We’re Giving Away a Racy Red Mixer . . . Happy Mother’s Day!
Oh yes we are….. and she’s a beauty!! To celebrate all the support you’ve shown – the least I could do is start giving back. So, I’m giving away this metallic candy apple red KitchenAid mixer ( a color that would be envied by all middle-aged sports cars!)
insert glamour shot here…..
Entering to Win is Simple:
To enter this giveaway, just answer this Mother’s Day inspired question in the COMMENTS section of this post . . .
“What is your favorite Mom food memory?”
This can be a story about your mom, or you as a mom…. or someone else’s mom… it can be happy or sad or inspirational…. doesn’t matter…. Just share a little story in the comments and you’ll be entered! Please keep your comments “Mom-rated” We don’t like or need profanity.
Only one entry per person, please!!
Although we want to read your comments on the Facebook fan page – stories that are only written on the Facebook fan page won’t be entered. They must be entered here on this comments section of this post to be entered.
Also, please click “like” on the Facebook fan page announcement so we can keep this in the newsfeed.
No more entries after 11:59 PM – Thursday, May 13th.
The winner will be selected at random and announced this next Friday May 14th.
That winner will be asked to contact me directly via email and the little red racer will be on her way home!
Ok, so that’s it!!
Ready. . .
Set…
GO!
Oh, wait… one more favor… after you enter your mom story in the comments – please take a moment to surf around the website. Visit other posts and recipes. The sponsors like that!
My mom was a teacher, so when school was cancelled because of the weather she also had the day off. She would make peanut butter cookies and then play card and board games with my sister and I all afternoon.
I have several “Mom” stories. Some of my favorites are like this one where Mom always used over-ripe bananas for banana bread, and we would take it to school. When our friends would comment on how good the bread was, my brothers would tell them it was because Mom used rotten bananas! Sometimes I could sell my lunch for $2! and then buy a lunch at school for a lot cheaper. My lunch was always better than the school lunch, until Mom started working in the cafeteria at school!!
Sondra
By the time my younger sister and I were born my mother was older. She had been a stay at home mom with the 4 older children but time and money changed her career path. She and my dad ran a small bakery that did very well but being a boss and a worker she had to do her best to blend work with teaching 2 young daughters. She always managed to make a cooking lesson turn into a teaching lesson we understood. One day at about 8 years of age she took me and my younger sister to the bakery to help make the donuts. It would be an ‘all night event but that the end would be worth it!’We were excited and stayed right by her side. The process seemed to take forever, mixing and waiting. Everything in an order and each step completed before starting the next step…after several hours with persistence and patience she had hot, fresh, scratch made donuts with little girl fingerprints all over them. They smelled and tasted like no other. After a double glaze she placed them very neatly on a big silver tray. She then picked the tray up and held it out to myself and to my sister. She told us that this was OUR own tray of donuts and to choose the one we wanted. After looking and picking the perfect one, I remember how she told us that this tray of donuts was like a ‘chore list’. If each time we would ‘choose’ the donut or chore that we wanted to do next, we would always have our first choice be the next on the list!
When I feel overwhelmed myself as a mother of 6, I find myself still making lists in life and then choosing the next ‘chore’ to do. Time sensitive have to be first but for the rest, it is our choice! MOM will be 89 this month. How lucky I am to have my GREAT MOTHER! She has retired from the donut making but will still look over the tray and pick her first choice. She would say that you chose everything on the list. Nobody made you do anything! hmmmm!
My favorite Mom food memory is making home-made ice cream together for the 4th of July. She would pull out the old white Kitchen Aide mixer and I would watch/help (depending on age) her put in the ingredients including raw eggs! It was fascinating then! And the controversy I met with later when I went to make it my family tradition, was astounding! The ice cream mix smelled divine as we poured it into the old fashioned crank mixer, piled the sides with ice and rock salt and went to work! Mom and us kids took turns with the easy start, but as it got harder to turn, we all took turns sitting on the mixer while Dad turned the crank. The best part, yes even better then that first bowl with fresh from the garden raspberries, was pulling the beater out with a spoon with slide off the excess and then… licking the spoon and beater as the ice cream quickly melted. The recipe was a hand-me-down, but the ice cream making memories I favor are entirely with my Mom (and Dad 🙂 Yum! Now I want some! Happy Mother’s Day!
My favorite Mom food memory is eating my Mom’s fresh of the griddle homemade flour tortillas. To this day, all Mom has to do is tell us kids that she’s making flour tortillas and we’re there in a flash.
Strangely, both of my “mom/food” memories are from when my mother was in the hospital. The first was when she was very ill with pneumonia (when I was young) so badly the doctors thought she might not make it. The nurses asked her what she would like, and she kept telling them she wanted pineapple; unfortunately, they didn’t have any. One of the nurses took pity on her and actually went out and bought a fresh pineapple, cut it up and served it to her. She ate it with such relish that they all were moved to tears at the enjoyment she was getting from it … until she developed a rash of canker sores on her lips and in her mouth from the extreme acidity of the fruit. Then, they were torn, feeling guilty that they had caused her yet another discomfort, even though she reassured them that she was completely grateful that they had done the favor for her and that the new pains were well worth it.
The other was when she was in the hospital with complications from melanoma cancer at age 46 (which she, devastatingly, did not survive). Again, we were told she might not make it long, and every effort was made to give her anything she wanted. It was very late at night and she asked for strawberry shortcake. One of the nurses spoke up and said that she had actually brought in fresh strawberries for herself as a snack during the night, but that we could have them. Incredibly grateful, I ran out and “cheated” by buying angel food snack cups and some Cool Whip, then rushed back to the hospital. We made some “strawberry shortcake” for the few people in the room (including the nurse, of course) and all at it together.
To this day, I remember my mother fondly anytime I eat fresh pineapple, and every time I make strawberry shortcake, I remember the happy, contented look on her face when we all sat with her in her hospital room and shared the dessert with her. 🙂
Favorite Mom food… Who among us has not been nourished by a “mom food” as well as the memory of it? In the Houston of the 1960s, we grew up blissfully unaware that Bellaire represented suburbia, while biicycling to the community center, the cool and serene library, the swimming pools, Don’s Record Shop, the drug store, and the new 7-11 near our school. After all of these bike rides and variety of destinations, I would come home home to my mom’s welcoming assurance and sustenance of salads – tuna salad, chicken salad, pimiento cheese, or potato salad. On the luckiest of days, there might be a platter of cold fried chicken to accompany the cool delights mixed up by mom’s hand and chilled in the covered glass containers that preceded Tupperware and the like. To this day, mom’s delicious salads pop up at picnics, holidays, beach trips, ball games and any occasion where gathering family means hungry mouths need to be fed. The delights of shredded chicken, tuna, diced celery or ham, pimientos and sliced olives, all present in their assorted and flavorful representations, still show me that mom is home and expecting us to eat well and enjoy it. Being there, being together, being filled – that is how we learned we were loved, and still do.
My Mother was known for her cookies. She kept platefuls in the freezer, which were served whenever anyone visited. And most likely when you left the house you had some of all the varieties – Whoopie cookes, chocolate chip, peanut butter fingers, chocolate oatmeal, apricot filled… just to name a few. At 85 she still bakes, and apologizes for not having more than a plateful to give you when you leave. At the family reunions we now have the “cookie parade” where we march around big plates of her yummy recipes – what a memory!
Sausage gravy and biscuits….yummm…..She’s no longer with me so I am so glad I learned how to make it before she passed. Now when I taste it I feel like I still have a part of her.
Whenever or whatever my mom was cooking, she would always bring me a taste before without even having to ask. She would bring me a peeled carrot, or a small dish of spaghetti sauce with buttered bread. I still love having sauce with buttered bread to this day!!!
Bett’s Biscuits would have been the name of my mom’s restaurant if she had ever opened one. She was the cafeteria manager at the school I attended back in the days when school lunches included homemade rolls, fresh baked turkey and dressing and desserts made from scratch. I was so proud to go through the lunch line knowing she was responsible for all that yummy food. But my best memory is of standing on a stool next to the counter in our little kitchen “helping” her make her famous biscuits. There was no recipe or measuring,she just worked with the shortening, flour and milk until it was right. Then she rolled them out, popped them in the oven and soon we were all treated to the best biscuits I have ever eaten. She’s baking biscuits in heaven now and I’m sure the angels are getting fluffier by the day because they can’t resist Bett’s Biscuits!
My mother died when I was 12 but I remember when she fixed us kids pop-tarts she cut them in 8 little squares each. Oh and buttered them too. Sometimes when I have a pop-tart I do it to remember. I am 42 now, wow I guess we stay kids!
Is it bad that the best laughs we got when my mom was cooking was when the smoke alarm was going off?!? She never claimed to be a great cook, but at least she tried! Thanks, mom!! 🙂
My favorite mom meal memory was on the thanksgiving in 06 me and mom cooked the whole meal. it sad now because that was my dad last thanks giving he die the next summer.
i remember the first meal my mom let me cook for her was a ‘breakfast’ and it was scrambled eggs, toast, and fried bologna and she never said anything but thank you. I don’t know how she did it. I was in the forth grade.
My mom loves to cook and years ago she used to cater for family and friends. That has slowed down quite a bit through out the years, but recently a family friend requested some African meat pies for an event. On the same day that the pies were needed, my mom was also asked to help serve food at an event for that night. As a surprise to the family friend, my mom baked a cake the night before. From 7am my mom rolled, cut, and baked meat pies (over 200) and then went out to help with an event that night. All this happened last week :)I could share so many more stories. My mom is 65 and I truly hope to be as given and selfless as she is. I love her 🙂
We grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, and my mom wasn’t that into cooking, so we at a lot of frozen vegetables. She could really cook a mean roast beef or a leg of lamb, though.
One of my favorite food moments with her was the first time she, myself and my brother saw whipped cream in a metal can. She wanted to put it on our ice cream, and, as we watched, she put the nozzle close to her face and pushed it to the side. The cream spurted out all over her face and onto the ceiling. The 3 of us didn’t stop laughing for an half an hour. She is a great person who can always find the humor, even in her own mistakes.
I need to give a little background information for my favorite mom food story: I grew up in a mixed cultural household – my sister and I were adopted from Asia and my parents were European (Danish on my mom’s side) and Irish-American (on my dad’s side). Needless to say, holidays were interesting and different in my family growing up. My mother would often make Danish food for us, as well as American and infrequently Irish (for those holiday must-have’s!) dishes.
The one of the thing I remember most and have continued with my own family is a special Sunday breakfast. My mother would make on Sunday mornings (usually during the winter months) a Danish specialty that has in recent years become very popular in the US. They are called Aebleskiver – or pancake balls – that are made in a special pan with 7-9 half circles in which the pancakes are fried/cooked on the stove. They are served fresh off the stove – piping hot! – with syrup (but we eat them with peanut butter and Nutella, and also plain sugar). We loved the warm, yumminess of the pancake balls rolled in white sugar or slathered with peanut butter and jam, or just covered with Nutella. They are so delicious and were a very special meal for our family.
As I grew older, I was able to help my mother make them on Sunday mornings and sometimes she would let me make them alone! We were always excited about Sunday morning breakfasts with Aebleskiver. My daughter is now equally excited about them and loves being able to help whenever we make them. Thanks Mom!
The memory that stuck out most in my mind is something that happened to me quite a few years ago. My father likes to fish, and sometimes he’ll bring home fish, and my Mom will fry it for dinner. After she fried the fish, she would pour the oil through a sifter back into the empty container to use again for frying fish. (after the oil cooled of course)
Well, it’s birthday time for one of my kids, and I’m at Mom’s making the cake. I accidentally picked up the “fish oil” and used it for the cake instead of the new cooking oil I’d picked up at the store. The whole time the cake was cooking, I was thinking it smelled kinda odd, and then Mom had a light bulb go off. “YOU USED THE FISH OIL IN THE CAKE!” Yep, sure did. Had to throw it out and start all over.
So about every year when birthday time rolls around, SOME smartypants decides to go, “Hey, remember the FISH CAKE?!?!” And that feeling of mortification is once again fresh in my mind. Yeah.
My favorite story is, Moving here to NC from Florida were we were we had lived our whole lives, my father had gotton his first church as a preacher. I was 17 and had never been to NC before. A member of the church brought my mother 2 quarts of Stew. We grew up on cuban/spanish food now. Being the woman she is, she took it smelled it told the lady how wonderful it smelled, she couldnt wait to eat it, went on and on. Well, she got home and said..”This is the thickest soup I have ever seen” and added water and more water to it till it was ruined. Bless her heart she told the woman how wonderful her soup was. The little old lady then explained it was STEW not soup.
I never had just one special food memory of my mother, I have had many. Most of them involved the ritual of food. Certain dishes for certain days. My annual birthday carrot cake, corn fritters right after the first sweet corn came in, and seafood lasagna that we made together for Christmas.
The seafood lasagna was always extra special, made with the finest seafood we could afford that year and always enough to freeze a pan for the midwinter blahs.
Unfortunately, my mother passed last year after a long illness and I can honestly say I wasn’t looking forward to the holidays this year. In fact it was the first year that I didn’t make seafood lasagna in over 15 years. While cleaning out the deep chest freezer this winter, I found a tray of lasagna from the year before. It was vacuumed and surprisingly fresh. I also found the recipe that we painstakingly crafted over the years- in Mom’s own writing. Even now we are still making food memories together.
My son, who was about 10 at the time, wanted whipped cream for his pie. I told him we didn’t have any and he asked me to make some. I told him I did not know how. He said, “Call Grandma, she can make anything.” And, it’s true. She is the best cook, I think because she puts all that love into her food. My son is now 15 and if Grandma is making dinner he will drop anything to spend time with her and enjoy her company and of course her food. And, I now know how to make whipped cream!!!
My mom has never been an insprired cook…but cooking is definitely an act of love where she is concerned. My dad had a heart attack at 53, when I was 13 years old. Immediately, my mom changed what we ate. Gone were the burgers (frozen) and ice cream. In were the broiled chicken breasts and canned tomatoes. Once she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 60, and then diabetes at 70, my parents diet became even more specialized. She is famous for over-cooking vegetables and under-seasoning, well, everything. But I admire her for it all. She is now 82, and my dad 81. When all the health issues started, they made a pact that they would live to see all their grandchildren born — and they did. I believe they did this through pure force of will — a lots of meals that were inspired but something much deeper than flavor: love.
My childhood memory of my mom in the kitchen- my mom was not a very good cook, but made dinner for the family every night! As kids, we knew dinner was done when literly the smoke alarm went off! We could be outside down the street, or in our bedrooms or the basement and knew when it was time to eat! As we got older, and had more friends over- they too learned ‘our family tradition’ of the ‘dinner bell’ at our house!
My favorite memory of cooking with my Mom is not just one thing. My Mom cooked most all food from scratch. She had a big garden and we always had lots of wonderful things to eat. But the best thing was when we would pull our chair up to the cabinet, next to her and the mixer and we would “help” her with the baking. Now I’m not sure how much help we really were, but we had fun doing it! I’m 53 and I think she still has that mixer! Everything tastes better with a little love added!
My best mom memory is her banana and pumpkin bread that she baked in round coffee cans. Still think of them warm, just out of the overn, neatest shaped for a mom back in the day to make with butter melting on fresh sliced piece for me. YUMMY!!
My favorite food memory involves homemade macaroni and cheese. When I was a young girl, it was a magical food that always seemed to be served when I was feeling down or sad about something. It was a comfort food like no other. No matter how sad I was feeling, as soon as I smelled the cheesy pasta aroma coming from the kitchen, I would begin to feel better. My mother would sprinkle bread crumbs on top and tell me that it was magical “pixie dust” and that whoever ate it would become happy.
Now, as a mom myself, it is the one meal that I will always bake when I want to make my own children feel comforted. I’ve added a little of my own variation to the recipe by adding small chunks of ham, but I still call the bread crumbs “pixie dust” to this very day.
My favorite food memory…..Mom makes the best fried chicken, when I was in grade school I loved to take the cold chicken for lunch the next day. I would have to hide my lunch so no one would take it. EVERYONE loved my mom’s chicken.
My favorite memories of cooking with my mom started when she would let me stand on a chair by the sink and use the dishes/measuring utensils/etc. in the sink to pretend I was cooking along side her. From there I moved onto helping with the actual ingredients. Now I am a mom and do the same thing with my children. They love it! And they now help with the actual cooking, which they enjoy doing. Just teaching them to cook the way I learned is a great memory for me. They have learned to appreciate and enjoy it. And they make the most amazing chocolate chip cookies now! Just like my mom did.
My Mom had 9 children…and I am number 8. Obviously, meal time was a bit nuts. …but I specifically remember one thanksgiving morning when I was really little watching her buzz around the kitchen. My sisters and I were talking and she was working on the pumpkin pie and chatting with us.
Well, she finished mixing the pumpkin pie and walked the bowl across the kitchen to where the pie shells were waiting. WIthout skipping a beat, she opened the silverware drawer and proceeded to pour the pumpkin pie mixture right into the drawer! We were stunned into silence and she didn’t even realize her mistake right away as she moved onto the next thing. The laughter that ensued was AWESOME!!! We remeber it every year. What a mess. Love ya mom…: )
My favorite food memory was making nut and lekvar cookies with my grandmother. She used to have me help with every step because she said that everything tasted better when it was made with little hands.
learning how to make bread from memory… My Mom had a recipe that was passed down. I remember skipping school to go home and help her( we had company”cute boy”..LOL) and my sister asked to go home to visit the company… I never got in trouble and i did help make the bread… the recipe i have i use for dinner rolls, bread, cinnamon rolls and Maple bars…
My favorite “Mom food memory” is her homemade bread. We never bought bread at the store, Mom would always make it. I remember coming home from school and she’d have warm bread on the counter. We’d eat it with butter and sugar sprinkled on top. Sometimes she would make a pan of cinnamon rolls out of one of the loaves of dough.
I have tried to make bread that tastes like hers…I have never been able to.
My farorite Mom Kitchen Momory is her making a marchino cherry cake. It was a 2 layer,pink,with pink frosting and cherries on top.Beautiful, sitting on the counter in the kitchen. Now my Dad raised St.Bernards on our farm. As he lead the big female Penny in the house ,through the kitchen,she reached up and gobbled down the cake. Mom cried, but got busy and baked another one. She put it high,on top of the refrigarator. So Penny was left out. I bake one every once in a while, I miss my Mom soooo much. She has been gone 5 years now. Love you Mom, and I will put my Marshino Cake on the refrigarator.
I remember one Mothers Day that my mom was fixing Creamed Aspargus on toast. She told me to be sure to ask my soon to be husband for dinner that night. Well it did not go well, as when he left that night he turned to me and said “Do not ever feed me that **** again.” My mom and I laughed so much after that. As it turned out our three children love it and I always make it around this time of year. Unfortnately he passed away day before Mothers Day some years ago. So that day is not really special to me anymore, but we still love Creamed Aspargus on Toast.
I have so many memories of cooking with my mother and grandmother. My grandmother used to make sourkraut in her crock, and can the best hot pickles ever. My mother taught me to make homemade bread, and stew on the wood stove. But, my favorite mom memory is when my son made banana bread for the first time. He is ADHD with bipolar disorder. I wanted to see how well he could do with cooking. So I bought all the ingredients, gave him the recipe, and let him go. To my suprise, his bread turned out awesome!! It was perfectly moist and tasted oh so yummy! Better than mine!! A true baker he became! I absolutely look forward to his banana bread ever time I see him. He was 16 when he made that bread for the first time, he is now almost 20 and work in a resturant doing very well. I am one proud momma!!
My favorite memory is actually of my grandmother – – a wonderful Southern cook who passed along her love of cooking to me – – and her amazing cheese straws and “sandies” (finger-shaped pecan cookies rolled in powdered sugar). i don’t think I ever went to her house without going into her dining room and finding both of these treasures in cookie tins on her sideboard. She always had them made just in case anyone dropped by. So yummy. Though she has been dead nearly twenty years, I never make or eat either of these without thinking of her.
When I was 15 our family was turned upside down, when my parents divorced after 16 years of marriage, most days following the divorce were filled with tears and sadness. One night to change up the mood my brother flicked back his fork with rice at my mom……my moms look of shock was priceless, but the lesson we learned that day was a blessing. For that moment in time we knew that laughter and fun times were to come and that no matter how much we were hurting we were a family that was going to get through this sadness. To this day the kitchen is still my favorite place to be with my mom 🙂 and although we live 500 miles away from each other, there are many times we cook together over the phone, as she helps walk me through cooking all my “mom” favorites.
I used to visit my grandmother in Kentucky every summer. It was a great time- canning, hanging out with cousins and going to the fair. My grandmother was a great cook and would can food for the entire winter. We would sit on the porch and snap beans for hours. Then we would cook them in the pressure cooker. Well something went hairwire because before we knew- we blew the lid off the pressure cooker and had greenbeans hanging from the ceiling. It was a HOT MESS!!!!
My favorite memories are the delicious meals my Italian Aunt made with her mixer. She made raviolis, and others things with her mixer and then call me up to come and get some. What a treat. I tried watching how she made them and then rolled them out and cut them but I don’t have a kitchen aid so I can’t continue the tradition for my daughter.
My favorite food memory with my Mom…wow too many as my Mom is a great cook and known for her cooking. People will often even request things with her because they love her cooking so much. When I come to visit now, she always makes chocolate pie. It has the most decadent (homemade) chocolate custard in it.
Growing up, she worked as a cook and then often came home and cooked for us. And after being around food all day – I am not sure how she did it. She also would bake on weekends so our house would be filled with sweet warm aromas of delicious baked goods.
She is known for entertaining too – and doing all the food herself. She has a beautiful table with delicious food. She has done confirmation parties, graduations parties, birthdays, wedding showers and now baby showers – all of it made by her – creating wonderful memories for my sisters and I. So as I started this….too many memories too pick just one.
I don’t have many memories of my father’s mother…my grandmother from Texas. My parents moved us to California when we were quite small. I do remember, however, taking trips back there to visit. Isn’t it funny how you can recall things YEARS later? My grandmother was a wonderful mother to her six children. Because she and my grandfather lived on a farm out in the middle of nowhere (in Texas)…she spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking for her family. I can recall being 4 years old and smelling her homemade biscuits just like it was yesterday. But that’s not it…My grandmother was FAMOUS for her 7 LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE! In 1988 my husband and I took a trip back east and we brought our three daughters with us. On the way back to California we stopped over in Texas to visit my dad’s family. When we got to our grandmother’s house I was so nervous. Here I was,33 years old and I hadn’t seen her since I was 4! She had a tidy brick home in a nice quiet neighborhood…just like grandmas are supposed to have. When we entered her house and after all the hugs were given I looked over and saw this HUGE meal set out for us on her table in the dining room. She made brisket, 2 or or three salads, homemade rolls, and for dessert…YES, HER FAMOUS 7 LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE! Piled high…higher than I’ve ever seen a cake…We had our “supper”…then it was cake time. I remember asking her for the recipe and she said she’d send it to me. Well to make a long story short, we left that day and headed to the airport…little did I know that would be the last time I would see my beautiful red haired tall skinny grandmother from Texas. It wasn’t but maybe a couple of months later she suffered a stroke and was put into a nursing home and died not long after that. I NEVER did get the recipe for her cake…but I DO have cousins back there and they are GREAT cooks. I know one of them has to have it. I was to pass it down to my granddaughters. Sometimes FOOD is more than just FOOD. It is family, it is memories and it is GOOD for you!
In my family we used to laugh at my mother’s cooking abilities….. Our saying was my mother could take leftovers and make leftovers but my father cook leftovers and make a meal. She did have three things she loved to cook and cooked them well…pea soup, dynomites and an amazing potato salad. Other then that……..well….we got by….but always had a good laugh about it!
My favorite memory of my Mom cooking is the sound of the Pressure Cooker sizzling as the pressure valve shook, spitting steam into the air as it vibrated and spun over a tightly closed pot, like a fire breathing dragon that you didn’t want to get too close to! Inside was a delicious Pot Roast with Cabbage, Carrots, Potatoes, Onions, and her special spices in a delicious broth that made the meat fall off the bone. I still see her in my mind’s eye in the kitchen turning the lid to lock it safely in place, and before you knew it, bravely unlocking it after waiting till the perfect time when the dragon was tamed. There was always lots of sliced bread to sop up the savory broth. I always thought that Pressure Cooker was magic. Such a good meal in so little time. She passed away at 63- giving us too little time. But as I take care of my family, I know she is always with me spurring me on to tame the dragons that come across my family’s path.
