For all my childhood, my grandmother lived with us (her own place in the basement, then with us.) She was a cookie baker, and there was usually cookie dough in the fridge (multiple at Christmas but you don't dare go for the pecan fudgeball dough!) She also did fantastic swedish meatballs, and potato soup with croutons. Then in highschool her cooking declined and my mom was always on a diet (the 80s,) so baked skinless boneless chicken breasts. Plain. Ugh. But the cookies... When she died, some of her ashes went in a cookie tin into the church memorial garden.
Thanks for sharing your memories! The lobster sounds not my thing but the doughnuts and cake!
My paternal grandmother made the most incredible banana pudding from scratch! Then she put a meringue on top that was 6 inches high then put it under the broiler to brown. So tasty.
My maternal grandmother made chicken & rice that was the best comfort food. Great memories.
Sadly both my grandmothers died when I was very young, so no memories of wonderful food. I am from Maine, so your post brought back lots of Maine and food memories. We always have lobster when we go back to visit and lots of other seafood too. 🦞❤️
What a lovely way to celebrate Mother’s Day! My grandmother made doughnuts, too. I have NOT tried to do that myself. I usually visited her in June, shortly after school let out, and there would always be strawberry rhubarb pie, with rhubatlrb from her garden. The smell of strawberries cooking always brings her memory right back. So does the taste of sugar cream pie, on the rare occasions when I make one for the sake of nostalgia (I’ve never really cared for it). A favorite summer meal was wilted lettuce salad (wilted by a cooked vinegar dressing poured hot on the fresh leaves. It was always served with pancakes and syrup, for some reason. Don’t know if that was a Midwestern thing or my family’s weird thing. When we saw her in the winter I always looked forward to her chicken and noodles. I once tried to get her to tell me the recipe and she was baffled by the request. “You cook your chicken and you cook your noodles and mix them together in a pot,” she patiently explained.
Green bean casserole made with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and those crispy onion things on top, chicken breast in orange juice concentrate which was much better than what I called beef-flavored dishrag (inexpensive beef I could never chew), and scalloped potatoes! I remember her mentioning and even attempting the Charleston, too.
My paternal grandma made a fantastic meatloaf which I can never reproduce, even using her hand-written recipe (I think she left an ingredient out), scalloped corn (with "floor sweepings" a.k.a. crumbled saltines on top), and some really good pies.
We kids shared much hilarity with Grandpa over that (even as an adult, I loved joking about it with him). I'm not sure whose idea it was to call it that but since he had woodworking tools and lots of sawdust and wood shavings in the basement, it could even have been his idea.
For all my childhood, my grandmother lived with us (her own place in the basement, then with us.) She was a cookie baker, and there was usually cookie dough in the fridge (multiple at Christmas but you don't dare go for the pecan fudgeball dough!) She also did fantastic swedish meatballs, and potato soup with croutons. Then in highschool her cooking declined and my mom was always on a diet (the 80s,) so baked skinless boneless chicken breasts. Plain. Ugh. But the cookies... When she died, some of her ashes went in a cookie tin into the church memorial garden.
Thanks for sharing your memories! The lobster sounds not my thing but the doughnuts and cake!
My paternal grandmother made the most incredible banana pudding from scratch! Then she put a meringue on top that was 6 inches high then put it under the broiler to brown. So tasty.
My maternal grandmother made chicken & rice that was the best comfort food. Great memories.
Sadly both my grandmothers died when I was very young, so no memories of wonderful food. I am from Maine, so your post brought back lots of Maine and food memories. We always have lobster when we go back to visit and lots of other seafood too. 🦞❤️
What a lovely way to celebrate Mother’s Day! My grandmother made doughnuts, too. I have NOT tried to do that myself. I usually visited her in June, shortly after school let out, and there would always be strawberry rhubarb pie, with rhubatlrb from her garden. The smell of strawberries cooking always brings her memory right back. So does the taste of sugar cream pie, on the rare occasions when I make one for the sake of nostalgia (I’ve never really cared for it). A favorite summer meal was wilted lettuce salad (wilted by a cooked vinegar dressing poured hot on the fresh leaves. It was always served with pancakes and syrup, for some reason. Don’t know if that was a Midwestern thing or my family’s weird thing. When we saw her in the winter I always looked forward to her chicken and noodles. I once tried to get her to tell me the recipe and she was baffled by the request. “You cook your chicken and you cook your noodles and mix them together in a pot,” she patiently explained.
Ha, that's wonderful!
I was just thinking of your family's visits to Maine that you often wrote about! Loved reading this.
Dishes I remember my maternal grandmother making:
Green bean casserole made with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup and those crispy onion things on top, chicken breast in orange juice concentrate which was much better than what I called beef-flavored dishrag (inexpensive beef I could never chew), and scalloped potatoes! I remember her mentioning and even attempting the Charleston, too.
My paternal grandma made a fantastic meatloaf which I can never reproduce, even using her hand-written recipe (I think she left an ingredient out), scalloped corn (with "floor sweepings" a.k.a. crumbled saltines on top), and some really good pies.
FLOOR SWEEPINGS! I love that!
We kids shared much hilarity with Grandpa over that (even as an adult, I loved joking about it with him). I'm not sure whose idea it was to call it that but since he had woodworking tools and lots of sawdust and wood shavings in the basement, it could even have been his idea.