother. It's probably been 20 years since I've made this and whatever experience I've gained over the years made this even better.
So the idea is to let your mind wander back to a dish you recall as a youngster, and using your awesome adult culinary skills.. resurrect it and post a picture and any story relating to how you came to know it as a kid.
To kick it off.. "Eggs in a Nest" .. I did a test with this too.. canola oil on the bread vs. butter in the pan... NO CONTEST.. it will only ever be butter for me from now on!
Yea there's a number of names for it. I was going to toast the cutouts but I figured.. that's just more carbs and somehow it made eating two of these OK.. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif I love the idea of serving them with preserves though.. that's re-purposing at it's finest by creating a completely separate element for the dish.
I always called that "Egg in a nest" and sausage in Yorkshire Pudding was "toad in the hole". The former I loathe but the latter I lust after... but haven't had in a long, long time. Maybe I'll make one soon and post a pic here!
I'll be honest. Nothing I had as a kid is memorable enough to want to recreate. My mother was (still is) a horrible cook, doesn't like cooking and never did. She was thrilled when we (4 girls, 2 boys) were old enough to start cooking/baking. I was baking a cake every Saturday by the age of seven.
I've told these stories before here, but I won't let that stop me from repeating them in this discussion.
One of my earliest food memories involves mushrooms. My father was the city engineer for a small town in Michigan, Dowagiac. He supplemented his income with various weekend land surveying jobs with a fellow whose name I no longer remember. One weekend rather than working Dad and this guy went out gathering wild mushrooms. They gathered a lot. So I'm like maybe 5 - 6 years old and out playing in the back yard. I come into the house and am struck by this terrible stench of mushrooms being sauteed in butter. Well, at the time it was terrible. I have since changed my opinion. I have not eaten mushrooms since, oh, maybe three hours ago with my steak dinner. Love them now, my initial reaction did not take.
Chicken wings - a current rage. Back around the time of the mushroom incident, maybe around 1960, give or take a year or two, my mother would make wings. Not spicy, Buffalo style, these would have dabs of sour cream and some herb mix, perhaps packets of Italian dressing powder. Baked on sheet pans in the oven they came out SO tasty and messy, perfect food for all of us young kids.
But in truth I don't remember much else about my mother's cooking. Her mother, Anna Lutz, had a restaurant out on Dewey Lake road called Lutz's Country House. And mom's brother Bob opened a drive in called, oddly enough, Lutz's Drive In. The restaurant is long gone, the drive in is still there, though Uncle Bob retired recently and sold it to another family.
So there is a bit of history of cooking in my family tree.
We call it "Eggs in a Basket" and my wife still regularly makes this for our 10 year old daughter who absolutely loves it, who then occasionally makes it for Daddy.
Pigs In a Blanket. Weiners rolled up in a pastry triangle and baked.
Of course Pilsbury got up in it and has a recipe on thier frozen
croissant package. lol
I think I may take another childhood classic.. hamburger helper and resurrect it. Fresh ground ribeye, mornay sauce, and elbow pasta.. little sprinkle of smoked paprika.. little chopped parsley.. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/biggrin.gif
One of my favorite childhood comfort foods is my grandmother's Macaroni, Bacon and Tomatoes with garlic salt to taste. Couldn't be easier, or simpler in fact I made some for my grandson just last week - well for all of us really.
My Mom was a pretty good, if simple-dish oriented cook but my first thought about favorites is tuna noodle casserole. Not a gourmet dish but certainly a comfort food. She made a pretty good meatloaf too. Also, somewhere in my memory is a picture of a beef tongue boiling in a large pot. Different league for sure, and I don't remember actually eating it, though I now enjoy it in a sandwich on rye while my wife won't even consider it.
When I was a kid we had a panini maker. It was very heavy and green. My brother and I used to make grilled cheese and bologna sandwiches in it all the time. We'd use American cheese, oscar Meyer bologna, and country crock margerine on wonder bread.
These are not ingredients I would ever buy now but I have learned to make a grown up version using fresh bread, mortadella, butter, and provolone.