Lottie Dudzic…yep, she is Polish and she is 88 years old. My mom could do it all….bake, cook and make school lunches for 5 children. One favorite memory was when she made potato pancakes. She would peel and grate a 5 lb. bag of potatoes, mix in the flour, eggs, onion, salt, and pepper. I still remember she never measured anything; just threw it in. Then she would heat up the big cast iron frying pan with lots of oil. Flip them over and then one by one she would place them on a cookie sheet. And then it would happen. My brothers, sister and I would sneak and steal them off the cookie sheet and gobble them down. Not once or twice but until they were all gone. She would just smile. My mom, Lottie, does not cook or bake anymore. She has alzheimer’s. I cook dinner for her and my dad everyday. And I make her potato pancakes and she just smiles.
My favorite “mom food” memory & recipe is from my Grandmother. When I was a small girl, I would sit in her little country kitchen on the 1950’s style stool and watch her cook chicken soup from scratch, including her making the flour noodles. We walk down the hill to her garden to pick out fresh onions, garlic, herbs and a head of cabbage. No visit to her house was complete without cornbread, fried cabbage and a bowl of her homemade chicken soup.
We didn’t have much money growing up. Mom worked full-time in the big city 30 miles away. We had 7 kids and a disabled father. We all cooked. Supper was to be on the table when Mom got home from work every night. Cooking meals was a chore, not alot of fun or creative, but on Saturday nights that all changed. We could make ANYTHING we wanted. I can remember studying the Betty Crocker cookbook trying to decide what to make. We baked cream puffs, brownies, cookies, all kinds of cakes and muffins. We had taffy pulls, made fudge and all kinds of candies. Dad loved anything chocolate, so you scored extra points for that! Those Saturday nights in the kitchen were magical and Mom made it all happen. I try to keep the tradition alive with my own kids. They all know how to cook and we all love to bake! Every once in awhile, I’ll make something and the scent takes me back and I’ll tell my kids that smells like my childhood.
My “favorite mom memory” is one that I’ve never been allowed to forget over the years and is very appropriate since it directly involves a mixer.
Once when I was young, perhaps eight or nine years old, my mother was making a cake for some event. At the time, I had very long hair that was often put into two ponytails, like it was on that day. As was the norm, I was hanging around the kitchen while she cooked, hoping to get one of the beaters to lick when she was done.
While the mixer was doing its thing, my mother moved away to do get something else ready. I leaned over the mixer just a little too far and all of a sudden realized that I was getting sucked in — one of my ponytails had gotten caught in one of the beaters and it was pulling me in! I screamed, my mother turned around and immediately sprang into action, running to turn off the mixer that was by now starting to smoke. She turned it off and while she began making another cake, my father very patiently dug cake batter and blender beater out of my hair. My head was saved by the little plastic balls that used to be on the ’70s ponytail holders.
I never once heard Mama complain about it, even though my father was suppressing a chuckle while she must’ve been very frustrated — and I still got to lick the next set of beaters!
Whenever my sister or I had a birthday, my mom would go out into her garden, pick fresh flowers and lay them around our place mat. My birthday was in the spring, so I always had the most beautiful “bouquet” surrounding my breakfast plate. Oh, I loved that!!!
Hi! I have so many favorite memories of my mother’s cooking. She always said her special ingredient was “love.” Some of her specialties were apple pie, candy cane cookies and cabbage soup! She’ll be gone from us 20 years this year, but I am forever inspired by her caring touch when cooking for family, friends and even strangers.
My little secret!
Growing up my father did ALL the cooking. My Mom made a couple items that I can remember and these included her deviled eggs and the Causa! We are Peruvian and she would make this Peruvian Causa but in a shape of a long loaf! Every party, occassion, outing we would go to, my Mom would always bring her causa! My siblings dubbed it the name, “the Potato Loaf”. It was like a cold potato salad but had mashed potatoes shaped in a loaf and stuffed with either tuna or veggie salad. My Mom would decorate it with olives, avocadoes, etc. I am the youngest of 6 Kids and all of my siblings would joke about the dreaded potato loaf!! Maybe it was the fact that I am the youngest and had the least amount of years to enjoy the loaf, but I LOVE it! I love it when she makes it and she continues to make it for all occassions. over the years, I have watched 3 siblings attempt to replicate it since they thought they could do it better or something like that. Well all three failed in attempts even though they wouldn’t think so. Now here is the secret, I have watched them fail and I have also watched my Mom make it from scratch. Being the youngest and having to help had it’s advantages. I know the secret ingredients. In private, I have made it and it was PERFECT! I have never made it for anyone else and it is just my SECRET. So they can complain all they want about how here comes the dreaded potato loaf, (even though they always eat it) and say they hate it! But I can make it at home anytime I want to and I have my Mom to thank for that! Thanks Mom!!!!!
My most memorable moments with my children is in the fall when we make Zucchini bread. It was something that I did every year with my grandmother when I was a little girl and it’s a tradition that I am now passing down to my children. We do everything from scratch and by hand right on down to the shredding of the Zucchini. My kids love it 🙂
One of my favorite memories of my mom is when I was 3 or 4 years old and getting to put on the little apron to help her bake cookies. My mom loved to bake and had big cookie marathon baking sessions for the holidays. I used to love eating brown sugar, and to keep me from eating too much (I LOVED brown sugar) she flippantly made up a story, like all mom’s do from time to time, that if I ate too much brown sugar I’d get worms. LOL So I limited my intake of brown sugar and opted for raw cookie dough instead. Years later when I was 16 or 17 I was baking cookies (on that old antiquated Kitchen Aid mixer of hers) and adding the brown sugar, that long forgotten comment came back to me. I asked my mom, “why in the world would eating too much brown sugar give me worms?” and she just looked at me like “what are you talking about” then a moment later I could see that she remembered that too and we both started laughing so hard we cried. My mom passed away 5 years ago, and her dementia took most of those memories away but that brown sugar story is one of the ones that stayed with her the longest. Good times, great memories of mom in the kitchen.
My favorite Mom food memory is of Saturday mornings when my sister and I were young. About once a month Mom would make Chocolate Gravy and biscuits for breakfast.
Now 25 odd years later, I can still remember the creamy, rich chocolate of the gravy and the warm, buttery, flakey biscuits fresh from the oven. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Every now and again I can con her into making chocolate gravy when I am home, because as everyone knows no one makes it like Mom.
I thought she never knew….
My Mom had seven daughters in less than ten years. Which includes one set of twins and one with severe Polio (Jodi). Jodi had to go to a Children’s Hospital two hours a way two – three times a week. My Mom had to take the three smaller children with her and yes I was one of them. How she found time to make all homemade products I’ll never know. My earliest memories are being in the kitchen with her. My son has been helping me cook since he could hold a wooden spoon.
We lived in a three bedroom ranch with not much space to spare. My Dad built her a ledge for cooling the sill master bedroom window. This side of the house was surrounded by trees. This made a nice “fort” for us and a shaded area that stayed cool on a hot day. Myself and a few friends always helped ourselves to homemade pickles and jam. One would bring a fork to get the pickles out one would bring a knife and crackers for the jam. Every once in awhile we would here her coming into the room and hide outside under the window. “Oh my I wonder what happened to that jar of jam” or “I swore I had three jars of pickles here this morning” Many years went by and I still believed she never knew. Now as a exhausted Mom of one, I realize of course she knew and admire her for keeping our family well feed and raised with proper morales. My Dad became disabled and had several heart attacks from the time I was ten years old. She stepped up worked two sometimes three jobs. Now after being cancer free for almost a year it is my turn to take care of her. I wish she would let me. My son and I make treats for her and the twenty other Grandma’s he has in her senior apartment complex. These are memories we are creating for him together.
Robin Lamar
I remember my Late mom making swiss steak with green pepers and onions . Oh how the smell filled the house. She would make mashed potatoes and use what was left of the gravy she called it from the swiss steak and pour it all over them oh my god so good. Miss you mom and love you.
My favorite “mom food” memory isn’t what she cooked for me, or the smells of Christmas cookies, or the perfect dinner feast. It’s about the time I cooked for her. I was about 12 maybe and she sometimes had to work Saturday afternoons. This particular Saturday I decided that I was going to make a pie for my mother.
After she received about 20 phone calls on where things were, ingredients, cookware, etc, I proceeded to make a custard pie. Since we didn’t have all the right ingredients to make this custard pie, I decided to “substitute”.
The custard pie came out beautifully.
I then decided to go ahead and clean up my kitchen disaster and loaded the dishwasher “for her”. I then proceeded to use dish liquid soap for the dishwasher. uh-huh I really did! Which turned into a big sudsy sopping mess. Which then I proceeded to use every clean towel in the house to clean up the suds. My poor mother.
She came home and saw this mess and my beautiful pie. Didn’t say a word. Sat down with me and cut the pie, giving us each a slice. She smiled as she ate the whole piece. It was awful, truly the worst disaster ever. She had seen the mess, tasted my awful pie, while at the same time she saw the heart and felt the love behind it. Never a cross word, she understood my creative disaster was meant to please. That’s a good mom. No, that’s a great mom – my mom!
I grew up in a large Irish Catholic family and we usually had Dinner together every evening unless other activities such as sports or music lessons were planned. But Every Sunday, no matter what, we all sat down to a huge Dinner together. There were five girls and each of us had a task to do in preparing the Sunday meal. They ranged from setting the table properly to preparing a side dish. Mother taught all of us individually how to set the table or prepare a certain dish. Many recipes I learned as a child I still prepare today and while making them I think of those Sundays at home with the family and seeing my Mothers pride as she looked around the table at her children and the glorious food we helped prepare. Priceless!
one day I was going to cook meatloaf and I thought I’d be creative so I prepared the groundmeat, shaped it , took a spoon and hollowed out the middle. I then put boiled eggs side by side and end to end to fill in the middle. then put the groundmeat that I took out .I put it back on top and blended it back in So when you cut the loaf into slices it looked like eyes in the middle. My children called it peek a boo meatloaf. my children are ages 15 & 21 and still ask me to cook it …lol
Favorite memory is when I was about 7 or 8 and she and I were making cookies all shapes and sizes. when they were done turned out she forgot an ingredient or two and they were terrible so they soon became xmass decorations. To this day they still hang on the tree & We laugh every year when we do our family Xmas cookies (she has gotten much better)
Well, this is probably too late, but I just had something great happen to me. As I was cooking dinner, my little 3 year old came to the kitchen pointing the camera at me, and took a picture. “Mami, I love when you cook so I took a picture so I can remember forever,” she said. “But Sweetie, I cook all the time,” I responded, to which she replied, “I know Mami, and each time is my favorite and I don’t wanna forget it.” I had no response more than that nice warm feeling in your heart.
My favorite mom food story is when my mother, sisters and I used to make Italian cookies for the holidays. My parents’ kitchen isn’t very big but we all enjoyed crowding around the island making all the cookie balls and then dipping them in different colored powdered sugar frosting after they cooled. We had a lot of fun talking and laughing while making those cookies. Such fond memories!
My Mother is an outstanding cook and has passed the love of cooking down to all of her 6 children. My “favorite Mom food memory” does not actually involve her cooking. When my parents got divorced she went to work and was not able to spend as much time cooking as she liked. When I would get home from school I would call her at work and tell her what was in the refrigerator and freezer. Then she would tell me what to cook and how to prepare it. In addition to the excitement of learning under fire, it was great fun to be responsible for the meal.
My Mother in-laws marinated Olives continues to be my favorite! The recipe was passed on to her from her Mother in-law and while I have the recipe, I won’t make them at home. There’s something special about having the Olives when we go visit. We of course, will carry on the tradition with out kids once they’ve grown. 🙂
I remember as a child growing up in Massachusetts, many years ago, My Mother would make a baked a ham with orange juice, cherries and pineapple rings. The house smelt so great, that to this day it still warms my heart every time I thing about it.. Rising seven kids must have been a chore for her, but she never complained.
As a child -birthdays were magical days-from the time you got up in the morning-till the time you laid your head on the pillow at night-Mom would make it our day. That included breakfast of your choice-along with lunch and dinner. This is something I have continued on with my kids and grandkids and it still brings laughter and joy to my eyes as I recall all the special “birthdays”!
My mom and I would do alot of stuff in the kitchen together. This one memory is the best. We had alot of fruit trees in our yard that every year we would be making peach, pear & fig preserves. We had just completed a huge batch of peach preserves when she thought she would taste it before canning. She took a big spoonful and gasped! Instead of adding sugar, she had added salt by mistake! The whole batch was ruined but we had a great time making the mess together!
My favorite Mom food memory is Mom making kolaches..my mom is from the former Czechoslovakia and she put all of her heart and soul into baking kolaches, telling snippets of her and her Mom making them. Mom never used a recipe, but they always tasted so very good. Mom had a stroke 3 years ago and is not able to walk or talk and I so wish she were back in the kitchen helping me try to make her kolaches.
I am from a family of 10. I always remember Mom to be a decent cook, but nothing overly fancy for feeding a large family back then. But she use to make meatloaf that we all loved. Well at one point Mom and Dad had decided to raise Great Danes and we had this one male in particular that was a very, very picky eater. My Dad use to hand feed him because that’s the only way he’d eat. Well, one time for some reason Mom had a lot of leftover meatloaf, and Dad fed it to the dog. We were sitting at the table eating and the dog just laid down, rolled over and died right on the spot. Heart attack!!! Dad never, ever let Mom live that one down. Mom had a KILLER meatloaf =:)
I was the oldest of found little girls and things were frugal for my family. My mom could not afford cookie cutters so she made drawings on graph paper (she was an artist), and would cut them out and then lay them on the dough and with a sharp knife, cut our the shapes. It was my job to lay the cookies on the pan and to remove them. Remove them I did (one for the jar, one for me). It was so much fun to help can and preserve in the 50’s and having a task to performed made us more responsible as children, teenagers then the adults that we are today.
Some of my favorite “food” memories are at my grandmothers. NOTHING was from a mix or pre-made. Everything was from scratch, she canned her own vegetables, made her own tomato juice and made her own bread & rolls. They grew their own vegetables & most fruits and every time I buy fresh produce in the grocery store, I think how much more flavorful their homegrown stuff was.
I am from a family of 10. I always remember Mom to be a decent cook, but nothing overly fancy for feeding a large family back then. But she use to make meatloaf that we all loved. Well at one point Mom and Dad had decided to raise Great Danes and we had this one male in particular that was a very, very picky eater. My Dad use to hand feed him because that’s the only way he’d eat. Well, one time for some reason Mom had a lot of leftover meatloaf, and Dad fed it to the dog. We were sitting at the table eating and the dog just laid down, rolled over and died right on the spot. Heart attack!!! Dad never, ever let Mom live that one down. Mom had a KILLER meatloaf =:)
Some of my favorite “food” memories are at my grandmothers. NOTHING was from a mix or pre-made. Everything was from scratch, she canned her own vegetables, made her own tomato juice and made her own bread & rolls. They grew their own vegetables & most fruits and everytime a buy fresh produce in the grocery store, I think how much more flavorful their homegrown stuff was.
my grandmother’s ‘good ol’ cabbage!’ is my favorite food memory. she made it every sunday! she was always so enthusiastic about it and i think that’s what made it taste so good…
Wow you really made this one difficult! Ok, if I have to choose just one I think I will go with my mom making her “famous” banana pudding every year for Thanksgiving. My grandfather who is no longer with us would always request it and why not? We all loved it! Of course I’ve tried to make it but somehow it’s never the same. So that is always something to look forward to, and I do not take anything for granted (even banana pudding) because we are not promised tomorrow.
My favorite Mom food memory is the first time my mother made homemade rice pudding. I learned to bake when I was 9 years old from my grandmother, and I just thought my mother didn’t know how to make cook or bake anything because she messed up a lot of food, and I had taken over cooking for our family. She completely shocked me because when the rice pudding came out of the oven, my brothers and I tasted it and it was DELICIOUS! It was much better than the rice pudding you get in the store, and to this day, I have not been able to replicate her rice pudding. I always smile when I remember Mom making that rice pudding and as adults, my two brothers and I routinely ask her to make it for us.
my favorite mom memory is Christmas Eve Dinner. She would make Prime Rib and Yorkshire pudding The pudding batter would be in the kitchen, everyone would need to beat it with a whisk if they went into the kitchen. When the roast was done, she would pour the batter into the hot pan with some of the juices in it and it was awesome. We always had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve because my mom would cook for the community christmas in our town on Christmas day. The elderly with no local family and anyone who didn’t have a place to eat Christmas dinner came. I inherited her need to feed EVERYONE!
My favorite mother’s food memory was this past mother’s day when my three boys (11 year old and 8 year old twins) made me breakfast. They did such a good job.
My mom always made schaum torte for Christmas, just like her mom before her. It was a tradition the whole family looked forward to, starting with the last bite of the leftovers.
Now she’s 97…I moved in with her so she could stay in her own house…and I make the schaum torte for her!
I wish I could post the picture of her with it along with my post here.
My most favorite memories of my mom is all the cooking we did together. She taught me how to make bread dough and pizza dough. I never have to purchase any pizza shells because I always make my own and each time I make it I think of her and all the stories she would tell while we would make great recipes. She would always tell me to be sure all the dough was off the side of the bowl and if I did that, someday a prince will marry me. BTW I did get to marry that prince!!
Where do I start? There are two that stand out . . .my mother’s fried chicken which she would make after church on Sunday – I’ve never been able to duplicate it. And, when she would make cinnamon rolls, they were the best I’ve ever, ever had, and the house smelled wonderful!
That’s impossible to choose! My Mom gave me and gives me so many good memories that I can’t possibly winnow it down to one. I guess I could generalize and just say that everything about my Mom is my favorite. She is such a positive person that everything she encounters ends up a good memory.
My best memory is Moms chicken and dumplings! Hungarian Chicken Paprika! The best hot dish in Northern Wisconsin !!!
My best memory of cooking is with my grandmother not my mom. She had a KitchenAid mixer that I would sit on the counter and help her with. We would make ham salad with the grinding attachment. I loved to see the different colors come out the tube. My favorite was the eggs and pickles. I wish I could have her recipe but I think she just used up things in the fridge
My mom is a great cook. She would make us something different every day of the week… but when she taught me how to cook at the age of 12 …I loved learning how to make her great spaghetti sauce and saurkraut that everyone went crazy over.. this isn’t your traditional saurkraut … We’re Croatian, and my Grandfather taught my mom the little secret to put that extra special twist on the recipe … yumm
My mom always tried her best with meatloaf and pot roast. Even though she knew I didn’t like either one, she always tried to find one that I would like,
I remember my Mom teaching me how to make gravy from scratch… all the little hints and tricks “No, you’ve got to brown it more… and cook it down… that’s right, until it’s like glue… yep, those brown goozlies make the good stuff… okay, now put the flour in the milk and shake it up… no, shake it more… see, if the flour gets hot quick, that’s what gives you lumps… now add the milk to the goozlies… WAIT! SLOWLY!!!…”
I make fantastic gravy to this day; everyone loves it and wants to know how it’s done. Thanks Mom! You’re the best! 🙂
My mom will totally admit she is not the best cook but she can sure make a great roast for sunday dinner! She also can make the best turkey ever for Thanksgiving. So while she always did the meats, I learned how to do the side dishes in the kitchen with her over the years.
I have to nominate my mother who has been gone out of my life for nearly 27 years now. I remember her homemade doughnuts (mmm) and they were friends and family favorites!
One of my favorite memories is my mother making dinner on the weekends because she didn’t have to go to the office. My brother and I always loved helping her make pizzas.
My mom taught me to love recipes and cooking. We cooked together when I was young. Then when I was in high school, she went back to school to get her doctorate degree. At 16, I became the weekday cook for our family. I learned what worked and what didn’t. I learned a love for scouring the newspaper and cookbooks for the best recipes. That experience served me well. I am a mom of 2 now and am teaching my own daughter the things my mom taught me. My 17 year old daughter wants to go to culinary school and become a fabulous baker of pastries. I will pass my huge notebook of recipes along to her and to my son when they leave the nest in the next couple of years. Bet my mom never guessed that her time with me in the kitchen would influence the career choice of her granddaughter! Keepin’ the love going….
After living in St. Louis for the first 43 years of my life, my husband and son and I moved to Orlando, Florida almost 10 years ago. About a year after we moved, my brother went to Canada on a fishing trip, and brought back many, many pounds of fish. My Mom waited until a weekend that she knew i would be in town, and invited a bunch of friends and family over for a fish dinner. But my Mom never made just a meal, it was always a feast! Ala Forrest Gump, she made, fried fish, broiled fish, baked fish, grilled fish, etc, etc… And of course, the other dishes! Four different types of potatoes, slaw, veggies, biscuits, home made rolls, and finished off with seven, count them – seven different pies! Just a few short weeks later, she succumbed to heart disease. Oh how I remember that feast (of course only one of many), and oh, how I miss her!
I am nominating my sister, Tammy, who is a mom of 2 teen boys. My sister always comes through on cheesy baked potatos, almond bars, etc for our family get togethers despite her own health issues. ON christmas, last year, at 43 she was diagnosed with a mini stroke and then myasthenia gravis. It was a tough year…and she is one strong sister, mother, and friend!!! Her mixer is over 25 years old and it needs towels and such to support it running, the knobs are off. She always gives so much of herself, and red mixer is her favorite color!!! I hope she wins!!! To the best mom, sister, and friend!!!
Oh my beautiful, kind, generous, saintly (a former nun she was!), NON-COOKING mother- where do I begin? I have many great memories of my mom in the peak of her cooking days, trying to feed her 6 children after getting home from a long day of teaching special education.
What she lacked in talent and taste, she made up for in love- making sure that we always had fruits and vegetables with every meal. Dinner always began with “appetizers”: her peeling carrots at the trashcan & handing them out to us as we waited in a single-file line. She called them “sparkly eye-sticks” and she’d lovingly sneak peeks at us to make sure we ate the whole carrot and nothing was wasted.
The main course usually consisted of either a concocted casserole of whatever she had on hand (but always to include several bags of frozen vegetables!) or a meatloaf with ketchup topping. We’d wash it all down with a cold glass of powdered milk (times were tight!) as we all went around the table and talked about the best and worst parts of our day. Thank goodness for that glass of opaque liquid because it concealed many a portion of mystery meats and casseroles that were too unbearable to swallow!
Dessert was usually some sliced fruit or apple sauce and always included our multi-vitamin!
To this day, my mother collects binders upon binders of torn-out magazine recipes and never follows a-one of them. And, true to form for anyone who has cooked for an army, she’s still making casseroles to feed 8 people even though her six children are gone and grown with babies of their own to torture with raw carrots and mystery casseroles. 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day!
My Favorite cooking memory with my mom is making homemade stuffing for Thanksgiving with my mom. I still use the recipe every year with my family. All we did/do was tear bread, add hot water, eggs, sauteed celery and onions, fried and crumbled bacon, and bacon grease! Then mix with your hands – very messy but awesome for a mom and daughter to share!
My mom is a great cook although I don’t think she enjoys it as much as I do and as much as her mother did. The best food memory that I do have though is my mom’s beef stroganoff. I loved it and it was so creamy and comforting. She would ask me every year for my birthday what I wanted for dinner. I know some kids liked to go out to eat but all I ever wanted was a big plate of my mom’s stroganoff. She made it in an iron skillet and served it over egg noodles. I have not had it in years and I don’t think mine would taste near as good as hers. Thanks, Mom, for always making things so special for me growing up and for taking the time to make such wonderful dinners.
my favorite cooking times with my mom pat, was when we would go camping. she would wrap veggies in foil then bury them in the coals. after a while she would dig them out all burnt and ugly looking. then the foil would be peeled away and perfectly cooked squash and corn would be waiting for us to eat. we still cook this way when we go camping and tell stories about mom…
My favorite meal and memories of my Mom was her recipe for *two cups of Mayonaisse* aka chicken divan. My dad would cringe whenever she made this because he was the original *miracle whip king* and only bought hellmanns for this special meal. It was made just for special occassions as my Mother taught us to really enjoy this Family Treat. It was not just a family treat, but the recipe is in every cookbook in some way. I have treasured this *family recipe* and have only exchanged it with super friends and super family members. No stranger or friend of a friend has ever got this secret recipe from me, and the best part of the recipe is the hard work it was to prepare this meal. Mom would carefully wash the chickens, boil them, or roast them, then carefully remove every little piece of meat..with no bones !! The secret sauce was 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, 2 cups of mayonaisse, fresh lemon juice and Curry powder. My mother blended and blended this sauce until the smooth creamy goodness was tasted by family members and asked if more curry was needed.Once everyone gave the thumbs up, the sauce was placed in the refrigerator to stay cool and let the flavors mingle. Next was the fresh broccoli, always bought that day at a farm stand or farmers market. No supermarket broccoli for my family. My Mother sat down and cut the broccoli florets into bite pieces and then just steamed them till crisp and a beautiful green color. She then took a block of sharp cheddar cheese and hand grated ever sliver. When we went past the table and tried to take some cheese, she told us, there will not be enough then…But the grated cheese was piled high in the bowl.Now, cooking time nearing..all the elements of the meal, all in separate bowls were lined up on the table while the softened parkay margarine was smeared onto the top, bottom and sides of a glass oblong pyrex magical cooking vessel..designated to only the special recipe, and actually allowed to be served in this container at the table. My mother carefully and skillfully placed the broccoli layer first, added some cheese, then next layered the special sauce . Then came the ready pieces of deboned chicken, carefully pulled in small pieces and placed in some wall to wall order so every serving would be equal. Then my mother stood up and poured each and every drop of this curry infused sauce on top of the chicken. We watched as the sauce ooozed down to the broccoli layer. While everyone waited my Mom again stood up at the cutting block that was on top of her portable dishwashing machine. My Mom got out the pepperiage farm white bread and removed the crust from the bread. She quickly diced the fresh bread into cubes to be fried in parkay at the stove, to be added to the top of our magical chicken meal. While crisping up the bread cubes, she started filling a large pot with cold water and placed it on the stove. Two large packages of Mueller’s Wide egg noodles were taken out of the cabinet, and placed near the stove. My mother then finished the fresh bread croutons and added them to the casserole with a full bowl of hand shredded cheddar cheese added on top of that. Carefully the *Two Cups of Mayo* was placed in the oven, 350 degrees for 30 minutes. The water boiled, she added the egg noodles and carefully stirred the pot. The timer was twisted on and the 18 minutes for the noodles was coordinated with the casserole cooking in the oven. Ding, Ding..Timer went off, noodles were drained and put into a large serving bowl with a few pats of parkay margarine melting on top. Ding Ding, the oven alarm went off and my MOM carefully removed the HOT and Heavy casserole and placed it atop HOT Pads on the table. One of the family members was asked to set the table & serve drinks. When that was done, My MOM rang the Dinner bell, a german cow bell, kept on the hutch. The smells were unreal, the taste was unreal, the memories are still as vivid as yesterday..and more important than that, My Family still makes that wonderful meal today complete with many shortcuts, but the result will always remind me of my Wonderful Mother and all the special occassions that we shared with our most treasured meal. My Mother died of pancreatic cancer 15 years ago & My Father died 3 months after her of complications of diabetes and a broken heart. My Dad said he wanted to celebrate his wedding anniversary of 50 years with her in Heaven…and he DID. I only hope and dream that for their 50th anniversary meal they had *Two cups of Mayo *
One memory I have is from my grandparents house. (Now age 92 & 93) Every time I went to their house, there was always cookies in the cookie jar on the counter. I have fond memories of this cookie jar and finally last year for Christmas, the jar became MINE!! I can’t wait to have my grandchildren come to my house and share cookies and memories!
When I was very young (about 5), my Russian grandma was making homemade pierogies. I watched as she mixed the dough (no measuring cups or spoons for her!) and then the onions with the mashed potatoes for the filling. I really wanted to help her, but the rolling pin was too big for me to handle. My grandma went into the other room and, to my surprise, she came back and handed me a kid-sized rolling pin! She gave me some dough and I was able to help her make that delectable dish! I will always cherish this memory…thanks for letting me share it with others.
I lived with my husband’s family for a few months before and after we were married 38 years ago. Ma always introduced me as her ‘daughter by marriage’ since she had 4 boys. She was/is a great southern cook. She taught me so many of her family recipes that it is hard to pick just one. But her potatoe rolls and Iron Skillet Chocolate Pie are always called for at holiday meals. It is now my assignment to make the chocolate pies for holidays.
Cookie jar full of cookies and with 5 kids, this meant daily baking. Pies everyday for dessert all year except summer. Strawberry picking and jam making. Putting up dill pickles. Kringle and Stollen for Christmas along with dozens of Norwegian and German cookies. Homemade Mexican food in WI in the 60’s when no one there knew what an enchilada was. The first time she changed the traditional Thanksgiving menu to include broccoli! She still hosts Christmas dinner with a menu that all the grandkids and now great grands love and look forward to all year long.
For many years, my mother never really had to cook much of anything to make my brother and I happy. My dad traveled for business, and she was a SAHM. We are from the South, so it is just expected that you are a great cook. She wasn’t, but she could cook the things that made a kid happy, so we didn’t complain.
After my parents divorced and we moved back to Florida, my grandparent’s health started to fail, not to mention she’s responsible for my mentally challenged 40 year old aunt. My Papa was the type that he expected 3 homecooked meals a day. My grandmother could no longer do it, so my mom assumed that role. My Papa is gone now, but in the process Mama has become a wonderful southern cook. She makes the best collards you’ve ever eaten. She works 2 jobs and still finds the time to cook big meals for the family, even on Mother’s Day. (I did a lot of the cooking, too!)
I truly believe that I have the best mother on Earth. Without her and her support, I don’t know where I’d be right now.
Many thanks to all great mothers. If you raise respectable children, you’ve accomplished something no one can take away from you. 🙂
My husband moved us down to Florida (my mom too) she had been ill for a few years, and had just had an amputation. Four days after we moved, my mom feel ill, and never came home again, she went to Hospice, and passed on Jan 19, 2005. My Mom and I loved cooking together when she would visit us. I was so sad, that she was taken from me, and mad that I left all my friends and family behind, to move here, I felt so alone. My kids tried to cheer me up, one day my then 8 year old daughter, with the help of my then 2 year old son, grabbed my binder w/family recipes and proceeded to cook, grandma’s favorite chicken recipe. They made the biggest mess, I had ever seen, but did an awesome job. It brought tears of happiness to my eyes, and gave me back some of my lost joy. I miss my mom so much, she was an inspiration in my life. I LOVE YOU!
My mother use to make the best chicken and dumplings. It’s a Hungarian recipe passed down from my grandmother who was from Austria. It was a time consuming recipe but such a nice memory. What I loved about it the most was that all the girls were able to commute into the kitchen and visit with each other while we learned how to make the traditional family recipe while the grandkids played in the living room entertaining one another. It allowed me and my three sisters quality time with mom who always worked so hard providing for her six kids. Each of the sisters would take turns making dumplings over large boiling pots of salted water and in the background the scent of sweet paprika and onions filled the house. It was not out of the ordinary to have tears running down our faces from the onions. What made even more beautiful was the laughter I remember in kitchen and giggles that filled the living room; when all those grandkids played together. It’s been years that mom has been gone; and all the grandkids are having kids of their own now and making chicken and dumplings. But No one realizes just how much your mom is the glue that keeps the family together even until they are gone.
Hi Tonya….could you give me the recipe for the choc. cake?
that would be awesome . thanks.
Barbara
My favorite food memory is being age 4 or 5 when at Christmas, my Mom made fruit cake (true English-style with the fruits soaking in rum and wine for nearly a year). We would watch her cream the sugar, butter, eggs and flour into this delectable mixture and then were allowed to lick the bowl.
Now I watch my sugar, flour and butter intake and they have put the fear of Salmonella in me!!!! Oh to be a child again!
My “favorite Memory” stems around my Mom’s Fried Chicken. When I was growing up I remember an old GE Aluminum Skillet (plug in) that was given to my Mom and Dad in the 1950’s.
Though the pan was no different than any other, there was something magical about anything my Mom would make in it. I can remember to this day beef stew with dumplings, pancakes and the like…
My vivid memory however was one afternoon when I had a really bad day at school and I came home to my Mom’s fried chicken (which she always made in this pan). She would always make it with Italian seasoning, salt, pepper and various other ingredients. It had the most magical taste and smell.
We moved from that house in the ensuing months and the pan was put into storage. I had not seen it in many years. My wife and I were just going through some boxes and there it was! Crazy to say, but I could not wait to plug it in and see if it still worked. It did! I kept it of course though my wife thinks I am crazy as it is not Teflon and provides no accurate temperature control as the new ones do now but to me it will always be magical…
Thank you.
One of my favorite memories is when my Mom and I prepared for the County Fair. The day before entry day, we would bake cookies, candy, cakes, pies, bread, and anything else we could think of to enter in the fair. The house smelled Wonderful!! During the year, we canned a variety of foods – meats, vegetables, fruits – making jellies,jams, preserves, marmalades, etc and selected the best jars to enter in the fair. Thanks to the training from Mom, one year my canned Pickled Watermelon Rind won Grand Champion at the Fair! Each year we tried to enter every category we could – just for fun. Mom would enter in the Adult categories while I entered in the 4-H categories. It was a lot of work throughout the year, but it gave me great memories and wonderful cooking and baking skills that I still use today. It was a GREAT honor to have such a FABULOUS teacher – Thanks, Mom!!
My favorite mom moment is my mother teaching me to cook Biscuits and Gravy. My dad’s mom taught her how to make and she passed it on to me to keep the family tradition going. Every time I make it I thnk of my mom and my grandmother and smile a little. I cannot wait to tech my son how to make it when he is older.
I’m not a banana fan. I don’t like the smell or texture. But, when my mother would make Banana Pudding it was wonderful. I could only eat it when it was warm. Mother’s banana pudding was perfect and no one will ever make it the same. She also baked the best pies. She would strain the filler twice. So smooth and so yummy. I got her stand up mixer when I married. It lasted 30 years. And, red is my favorite color! I’m going to love this site. Beautiful pictures and wonderful recipes!
Mom’s Christmas dinners. Very hard to think about them now, she is in a nursing home with alzheimer’s and can’t even feed herself. I still have the fond memories, however.
I have many special memories of my mom & food, but the one that makes me smile the most is from way back: My mother was the leader of our local Camp Fire Girls troop, and as such, had to come up with creative ways to keep a group of active girls engaged-not always easy! In Fifth grade, she came up with the idea of having each girl make a Gingerbread House (from scratch!) as a family gift. It took HOURS of baking, cutting, making frosting & decorating, but at the end of the day each girl took home a “masterpiece” to share with her family…you never saw a prouder bunch of young ladies! The patience that must have taken still awes me 🙂 My mom is gone now, but the memories are not….
For me, it’s more of a mom/aunt/grandmother memory! Unfortunately they’re all gone now, and none of the recipes have survived. But so many Thanksgiving meals growing up centered on the kitchen, whether it was baking pies the night before (and I still make a mean mincemeat pie!) or making all the special dishes … it’s still my very favorite holiday meal! I recall having both turkey and ham available (since most of us kids didn’t like turkey!). There was a special raisin sauce for the ham that I haven’t figured out how to recreate yet. My absolute favorite, though, was Glorified Rice. My family made it with steamed rice, fruit cocktail, cool whip, and (I think!) powdered sugar. All the recipes I’ve found since that time include pineapple, which I know wasn’t part of it. I learned the lesson, though, and although I’m an intuitive cook like the women before me, I write down recipes! (My 22 year old still calls me for a shopping list to make tater-tot casserole!) Thanks for bringing back great memories.
My favorite food memory, being raised by my Nana, was as much of a wonderful business woman she was she was she was always too busy to learn HOW to cook. So we ate quick, frozen meals a LOT when I was little.
The only thing she could make me when she had time, were these grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato. That’s it. Wheat bread, cheddar and tomatoe with a sprinkle of salt.
She was always apologizing for not being able to cook more, but they were the best little sandwiches, and as small as they were and as rarely as she’d make them, I miss them dearly!
Thanks for letting me share.
My favorite Mom memory as all of the cooking I used to do with my Mom…especially baking cookies during the holidays and making home made pasta 🙂
My favorite mom memory is the Christmas baking we would do together!! Every year we would spend a whole day baking everything from cookies, fudge, breads…etc!! It was the best! And we would blast Christmas music and sing along!! Then we would deliver all of our “goodies” to our friends and family a few days before Christmas! Now I live 3000 miles away from my mom and miss the baking day so that I can be home for Christmas day instead!! 🙁 I hope to one day get back to our hometown so I can continue this tradition with her!! Love you mom!
Mom has worked very hard to treat all of her 7 children equally. Every Christmas this makes it more of a challenge as she has to bake the things we all love. My favorite is her Butterscotch Brownies which simply melt in your mouth and there is no way you can stop at just 1. My other favorite is her Pecan Pie with her homegrown pecans. Her mom used to do the same thing … Pecan Pie with her homegrown pecans, and my grandmother’s Lemon Merangue Pie was to die for. There are so many things to like or love about Mom … her spagetti with meat sauce just the way Daddy liked it. Dad and Bill’s holiday favorite … Bishop Whipple. Fresh salads from her own garden. Her sense of exploration. One of the best Mom memories is that she taught me to read, print and cursive write before I started school, so I actually started ahead of the others in my class. Also she has saved me more than once, I most remember when I hit my head diving into the pool and was disoriented and Mom jumped in to save me.
My favorite food memory with my Mom is her making beef stroghanoff. It was my most favorite meal as a kid and to this day nobody can make it as good as Mom did. I always asked for it for my birthday dinners.
When I was 4 yrs old, my mother was pregnant with her 3rd child and was about due to go to the hospital. I think to keep my mind from worrying, she told me I had to take care of my dad while she was gone to have the baby. So, she taught me how to open a can of tomatoe soup and heat it up and how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A few days later, I made the soup and sandwiches for my dad and me with tall glasses of milk. I set the table properly first, of course. My mother was a wonder. When I was a teenager, she step by step taught me how to cook many meals over the phone while she was at work and I was at home to take care of the rest of the family. Believe me, my dad had his eggs over easy and if one broke I was the one who had to eat it and I’d better do right the next time because there were only so many eggs. Both my grandmothers were great cooks, too, and I learned much from just watching their techniques. Love you Mom!
I had a busy mom. One day she left a pot of soup on the stove while running errands. When she returned home, the soup was charred on the bottom and tasted black! She was so mad that none of us stirred it while she was gone, that she made us sit and eat it all. I can’t remember what the soup was but I remember it was gross. I think mom heated up a corndog for herself.
Absolutely No one can resist my mother’s pies. On holidays and on special occasions, she would make 8-10 pies (enough to feed our huge family….and anyone that happened to follow the fragrance across the county). Pie dough, simply bows to her command! Fruit pies, candy pies and nut pies…..it doesn’t matter. If any one of us tries to make a pie, it is always rated as…almost like Mom…to…did you review this with Mom?
A little background info and then my “mom” story. My parents were both totally blind and raised me by themselves. I remember being about 3 yrs old mom and I went to the Dr’s. office. We took a cab to town and after the appointment mom wanted to go to Murphy’s store. The store was diagonal across the steet, thru the city parking lot. We did OK crossing the street, but I got lost in the parking lot. I wasn’t able to see over the cars to see where we were going. My mom calmed my down and told me to look up at the tops of the buildings. Then to spell what letters I saw, sure enough I was able to find the letters that spelled out Murphy’s and we got there just fine. My mother was an amazing woman that taught me my letters with the magnetic letters and a cookie sheet on her lap. I remember many hours spent on her lap with either the letters or the “twin vision” books she used to teach me to read. I miss both of my parents very much!
There were six kids in my family. My mom would make liver and onions pretty regularly, since liver was fairly inexpensive. She would always fry bacon first and use the fat to saute the liver. I would come home from school, smell the bacon and ask what was for dinner. Mom would always say “steak and onions in gravy” when she was making liver. I never saw any reason not to believe her – it wasn’t like we ever had steak in our house when I was young. It wasn’t until I was nearly 13 and has a real steak, that I found out that steak and gravy was really liver and onions. On the plus side, I still love liver and onions, but I like steak even better.
Our Mom was an amazing cook. Every Sunday she would fry up a chicken (the best in the world), make homemade potato salad, succotash, and corn bread or biscuits if she had the time. She amazingly raised 6 children, while holding down a full time 2nd shift job. We lost her to cancer in Feb. 2005, 2 days after my birthday. I miss her greatly, but she waits in Heaven for us all. Thank you!
Living in Maryland, we get fresh crab meat all summer long. My mother would make the best crab cakes I have ever tasted. I believe they are better than most of the seafood houses in the area. On our birthday, we could choose what we wanted for dinner. I am happy to say, my birthday is in August – the peak season for crabs !!!!
My favorite mom cooking story is how one time she made Posole (sp?)….being a gringa, that was quiet an accomplishment for her….however, instead of buying a can of green chili’s, to make it more on the mild side, she bought a can of jalapeno’s!! That Posole was sooooooo hot, we had to serve it w/ a spoon and a box of kleenex next to every place setting for the runny noses! It was SOOOOOO good tho’….my mouth’s watering even now just thinking about it. 😀 I love my mom.
My favorite moments are combined. I remember coming home from school, dinner in the oven (enough for friends we brought home) and Guiding Light on the TV. Whether it was spaghetti Wednesdays, roast on Thursdays, Spanish rice,meatballs and mushrooms,pork chops,baked chicken, it never mattered. Everything my mom made was delicious. She’s 67 and has retired from cooking, now its my turn. I love you mom!
My daughter and I created a new memory this year on Mother’s Day. Christen and I spent the morning in the kitchen preparing our feast together. We then shared all of our wonderful food with my mother. Three generations of mothers and daughters sharing our special day! Maybe it will become a tradition.
Mom’s stove always has something yummy cooking at any time , any day. We love to walk in, grab a fork, and start digging into whatever suprise she has for us! Not before hugging her of course!
My very favorite Mom memories are cooking and baking with my 3 daughters. The kitchen is always filled with love and laughter. 🙂
My mom was an army wife who was born with cerebral palsy. She had 4 healthy babies. My mom took care of all 4 of us. My dad didn’t help her at all except as disciplinarian and bread winner. My mom has always been a stay at home mom. My brothers are 2 1/2 years apart. My youngest brother and myself are 4 1/2 years apart. My sister and I are 15 months apart. So, she knows almost how it feels to have twins. She and I took care of my father while he was on hospice until his death. She is a strong, stubborn woman.
My mom used to make sugar cookies with my sister and I every Christmas season. She’d let us decorate them with as much stuff as we wanted. Yum!
The German Chocolate Cake from scratch that my mom would make me every year for my birthday. My birthdays just aren’t the same anymore. I miss her.
Loved her apple pies and home made spaghetti too! The list could go on and on. 🙂
I remember making fruited donuts with my mom when I was little. She would roll them in powdered sugar while they were still warm, they were so awesome. I still have her recipe, along with all her old cookbooks, some of them are so used they are falling apart.
I have my Ukrainian Baba memories…my father’s mother whom we called Baba. She was a simple woman, born on a farm in the Ukraine, came here and raised a family. I would watch her
in our kitchen making 100’s of pierogies at a time and she took such care with each one, like it had to be perfect. She was like that with her stuffed cabbage and schnitzle too. We
would smell her cooking and it brought our families together as I now know that’s what food does..we have tried to duplicate her recipes but the food just isn’t the same. I finally figured out it was the smell in her hands, a vanilla
sweet kind of smell which I now attribute to the love coming from her heart right down through her fingertips. She cooked
with love for her family and now when I cook with love, it comes out in the food…<3 thank you Baba!
When I was about 7 or 8 my Mom had purchased all of the ingredients to make a special dessert for the family. While she was visiting with a neighbor, I decided to surprise her and make the dessert myself. As I’m following along the recipe, I get to the need for “egg whites”. Well, the only white part of the egg I’m aware of at age 7 is the shells, so in they go! Needless to say, the dessert didn’t turn out so well and I used up all of the ingredients. That was 30+ years ago and we still laugh about it!
One day when I was about 9, my mom was making tuna casserole for dinner. We used to have it a lot, so nothing new there. But Mom had found “tuna” cat food somewhere, fed it to the cats and kept the cans. She set them on the stove next to the pot of tuna casserole and called me and my sister in to dinner. I came into the kitchen to get my food and saw the cans of cat food, and was said “ewww mom! you used cat food?!?!” Then I picked them up and read the ingredients, said it contained tuna, and said “oh ok” took my food and went and sat down! She thought I would be a drama queen and refuse to eat, but I ruined her America’s Funniest Home Videos entry, since she had hid the video camera on the counter to try to catch something funny! We watch the video occasionally and laugh.
Loved when my Mom would make a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs!
My favorite food memory. One Christmas, my 2 daughters,my son, and a couple of their friends decided to bake cookies. We baked several types of cookies, having a great time mixing,cutting out, decorating, and baking cookies. When we were cleaning up someone, no one admits to it, threw some flour at my son,and the food fight began. The baking pans, bowls, dishes and ourselves eventually got cleaned up. We are a family who likes to have fun. I still have calls for the recipes, and we now get together, and bake cookies for the holidays with a few more people, my grandchildren. We are now adding more memories to our lives.
My favorite mom meal memory was with my grandmother as a child. She would stand me in the high chair to watch her make biscuits. After she made them out, then I would use a cap off her medicine bottle to make mini biscuits for my grandfather. He would eat them all up.I always treasure the memories baking with my granny.
My mother was a GREAT cook. She was so busy working and raising 4 daughters, that my fondest memory was helping her make 7 day menu plans and grocery lists! I loved to pick which night I would do the cooking. My mom made the best Hotdishes, lasagna, and parmesan chicken! I am hungry now! 🙂 LOVE YOU MOM!
I remeber making a strawberry & blueberry triffle with my Mom. The finished product looked beautiful, there were a few strawberries left in the bowl so I ate one..Thank goodness I did instead of a cup of sugar someone had put a cup of salt in the berries….Needless to say a work of art ended up in the garbage. We both had a good laugh….
My favorite “Mom Cooking” moment is one time when we were making chocolate chip cookies together, and got talking…dont know which one of us used a cup of salt instead of a cup of sugar! Needless to day, we couldnt eat the cookies. I think I was about 9 years old at the time.
Food was such an important part of my childhood. The one thing I remember to this day. My family ate around the table every night. When I was six years old our family of seven, Mom, Dad and five little kids between the ages of 3ys and 6yrs, were eating dinner. My mom was what my dad called a power eater. She inhaled her food and was done before everyone else. My mom is very mischievous and as she sat there waiting for the others to finish, she started playing with serving bowl of mashed potatoes. All of the sudden she got this twinkle in her eye and scooped up a spoonful of potatoes and flicked them at my dad. They hit him in the forehead. My dad looked up and sees five little kids wide eyed and wondering what he was going to do. He proceeds to throw potatoes back at her and they began this potato fight between the two. We were sitting there stiff as statues and they were just laughing and laughing. It still makes us all laugh when we talk about it. There is nothing like a potato facial to keep you little ones in line.
My mom could cook/bake many yummy things. However, she burned toast better than anyone I have ever met. To this day, an alarm going off because of burnt bread reminds me of her. It makes me smile.
My favorite “cooking with mom” memories have to be when we would vacation in her cabin in Big Bear Lake, CA. It was a lot of fun preparing any sort of meal there. The view out the window was beautiful and things seem to happen at a slower pace. It was a great time to just enjoy being together.
My favorite memory is making tortillas from scratch with not only my mother, my grand mother, my great grandmother and myself. The taste and smell of the fresh warn tortillas is so fresh in my head. Afterward everyone in the house would line up at the stove to receive their 1 and only tortilla before the meal with a pat of butter. These memories are so fresh in my head, all 4 generations of women cooking at the same time of to have another moment like that again. I am lucky to still have us all 4 women still alive is a blessing in itself. Thank you for the trip down memory lane, I hope to continue these traditions with my son making tamales ear after year with now 5 generations my son,myself (his mother), grandmother, great grandmother and great grandfather with his Great Great Grandmother looking on.
My favorite memory of Mom cooking is when she made pies for the PTA Fund raisers! She was the designated pie maker. For 2 days, all she made were pies for the dessert at the PTA Supper at the Fund Raiser. There would be pies on every flat service. She had the flakiest crust and every year there was no question that she would be the one to make the pies! I remember being so proud of her and seeing the pride she felt that she was such a great pie maker!
My favorite Mom memory ….
My mother hated writing letters BUT when I was in college, she would force herself to write to me very often and it was so much appreciated !
She also sent me through the mail a box of 36 full sized chocolate bars 🙂
My hardworking, single mother used to make “ho-cake” for special breakfasts. She was from Georgia and it was an old Southern dish for which I’ve never found a recipe and she never used one. She’d mix all the ingredients (I don’t even remember her measuring anything!) then knead the dough (just a bit) and put it in a large cast iron skillet. She’d let me take a drinking glass and poke it into the center of the “ho-cake”. We’d pull out that piece of the dough and she’d roll out a separate little flat cake to bake along side the big one (sort of like a cookie). The ho-cake was like a giant sweet bisquit (sort of a cross between a bisquit and shortcake). We LOVED it. She would slice it into wedges like a pie, we’d split it and put butter between and then lather it with warm syrup or home made preserves. I’ve never been able to find anything even close to the taste and texture of my Georgia mother’s “Ho-Cake”…and, believe it when I say I have tried. If she ever asked us what we’d like for breakfast, when given a choice…it was ALWAYS “Ho-Cake” (meaning Cake with a Hole in the center!). There are lots of versions of “ho-cake” and stories out there, by my Mother’s “Ho-Cake” has never been matched.