When I was a kid we had a panini maker. It was very heavy and green. My brother and I used to make grilled cheese and bologna sandwiches in it all the time. We'd use American cheese, oscar Meyer bologna, and country crock margerine on wonder bread.
These are not ingredients I would ever buy now but I have learned to make a grown up version using fresh bread, mortadella, butter, and provolone.
I still, occasionally crave a bologna sandwich, and sorry, but I still love grilled cheese sandwiches made with Kraft singles and white bread (not to say that I don't love grilled cheese sandwiches with better ingredients also, but when sharing a bowl of tomato soup with your daughter nothing beats the first).
I still, occasionally crave a bologna sandwich, and sorry, but I still love grilled cheese sandwiches made with Kraft singles and white bread (not to say that I don't love grilled cheese sandwiches with better ingredients also, but when sharing a bowl of tomato soup with your daughter nothing beats the first).
I don't mean to sound like a snob about it, I don't buy some of these ingredients because I wouldn't know what to do with them beyond preparing that one dish I crave. Sure I could buy some kraft singles and some wonder bread and have a jolly time making my favorite childhood dish but then I'm left with a whole lot of american cheese and white bread that I would have to consume, and I don't like it enough to indulge in more than one meal with those ingredients. It's a matter of practicality. My son is 5, he's never eaten kraft singles.
Its all about taste and preference. And saturation...I ate a lot
of Hambuger Helper as a teen, now I wont touch the stuff.
Same with balogna too many school sandwhiches, cuz balongna
is cheap, now I cant stand the sight of it.
My Japanese mother couldn't cook American food. Since there was no Japanese market in town, my mother purchased and fed us a lot of processed package foods from Kellogg, Nabisco, Kraft, and General Mills. But my American grandmother was a southern country girl, so there wasn't a single processed food container in her house. For me, my fondest childhood food memories are from my grandmother's kitchen. Fried chicken; whole wheat pancakes drizzled with honey from her beehives; sautéed zucchini from her garden; brandy soaked fruitcake and mincemeat pie for Christmas; hand-churned vanilla ice cream in the summer; bubbly cheddar cheese toast on pumpernickel.
Isaly's chip chopped ham at 99 cents a pound in cheep Giant eagle bbq sauce on Nickles bakery hamburger buns from the Nickles thrift store. Growing up poor couldn't taste any better. I was back in the USA last august and made this one days for lunch, the kids just stared blankly at me but ohh so many child hood memories. They did like the Klondike bars[emoji]127846[/emoji]
Reading thru these posts and trying to think of something that really stands out as a childhood favorite and nothing comes to mind.
We ate ...regular.
Southern staples and TexMex and a heckofalotta seafood with tons of veg (fresh in the summer and canned/frozen in winter).
Friday nite burgers from the mom and pop place on the corner.
Not a lot of cheese but I do remember always having a loaf of Velveeta in the fridge.
Christmas brought the tubs of oysters enjoyed in the backyard with the dads shucking and us kids eating as fast as everyone else...a vat of gumbo staying warm over the fire...loaves of crusty bread and a dish of garlic butter for those who wanted it....and always always rice (bring back memories @laurenlulu ;-) ?
@Norcalbaker59 I am also a huge mincemeat fan.... these days I don't even bother making a tart or pie... just buy a jar and eat from it with a ice tea spoon lol.
My Japanese mother couldn't cook American food. Since there was no Japanese market in town, my mother purchased and fed us a lot of processed package foods from Kellogg, Nabisco, Kraft, and General Mills. But my American grandmother was a southern country girl, so there wasn't a single processed food container in her house. For me, my fondest childhood food memories are from my grandmother's kitchen. Fried chicken; whole wheat pancakes drizzled with honey from her beehives; sautéed zucchini from her garden; brandy soaked fruitcake and mincemeat pie for Christmas; hand-churned vanilla ice cream in the summer; bubbly cheddar cheese toast on pumpernickel.
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