My mom always let us pick what we wanted for our birthday dinner. Mine was the same every year. Roast Beef, twice baked potatoes, broccoli, and German Chocolate Cake. Yum. Worth the wait. Fortunately my Dad always requested German Chocolate Cake for his birthday also.
Hi! My Mom would make homemade waffles for us on Christmas Day, but they wouldn’t usually come out with perfectly straight edges. We ate some very strangely shaped waffles, and they were good! One year, it happened! A perfectly rectangular waffle! TA-DA! Mom was so proud of it, we took a picture of her holding up her masterpiece. Her smile was a mile wide. We still have that picture. Happy memories!
My favorite memories are of my mom and grandmothers. I learned so much from all three of them about cooking and the love of cooking and family. Today, most of our family gatherings are at our house which include my mom, kids and grandkids, siblings, and in-laws. I am so thankful for all the cooking skills I got from these wonderful women. Most of our meals were simple, comfort foods but very filling. We always had ample food. One thing I remember most about my tiny grandmother was how she could fill the table with great food when guests arrived at mealtime (which was pretty often). I always wondered how she did that when the refrigerator was so clean that there seemed to be nothing in it. I am so blessed to have all the members of my family including those who have passed on.
My mom made the best chocalate fudge in the world. It was called million dollar fudge and was rich and creamy. The only time we made it was at Christmas. she had to make several large batches as my dad would sneak into it no matter where she hid it. Of course I don’t think she really minded.
My Mother past away a year ago May 1st. I took care of her for three years in her home before she died. She was bed-ridden. She had grown too frail to do anything. Together we cooked and baked alot , she would tell us what to do and walk us thru each process. We planted a garden, canned, and made so many fantastic meals with her. But i think the most precious memory to me is her teaching my daughter how to make cobblers. They pitted cherries , pealed peaches sliced apples and made the most awsome cobblers all summer! My daughter will be 17 this summer and i know shell always remember the days we took care of grandma and how she learned to cook. And shell hold those momeries close to her heart all thru her life. And when summers roll around shell find herself making cobblers for her own family.
My favoriate mom cooking memory is really about how often I have to call her to ask how to cook something. She is the type of cook who can take stuff and throw it together and make something great…I on the other hand have to have a recipe to follow. This phone calls occur several times a week and help us keep in touch!
my mom has been my “guardian angel” since i was 18 and she was tragically taken away so every memory is memorable…but the most memorable food related is probably the birthday cakes she made for myself and my brother – she made a horse head cake for me and a train for my brother – we were very young and i just thought they were so incredible. of course, most little girls love horses and i was no exception – same thing with little boys and trains… she was also basically a single mom for the most part and worked so dinner was “hamburger helper” many times – funny how the memory of it is good but if i tried it today i’d probably gag… 🙂
still miss you mom…
My mother used to make the best tofu chili. Super hot. She used to spend all day letting it cook and it would be the best dinner 😀
I think my favorite Mother’s day memory was this year when we had all three of our children home with our four grandchildren. We have so much to be thankful for in this wonderful family.
Every memory I have of my mom is special. From as far back as I can remember I was always in the kitchen with her when she cooked. She always answered my questions, and let me help with anything that wouldn’t hurt me. I have made every kind of dish you can think of with my mom. Every time I get to cook with her is equally special. It is because of her that I have a love of cooking and baking. She is the most special person I know, and I am so grateful to have her as my mom. I have always told her that if I could have picked a mom, I would have picked her. Thanks for letting me share a little about my wonderful mom.
My very special, God given mother has provided me with a very strong and sturdy foundation to base my life upon! She has always worked very hard, as a single parent, and taught me to never give up. My mother has always lived a life with a strong faith, dedication and love for others. I am so thankful for her!
My favorite memory is when my son made salmon lover’s heaven for me. The reason he made it for me is because he wanted me taste he’s creation that he was entering into the cooking compation for school. My son is 19 and he took first place; I was so happy for him and it tasted great.
Regina
When I was a teenager my mother’s favorite birthday gift to me was a Red Velvet cake that she made from scratch. She would make it in layers on top of a beautiful glass pedestal with white frosting and along side she’d place a vase with two red roses. When my mother’s Parkinson’s became too much for her to cook and bake the special gift became a memory. I still have the recipe that I copied and somewhere in the family is the original recipe in her handwriting. My mother is now gone but 35 years after the first Red Velvet birthday cake I still remember the love she showed me through her special gift.
My favorite memories are of potato omelettes. Mom made them and fried chicken for family trips and picnics. She is from Madrid Spain so they were authentic like her mother made. Every time she made them, she would tell us stories about her family life in Spain. I love them cold or hot cause they were always made with love.
My favorite memories are of meals my Mom made on the farm when we were little. Everytime we butchered one of our steers we would have hamburgers made from freshly ground beef. I have never tasted anything as great since. My Mom also made great home made bread. My brother and I would come home from school and have bread with butter and freezer strawberry jam. Great memories! Life was good and I am thankful that I learned so much from my Mom.
I remember as a kid that my mom would make homemade cinnamon rolls. She hasn’t made them in years but they were yummy. I remember her rolling out the dough and layering it up. I think I’ll email her and ask her to make them for me next time I’m there for the night.
I didn’t really know how to cook when I graduated from college. Life’s circumstances would have it that I needed to physically care for my Mother from that point on in our lives. She, herself, had been an excellent cook, but could no longer offer the hands-on instruction I needed. She bought me a Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. This was the beginning of a true love affair with cooking and the collecting of cookbooks. Together we forged through that entire book with many hits and misses along the way. I will always be grateful for the inspirations my Mother provided — not the least of which is cooking. Thirty years later, I no longer have my Mother with me, but I still am able to refer fondly to my original cookbook.
My favorite food memory of my mom was when I would see her standing at the sink, just after picking me up from school, with a pile of vegetables. It meant that we were going to have homemade vegetable beef soup. Just perfect for the overcast days that came to visit, however rarely, in Southern California.
My favorite meal memory is actually going to be about my grandma. Growing up in our family we had many dishes that were from our Slovak heritage. One that was always a family favorite was halushki. My grandma always made this for the holidays or special occasions. It was such a treat when we would all be able to share in this favorite comfort food even if it was only a few times a year. A couple years ago she taught me how to make it. Shortly thereafter she was diagnosed with very advanced gallblader cancer. I made it for our family Easter which was also our last family gathering where we did a family mass for her before she died. Even though she couldn’t hardly eat anything anymore without getting sick, she made a point to try the halushki I made and tell me how wonderful it was. Now for the special holidays I have the responsibility for making this dish and we can all eat it with the fondest memories of my grandma.
I didn’t really know how to cook when I graduated from college. Life’s circumstances would have it that I needed to physically care for my Mother from that point on in our lives. She, herself, had been an excellent cook, but could no longer offer the hands-on instruction I needed. She bought me a Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook. This was the beginning of a true love affair with cooking and the collecting of cookbooks. Together we forged through that entire book with many hits and misses along the way. I will always be grateful for the inspirations my Mother provided — not the least of which is cooking. Thirty years later, I no longer have my Mother with me, but I still am able to refer fondly to my original cookbook.
I miss my moms cooking, I miss the aroma of her rice and beans served with skirt steak, and avocado. You always treasure your moms cooking because as we all know no one cooks like mom does.
One of my many regrets was not learning the way she cooks, and though she is still alive I don’t have her near me as I wish I could. I cannot see her that often. Although the difficult part of learning is that she eyeballs everything, there is no measuring, which is incredible to me.
I miss her puerto rican tamales that everyone calls her for during the hoildays. She often makes them for the family.
My mom’s home is where sisters get together on the weekends just to have a taste of her creations. I hope and pray that one day I can bring that love and aroma that my mother brings in her home with our family to my home before she leaves this earth! God Bless all mothers!
My mother was a wonderful cook. We always looked forward to most anything she prepared. I especially loved when she would make something the rest of the family would not or could not eat, all of them dashing out the door with Dad for fast food burgers. My favorite was Liver & Onions with mashed potatoes and the most WONDERFUL gravy… We would use the dining room table, (unheard of unless it was a holiday), the heirloom china and drink cranberry juice out of wine glasses… To this day, her liver and onions reign supreme! Not even the finest steakhouse or french restaurant could out do Mom’s recipe.. Nor could they replace the rare meals we shared together with only the family pets looking on, hungrily…
My mother was a wonderful cook. We always looked forward to most anything she prepared. I especially loved when she would make something the rest of the family would not or could not eat, all of them dashing out the door with Dad for fast food burgers. My favorite was Liver & Onions with mashed potatoes and the most WONDERFUL gravy… We would use the dining room table, (unheard of unless it was a holiday), the heirloom china and drink cranberry juice out of wine glasses… To this day, her liver and onions reign supreme! Not even the finest steakhouse or french restaurant could out do Mom’s recipe.. Nor could they replace the rare meals we shared toether with only the family pets looking on, hungrily…
my favorite mother’s day memory has to be my very first one in 1995. my son was four weeks old, having been born ten weeks premature. i went to visit him in the hospital and got to hold him and bathe him for the first time. it was amazing.
How do I chose just one? My mom was a great cook and many tell me I got my love of food and cooking from her and my Aunt Ruthie. I guess one of my favorite memories was my 13th birthday (seems like 100 years ago) and instead of the traditional homemade German chocolate cake (she made it for me every year), she made that milestone birthday even more special by making me Baked Alaska. Miss ya mom! XO
I have a gazillion mom-related food memories, but unfortunately the most memorable for me, is about me! I couldn’t cook to save my life a few years ago (my family ate out of Banquet and Encor Boxes for the first 16 years or so of my ‘mommy’ life). I thought I was going to tackle the crock pot (working two full-time jobs and coaching soccer)…my first dish was ‘Spaghetti’. I was so proud of myself when I left for my office job that morning-I had browned the meat, put it in the crockpot with the jar of sauce and raw noodles. Can you guess where that went? When I got home, it was like glue! I had to go out and buy all the ingredients to make dinner–all over again! My family never passes an opportunity to share this story, it’s quite embarrassing, really. Suffice to say, now that I know how to cook (and I have some super mad skills, haha), my family rarely eats out of a box anymore! I’m so thrilled that I learned to cook and only wish I had the patience for baking-but my 15 year old daughter and hubby have that under control!
My grandmother did most of our cooking so my favorite memory of her meals is:
a delicious dinner consisting of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and creamed corn…a real “comfort food” type of meal…with a homemade cake for dessert. I know this is probably just a “plain, ordinary meal” to some people but when it’s made with love it’s better than filet mignon.
My favorite “mom” food memory really is of my grandma she use to make the best to die for sticky buns, and they were sticky, you could smell those things baking in her kitchen for blocks, well if they had blocks where she lived. I use to go visit them all the time, for every holiday there was, but it was such a small town the the post office, general store, gas station and bar were all in the same building. My Grandpa worked for the state road crews what is now called Cal Trans, and up there they had employee housing and my grandparents had this neat old house and the state employees and some gold miners were about all that lived around there, but you could smell my grandma’s sticky buns all the way down at the swimming hole and people would come out of the wood work to get one. She would start in the morning making the dough, it had to rise at least 2 or 3 times and I always dislike the smell of the yeast when she’d mix it, I wonder why it doesn’t smell like that anymore, but she’d get her dough and she’d start to knead and knead, and she give me a small peace to play with and show me how to knead it and she’d say,” now Shawnee you have to put your wrist into, that a girl!” and she put the dough away to rise, and we’d make cheats out of my mess, those were always the best, because I didn’t have to wait all day for them. After what seemed like an eternity, she bring the dough back out and PUNCH IT right smack in the middle and spread it out and then she’d start the kneading again and put it away to rise, by this time I was really bored with this dang process but we’d play canasta or some other card game, she loved card games. Once the second rise was done she’d bring the dough out and punch it again but this time it would get the rolling pin, which to this day I have, and it would get rolled out to a perfect rectangle, don’t know how she would do that, then the secret recipe would be spread onto the dough and she’d roll into a log and cut into spirals and put them into a pan that she had put a layer of pecans and cinnamon and sugars and it was a wonderful concoction and lay the rolls onto it. Into the oven they would go. The smells that would emulate out of that oven were heavenly, only thing that I think that smelled better was when she baked just plain old bread, oh how I miss those smells. Some time later, I know as a child she would make me take a nap, ick! and I’d wake up to one of my precious rolls being missing and my Grandpa being home from work and he would have a smile on his face that scoundrels would have after they have gotten away with something. I’d walk into the kitchen and my Grandma would hand me a sticky bun and I would just about melt, but the best thing is, there would be knocks on the back door from the neighbors with their hands out asking for sticky buns too… the smells had gotten to them as well as they had gotten home from work or school. It was the best of times visiting my grandparents, but I miss those sticky buns, as my grandma got older she got Alzheimer’s and with it she would put the buns in the oven and forget them and they would come out black but they would still be delicious! But the saddest thing is my Grandma never wrote a recipe down in her life, so getting it from her before she passed in 2000 was impossible, I tried but she would say,” oh, Shawnee it just a little bit of this, and little bit of the that, I don’t know it just turns out.” What it was is she just did it with love and luck!!! I’ve tried and I can make a killer cinnamon roll but I can not make a sticky bun to save my soul! To my Grandma Lucille!
My favorite Mom memory is having my kids ask the age old question every night – “What’s for dinner?” and whatever I answer can make them happy! I grew up without a mom and had to learn to cook “by the seat of my pants”. One of my first dishes was lasgna which I watched my grandmother make. It is one of my kids’ favorites and it just warms my heart to hear that. I also get such a kick out of making something entirely new out of the leftovers in the fridge and having the kids be amazed. In having them in the kitchen with me they’ve learned to cook and not just follow a recipe!
My favorite Mom food memory….
When I was younger, I can remember making pies with my mother. We would make homemade pie crust and fillings. We made cream pies, fruit pies, merengue pies. It was so much fun and a memory that I will always cherish.
My favorite food time with my mom was grocery shopping! Every trip something new and never tried before went into the basket. We tried Dragon fruit, star fruit, lychees, not a single type of produce we wouldn’t try. The trip was never complete without rye bread and swiss cheese to eat on the way home, the bread pulled off a fresh baked loaf (always tastes better than cutting it!)
My mom was, and still is, not such a good cook. I complained often, and her response was, “If you don’t like it, cook for yourself.” I learned to make chili mac at an early age, and had my grandmothers teach me everything I needed to know. When my grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, I was surprised that my grandmother had made a cookbook for me. She had received a computer from my aunt, and decided to start saving her most cherished recipes. Everything from Sunday roast, to my granddad’s favorite gumbo. She told me she never had any of her mother’s recipes, and knew I would cherish it forever. My grandmother passed away last year, and I made her mac and cheese recipe for the wake. One of the ladies from her church commented how it tasted just like Dottie’s (my grandma) recipe. I never mentioned it was, I just let everyone enjoy it and listened to others share stories of her. It is my most prized possession.
My favorite memory of my mom was when she baked bread, rolls and cinnamon rolls. She lovingly passed that skill and art down to me, of which I’m very proud. My mom passed away in ’97, and I truly miss her and her baking. However, that memory is with me always when I’m in the kitchen baking.
One of my favorite mom memories is that every year at Christmas she and my dad would come down from Iowa and spend a month with my family, escaping the harsh winter and building bonds with my two daughters. She and Dad would spend hours in my kitchen making special Christmas cookies and delicacies with and for the little girls. She and Dad have both died now, but the memories will live forever.
And my favorite Mom food memory is this… One day I wanted to boil eggs. We had a large pyrex measuring cup. I filled it up with water. Put 6 or 7 eggs in it and stuck it in the microwave for 9 minutes… Needless to say the microwave door never recovered and ya know what? All my Mom could do was laugh. I was standing there with egg bits in my hair; crying b/c I thought my life was over…
I guess cooking skips a generation. My mom cooked a lot and my 27 year old daughter does. For mother’s day, my 3 year old grandchild gave my daughter a card listing 10 reasons why she loves her. The reasons were: She reads “Hats for Sale”; She helps her walk in the snow with boots on; She makes her laugh when she tells jokes; She taught her to tell daddy NO; She sings in the car; She find time to make CUPCAKES; She cares because she loves her; She’s smart because her hair is BLONDE; She works hard to clean up her messes and SHE’S THE BEST MOM EVER. My daughter has always wanted one of these…so I’d like to win this for my daugher (who really IS the best mom ever) so she can make those cupcakes even quicker!
My favorite thing about my Mom is she always takes my side…right or wrong!
My most favorite “Mom” story would be the Mother’s Day my mom taught me how to make “bunuelos” with a specially designed utensil in the shape of a large butterfly. They were so tasty and I was so proud of myself when ny mom told everyone I made the dessert.
My favorite mom recipe isn’t from my mom, but my Grandma.
When my cousin & I were little (about 9) my Grandma let us make sugar cookies, ALL BY OURSELVES! We were SO excited and called our mom’s to announce what we were going to do.
While making the cookies, we read the recipe to the ‘T’.
After a batch was baked, we got to take a warm cookie off of the cookie sheet with a cold glass of milk.
We dipped our cookie and with proud anticipation, we took a big ‘ol bite.
Then our proud, happy smiles went south. Our cookie was salty! My Grandma tried to keep her composure, but couldn’t help but snicker a little and ask what we did.
Come to find out, we read the directions just a little wrong. The recipe called for 1tsp of Baking Soda, but my one of us put in a CUP of Baking Soda.
She did her best to be excited for us, letting us know that it was “OK” and that our mommies would still be proud. We finished making our cookies and took them home to our families.
To this day when I make sugar cookies, I remember my Grandma and the lesson of family she taught my cousin & I on that day!
Every Christmas it’s a tradition that my son and I spend the day together baking treats. One year, when he was only about 5 or so, he suggested we try making Rice Krispie bars for the first time. What a sticky, gooey mess that turned out to be! Our hands ended up getting so nasty and we were both so grossly freaked out (to us, there’s nothing worse than having sticky hands) and we were trying to maneuver around the kitchen and not get everything else sticky, too. In the heat of the moment, I ended up dropping the mother of all “F” bombs (it was the first curse I ever said in front of him) and the house silenced…needless to say, Rice Krispie bars never made our Christmas list of treats again. It’s a little embarassing, but now a Christmas never goes by without us laughing about how nutty I got because my hands were so sticky.
When I was very young I remember Mom making some very special meals. There was 8 kids plus my Mom and Dad.My mom did not work therfore my Dadwas the only one with income. Needless to say we did not have aot of extra money for specialty foods. As desserts Mom would make Rice pudding, homemade bread and chocolate pudding. These would be made homemade. They were a real treat for us.
Even though we did not have much growing up, they realky made a difference in our ife. Thanks Mom and Dad for all you did for us.
My favorite recipe from my mother was during the holidays she baked banana nut bread and pumpkin bread in old coffee cans. They had a unique shape when dumped out. She glazed them with a powdered sugar icing, wrapped them up and gave them away as gifts. I could eat a whole one by myself. My favorite part was the top that would pop over the top of the can as it baked.
The smells of the house when we would come home from church on Sunday and dinner had been cooking in the oven while we were gone. We would all gather around the table and have such good times.I surely miss her and our Sunday dinners.
I have to admit that my favorite “mom” food memory is cinnamon toast and tea. I know it may sound so simple but whenever I was sick or just down, my mom would make this and just the way I like it – just toasted enough to melt the butter…not too crunchy & definitely no lighter than the barely-there tan that comes about 30 seconds into toasting! I knew that I was going to marry my husband the first time I made cinnamon toast for him and he told me it was the best thing he had ever tasted! (Even though I often try gourmet recipes that turn out well!) The smell of cinammon still takes me back to that small kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio and the comfort that came with my barely-toasted cinammon toast!
My favorite memory of my mother’s baking was when she made 4 lbs. of fudge at christmas time, when she was in another room my brother and sister ate all 4 lbs. of fudge, they were very sick, they never did eat christmas dinner that day. Every time we try to make this recipe it never comes out right, don’t have any idea why it doesn’t. We try this every year, and every year we still do not get it right and throw it away…as we are laughing at the memory.
i remember my mother teaching me how to make all the wonderfull german foods she used to make so that when i was grown, which i now make myself. everything from scratch. from german pancakes to soups to sauerbraten and homemade potato dumplings.. yum yum
Waking up in the evening, after a nap on a cold winter day, smelling the wonderful aromas of whatever was cooking in the oven and walking out to the kitchen to see my mom cooking next to the fire in the fireplace. Cozy and warm!
I’ve been a vegetarian for over 30 years, but my favorite Mom food memory is my Mother making creamed chip beef on toast for me every birthday morning. It was the only day of the year that we had it, otherwise we had cereal or eggs. It is possible that I’m the only one that ate it. I loved that stuff! And I loved my Mother for the extra effort that she went to in order to make it just for me.
Lazy Day Pie. What is it, you ask? It is a cobbler. On Mother’s Day 2010 my niece called me and asked for the recipe. She couldn’t remember the name but she could remember some of the ingredients and that it was her Grandmother’s recipe. She remembered getting the recipe from her other aunt, you see her Mom doesn’t cook much.
My Mother, her Grandmother, made the recipe a lot. Mostly she made the recipe using blueberries or blackberries. In the summer, I would ask for a large container and I would go out and pick blackberries until the container was full. I would return and she would make Lazy Day Pie.
The recipe was passed to my Mother from her own mother. My mother died when my niece was 16 months old, it is amazing how recipes let you pass down a little of that memory to the next generation.
By the way, I made a Blueberry Lazy Day Pie for my niece and presented it with two copies of the recipe. One a copy of her Grandmother’s hand written recipe, the second copy was a typed version that I typed.
My favorite Mom memory is standing on the opposite side of the stove watching my Mother cook. That is how I learned to cook.
When I was a little girl I just couldn’t wait to go to my Aunt Erma’s. She was the craftiest lady and loved to share all she knew with me and I loved when she made Peanut Butter cookies. She and I would make just enough for us and to share with Uncle Jack. Then off to help her sort her quilt pieces. I am happy to say I’m still baking and sewing. Thanks to Aunt Erma 🙂
This favorite story of my mother’s is dear to my heart. I knew my grandparents and their temperaments. But most important it was my first insight into my mother’s mischievious nature as a child.
My grandfather, when frustrated with complaining, was known to solve complaining by shouting, “Well, if you don’t like it, just get rid of it!”
My Grandparent had just gotten a nice new kitchen table. My uncle, knowing his father well, devised a plan to get him. All the children were in on it. And I’m not sure if Mimi (my grandmother) was or not.
But my uncle got my mother to start complaining about the new table as they were setting the table for dinner. Then my uncle and aunt started chiming in on the complaining. (And you know how children can be with their complaints) I’m sure it got pretty loud. Finally, my grandfather had had enough. And he shouted,”Well if you don’t like it, just get rid of it!” So, my mother and her brother promptly picked up the brand new table and moved it out to the front lawn.
Grandpa was said to be stunned to silence, and reportedly used that phrase with much caution from there on. Now, the story doesn’t say how that table got back into the house. But, I know it did. Because, it is the table that myself and my children sit around to this day. It’s a beautiful simple wood table with leaves to expand the seating to 10. And it has held all three children and their families around at some point in it’s 60 years. (including “Chippy” My Uncle and Aunt’s only (dog) child.)
This showed me that my mother, as angelic as she might seem most of the time, had a little rascal in her too.
My favorite personal mom meal was when my grandmom taught me how to make homemade Pineapple cookies. My Grandmom was like a mom to me and she was always in the kitchen cooking and baking all sorts of goodies! I sure miss her dearly and to this day, I bake her favorite pineapple cookies for all my friends and family at Christmas. Thanks for the great memories to my grams <3
Making Rugglach with my mom for the Jewish New Year…Soo much fun!!
My mom is a great cook, and she loves cooking Thanksgiving dinner, as well as other holiday dinners! She ALWAYS over does it. Last year for Thanksgiving, she cooked two turkeys, a ham, along with a turkey breast, not to mention all the stuff she prepares to go with it! Noodles, dressing, veggie casseroles, pie, cheesecake, and the list goes on and on!
My favorite Mom memory is when she made her homemade vegetable soup because she canned her own tomatoe juice and tomatoes to put in the soup. It made the house smell so good!
My Mom made a huge dinner every Sunday. Everyone in the family had to be there and there was always enough food for a hundred people.. She was such a great cook. Italian food was her specialty, Eggplant Parmesan, Baked Ziti,,,,, UMMMMMMMMM
my favorite mom food memory is making “Dr. Bird” cake every Christmas for our family and all of my mom’s employees and Dr’s at work. It was so much fun even as a young child to be able to help open cans of pineapple and slice banana’s to make this fantastic bread that we still make every year. My daughter will be 3 this year and she will start by slicing bananas and I can’t wait!
My favorite mom kitchen food time , wow, she spent alot of time cooking, and I was right there along side her. You name it , momma, could make it. I remember the smell of her mixer when it heated up. I remember it was that golden yellow color, a hand mixer, but it had a certain smell. I loved using it just to smell the smell as it whirled various ingredients round and round in the bowl. I remember her little tin recipe box, chucked full of my grammas recipes handed down through the generations. SO to the point, my mom makes thee best home made cheese cake… oh oh oh is it yummy. She also is a master at soft molasses cookies… mmm.mmm.
My dear sweet mother made so many wonderful things, but she was the queen of pies. I especially loved her Lemon Meringue. My favorite part was eating the whipped meringue, I do believe she used to whip an extra egg white just for me. I remember thinking that when I grew up and lived on my own one of the first things I would do is make myself a big bowl of meringue and eat it all by myself…..and that is exactly what I did! She had a good laugh when I shared that story with her! I miss her so.
I remember my mom baking her wonderful chocolate chip cookies and allowing me to hand them out the back window as I played like my friends were coming to a drive through. They would pull up on their bikes, and I would raise the window and pass them out. Now that I think about it…umm…they paid nothing for those tasty cookies. That was alright…I loved taking their order and fulfilling it with mom’s warm cookies.
My memories of My Mom and me were of Sundays after Church..we always had her Fried Chicken,,with white gravy ( from the drippings) she always let me help.There were six of us in a single parent home so, we all got to help taking turns..We didn’t have much But My Mom Made sure the food we ate was delicious. I always found a way to get out of the chopping when she would fix her Meat Balls and Spaghetti..I hated doing the chopping and I still hate it so much that I buy frozen seasonings..That hand chopping is bad..takes me forever. I would peel the potatoes and stick my sisters with the chopping..I miss my Mom..But I make her recipes..only I use the frozen Seasonings already chopped..I always feel guilty..I could stop that if I won..Thank You Pamela
MY FAVORITE MOM MEAL MEMORY: MY MOM AND I WOULD MAKE AUNT BILL’S BROWN CANDY EVERY CHRISTMAS AND AFTER I WAS MARRIED WE STILL GOT TOGETHER TO MAKE THE CANDY. MY PARENTS MOVED TO ANOTHER STATE AND EVENTUALLY I STOPPED MAKING THE CANDY. IT TAKES TWO PEOPLE TO MAKE IT BECAUSE OF ALL THE STIRRING TO MELT THE SUGAR AND CARMELIZE IT. ABOUT THREE YEARS AGO WHEN MY GRANDDAUGHTER WAS TEN I CALLED MY MOM TO ASK HER ABOUT THE RECIPE. SHE HAD LOST IT BUT SAID IF I FOUND ONE TO BE SURE AND SEND HER SOME! GOOGLE FOUND IT FOR ME AND MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND I MADE OUR FIRST BATCH. ITS NOW A FAMILY TRADITION THAT EVERY ONE LOOKS FORWARD TO ESPECIALLY MY GRANDDAUGHTER.
Oh, it’s so hard to just pick one memory – I guess one memory that really sticks out is seeing my mom in the kitchen teaching my youngest son (5 at the time)how to make a cake from scratch and there is flour everywhere including on both their faces because while mixing the flour and the rest of the ingredients he turned it on high and the flour flew everywhere!! I was so cute and I couldn’t stop laughing! My mom is the best! I love you mom!
My favorite “mom food” is my moms homemade fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and biscuits. It’s my comfort food! My mom cooks this meal whenever comfort food is needed. This is the first dinner meal at home after the birth of all 3 of my children. It’s a favorite meal when we have not seen each other in awhile, and we just need to unwind. Whenever I’ve had a bad day, I can call my mom and say I need fried chicken, and she knows I need a little cheering up. She does not have any secret reicipe, it’s just the way she’s always made it, just the way her mother did.
My favorite meal my mother cooked was southern fried chicken. It was so soft and tender and seasoned just right. Also, she cooked everything homemade. When I was young, I thought that everyone cooked like her. Then I visited my friends’ houses, and that wasn’t the case. I’m so thankful for her.
I love to cook when I have time. This mixer would sure cut my cooking time in half. It is beautiful and I would love to have it!
I love your recipes; have already tried several of them.
My favorite memory is of my sweet grandmother making her lemon bars for me for every birthday just because she knew they were my favorite. She would get up and bake them fresh very early in the morning and then bring them to my house so I could have them whenever I wanted to through out the day. I have the same recipe but i swear they never taste as good as hers because she just would bake them with so much love. She passed away 3 months ago and I will miss her lemon birthday bars. I love you Grandma!
My memories of my mom and cooking is that she cooked everything from scratch and taught me that everything test better that way.
My favorite memory of my mother and me in the kitchen is one of making homemade noodles. She would show me over and over…and let me practice. …and the result always was spectacular!!! My mom passed a few years ago….but the memories never will!
My mother made the best pie crust I have ever tasted! I have wonderful memories of her baking her world-class peach pies in the white and chrome 50’s style kitchen in suburban Chicago. She always wore an old, flowered cotton apron and hummed while she rolled out the pie crusts. The best part of the experience was her use of the extra pie crust dough. She would roll out little squares and put sugar and a pat of butter in the middle and then fold them up like little pillows. She would bake these little sugar/butter pillows next to the pies as a little treat for my younger brother and myself. Nothing tasted better than those little butter pies. Wonderful memories!
My favorite memory is “Christmas Stew”. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up and there were lots of times when my mother made do with almost nothing to provide us a meal. I remember she washed a chicken in Clorox once, figuring it would kill anything that had grown there since the chicken was old,(it was 1971 and we survived, so no eye rolling or “oh my god”-ing.) But as colorful as the chicken incident was, my favorite bit of make do was Christmas Stew. It was Christmas Eve 1980 or ’81 and my dad was out of town on a trucking run, due home the next day with money for dinner, but we were hungry. Christmas Stew was born. Christmas stew is spaghetti, peas, corn, diced tomatoes, Vienna sausage chunks and bits of cheese and a couple of other things I think, but I don’t remember. It sounds disgusting, but I remember it was wonderful. Mom took the last bits of food we had in the house and cobbled together not only a tasty dish, but an evening of laughter and memories that even today has me craving a bit of Christmas Stew.
My favorite Mom food memory would have to be Thanksgiving. Every year I would look forward to friends and family gathering around the tables. Mom made it look easy. With all those great foods she cooked. When I became a Mom and I took over I couldn’t believe everything she did to make it perfect!!! I will never forget.
My mom was not the best cook but she loved to make cookies. My sisters and I would help with the Christmas baking Thanksgiving week-end. This was the only time that we were allowed to make big messes! It was fun! I now have learned that the messes do not get cleaned up by themselves. I am the one cleaning when the kids go off to do their thing!!!!
I was very young, about 4 years old and my mom and grandma would always be baking delicious desserts. They would set me up with my very own mini-station. They would give me the ends of the dough and I would attempt to make my very own creations. Mine were never very good but they would oh and ah over them. I’ll always remember it.
my fav mom hing was mom teaching me how to make my nanas fudge she ried teaching my sisters but they couldnt get it just the way nana did so i was her last hope my nana passed and mom was the only one who knew how to make it so we would spend alot of time in the kitchen together and im sure she was praying lol but hey i got it now that she cant make it no more due to the mixing and she has so mant medial problems she is happy to know i can make it for her thx mom for all the great memories in the kitchen with u and for being the best inspiring mom ever
My mom used to use shake n bake for everything… so one year we joked that for thanksgiving she would probably take ten boxes of shake n bake,empty them into a garbage bag, and shake n bake the thanksgiving turkey. 🙂 Thank god that never happened. LOL
My best memory was my Mom making us kids the best homemade custard pudding from milk from my Dad’s milk cow. she would toss in vanilla wafers and slice bananas in it. It was so good. I make it for my kids now. Love the mixer ! I will buy me one one day !
My grandmother was the best cook, oh how I miss her cooking! It did not matter the occasion she loved for her family to come over and she would cook Greasy Rice, Collards and Roast. It was always so much food and always so good. I wish I could cook the way she did. We love and miss her so very much!
My mother is one of the best coooks! She seriously makes every type of food or desert the best I have ever tasted! I love her german chocolate cake, cheese cake, banana pudding, coconut cream pie, and christmas cookies! She makes the best home made mac and cheese. I love her holiday noodles. Her meals are the best! OH one of my favorite comfort foods she makes is stewed tomatos.
My mom is actually a terrific cook. She doesn’t have a very good sense of smell, though. As a kid, at least once a month we all would be eating dinner and then the smell of something burning would come wafting through the air. As usual, she had left something in the oven, usually biscuits, and they were burning. We would just open those biscuits and dig out the not burned part and eat that, lol.
Home made chocolate chip cookies. She taught me how to make them to send to my hubby and his buddies in boot camp!
Karen
I actually have a Mom favorite memory and a Grandma favorite memory. My Grandma used to make a tuna and seashell macaroni salad that I still make today – frozen peas and carrots, jerkin sweet pickles, tuna fish, macaroni shells, and mayo. My Mom makes a great cookie she calls a fruit cup around christmas time – made in a mini muffin tin a pastry shell and a cream cheese white raisin and nut filling. Yum!
Favorite memory? When my mother would let me cook with my doll. I had a doll that came with a mixer and the beaters would turn and she could mix anything!!!!
My best mommy food memory… Well, one night momma burnt the spaghetti! That was the night I learned Daddy ate everything momma ever made, and if it was burnt, he ALWAYS asked for seconds!
My favorite Mom Memory is her Thanksgiving stuffing/dressing. I still make it that way & I don’t like any other version.
She always made a cornmeal & sausage stuffing with onions, celery & whatever pickle relish was left in the fridge from summer.
I moved away from family to Florida from Illinois to start a new job. Next door lived an 11 year old girl whose parents both worked. Her Dad cooked, but didn’t bake. Her Mom seldom baked or cooked anything beyond frozen cookie dough. This neighbor girl started visiting me after school on a regular basis. So we started cooking together. I taught her many little tricks and introduced her to some new foods. But the MOST fun we had was baking cookies from scratch. We made snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, peanut butter, chocolate chip, lemon bars, and a dozen more. We had so much fun making them together and she learned how to do the baking in her family and is now making not only cookies, but cakes and pies. Her family is now my new family in Florida.
I love the memories I have of my mom teaching me how to bake and decorate cakes!
My favorite mom food memory…I was commuting 45 mins. each way to work with my 18 mo. old in the center of the back seat. She was usually unhappy with the long ride home.
One afternoon she would not stop crying, and I said “Hope! Is there anything I can stop and get you to help you stop crying? ” (thinking juice, etc.) This little voice, after a pause, said very clearly..”chocolate” !!! So I guess a chocolate addiction is an inherited trait!!
Some of my fondest memories were of our Sunday dinners. My mom always managed to have a big meal ready for after Church. I loved her pot roast with mashed potatoes and gravy…so much so that on one occasion, I drank the remainder of the gravy. I was about 10 at the time. I still love gravy, but know when to stop!
My favorite memory is the time that I tried making petits fours to surprise my mom when she came home from a trip. I was about 7 at the time. When I went to make the icing, it called for both granulated sugar and confectioners’ sugar. I had no clue what confectioners’ sugar was (at that age I had only heard of “powdered sugar”), so just used granulated sugar for both. The icing was gloppy, gritty, and basically just disgusting. To make matters worse I colored it a lovely Pepto Bismol pink. My mother came home, raved about my gorgeous creations and ate several pieces without batting an eyelash. To this day I don’t know how she did that! It was DISGUSTING!
My mom was a wonderful cook! She would always start a meal with an onion. I was by her side all the time, so when she would stop to give me a hug her hands smelled like onions. To this day every time I use an onion I think of my mother. I love onions, so I use them just like my mother did. I am a mother now myself and my son tells me sometimes that I smell like onions. That warms my heart that I have grown to be like my mom!
My favorite food memory comes from when I was young my mom owned a bakery. If I was really good, if I had a rough day at school, or if I just needed some mommy time she would let me in the kitchen and teach me her secrets for making homemade pies, cookies, and cinnamon rolls. My favorite was her coconut cream pie. We still get together to bake for holidays and get-togethers.My favorite time to get together is when we have no reason at all except because we miss each other. I hope that someday when I have children I, with the help of my mom, can teach them our little kitchen secrets and they will remember our times in the kitchen together as fondly as I do.
My favorite mom food memory is Thanksgiving dinner. She would make a wonderful fresh turkey with all the fixings. She made sure that everyone had their favorites. I still use her stuffing recipe every time I make a turkey dinner.
My favorite memory is my most touching memory. In 2001 my grandmother, my mother’s mother was diagnosed with cancer. It was an incredibly sad and difficult time but the one thing that always brought the three of us together was good food. My mother is an incredible cook. When times got tough for my grandmother the only thing that would bring back that sparkle in her eyes was when my mother made her incredible muffaletta sandwiches. My mother and I were able to share in our sadness, support, and love for grandma making this together for her. Delivering that muffaletta to my grandmother in the hospital was my fondest memory because it was last time I saw her smile. The three of us were able to share a meaningful moment that will be in my mother and my memories for years to come.
My mother always cooked so many great meals and baked wonderful goodies that it would be difficult to say what is my favorite. Spaghetti was always a comfort food and homemade chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven mmmm.
When I was a kid, anytime there was a big thunderstorm, my mom would tell us that we had to eat the ice cream “in case the power goes out.”
Not only was I never freaked out by power outages, but I’m pretty sure that’s why both of my sisters and I have such fondness for storms to this day. 😉
My parents are from Croatia and most of my memories are of her traditional Croatian meals. I used to be embarassed about the odd foods that came out of her kitchen; but now, nothing says “home” to me more than her wonderful dishes. Try as I may, I still can’t match her cooking skills!
My mother was left to raise five children under the age of six by herself. She was incredibly challenged and her moods tended to shift with the ocean breeze we lived next to. She loved us, that I had no doubt but all the needs and necessities weighed heavily upon this over-burdened woman and food was her refuge and way to show us her love. I ran home from school every day and if the windows had not been opened I knew sadness would be greeting us at the door. But one day, I must have been in about 4th grade, I flew home,and the windows were open and the curtains were blowing and Mom had a huge pot of fresh green beans on the stove. i didn’t even bother to think they were a peculiar snack, I just loved their color and the way they symbolized happiness for all of us as we were served bowlfuls.
I remember baking with mom my when I was little. She used to let me help no matter how much of a mess I made!
I have very fond memories of baking bread and cinnamon buns with my Mom. I was really little, maybe 4 or 5. I have three brothers and we all got our own piece of dough. I still love to bake bread and cinnamon buns.
I am the oldest of 6 children. Our mom worked the 3-11 shift in a factory most of the years we were growing up. My favorite memory is getting off the school bus on those special days when she didn’t go to work. We would not know she was going to be home until we saw her standing on the porch waiting for us. We were some happy kids! We knew that she had made us a special treat. Our favorite treat was muffins. Mom didn’t have a lot of money, so she made plain muffins from scratch, then dipped the tops in melted butter and then cinammon and sugar. Yum! I have tried many times to emulate her recipe, but my muffins never quite taste like Mom’s.
Thanks for reminding me of this precious memory.
Oh! So many memories of my Mom, she is not longer with us; however the aroma of her cooking still with me, onions, garlic……so many to mention here. Her kitchen was the place to laugh and to cry too, family and friends always sitting at her breakfast counter, memories from my childhood the beautiful white glasses with so many colors “Gelatin Cups, so many colors and flavors, Cherry, Strawberry, Grape, Pineapple, Lime, Orange…Just Beautiful!!!! As an adult, her famous Cod-Viscaya (my Grandfather’s town in Spain) style… Mom we miss you and love you!!!!!!
Hi Laura. When I was a child, during the summer’s we’d go to the Lakes up North every Saturday. My Mom would pack the day before, and I mean pack. She had a little green Coleman stove and would make a big pot of spaghetti sauce at home,with sausage & meatballs. At the Lake she’d cook the pasta and warm the sauce on the stove. That was dinner. She packed eggs, bacon, sausage for breakfast. Hot dogs, burgers, buns all the fixin’s and such for lunch.She always cooked up a huge bowl of homemade potato salad, and Macaroni salad. We’d leave like 5:30 a.m. and on the way out of town we’d stop at the bakery for fresh hard rolls and buns, Boston cream and jelly doughnuts. This town was in Hoboken NJ. That bakery today is known as Carlo’s and is run by “Buddy the Cake Boss” of TLC fame.Back in the 50’s it was owned by another family of Italian imigrants.
Instead of a big summer vacation, these were like mini vacations. What a treat for city kids to spend 12 hrs every Saturday, every summer at these beautiful lakes surrounded by woods with playgrounds , sliding down the big silver slide directly into the water on a very hot summer day, and smelling all the good meats cooking outdoors on the grills.
My Dad faithfully drove our family every weekend Memorial Day thru Labor Day Weekends. My two aunts, uncles and their families also drove up most weekends too. My Mom was at that little stove all day long and loved feeding us all. Happy times…happy memories.
What a great response! I love all these stories. Best memory of my grandmother (who raised us), was coming home from Kindergarten. She would make us Strawberry Nesbitt and ice cream sodas. We always had some little snack when we got home from school each day, but that was our favorite. My twin sister and I had our grandparents there every day from school. We were so lucky and blessed. She was a wonderful cook as well, and my sister and I learned so many wonderful dishes from her (and from our grandfather). We both miss them dearly.
My favorite Mom food memory is whoopie pies. She always made the best! Several years back she found a copy of her original recipe! And now it’s a family tradition that we are carrying on. Thanks Mom! You’re the best!
There are many favorite Mom memories of her cooking. She’s a beautiful cook. My favorite memory is when she would bake homemade bread. For a few years of our growing up, we had the wonderful pleasure of having a Mom that was home with us, she worked part-time or when we were all in Elementary school she worked at a job that had her home when we got home from school. For the most part we had our Mom until I was about 13. Then she went to work full-time! That was a learning experience for the four of us, we missed her and she did shift work at the nursing home. On the days she was off, she would make home-made bread and the smell of bread wafting from the house as we came up the drive from school meant MOM was home! For Christmas this year.. I asked for Oatmeal date filled cookies. They are bothersome to make but so delicious, hers are the best.
My mom is gone now but her being Italian I can remember all the incredible dishes she used to make. The aroma’s of my moms home made Spaghetti Sauce cooking on the stove and the smell lingering in the air and the affect it had on you when you walked into the house. It really got the taste bud’s going and we couldn’t wait to have dinner the following day it smelt and tasted so good. These are times I will never forget!
My mother wasn’t a good cook, so my food memories are mostly comical. Leaving boiled eggs on long enough for the fire dept to show up at 1am- My sister and I pretending we had to go the bathroom to spit our food in the toilet- Loving ketchup so we would flood her food in it so we would eat because ya know when we were kids you were to eat EVERYTHING on your plate. Thankfully there are ways to teach yourself to cook these days! LOL Love my mom but man she can’t cook!
My mother is the greatest, most selfless person I know. She has taken care of and nurtured 3 generations of us kids and most of our friends. Even though her name is Ingeborg, everyone that knows her calls her Mimi. Most people don’t even know her real name because her grandkids always called her Mimi. Now she is Mimi to everyone!
My mom has always had the best recipe for yeast rolls. Numerous people have asked for the recipe and then complained because “they just don’t come out the same”. My favorite memory of my mother is her teaching me to make these rolls. We prepared the dough the night before and twice in the middle of the night had to get up to continue the process, once to beat the dough down and allow it to rise again, and once to shape the dough into balls and allow them to rise. The following morning we finished by baking and buttering the rolls. This process was so long and I felt so special to be learning such a famous recipe, and getting up with mom in the middle of the night had a magic all its own. Every time I have ever made them, they come out exactly as they should. I’m pretty sure that the secret is in how the mashed potatoes that go into the recipe are prepared, because it’s the only thing that varies with each cook. Lucky for me, I also learned to make mashed potatoes from my mom 🙂
My Mom wasn’t the greatest cook, but always said it was important to make a good breakfast. It was the only meal she really mastered: She was Great with eggs and frittatas, perfect toast, lovely fruit salads.
But, after breakfast you were on your own. A serious meal wasn’t complete unless we set off the smoke alarms with the forgotten biscuits in the oven.
I am the first woman in four generations of our family to have learned how to cook. My mom always viewed it with humor and more than a little suspicion…like my husband was forcing me to do it or something. Anyhoo…I always wax nostalgic when the smoke alarm goes off in the kitchen, now, thankfully, usually someone elses!
God Rest her sweet soul…and bravo to all us cooks out there, Mom’s or not.
At age 14, learning how to make homemade breads, especially learning how to make cinnamon rolls. Later in my teaching career I was teaching my students how to make them, but by an easier method by using Kitchen Aid Mixer to mix the dough using the dough hook.
My food memory of my Mom is this…
I had helped Mom in the kitchen to make spaghetti for our family. (I must have been around 7 years old) Everyone dished up their plate and was sitting down to eat. My Mom served my plate, and as I was carefully walking my plate to the table… the spaghetti was slippery and slipped off my plate and onto the floor. The dog ran across the room and ate my spaghetti!
I was crying and my Mom consoled me because that was the last of the spaghetti! So we went into the kitchen and started fixing another dinner for me to eat. She turned a frown upside down crisis averted. I remember to this day how badly I wanted that spaghetti!
My favorite memory was working with my mother at her wedding reception business. I usually did all the baking, and got to help with decorating of the place and help decorate the wedding cake…It was lots of fun learning all this from my mother.
Anna,that is such a wonderful story <3 I’m also blessed with a MIL that has treated me like a daughter for the past 25 years.
My favorite memory has do with my mother-in-law. My father, who passed away, seventeen years ago, used to make me a special birthday cake. He was the only one who knew how to make it. He died two weeks before my birthday. I though that I would never have my special cake again. It was chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla with white frosting, and made with love. I sad every year because I knew that no cake would ever live up to my Daddy’s special cake made just for me. I married my husband, and got his wonderful mom and dad in the bargain five years ago.
At some point I had mentioned to my husband about the cakes my father used to make for me. On my next birthday come cake time my mother in law brought out a cake just like my Daddy used to make for me. It tasted the same, and was made with love. I can’t remember if I was able to wait until we got to the car before I started crying or not, but I do know that I cried like a little baby over that cake. I was so surprised that she had looked up and asked people how to make a cake like that. She’s done it every year since then for my birthday, and it makes me feel so special. She does so many things, but that gives me a taste of my one of my best childhood memories from my “new” family.
It’s one of the many things that she has done to make me feel like part of her family. She’s the perfect mother. In-law doesn’t apply to her.
I had 5 boys and all were involved in various sports activities. I was always looking for quick dinner recipes to cook so we could get out the door. One of my boys’ favorites was spaghetti. I had read that you can cook spaghetti in the microwave, so I was all for it. Imagine my horror when the spaghetti basically melted into a pasta goop! Because I didn’t have time to recook a box of spaghetti, I served it anyhow. My boys were grossed out and to this day they make fun of my “microwave spaghetti”!
I grew up in family of wonderful cooks, so pulling out just one memory is nearly impossible. However, when I was nine years old, we were visiting my maternal grandmother out of state and the local newspaper did a story on my grandmother, my mother and me (as well as my mom’s sisters) about my grandmother’s famous fruit strudel — how she was locally renown for it, and how she was passing the tradition and love of cooking on down through the generations. I still have that ancient news article to this day — bad hair-do and all!
My favorite memory is making home made popcorn with my Granny. To this day I still make my popcorn on the stove and think of her every time.
My Grandmother lived with us and she made us breakfast every morning. But what I remember most of all is that she made Pot roast every Sunday for dinner even after she lost her leg and was in a wheelchair we had to help her but she was right in there tell me or my sister how to do it. She passed away when I was 8 years old I’m 43 now. And Now I still make a pot roast every Sunday and have Great memories
When I was Little, I remember going to my Grandmas house and helping her cook. I would get my little apron on and climb on a chair so I could reach the counter top. To this day I help my grandma cook and I’m so glad I started young, now I know many recipes that are “dump” recipes that I have picked up from helping her over the years! Some even my Mom can’t even make! I was blessed with a Grandma that’s a very good cook and brought that out in me!
Growing up, my Mom had a rule about dinner time. We sat down, promptly at 6pm, and if dinner wasn’t finished by 6:30, we went directly to bed. My Mom wasn’t the best of cooks, but some meals were acceptable. Meatloaf was not one of those meals! So, when it was meatloaf night, I put on my pajamas and went directly to bed at 6pm. I couldn’t even stand the thought of looking at it on my plate for 30 minutes. Going to bed was the better of the options. LOL!
My favorite mom food memory is pretty recent. I am a first time mother, and my daughter will be 2 next month. I decorate cakes, and she loves to “help” (which is me giving her a little cake with icing and a plastic knife and she copies mommy. So, I got up super early one day to make a wedding cake before she woke up. Well, as soon as I went and got her out of bed, she came to the kitchen and saw it and she goes “CAKE!!” and before I could stop her, she reached up on the counter top and got herself a handful of wedding cake!! Needless to say, she really ENJOYED her breakfast, and mommy had some extra work to do to fix the wedding cake. One of those things that you just have to laugh at. My favorite memory with my mom, is that she makes the most AMAZING gumbo, and she makes it every few months, and me and all 4 of my siblings and their spouses go over for a big family dinner. It brings us all together again!
My Mom has always made time to talk to me no matter what. She is a great listener and encourager. She is my number one fan. To be loved like that is a blessing.
My favorite Mom memory is that of my German paternal grandmother. My Granny loved to cook for her family, and especially for her grandchildren. She always let us help make her fried apple fritters. We cored apples and mixed up batter then when the fritters were finished and cooled we got to dust the apple fritters with powdered sugar. We made homemade sauerkraut in a crock. Every Sunday all my Granny’s family gathered together for Sunday Dinner. Pot roasts,fried chicken,pork chops,and fried fish, fresh veggies from her garden and always a potato dish. She would let each of her grandchildren make and roll out a pie crust to make a special baby pie. Each pie was made with the special ingredients we picked out as a filling. I’m 56 years old and remember it like it was yesterday. I try to do the same thing with my own grandchildren.
So many of my childhood memories are about spending time in the kitchen with my Grandmother. She loved to bake and cook for everybody, the more the merrier. She would often invite the neighborhood kids over for an old-fashioned taffy pull. Mmmm… all that butter all over your hands and the taffy was so good when all done…yummmm!
I love to cook! And I believe that part of that is because it was something that always had to be done. Everyone has to eat. And even if you have a working mom, someone has to cook, so that is the time you get to spend together. Most of my memories with my mom and grams are in a kitchen.
I started baking when I was really young . . . like 5 or 6 years old in my Easy Bake Oven! Of course, it is a little different making a cake or brownies that come in a tiny little box and are mixed using only a fork with some water.
But I learned the “basics” and was always eager if my mom or gram was baking. I thought I knew all there was to know. My story is not of one particular time, just the little incidents that happened along the way.
It started with being allowed to pour in dry ingredients while mom held the mixer. I had trouble with the part grasping that I was to s…l…o…w…l…y add them to the bowl and remember creating a very nice flour cloud . . . . oops~
When I got up to the part where I was allowed to hold the mixer . . . I of course still thought I could do it myself without any help . . . I remember learning that chocolate batter can travel far if you lift the mixer out of the bowl before turning it off . . . I also remember a little bit of yelling on my mother’s part . . . . and then the laughing when more batter was found in random places over the next few days.
I remember when I was helping my gram clean things up and had never used a hand sprayer . . . I sprayed Gram’s stomach with a lot of cold water . . . BIG holler . . . and now it is something we still laugh about~
Even as I got older, I made mistakes in my kitchen with my son as a witness. Not only did he get to experience the same things I had done, he got to watch me make new mistakes.
There was the time I got my new Vita-Mix blender and decided to make homemade split pea soup . . . blending hot ingredients can be as messy as chocolate batter and mixers . . . When the top blew off the blender and green gook was all over me . . . my son was in hysterics.
When I decided to try and make gluten-free pancakes . . . I created another memory with my son . . . of the most disgusting thing he has ever eaten and he still laughs because my husband actually ate one entire pancake . . . and DIDN’T get sick. (In fact my son recently told me to enter that recipe in the worst cook’s contest.)
Now, my Gram is 89, and I am in charge of the kitchen. She is my prep chef. Still we have a good time. However, instead of me being a little brat know it all helper, she tries to refrain from being a bossy I always did it like this helper.
So my memories of cooking continue in a circle. In a kitchen making food or around a table eating it . . .
When I was in first or second grade, I remember my Mom and her little “Fry-Rite” deep fat fryer. It was all shiny and chromed and the only real kitchen “instument” she had in addition to her Mix-Master mixer. Well, once a month, on a Saturday, she would fire up her little deep fat fryer and make fresh, yeast-raised doughnuts!! She would rise early that morning and make up the dough and let it rise. She would ever so gently lower each doughnut into the hot grease and cook it just until it was the right golden brown. She drained them (and the holes….YUM!!)on paper towels and then dipped them into a vanilla glaze that she made from scratch. The best part of the day was when my uncle and my God-father came over and had a doughnut eating contest!! By some miracle it was always a “tie” and they decided they had to come back the “next” Saturday for a rematch. This went on for over a year with no winner declared!!
My favorite memory would be the time that we lived in Michigan and got ALOT of snow in 1 days time. So much snow that the power went out and when it was time to fix dinner she came up with a great way to do it. Are you ready? We had to use the fireplace for heat that day and my mom also used it to cook dinner. She wrapped potatoes in foil and laid them in the embers, a cookie sheet over the logs and cooked steaks. We had salad with that and then there was dessert. We use to go camping and we had this mountain pie maker – you buttered 2 slices of bread – lay 1 slice butter side down in the pie maker, put a spoonful of pie filling (your choice) and then the other slice of bread, butter side up – close the make and slide into the embers for a bit.
This is one of the fondest memories as a child. Mom always makes our dinners together very nice and memorable.
It’s hard to pick just one memory of my mom’s cooking…she’s the best at making comfort foods, which are always so satisfying. But I remember when I was 3, my older brother was 5, and after we walked him to school in the morning, my mom and I would make cookies. Not every morning, but often enough that it was a regular thing. My mom would always give me very easy & specific tasks, since I was just a little kid. I was in charge of crisscross fork-marks on peanut butter cookies, pouring the chocolate chips into the mixing bowl, and of course, licking the batter off the mixers. My mom gave me a great gift: loving to cook! I hope to pass on the same love of cooking to my own baby girl!
Happy Mothers Day..
Favorite mom food memory is her homemade cinnamon rolls.
I have many favorite memories of cooking not only with my mom, but with both of my grandmothers. I grew up on a ranch in a small town in Idaho; I began both cooking and canning at very young age.
My mom enjoyed teaching me how to cook on our wood cook stove. One of my favorite memories was helping my mom make cinnamon rolls. I loved spreading out the butter, cinnamon, sugar and raisins on the dough. I had miniature bread pans and my mom always gave me my own dough to create whatever my little heart desired. I always loved to experiment…still do!
It was always a special time when I went on an adventure with my Grandma Opal to pick wild huckleberries…mmm… one for me one for the bucket…she taught me that these wild little treasures really do make the best cheesecake in the world.
My Grandma Jane always made me laugh and I miss her dearly! One of my favorite lessons she taught me was to never burry what you think is a bad batch of bread dough to hide your embarrassment in the hot sun it will eventually rise.
I made my mom breakfast for mother’s day and caught the kitchen on fire when I was in 5th grade.
My favorite Mom food memory is:
Growing up everyone in my family liked to eat fish and I did not. My mom always made a separate entree for me whenever she made a fish related recipe for dinner (which she made at least once a week). She never complained nor scolded me for not wanting to eat fish. My mom always made me feel loved from my earliest memory of her right up to today.
When I was going through chemotherapy seven years ago, my mom made me all of my favorite comfort foods that I could tolerate during this difficult period. As time wore on, there was a point where I could no longer taste my food but I could smell it, which was crazy. My mom was strong and loving during this time and gave the greatest support to my husband and children at a very hard time. I’m happy to say I’m in remission and grateful for every single day.
Guess that’s two “Mom-related” food memories…
My mom cooked cow tongue for our family when I was fairly young. She didn’t skin it, so there it lay on the serving platter, looking like a tongue. Eww, the four of us kids were so grossed out. It is a favorite memory of ours, we laugh about whenever we remember it. 😀
My favorite Food memory of my mom was her unusual concoctions she would put together.. She used to make this weird salad of a layer of lettuce… a layer of miracle whip… and a layer of fruit cocktail… i know.. sounds ucky.. but it was sooo good… and to this day i cannot make it like she did.. i not only miss my Mom.. i miss all her wild food.. she definately was a “Foodie”… Thanks for letting me remember my Momma..
Sherry Highbaugh
I can bring a piece of my mother’s soul back to be with me by the simple act of baking bread. As a child, I was engaged, delighted, and empowered as she gave me my own portion of the dough with which to create my own masterpieces. My first exposure to biology and chemistry was our regular exercise of feeding the sourdough starter. Through the years, I watched her use the exercise of mindlessly measuring, mixing, and (sometimes more vigorously than others! 😎 kneading the bread, then patiently waiting for it to rise, as her own, very effective form of therapy. By the time the aroma of yeasty bread began wafting from the kitchen, we knew that things were somehow back in balance, and that all would be well with the world. One of the last things my mother asked of me, was to make her a Muffaletta sandwich (she LOVED that olive relish 8-), “…and could you make it with your foccacia bread?” she added. “Yes, mom, of course.” When she passed, when everyone else was grabbing for items of monetary value, the things I chose were the old family pictures, and her hand-written recipe cards. Those are the pieces of her that can never leave, and pieces of her by which her great-grandchildren will know who she was.
My Mom makeshe best chicken Pot Pie all because she was short in ingredeints one day. Here secret is Mozzerella cheese just below the crust. It is the best and I am so thankful she ran out of ingredients that day so she could make a new family version.
My mother will be 80 in July and she still loves to bake. When we were kids some of my fondest memories were when she would fix Cream Puffs (hey, she still does it & they’re great!) She was always in the kitchen always making sure we had what we needed and everything was delicious. She is a great mom who taught us a lot of great moral values as well. Everyone loves her and one of the main reasons is because she is so funny! I believe that laughter is one of the main reasons that she is in excellent health and doesn’t take medicine. In this day and age we live in we never need to lose sight of laughing and not taking everything too seriously. She is the best!
My mother is also my hero, she raised 3 children by herself and we have all turned out pretty good..haha..my favorite food memory would have to be her homemade chocolate brownies with homemade icing…omg..one taste and you had to have more…all my friends growing up would ask me when she was going to be making them……
My favorite is just 2 months before my mom died from cancer. She was really to sick to be cooking but she heard me saying how much I loved this cheese souffle she always made and when I came in the next evening she had made it! This was a huge thing because she really had no business doing it….she was to sick!! It was the best thing I have ever eaten in my life! I love and miss her so much!
Mom food memories? So many!!! Sunday dinners that my mom and grandma made as a kid, mom’s big silver mixing bowl that we used for cookies? Maybe it is my wedding day where my my mom made all of the food to my liking for 200 guests or maybe my own mothering moments? Friends mothering me by making me pancakes to eat in the rocking chair with my infant only hours old or baking with my own homeschooling kids to tach them math. Mothering new mothers with a homemade meal and muffins for the freezer is another mom food memory, they have all done it for me too! Quite possibly, I might be the proudest mom of my young sons (8,11,12 yo) who have thier own baking business. Owen is 11 and owner of Schmoo-moo-las Bakery and is saving for just this cherry red kitchenaid!
My favorite Mom food memory is learning to make all of her favorite Christmas candies: Aunt Bill’s fudge, divinity, etc. She amazed me with how her arms never tired of beating by hand. To this day I still don’t know how she was able to beat by hand for so long. Everything always turned out perfect!
I lost my mother at a young age, and thus don’t remember cooking with her. However, I do have a book of some of her recipes, from “how to cook a husband” and “Irish Stew”, to her own recipe for ear and nose drops. Just being able to do some of the things she did, helps me feel closer to her. She has been and will always continue to be an inspiration to me.
I have many wonderful memories of my mother and I cooking together, but my favorite memory is during the Christmas holidays, my mother, grandmother, father and I would spend two days making tamales. It took many of us to make these wonderful tamales and everything was from scratch. We didn’t buy the masa at the store, already pre-made, my grandmother would grind the corn and make the masa and my dad would knead the spices. My grandmother would roast huge pork and beef roasts and, by hand, would shred the meats, add the appropriate spices and then grind everything together. The dried corn husks were put in water the day before to make them pliable. The next morning, we would start making the tamales in an assembly line fashion until we were done with about 60 to 100 dozen tamales to share with friends and family. It wasn’t so much the work, but the bonding we experienced in coming together with this huge effort. Those days are now long gone and it’s up to me to teach my boys.
My favorite Mom cooking memory is the first time I cooked and baked with my daughter. She was 1 month old. She did not like to be put down for any period of time but I wanted to get back to cooking and baking. It was my husbands birthday. I pulled out a sling that I had purchased when I was pregnant but hadn’t tried yet. Put my daughter in it so that she could see everything I was doing, and started cooking. She sat there through the whole thing. I was able to make a killer London broil and a carrot cake. She was mesmerized by everything going on. The chopping, grating, even the sound of the mixer didn’t bother her. She just sat quietly taking it all in. I knew I have a future foodie on my hands, and couldn’t be happier. She is 4 now and spends a lot of time in the kitchen with me. She will spend hours with me in the grocery store and never complain and she loves to look at cook books.
My mother made the best potato pancakes EVER – all potato and onion and seasonings, fried so the edges are lacy-crispy and the middle is soft. And she always made them with tomato rice soup. My perfect dinner from mom…
We always had dinner at 6pm. Everyone present, everyone ate, everyone cleared their plate, no excuses. I am the youngest of three and usually got away with things my brother and sister didn’t, but not at the table. I hated meatloaf, and meatloaf meant green peas with mashed potatoes. You couldn’t get away with only eating the mashed potatoes. When I found out mom had meatloaf on the menu, I’d go to bed, go to sleep, regardless of what time it was. Finally, Mom found a new meatloaf recipe on the bottle of Heinz 57, and asked me to help her make it. I was probably 9 or 10 yrs old. It was incredible. I LOVED it, and still make meatloaf with Heinz 57 instead of using tomatoes. This is when I really took an interest in cooking, and being with my mom in the kitchen.
I am happy you asked this question, because one of my fondest memories of my great-grandmother was our last time together before she passed. My mother and I went to visit my great-grandmother in France when I was 5. We lived in Germany at the time and we would frequently visit her. She raised rabbits and always had fresh vegetables in her garden. After my trip to the candy store (which she always gave me money to walk to the corner candy store), she said she wanted to share her recipe of pumpkin soup and stuffed rabbit. My great-grandmother knew I loved her pumpkin soup because it was the main food item I asked for when I visted. We spent hours in her small, french kitchen listening to french music and spending some of the best quality time I have ever spent with her, just preparing the night’s supper. I still remember the lay-out of her kitchen, the smell of her cooking, walking down her old stairs to get the water out of the well in her basement and the sounds of laughter in the air. When I think of my great-grandmother, I think of her smile, her love, her laughter and of course, that wonderful evening we spent together making my favorite pumpkin soup.
My favorite Mom memory is when she makes meatloaf. She is terrible at it. She gets so frustrated. Every now and then she gets one, but for the most part they fail!I will not eat meatloaf because of this expierence!
My Mom was a wonderful cook. Everything was made from scratch, growing up on a farm we had fresh eggs and wonderful meats and homemade breads everyday. I think canning with her was the best, we would pick berries up in Canada and N. Minnesota to be canned, in the fall we would take everything out of the garden and we would can for days. I loved coming home from school and having the smell of pickles and berries being canned. I think of her everytime I start my canning in the fall. Wish she was still here with us. Happy Mothers Day Mom.
My most favorite memory of food is the time i made an accidental dish by burning it.. I make a soy chicken that is out of this world and to this day i still do it the same way.When my girls were little I did not have alot of spices in the apartment we moved into, I had soy sauce and garlic. I was making chicken and decided to use these spices well.. I made dinner it was good. so I put it back in the oven to keep it warm for a friend of ours that was living with us at the time for when she got home. well.. the next morning all i could smell was burnt chicken.. did not think anything of it really just assumed my friend had burnt her share up. I went to work and when i got home i preceded to put that days dinner in the oven when i realized it was still on and WHAM there was the “burnt” chicken. well let me tell you .. that was the tenderest best darned chicken I had ever eaten. we had that for dinner as well the next night and i shared with our neighbor downstairs who HATES chicken but LOVED mine. To this day I still make the dish almost the same way.. just a few hours shorter ..lol
My favorite Mom Food memory is being in the kitchen with mom whenever she cooked. I was fascinated by the fact she never needed a recipe to follow – she just threw things together without measuring them and it always turned out perfectly! Now that I’m a mom I cook the exact same way. My friends and family get very frustrated with me because when they ask for a recipe I can never really give it to them. Its all just a guess and I never measure ingredients so they can never get theirs to come out like mine does. So I say, thanks to my mom – who needs a recipe or measuring cups? Not us!
My most favorite memory of my mother is every year baking Christmas cookies. I was the decorator of the cookies. What an enjoyable time of year Christmastime is. One year, when I was about 5 years old, my father had dressed up like Santa Claus for some function, and my mother had taken a picture. My mother then got the pictures developed after Christmas. I was the first one to look through the batch of pictures and was so excited that Santa had one of his elves take a picture of Santa for me with our camera! I took the picture to school for show-n-tell. I love you Mom.
My fondest food memory of my mother (in the 1960’s) was her midnight doughnut making. She was a night-owl, and would be up making yeast doughnuts, dozens of them. I remember helping cut the holes,waiting for them to rise, watching her fry them, then she would dip each one in a powdered-sugar and milk glaze, setting them on wax paper all over the kitchen table and counters to dry. She would make dozens of them, then give them away to all the neighbors the next morning. One of those neighbors became my step-mother three years after my mom died. She still to this day remembers my mom’s wonderful homemade doughnuts.
My favorite Mom recipe was her homemade strawberry bread that she made little baking tins of every holiday to give away to friends, coworkers and family. Yum! She even decorated our kitchen for a while with strawberry themed wallpaper. LOL
My favorite mom food memory is when my mom used to make home made orange sherbert ice cream with Orange Crush soda. She even gave me the recipe when I was little so that I could put it in my girl scout troop’s cookbook.
Sorry Mom….. my favorite memory of cooking is making Chinese fondue (hot pot) with my Dad!
Other then that I would have to say it was teaching my 7 year old how to make pancakes. He is 10 now and makes us pancakes every weekend on a griddle he got for Christmas.
Time spent with my grandmother who lived to be 101. She would make the best desserts and never follow a recipe! I miss her so much!
My mother is a wonderful cook! What is incredible to me, is that she didn’t know how to cook when she married my Dad. Her mother-in-law, an AMAZING cook, taught her.
Mother can cook anything in the world! She makes homemade bread and pies, bakes the best chicken and dressing, can throw together the most unusual casseroles that are mouthwatering. But she never uses a recipe, something she learned from her mother-in-law. I have many wonderful ‘food’ memories with my mother. It would be difficult to pick just one.
I know we had many lean years growing up, but my mother always had food on the table. We were never hungry. And whether it was chocolate gravy or chocolate covered strawberries, it was good. What made it taste better? The love, of course!
My mom liked to introduce us to a lot of new foods. One time we went to Minneapolis on vacation and Mom took us to a restaurant where we sat on cushions on the floor. My sisters and I thought that was so weird, and were complaining right up until the waiter delivered the hummus and we reluctantly tried this strange looking stuff. After one taste, we all discovered it was delicious and gobbled it up. We didn’t complain anymore after that.
My Mom didn’t cook much because she was the manager of a dining center at the college–when she got home from work, the last thing she wanted to do was cook, but she taught us so much about food, nutrition, and the adventure of dining! She took us to International food festivals where we tried cuisine from all over the world. At home, my dad did most of the cooking in the house, and he was a great cook too. All of us now are avid foodies and good cooks; when we get together, it’s a big cooking fest. One of our biggest topics of conversation is what to have for dinner! I’m hoping I can pass some of that same adventure and love of food (and cooking) on to my children.
When I was sick as a child, my mom made me a special ‘milkshake’. It was made of canned evaporated milk, sugar, and vanilla flavoring. The milkshake was served over crushed ice. At that time, we did not have blenders or food processors, so my mom would take ice cubes and place them in a cloth flour bag, and crush the ice with a hammer. This milkshake was always made with a lot of love. When I had a sick stomach, she would ask me what I thought I could eat or drink. My answer was always, “one of your milkshakes!” 🙂
One of my favorite things that my mom would make was her shrimp dip at Christmas time.
Wow I have so many wonderful mothers day stories but the one I want to share is the one about my grandmother. I was born in Alabama and had a southern up brining. My grandmother that we so fondly called madear was the best cook. She made everything fresh from scratch. She had a huge garden, pigs, cows, fruit trees, berries, a smoke houe, chickens, goats etc. As a child my parents moved to Detroit I remember going home every summer and her teaching me how to make various recipes. I sat at the table as she shared all of her recipes with me and I attempted to write them down. I spent 5 days with her I was consumed by how awesome she was and how after 5 days I could only cook what I watched her cook. She would say add a pinch of this and a spot of this and about a cup of that. But event though I really did not end up with a real recipe I came to understand when she meant. So as I taught my daughters to cook I would say like madear you just have to feel it out. Don’t add to much because once its in there you can’t take it out but you can always add more later. She made home made jellies, canned peas, beans, tomatoes if I didn’t learn a reciped I certainly learned how to prep to make so many things and eventually I understood what she taught me and it is so valuable it is priceless. I learned so much and have so many good memories that I was able to share and now I am a great cook and so are my children. She was more interested in the time spent than giving me a real recipe and I learned that cooking is the essence of what brings families together. Thanks Madear Minnie Lee Dubose for inparting so much into us. You are sorely missed.
Gosh, where to start………thinking of food and my mom brings back so many memories. I haven’t lived with my mom since I was 7 years old as my parents divorced and my siblings and I lived with my dad. When visiting mom we always seemed to do things that involved food. The one favorite memory of food and my mom is her homemade overnight buns. She would start in the morning with the mixing and then all afternoon she would let the dough rise and punch it down and rise again. Then just before bed she would literally take every pan she owned out, grease them, and start shaping buns. The pans were everywhere in her kitchen and the smell!! OH MY!! Smelled like a bakery!! Then mom would get up before the sun to start baking those wonderful buns. I remember waking up to that smell….it was mouth watering!! My eyes wouldn’t even be completely open and there would be a warm, fresh, bun in my hand!! Thanks for letting me relive this memory and share it with you all.
First of all, my mom is that person–the one who HATES to waste food. She is always the lucky recipient of those extra apples, strawberries, green beans or whatever, really, that come from her grower friends. She is always canning something! However, growing up I can remember best my mom getting out “the bowl” at Christmas time to start mixing up her mom’s applesauce cake recipe. The recipe card is yellowed with years of use and frankly, she doesn’t need it, but each year she props it on the counter and gets to work. She vows each year to just make enough for our immediate family but would bake just one more batch until she had completed literally hundreds of this tasty loaf cake. She would carefully decide that some needed white raisins while yet others might call to double the recipe and get out the Bundt pan. The cakes go in brown Kraft boxes and get sent all over to family and friends or mom would send us across the street to deliver to the neighbor. The smell of applesauce cakes baking always got me in the Christmas spirit. My sister and I always joke about who will inherit “the bowl” and this lovely holiday baking tradition.
Staying up til 2 or 3 am Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve helping my mom get the Turkey and Stuffing ready to be put in the oven first thing in the morning. Such a wonderful time talking and laughing with my mom and sisters
My favorite mom food memory is her Chicken Fried Steak, made with saltines as the breading. Delicious country style gravy, mashed potatoes and steamed brocolli. To this day it is still my favorite comfort food.
My favorite Mom memory is:
My mother is a wonderful cook, but she’s not a “fancy” cook. Traditions is one of my favorite things about family and my mom began a tradition that I have continued with my children and my grandchildren. She allowed each of us to pick our favorite dinner meal for our birthday. We each had our favorites. Mine was southern fried chicken, “milk” gravy, rice and some of her famous Asphodel bread. To this day I can taste that wonderful home-cooked food. She had a few speciality dishes but her mainstay has always been her southern dishes (since we’re from Louisiana-I guess that’s natural). My mom always made our birthday dinners special, just like I tried to (and still do) with my grown children!!
My Mother-in-law had a wonderful way of including all of us in the kitchen, where it was stirring a sauce, setting the table or serving the drinks. It was a special time to bond “just us girls” even though I didn’t know it at the time. She saw to it that we always got together to make special cut out cookies at the holidays. I am doing that now with “the girls” in my life.
Steamed egg with scallops, even though I got the recipe from my mother, but I was never able to produce the same taste…
You can’t beat my Mom’s cream of chicken and dumplings. The PERFECT comfort food. She uses lots of heavy cream and butter. There is nothing in the world that makes me feel more loved and comforted than a big bowl (or two) of this special dish.
My favorite cooking with Mom moment was making pumpkin bread around the holidays. The smell of nutmeg always takes me back to those days. Mmmmm! After spending the day baking, we would wrap them up and give them to the postman, teachers, and neighbors. There’s nothing like the warm smile from someone receiving a goody baked with love! Now I share that tradition with my 3 boys.
Growing up my mom wasn’t real big into cooking BUT when my brother and I were kids she would always make these elaborate birhday cakes for us …. I especially remember the one that was shaped like a train with all different colored coconut on it. I love to cook and try new things and there is nothing better than sharing that with my kids – the recipes may not always work, but we always have a blast trying.
My favorite memory of mom’s cooking was when she was trying to teach me how to can tomatoes and fruits in the fall. I easily learned but didn’t use it much until recently when I’ve discovered how much better it is to have a full root cellar of home made goodness.
My mom taught me how to cook and can and even bake,there is so many memories from the kitchen with my italian mother… the one regret I have is that she never taught me how to make her homemade dinner rolls…..I loved coming home and smelling the fresh baked bread! Mom passed away last fall so I never got a chance to learn that but I do use everything she taught me from the kitchen to raising my children….
My step-mom wasn’t a good cook. She rarely, if ever cooked (thankfully). She ordered take out food and then hid the bags and tried to convince our guests that she made the food … but one time she did try to cook. She dusted off the Joy of Cooking and tried to make a jello mold for a dinner. While removing it from the fridge, she turned around too quickly and it fell on the floor. She then picked it up and before I could stop her she turned on the faucet and tried to rinse it off. I still laugh at the memory of watching the jello mold dissolve and wash down the drain! I make a jello mold during the holidays in her honor, going on 18 years now.
My favorite memory of Mom’s cooking is the one we all called Tomato Mac. I have made it for over 55 years for my brothers and then my own family. I still think of it as my comfort food. Thanks to all the great cooks in the family for all the lessons.
A great memory I have of my Mom was a pure accidental moment. She was baking a turkey for Thanksgiving when the bottom of the oven caught fire from a previous spillage. Smoke billowed everywhere, but after it was put out & the turkey finished cooking, it turned out to be the ABSOLUTE BEST TASTING TURKEY EVER! Smoked, juicy, tender, browned. Nothing has ever compared! 15 years later & the whole family still tells the tale & yearns for a turkey as good!
My favorite food memory of my Mom is when she used to make her tomato sauce. I can still see that huge green pan on the stove. It was soooo good.
I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday. The sweetest memories are of the days when I cooked with my mother. Getting up early, making breakfast for everyone and then launching into the preparations. We knew what needed to be done and we each had our specialties. Without asking, we knew when the other needed help. We moved in our small kitchen smoothly, dancing around each other … it was like a ballet. I’ve cooked many holiday meals since she passed away, but it is never the same. The ease with which we cooked together was a once in a lifetime partnership. I miss our dancing…
The favorite memory with my mom in the kitchen is when she taught me her famous chicken fried steak recipe with all the fixings, mashed potatoes, creamed gravy and corn. This was the only recipe that my mom liked to cook. See my mom does not like to cook. So this was real special to me because she took the time to let me learn her recipe and it can be passed down. It is special to my heart.
Thanks Debbie… I’ve banned our friend Lindy from making anymore comments. Some people just aren’t happy unless they are putting other people down. -Laura
When I was a kid, I didn’t appreciate it. But now that I’m a mom (and have survived living on a crazy tight budget), I think back with fond memories on the way Mom would stretch her creative budgeting skills to include an occasional treat. After a meal of make-shift goulash (elbow macaroni, canned tomatoes, chopped carrots, diced onion, ground beef, and whatever else didn’t seem to distract from the concoction), Mom would bring my brother and me into the kitchen and ask us to help her make a special treat: caramel popcorn.
My mom had a nightshirt that was from her younger days, as she said, that had a great recipe for caramel popcorn on the front–a sort of girls’ night in treat. My brother and I loved to make that recipe of caramel popcorn with Mom. It was a wonderful treat–messy and sticky and sweet and salty and warm perfection!
The time spent together melting the butter and sugar, stirring the popcorn quickly so that it didn’t deflate and the syrup covered all the popcorn completely was short but exciting, and we bonded over an easy, inexpensive treat that we could make over and over again–as long as we promised to help clean up the sticky pots and pans afterward.
My favorite memory is actually 2…I have not tried making them and you will soon read why. My grandmother who was 89 at the time lived with me, I was 7 months pregnant with my first son and she insisted on me eating breakfast before work…well one morning she suprised me with a special “omelet”…she always put mayonaise in her salads (that is how she like them..) and we had had a salad three nights earlier and their were left overs…so yep you guessed it she put the 3 day old mayonaise salad into an omlet and wanted me, at 7 months pregnant to eat it…and it smelt worse than it sounds..
the other favorite Grams recipe, when she turned 93, which I will never make is her favorite soup….she loved to take campbells chicken noodle soup, add a can of tuna fish and when it starts boil she would add can biscuits to it….ummm kiddos dont try this at home…not pleasing at all…but those are my most favorite memories of my Grams who has a gut of steal….
Two of my favorite things growing up were creamed turkey and potato salad. I’ve made them forever and tweaked things a bit. My daughter moved recently and asked me for the recipes…..I think she’s homesick! Both of those are comfort foods and YUM!
My mom currently makes/bakes and sells the most amazing cookies of all kinds at the farmer’s market in her town. She sells about 200 cookies per week. She does some great fun decorating with the sugar cookies. I remember all growing up all her baking adventures with the kids involved, especially during the holidays. I have become the baker I am today because of her!
My favorite memory of my mom’s cooking…there are so many!
She would fry chicken and then barbecue it…scrumptious!
I miss her cabbage and potato salad. She used to make a Lemon Freeze Dessert that was out of this world. I wish she were still here with me and able to cook! I loved everything she ever made…♥
My mom raised 9 kids, mostly by herself,while working full-time at night as an OR nurse… and everything she made was from scratch and healthy! My favorite memory is from when I was in high school~ we lived 3 blocks from school and we could leave campus back in those days. I invited my boyfriend to come home w/ me for lunch (with her permission), and when we arrived, she had gotten up to cook just for me and him, and had prepared a home-cooked meal- no sandwich or fast food for us! It was amazing. I sure miss her! She left us with wonderful memories and a great appreciation for food and nature.
I have more mom food memories than I can count. I think my favorites are the time I got to lick the bowl or the spoon or anything else when she would bake chocolate cake. And share with her, of course. Great mother-daughter bonding time in the kitchen!
I remember cooking and baking with my great grandma and my great aunt on the farm I learned the best from them. Everything starts from love and everyting needs a little spice and theres always plenty to go around.
My mom doesnt make much..but she makes the best tuna casserole. She even sent it to me at college once! I can’t recreate it no matter how much I try…
Being a busy working Mom, my Mom hardly could find time to cook but she tried very hard. I had complained to her that she didn’t know how to cook. I had always inpatient when she is cooking. One time she was rush to make a stir fry and the pan caught on fire and burned one of her eye bows. Until today, the scar is still visible on her eye bow. It’s almost two decades to be away from my Mom and I am a Mom myself now. I feel deeply sorry about my inpatient that caused her scar. Now she is retired and has more time to cook and I realized she is actually a good cook. We both share one time in common that we both love cooking. Thank you for all your hard work Mom. Happy Mother’s Day!
My favorite mom food memory was when she tried to “trick” us into eating cow tongue. She told us she had made a special cut of meat- it may have been cow tongue but it tasted like cow butt to an 8 year old kid who expertly palmed hers and fed it to the delighted dog under the table…my mom was so pleased I “cleaned my plate”. She offered me seconds but I told her I was full. Her lack of culinary skills inspired me to give my children a different experience and I LOVE to cook for them! Nothing satisfies me more than when one of my “babies” asks me to make one of their favorite childhood meals (all of which have an “extra scoop of love” as my secret ingredient) 😀
I can still remember my mom teaching me how to measure flour & sugar (using a knife to level the measuring cup) and brown sugar (packing it into the measuring cup). I also remember my mom chopping walnuts for chocolate chip cookies and my dog standing raptly underfoot to catch the walnuts that inevitably ended up on the floor!
My mom was an ordinary stay at home mom who put dinner on the table every night of the week with an extra special Sunday dinner…She did this faithfully for as long as I can remember. We almost never went out to eat.
My dad was an alcoholic who would voice his displeasure with a meal in front of my mom, me, my brother and sister right at the dinner table. If something was not cooked to his likeing we all heard about it!
I just remember my mom quietly trying to correct whatever he thought was wrong as she tried so hard to keep it from escalating to the point of ruining everyones meal.
She knew the importance of mealtime in a family unit, and even in the less than perfect environment did her best to make every mealtime a time to come-together and be a family.
I’m not sure I would have handled it with such grace.
Thank You Mom…I noticed your grace. I cherish the recipes from your filebox and am thankful for our family dinners you prepared nightly so long ago.
It was the begining of December 1994 and my future mother-in-law an I thought that it would be a great idea to make my future husband, who was in boot camp cookies for Christmas. Since she can’t cook, we agreed to split the cost of supplies, I would do all the baking, and she would ship the cookies. During the two nights of cookie making we spent real quality time with each other. I ended up making over 100 cookies and a great relationship with my now mother-in-law.
My best memory of food includes several family members including my mother and grandmother. My grandmother has been known for making the best German Chocolate Cake in the area! Every year she would enter it in the county fair. It’s a fairly large county fair, so there was always quite a bit of competition. For years and years she would always get 1st or 2nd place (usually 1st!). So one year we were teasing her that since she taught us all how to bake one of us could beat her at the fair. So in 2006 my mom, my sister, my grandmother, my brother-in-law, and myself all made a German Chocolate Cake to enter in the fair. After all that my grandmother still won! However, my sister came in second and my mom came in third. So even though she taught us everything we know, and we all used her recipe she still has the magical touch when it comes to baking. We all thank her and love her for teaching us, and look forward to many more years of German Chocolate Cake, as well as her “magical” Chocolate Chip Cookies! Hugs to both my Mom and Grandmother on this Mother’s Day!
My mom want back to work when my brother & I were in Junior High and she would ask us for helping getting dinner ready, before she got home. We were a typical “meat & potatoes” New England family (meat, starch, 2 veggies each dinner), but she still encouraged us to be creative, try new flavors and cooking techniques. I still make many of our classic favorites from childhood like slow cooked beef stroganoff, chicken Divan and meatloaf with twice-baked potatoes. And my husband and I continue to experiment with different flavors & cooking techniques…thanks mom!!!
I think I have always loved to cook. I can remember mom letting me try my hand at cooking dinner when I was 5. She would stand at the end of the kitchen for guidance, but I did the cooking…even if I had to stand on a chair just to cook on then stove. Easy Bake Oven? Not for this kiddo. Mom let me use the real thing! Thanks Mom for teaching me the art of cooking!
I’d have to say my favorite food memory with my Mom is the time that we made rice crispy squares together, what a mess but what a laugh we got out of it. Thanks for all the fun and laughs you’ve put into my life over the years Mom!!!
When I was an angst filled teenager, my family went on a fishing vacation to British Columbia. My parents had rented a cabin in the woods for a week; it was a Spartan one room shack with no indoor plumbing or electricity.
My parents expected me to go fishing every day because they wanted to use my limit of fish. I would be in the boat in the middle of the lake reading a book, barely holding on to my fishing pole and, when I hooked a fish, my mom or dad would yell at me to “put the book down” and reel in the fish.
My very favorite food memory of my mom is from that vacation. One morning she made sourdough donuts on the woodstove in that cabin. It was a labor of love for our family. She fed donuts to every other kid in the camp that day, too. You could smell them from a mile away. Yum!
I don’t have a recipe to share, just a favorite memory. And it seems kind of silly but…we would wake up to the smell of my mom cooking bacon on Sunday morning. And every time my mom cooked bacon, she burned the bacon. I think of her in the kitchen, with 4 hungry kids running around her feet, starting out so perfect & then…black. I don’t know why. Maybe the pan, maybe the electric stove. But I never had a piece that wasn’t charcoal. I still laugh every time I cook bacon.
I miss you mom xx
Though nowadays we know better than to feed chocolate to our pets, one of my favorite food stories is when my mom was a little girl and had a favorite pet hamster named Eloise, (who later turned out to be a he, not a she -poor guy!)
My mom and her mom (my G’ma Audrey), were very close.
One of the funniest stories they would tell was when my mom used to share a piece of chocolate with Eloise, as a special treat. They would laugh and giggle because poor Eloise would store the yummy chocolate in her cheeks, as hamsters do, until she had chocolate running down both of her cheeks… (and Eloise did live a long, happy hamster life with my mom who loved her/him too).
I have so many mom food moments as she is the one that buys makes and fights with you about food and eating! I guess the best is when she made me sit at the table and eat a jello fuit and veggie filled “thing” and I sat there forever and finally she made me at least take one big bite and I finally did! and swallowed and then across the condiment laiden lazy susan I blew not just the bite I had taken but my whole dinner right at her!!
My favorite food memory from my mom lasted the entire time I lived at home. My mom taught me how to “cook by feel”. Because of her, I have become a fantastic cook and baker, and I love it. Absolutely love to cook and bake – all because of my mom.
My Birthday is in May and local strawberries are at their peak- Mother always made me an angelfood cake filled with strawberries and whipped cream inside the cake and topped with whipped cream and local Maryland strawberries on top – the very best Birthday cake one could ever have!!1
I remember my mother always cooking this amazing dish, which she named “stringbean dish.” It had this incredible flavor of string beans, creamy mushrooms, onion rings and bread crumbs all cooked in a casserole dish. Each morsel was flavorful and easy to eat. Just the right combination of foods mixed together. It was a hit with everyone!!! I decided one day to make it for my mom on mother’s day. To show my appreciation to my mom by cooking her favorite dish. Mother’s Day was here and I presented my mom with her “stringbean dish.” I told her how I bought the ingredients and made it exactly as I remembered. She loved it and thought I did a great job but added “well, instead of the condensed mushroom soup if you want a different flavor you could use chicken soup instead.” “It’s from a well known recipe I got from a campbells soup can years ago.” “OMG I said, All these years I thought it was your own creation.” That’s my mother’s day story.
I have so many from my mother that I can’t even pick a favorite. But as a new mother myself I would have to say it was the day me, my 2 year old daughter, and 3 year old son made ice cream pizza. To see the pure joy on my kids face as we baked big cookies, then topped it with ice cream, and then candy on top of that was priceless. I was really their hero that day. Everything a kid could dream of all rolled into one. That was a truly fun day.
Growing up in an Italian family meant lots of pasta and lots of laughter! We had homemade spaghetti, meatballs, and Italian sausage for every major holiday! But the best time is always Christmas Eve when we would remember great childhood events while sharing a spaghetti meal–lots of warmth and laughter!
I totally remember my moms peanut butter cookies. so good with a glass of milk!
When I was almost a teenager I wanted to learn how to bake a cake, so I asked my Mom if we could. She said yes but we had to do everything a certain way as she did not want to mess up the kitchen. Well she did everything for me and wouldn’t let me do anything…she puts the cake mix in the stand mixer bowl then procedes to put a stick of butter in there and turns it on HIGH, needless to say butter goes flying all over the kitchen. I stood there with butter all over me saying “I thought you didn’t want to mess up the kitchen.” typical smartie pants haha. She never let me bake another cake lol.
When I was learning to bake as a kid my mom used to let me write in her 5 Roses Cookbook when I changed a recipe. When she passed away she left the book for me. It brings back the best memories ever, especially since I now bake for a living!
Ok this sounds so simple, but my fave mom food is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now, I have to tell you that my mother is blind and also believes that you have to have a higher ration of jelly to peanut butter so the sandwich does not stick to the top of your mouth. Let’s just say those lunches at school were MESSY, but so yummy!
Nothing brings me more memories than my mom’s chicken noodle soup. It is just the best.
The favorite memory of my Mom and food came every year on my birthday. She would cook a meal of ALL my favorite things…pork roast, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy (from the pork drippings), buttered carrots, french style green beans with crushed Saltines, and topped it of with homemade banana cream pie for dessert. And when I say every year, I mean EVERY year!!! Hmmm, hmmm, good…Happy Mother’s Day Mom…
Lindy or whoever you are, are so mean and rude. You don’t belong on this site! Go somewhere else and play mean!
My mom used to put a tea-towel over the Kitchen-aid mixer while the flour was mixing (to keep it from going all over the kitchen). She called it her magic trick.:)
One time, the last time she did the magic trick, the tea towel got stuck in the beater! Oh it was a mess, but we had such a great time eating all of the cookie dough.
My mom was a great cook, but my favorite memory is our birthday dinners. We all ot to pick what dish we wanted for our birthday; mine was always the same: roast beef, twice baked potatoes and of course, homemade birthday cake! My mom passed away in 1998, but I still remember and miss her and those birthday dinners.
Biscuit, Gravy with homemade sausage. Then pickled beans, cornbread and fried potato. Then on weekend we had chili as we played games or do puzzles. Mom made carrot and milkyway cake out of the world.
My mom wasnt the best cook in the world, but she made a delicous swiss steak. I knew when I heard pounding in the kitchen she was hitting the beef flank, tenderizing it. She cooked it for a long time and so tender we could eat it with a fork.
She was Irish so every meal had to have potatoes. Simple foods for a simple time.
One of my best cooking memories with my mom has to be about her Taco Salad that she would make and bring to the family functions. Since she was the oldest of 13 kids as they all aged and got married the family dinners became potlucks and everyone would always request my mom’s Taco Salad. As a young girl who would always watch my mom and grandmothers cook I became entranced with cooking and vowed to one day be a chef, and now my mom has been gone now since I was a young kid of 16. To my wonderful surprise my daughter who is now 24 is now going to chef school and will become the true chef in the family and I still carry on the recipes and the stories of the family and the famous potluck dinners.
I remember so many things about food growing up. That is probably why I love food and cooking so much now. Food is love.
I remember one specific event … we lived in New Jersey and went to the ocean often. My family went and waded into the water near the jetty (the formation of rocks that jetted out into the ocean.) We collected live mussels from the rocks and we went home so my mom could cook them up. I think she made some version of paella with the mussels. We had steamers a lot when I was young. I loved steamers!!! Can’t get those same type of clams in California.
I also remember we had a large garden in our back yard each year. When my mom was preparing a meal, she would ask me to go out into the garden to get whatever it might be that she needed for that meal. I remember loving picking the fresh vegetables and then seeing them on my plate at dinner.
I remember my mom always in the kitchen cooking, just like her mom but my favorite is Kolaches. Cream cheese, apricot, peach, all those delicious flavors. I have made them a few times myself, but they still don’t compare to hers or my grandmother’s!
I remember waking up Saturday mornings and smelling rolls baking. She would make a weeks worth of rolls , breads and cinnamon rolls at a time. We always got a warm slice with melting butter for breakfast with a big glass of cold milk! Even though she has been gone 16 years I treasure her cook books and hand written recipes in her special box.
so many good food memories from my mom. she loves to cook and was always experimenting. my favorites are by far her slow cooked ribs and payaya. anything she cooks is amazing but those two are by far my favorites!!
My favorite mom memory would have to be when she gave me my grandmothers (her mom’s) recipe files after she passed away. I still have those files-great memories!
I thought they were such a treasure! My mom really did not bake but boy my grandmother could bake like there was no tomorrow!
I was so excited to receive them!
My favorite mom food memory is making Christmas cut out cookies with my mom. I now enjoy making them with her and my own children when she comes to visit for the holidays. It is so much fun to use the unique cookie cutters we have treasured over the years. For instance, we have a foot, a moose, ducks, letters and numbers, etc. It is so much fun to make, decorate and then eat the funny cookies we cut out and bake!
My favorite mom food memory was homemade ice cream. We would go to the local farms in the area and pick our own peaches and strawberries, take them home and make diferent flavors of ice cream. Our first ice cream maker was a hand crank machine and the my four sibblings and I would take turns cranking until the ice cream was ready. Good times.
When we were kids, my sister and I would play pretend restaurant on mothers day…we would make up menus with things like scrambled eggs, toast, and instant oatmeal on it (we were only 7 and 5 yrs old). We would wake up my mom and ask her to order her breakfast. She would, we wrote it down like a proper waitress, and we would go and make it for … Then bring her breakfast in bed, and then clean up the kitchen. It wasn’t until years later that we found out that mom didn’t like breakfast as soon as she woke up but she eat it anyways because we were showing her that we loved her so much.
My mom and grandma used to include me in the cooking that went on in our house as a child. My favorite memory is when grandma Krauss and I used to wrap our heads in these kerchiefs, so no hair would fall in the food of course. They had a little red cross right on the front of them. The white kerchiefs were from when grandma used to volunteer for the Red Cross and tear rags for bandages during World War I. I have as an adult gone to culinary school and have become a chef. All the basics and my passion for food came from them. Since they have both long ago passed away I can only hope they can see what I have acomplished. I know they would be so proud.
I remember going down to North Carolina to visit my mother’s mother, my Grandma Puryear. I always knew exactly what we were going to have that first supper – fried chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, black-eyed peas, home-made biscuits, snap beans, sweet tea, and either coconut cake or pineapple cake. All the things that my mother never fixed because even back in the 1960’s she was concerned about the nutrition in what we ate and never fried anything! I thought I had died and gone to heaven at Grandma’s house, and I even got excited about going to vist because I got to wash dishes by hand (we had a dishwasher and that was soooo boring). My mother was an awesome cook too, just not a lot of southern food. She taught me to cook when I was 8 years old, and it is because of her that I love to cook so much. My mom has been gone for 15 years, but she’s always looking over my shoulder when I cook.
My mother was a great cook from what I can remember. She was English so our meals were very English. Our favorite, of course, was roast beef and yorkshire pudding. We also ate lamb chops with some sort of a mince sauce. Both were very good but I really wish I knew about the lamb chop recipe. I would love to share that meal with my family. Unfortunately, my mother passed away from Cancer just before I turned thirteen and I took it very hard. Mom had six kids, I was the youngest and never had the chance to learn any of her recipes. One of my sisters did and she tries to recreate but I have a hard time remembering if they taste somewhat close to Mom’s. I am thirty-nine now and my mom’s birthday is today as well as mother’s day. Veronica Kent 05-09-1934 to 06-03-1983 – rest in peace MOM (Happy B-day and Mother’s DAy).
My favorite Mom story is that Ma always tried to get me to like spinach and cottage cheese (which Ma I now love both). She would put on my plate and I would have to eat it all before I could get up.
This was back in the 1950’s so we had a porcelain kitchen table with a little drawer on one side. I would scrape these “yummy” foods into the drawer which was on my side of the table and then clean it out later after Ma wasn’t around.
My Mom also made the best pies ever! Home made fruit pies were always a welcome treat!!
My favourite mom memory is her waking up and making me tea no matter what time of the morning/night it is! Love you ma!
My favorite mom memory actually involves my daughter. She and her friend decided to make me a chicken dinner for Mother’s Day. They went to the store on their own and bought a whole chicken. Then they tried to cut it up. Afterwards, they told me what a hard time they had cutting up the chicken. My daughter said “Oh, mom, it was so gross. The chicken was still wearing its feet!” They thought the wing tips were feet. We still laugh about it. That was my favorite Mother’s Day story.
My favorite Mom meal growing up was homemade creamy mac and cheese. She would make it from white cheese with butter and flour, and milk in a double boiler. It was always creamy and topped off with cornflake crumbs, which to this day I still have to have on my own mac and cheese. She would cook up a ham steak to have with it and it was always in a beautiful handed down aqua casserole dish with a silver serving tray. The casserole dish has since broken but I have passed on the tradition of the creamy mac and cheese with cornflake crumbs. Both my boys and my husband agree that this is a family tradition.
my mother was raised in a family of nine children on a farm. Her mother, my grandmother, taught her how to cook and my mom taught me. when raising 9 children on a working farm, it seemed like the cooking never stopped. my grandmother never had so many of the modern conveniences that we now have but she made sure that her family had a home cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner (or supper :)). i think that is what feeds my love of cooking to this day – knowing that you can instill such warm and loving feelings and memories by simply having your children with you in the kitchen and preparing something yummy!!
I loved watching my mom and grandma cook for New Years / Grandpa’s birthday dinner.
Some of my favorite memories involve not only my mom, but my grandmother. My mom would make an angel food cake every year for all of our birthdays. She would frost it with a different color frosting every time, and they were always so colorful and delicious! She still does this when she can to this day. Always makes us feel special. My grandmother has been gone now for almost 22 years, but I will always remember Sunday dinners with her. She made the best fried chicken and that’s what we had every Sunday. These are the kinds of memories that always make me smile.
My favorite go to still to this day is the lime jello with fresh grapfruit that my mom made for me when I was sick……
Too many to choose from. A great memory is my mother teaching me to make homemade bread. Then eating it hot right out of the oven with butter and honey. YUM!
My mother was an excellent, “made from scratch, without a recipe” EVERY NIGHT kind of cook. Always on a tight budget and feeding a family of 8 (plus friends), she always created delicious meals. However, my absolute favorite food memory was a simple little snack she put together for us on hot summer days. She made dozens of little PB&J’s using saltine crackers instead of bread and served them on a fancy tray along with a pitcher of ice cold kool-aid. WHAT A TREAT! Not only was it delicious, but it made all of us kids feel so very special.
my fav mom food memory is my entire childhood, growing up with a mom that taught me everything i know today about cooking. the older i get the more i appreciate everything she taught me. very rare in this day & age. love you mom & thank you!!!
My favorite memory is every Saturday morning she baked! Home made donuts were my favorite.
My favorite memory is my Mom trying to show me how to make homemade biscuits…my first attempt were hard little disks that had her shaking her head…but she dutifully ate one before telling me I forgot the eggs.
My favorite “Mom” memory when it comes to food is on my birthday. Every year she would make a chiffon cake for me, and she made this AMAZING cherry frosting to go with it. I looked forward to it every year! On my last birthday that she was with me (1997), she was dying of cancer, but still managed to make that cake for me. She died 12 days later. I haven’t had another one of those cakes since. I couldn’t find her recipe for it. Maybe someone has a good recipe that I could try??? I’d love to feel like my mom was with me again!!
My husband and I have 2 daughters, ages 6 and 3, and a son, age 5 months. My Mother-in-law passed this tradition on to us from her Mother. Every Christmas and Thanksgiving, we cook enough food for needy family and deliver the food. We let the kids help in the kitchen and deliver to the family.
We all will never forget the good feeling that we get, the looks of happiness, and the memories of spending time in the kitchen together. Sometimes, it gets a little hectic in the kitchen, but we just laugh about it and go on. It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving and Christmas without this tradition. I never really had a Mom, but my Mother-in-law has made up for it. I have a Mom, now and I love her with all my heart.
There are just too many memories of not only my mom, but my grandmother as well. It was the everyday closeness that I shared with both of them. Weekly Sunday dinners. and Holiday meal planning that resulted in those same ole tried and true traditions. Even though my mom and grandmother have been gone for a bit now, those times are forever in my mind and in my heart.
I know everyone would agree their mom is the best as I think and know my mom is. It started out just the two of us when I was 2 years old no matter what my mom always made things feel special and that I was the most special of all no matter the money shortage. As I have grown up now 31 with a child of my own I realize how much she gave up and worked hard to make my childhood the happiest. My mom just lost her mom last March to a long courageous battle of cancer. we both worked fulltime and took turns traveling to doctors and teatments monthly. Through it all she stood strong for her mother and me who would breakdown every now and then. This year I found the card that said it all.” I love you mom and know that it hasn’t always been easy for you and you have stuggled. I want you to know that I love and appreciate everything you do.” For me that said everything it needed to say. My mom is truely the best I could have ever wished and hoped for.
My Mom was my best friend. One of the biggest things in life we shared together was cooking. She taught me everything in the kitchen and we cooked side by side, then I taught her how to eat/cook healthier when I got older. As she began working f/t and I was in local college and HS I had meals waiting for her after work. Thanks to my mother I started cooking early and tried to go to the CIA in NY, but only made it to Community College to start graduating with a Hotel Restaurant Mgmt degree. There is nothing better than cooking and bonding with your Mother, especially when it’s something you both LOVE to do.
I got married and moved away from my house and state, and 3 months later my Mom was diagnosed with cancer. If this occurred 3 months earlier, I would never have moved.
While being out of state, I asked my siblings to save me one thing of my Mom’s, her recipe folder and I’ll cherish each and every recipe forever. It still seems like yesterday that I was cooking with her, even though I lost her in 1993.
Last year I put on a winter coat of hers, I couldn’t throw it out no matter how ‘out of style’ it was. I put my hand in the pocket and found one of her famous food shopping lists. The lists for the grocery store were organized by day, by meal, and by ingredients. This list is stored with my passport and all other valuable items.
Now, I’m going thru a rough time in my life due to the recession and unemployment, but Mom always said to persevere in life, and I am trying my hardest, AND THINK OF HER DAILY. The hardest thing is not being able to talk to her daily, whether it be about my son growing up or how she made her famous potato pancakes.
I’ll miss my Mom always, and think of her daily!
The stories of my moms cooking fiasco’s when I was a kid are way too numerous to recount here. I leaned a lot when my wife and I had kids and cooking went from being a fun hobby to “having to have dinner on the table every night!” I since have forgiven my mother her less than stellar recipe attempts. Regardless of dinner though she could bake her butt off! I have seven siblings and when the holidays came around there were always enough fresh loaves of bread and tea rings, etc., for all of us to take to “all” of our teachers in school. My mom taught me to love food and not to be afraid to try new things!
ejs
P.S. Happy Mother’s Day to all moms everywhere!
When my Mom first showed me how to make lattice pie crust YEARS ago..:)
We live in VA., but my grandmother (mom’s mom) lived in Rhode Island. When we went to visit we always went to the beach to go clam digging. My mother would dig and find alot. I pretended like I was digging. I thought they would bite me! Mom would crack them open and eat them raw, almost as fast as her and dad and my brother would dig them. But..we would take our clams home and grandma would make the best clam chowder and clam biscuits!!!I loved watching gandma make the chowder and buscuits. Yummy!!!
My Mom always had me, my brother, and my sister helping in the kitchen at Christmas and Thanksgiving. My Mamaw started a tradition when my Mom was a little girl. Everybody cooked Christmas and Thanksgiving dinner together, making enough for a family that was not as fortunate as we were. Mom let us mash the potatoes, mix cake batter, stir the gravy, make and decorate cookies, and help with whatever we were having.
To us, the best part was delivering the food. My Mom always cried. She was so tender hearted. My brother and sister in law carried on this tradition with my nieces. My sister and I will do the same when we have kids.
It was a tradition that brought us closer together as a family and allowed us to share our love with another family on Thanksgiving and Christ’s birthday. For that, I will always be thankful and will never forget these memories. My Mamaw passed in 2004 and she gave us such a wonderful tradition of peace and love. I love you, Mamaw and MOM. Mom, you are and have always been my hero.
My parents have always shared duties in the home: my dad does the shopping, and Mom cooks up whatever he brings home. Although Mom was never a great cook (her mother hated cooking), she was resourceful and did get better at it with time.
Well one day my dad brought home some muskrat. We had dinner guests that night, and since everyone at the table was adventurous eaters, we dug in with enthusiasm. If you’ve never had it, I can only describe it as cartilage-y, kinda like eating a hamster. The meat is dark and sinewy and fortunately for us, Mom disguised it in a heavy tomato sauce.
While we were politely commenting on the unusual texture of the meat, my parents’ miniature dachshund (named Liebschen but we called him Gagadoon), went nuts. He stood at the threshold of the dining room (not allowed to beg at the table) and barked, whined, jumped and howled as if possessed. He had never acted this way before, and everyone was perplexed at this sudden behavior. Knowing that his breed comes from a long line of badger hunters, I knew he was excited because he knew we were eating rat!
Needless to say, we never ate it again–I’m sure the dog was disappointed.
When I was young, I remember coming home from school and entering the house and the smell of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies 🙂 I laugh mow when my mom says I bake them better than her.
I have glorious food memories as a child growing up with a mother that could literally create a terrific meal from almost nothing! She had to, as we had a large family and we struggled financially. I never knew they struggled as a child with the wonderful meals that we always enjoyed! My mom learned from my grandmother how to get creative, keep it healthy and make it stretch! My German immigrant grandmother raised 8 children in the depression era and was the ‘One’ who inspired all of us in the family to be creative with food. When food was prepared in our family, it was a labor of love combined with pure family time! To this day, I have kept that tradition alive with my family and friends. If it weren’t for the beautiful teachings of my mother and grandmother, I would not be the enthusiastic cook I am today! Thank you, Mom and Grandma…good homecooked meals shared with love has shaped an entire generation of great cooks in our family and I am blessed and proud to be one of them 🙂
My favorite memory of Mom is that she was always there for our family. She never worked outside of our home, but raised 4 children. She always made meals and would come up with lots of favorites for everyone. Birthdays and holidays were special treats. One particular memory not so long ago – my daughters & her granddaughters got married 6 weeks apart. She & I made 400 sugar cut out cookies for favors for wedding reception. We had put them in the freezer and I took them out to frost and dropped several dozen and was in tears. My Mom said not to worry, she would make more and she did. We got so many compliments on the cookies, half were gold stars & half were Gerber dasises in pastel colors. Thanks Mom, I couldn’t have done it without your help!
My memory of my mother’s cooking is… Utilitarian. She worked a full-time job as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Yet, she always had a hot meal for my sister & I…
Doesn’t seem like much, does it? Try it, day-in & day-out for a while… See how long you last!
Her signature dish was a “Goulash” made with her homemade autumn-canned tomatoes, hamburger, sliced onion, garlic & sliced potatoes. Baked in the oven until all the flavors melded. It was oven-browned on top so a few of the potatoes & onions had browned, crispy edges…
She also cooked Codfish Cakes on a regular basis: Let a bag of salt cod pieces soak in water at least 4 hours. Drain. Rinse. Peel 7 or 8 potatoes & rough-cut them into quarters. Boil them along with a medium onion coarsely chopped & the rinsed cod until potatoes are tender enough to mash. Drain. Mash, adding an egg & a little milk to bind. Form into balls or cakes, coating in flour. Fry these in hot oil ’til brown & crispy. Delicious, “Smashed” with a dab of butter, salt & pepper! Thanks Mom!
At Christmas time I would love to bake a filled braid with Christmas colored icing to give all of my friends as a gift. One Christmas I was up late with my KitchenAid mixer working away on batches of dough and I burned out the motor. My husband was sleeping soundly at the time and I went in and woke him frantically crying that my mixer broke and I wouldn’t be able to finish all of my Christmas gifts. He calmed me and promised that we would get the mixer repaired and we did. I was able to continue my baking and gift giving and still have the same Kitchenaid today. It is about 35 years old and my choice for any mixing need.
My favorite memory of my mom comes from when I was younger, around the age of 7. I threw a hugh tantrum and threw everything I owned on the floor in a fit. I think it was the first and only time I LOST IT!!!! My mom came in my room and picked me up like a baby. She sat in the rocking chair without saying a word. It felt like she rocked my for hours. No words were said, I just knew that she loved me and understood. I love thinking about those minutes together and I wish I could go back there every so often. Now when my kids do awful things…I just hold them :o) I LOVE MY MOM!!!!
My favorite food she cooks…Angle Food Cake!!!!
This past thanksgiving when we were all making dinner together. 🙂
I use several of my Mom’s recipes today, meat loaf, salad dressing, etc. One time when I was little, my mom was going to fry perch fillets for supper. She had bought a different brand for some unknown reason. When she opened the box, the EYES were staring at her! She jumped, closed the box, and said, “Dad is going to have to make these. I’m not cooking anything with eyes in it!” LOL She was a good cook though.
My favorite memory of my Mom’s cooking is of her “Fried Potatoes with Onions”. I have tried to make them but they’re always too moist and not crunchy like hers. They had dark brown crunchy spots that were so YUMMY. I think she used a cast iron skillet with Crisco which I think was her secret. Nothing better in the world!!
Now that my son is off to college, it feels like a holiday everytime he comes home. His birthday falls few days before mothers day, so I wanted to make him a special dinner. I have to work every Saturday and Sunday and since he had to go back to college and work on Sunday, we celebrated his birthday and mother’s day on Saturday. Our family is counting every blessing, since my other half went through surgery for stage 3 pancreatic cancer. He has been in and out of the hospital since Thanksgiving. I feel truly blessed to have all my three men home. Last night, all four of us were in the kitchen creating wonderful family meal for each other. While the boys were making cake, I was making Korean BBQ, Tenderloin Roast and Chicken Esther. After the wonderful meal, I got to read their home made cards (which they have been doing ever since they were little boys). I look forward to their cards because I know it came from their heart.
“A mother holds her children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever!
I remember my Mom well. She taught me many things, some of which I endeavor to teach my children. She and my Dad were wonderful parents and I will be thankful for them all my life. My Dad has been gone for 25 years, and my Mom has been gone 12 years. But what’s really neat, is that my husband, our five children, and me moved to the house that my Dad built when I was a little girl. So now I get to raise my children where I was raised. I am reminded every day of my parents. My three youngest children, all daughters, didn’t know my Dad, but they remember my Mom quite well. And I think that it brings comfort to them to live where she lived.
My favorite food related mom memory is of how she would always pull something out of the freezer to add to the pot, thinking it was left over spaghetti sauce or some other food that was similar to what she was cooking, and frequently find out that it was chili, or chicken masala or some other food that didn’t quite go. It somehow always turned out to be delicious.
My mother taught me the gift of cooking. To this day when I prepare a meal, I remember my mother. As a child she always got up early to make breakfast, so that we wouldn’t go to school hungry. She made sure we had lunch money, or she made our lunches to take with us. In the evening, our family would sit down at the table to enjoy the meal she had prepared together. As we got older, Sunday’s were our time to enjoy that meal together. When my mother got ill with cancer our time we spent together was so precious. Even though I lived 3 hours away, our phone conversations would include talking about food and recipes. As her days on earth were nearing the end, we talked about all the meals she had prepared. That those meals was her giving us her love and life. I am thankful for the countless meals she prepared, the time we spent together in the kitchen, baking, teaching me her techniques. The one thing I didn’t pay attention to was her homemade crust for pies. She would always say ” you need to learn this” and my reply back was “but why, you make it the best, and that is all I need”. I love you mom, yesterday, today and forever to come
My best Mom memory was my mother’s 90th birthday. We had planned a surprise open house for her. My daughter took her to the movies to see “Happy Feet” while I helped set up the house for the arrival of guests. Mom thought we were all going out to lunch following the movie. When they came back to pick me up, she noticed that there was company, so she came inside to find a huge spread of food and a birthday cake just for her with her cousin waiting for her (the first to arrive). She looked around at everything and then at me and said, “So this is what you were doing while we were at the movie? Can I eat now?” She was hungry. As she was eating, a few people from church stopped by and left, after which she asked, “Are there going to be more people coming?” By the time it was over, the house was full of people, ever spot to sit taken, people Mom hadn’t seen in years were there and it was a fantastic day. We all sang to her and when it was over she said, “Thank you – and don’t you ever do this again!” It just wore her out! She’s gone now, passing shortly after her 92nd birthday, but I’ll never forget this day and how much it meant to her. She was a consummate homemaker and loved to cook. We found her old Kitchen Aid mixer in the pantry when we were cleaning out. She used to grind all her meat with hers. I’ve never come close, and never will, to being what she was.
My favorite mom food memories involve all the times my mom had massive food projects going. We lived in a very small town and there was no such thing as catering. If we had reason to require a fancy continental breakfast at the school, my mother, a schoolteacher, had us all up making homemade donuts, if there was a death, we fixed the food, if there was an occasion for food my mother was involved. I learned to decorate cakes very young so that my mother had that covered. If someone tried a favorite food at a restaurant, my mother would recreate that recipe. Hours upon hours of christmas baking. My mother taught me it wasn’t just the eating of the food, it was the way she turned the preparation into a family event.
A special mom cooking memory for me is when we would travel to the Smoky Mountains for a vacation. My mom would prepare a really special meal for us. She would bake a homemade German Chocolate cake, potato salad, green beans, mashed potatoes, tossed salad, baked ham, and much more. There is no way she had a good night’s sleep. We would arrive at a special picnic area by a wooded stream at lunch time. She would lay out our feast and we would enjoy a Thanksgiving style meal on a picnic table. It was wonderful! I love that gift she gave us each year.
My mom worked very hard teaching 7-8 grade English, while trying to raise 3 kids. What I now admire most is how much food she could put down for us with not so much money. The infamous elbow macaroni, spagetti sauce and hamburger dish could feed 2 football players, hungry husband and a marching band member after practice. That she was cooking at all after a long day at work is something I appreciate more now!
My favorite memory about my mother’s cooking is this recipe she makes that happens to be my favorite dish. I have earned the nickname “pasta queen” because I wanted to eat spaghetti for dinner everyday when I was a kid. So I would be super excited when she would make her signature chicken drummette spaghetti. Basically it just requires a bag of the chicken that’s used for buffallo wings and she would stick it in the slow cooker with a jar of spaghetti sauce and let it simmer all day. Then she would throw it over spaghetti and I would eat to my hearts content. She has a photo of me at the dinner table after that meal because there was a pattern I would follow each time I would eat this. After about 3 or 4 servings I would fall asleep, spaghetti all over my face, with a full pot belly, right at my dinner plate. To this day, that is still the meal I request for my birthday dinner and it takes me back to that special time when I was a kid =)
The best memory of my mom cooking is as follows. My mother has always made homemade bread, cookies, cakes, brownies, pasta and much more. She is always busy in the kitchen everyday even to this day. She works 55 hours a week and then comes home and always finds time to make something homemade or bake something homemade. My favorite thing I look forward to from my mom (well all of her food is AWESOME) but it is her homemade cinnamon rolls. Especially when they come right out of the oven. My mom is one of the best cooks I know and I am trying to be just like her in the kitchen but sometimes I have to call her up and ask her to make something cause mine did not turn out. She also makes EXCELLENT chili which I now know how to make exactly like hers. It took me 5 years to figure it out but in the long run it was well worth the wait. My mom has all of her recipes in her head and she knows the ingredients to all without even looking….in fact she even knows substitutes for things if you do not have a certain ingredient. My mom is a ROCKIN’ AWESOME COOK and I want to be like her someday. Homemade jerky is the other thing I love getting from my mom as she grounds up her own meat and makes her own seasoning. Happy Mother’s Day MOM, I love you and I hope I can become more like you in the kitchen.
My favorite “Mom food memory” is her super-delicious banana pudding! I loved it SO much that every year I would opt out of a birthday cake in lieu of a big bowl of her masterpiece!! 🙂
Unfortunately, at the age of 33 I rudely became aware that my body had developed a deadly allergy to bananas and as a result suffered anaphylaxis (anaphylactic shock) and had to be rushed to the hospital emergency room where I nearly died from asphyxiation due to my lungs and throat swelling shut.
Though it has been a little over 15-years since I last experienced her delicacy, I can still taste my Mother’s out-of-this-world banana pudding… thanks for the memories, Momma!!
I once tried to convince her to make me a bowl and told her that I was going to eat it in the hospital parking lot where I would be close to medical attention, assuring her that the pleasure would be worth the pain. lol! Of course she said no and would not partake in my scheme. =)
When my grandmother was dying of cancer the chemo and radiation all but destroyed her sense of taste. I was 9 at the time. So our little special treat, the one thing she could taste and enjoy, was Burger King. She wasn’t much of an eater with all that was going on insider her body, so she’d get the Junior Whopper and I’d get a Whopper, we’d split some onion rings and that would be lunch.
My favorite food memories are centered around Sundays after church. There were about 5 couples with children, and every Sunday they would rotate where he ate dinner. My favorite was my Aunt Mae. It was only at her house the food seemed to be immediately on the table. There was fried chicken, baked chicken and dressing,, pinto beans and cornbread, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits, 2-3 vegetables, and the best part, Banana Pudding, Chocolate pudding, pineapple pudding, and her famous chocolate cake, which we children would fight for if there wasn’t enough to go around. She made everything from scatch, and in those days, the adults would eat first and then the children would eat(isn’t that child abuse?) We would all sit in the living room keeping tabs on how many adults were taking a piece of that cake, just sure that we weren’t going to get any. Magicaly, when our turn came the cake seemed to have only 1 piece taken out of it. Needless to say we all kept our eyes on that cake. After a few bites of food we were ready for dessert. There was always plenty chocolate cake to go around. Years later she showed me how to make that cake and what made it so special was that she made her own icing and put it on the cake while it was still warm so the icing was more like a glaze and slightly seeped into the cake. The big secret was that she always made 2 of them, and while they were clearing the table after the adults ate, she would cut one slice out of it so we would think it was the same cake.
My mom was never a great cook to anyone but me…I still crave her burnt pork chops,and crumbly-dried out chocolate chip cookies. There is always something special about a mother’s cooking.
My favorite memory about my mom’s cooking is the bizarre Jell-o salad she made when I was little (in the late ’60s). She had a prized fish-shaped copper salad mould, and she used it to create a salad which was taken to many baby and bridal showers. The salad was made in layers of lime Jell-o with chopped cabbage, alternating with layers of tuna mixed with Miracle Whip. When it was un-molded, a slice of pimento-stuffed green olive was used for the fish’s eye. This dish was the main reason that I run far away from any and all Jell-o salads.
When I was in the first grade, my mother and I baked bread together. I remember stirring the flour into the milk and being surprised as this puff of flour poofed in my face when the huge batch of dough was plopped in front of me on the table , lol! My mom patiently showed me and watched as my little hands tried to knead that huge amount of dough! I had so much fun kneading and kneading. When my tired hands could take no more, she took over. I was a mess! I was so excited when the dough rose and I was able to punch it back down. Oh, the sound it made and the smell!
We made little braided pieces of bread and she showed me how to make whipped honey butter. The kitchen smelled so good as the bread baked! My mother brought the bread to school and shared with my class. I felt so important and proud as everyone told us how good it was! My mother was the best!
My mom making my great-grandmother’s pimento cheese! She always made it when I was sick (and lots of times when I wasn’t) and it was delicious. When I came home from college, it was always waiting for me in the fridge and even now that I can make it myself, Mom’s still tastes THAT much better.
My best mom food memory is from when I was a little girl, and I was cooking dinner with my granny. We were making something with tomato paste, probably spaghetti, and when she tried to open the can of paste, something went awry. The paste squirted out of the hole that the can opener made, and the entire can of tomato paste squirted all over the kitchen, ceiling included! Granny and I laughed and laughed… then we cleaned and cleaned. We love to tell this story to this day…. 30 years later!
My best food memory of my mom was her baking skills. She made to die for caramel rolls. It was always a big treat when she baked them on Saturdays for Sunday morning breakfast. I have the recipe but never quite got the hang of her caramel sauce.
Hello,
My favorite mom cooking memory was her teaching me to make Taco Pie at a really young age. Such a great and simple recipe my husband enjoys to this day.
Taco Pie
Serves: 4 Adults
Total prep time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 pound hamburger
1/2 chopped onion
1 package dry taco seasoning
1/4 cup either black or green olives
9″ uncooked pie shell
1 package taco chips
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 small container of sour cream
Preparation:
In a skillet, brown hamburger with onion and then add taco seasoning and water according to seasoning instructions. Add sliced olives.
To assemble, layer the following ingredients:
1. 9″ uncooked pie shell
2. 1/2 package crumbled taco chips
3. Cooked meat mixture
4. Cheddar Cheese
5. Sour Cream
6. Remaining half of crumbled taco chips
Bake 20-30 minutes @ 350 until pie crust is done.
Serve with salsa, guacamole and a small salad
I always loved going into the home of someone who was a Mother to me; her name was Phyllis, and she was My Italian Mom from New York! She became my Mom when I was 23 years old, after I had moved to NYC from Richmond, VA with $180, no job, and I knew one person in Queens! Her kitchen and cooking was amazing; its aroma *exuded* home, peace, comfort, caring, and family. She cooked homemade Italian dishes and sauces; I had never called spaghetti sauce “gravy” before! Food was on the agenda from morning to evening, every day. I never felt such love as that coming from Phyllis’s Italian kitchen; wonderful memories that I will cherish forever!
Well, comfort food always comes to mind as some of the “best” food my mom used to make–a simple favorite was Cheeseburger Pie off the back of the Bisquick recipe box! Is it cheating that she used the back of the box and the crust wasn’t homemade? I don’t think so–she still needed to come up with the other ingredients and put it all together–cheesy & delicious (haven’t had it in years, though, b/c now I’m a vegetarian)!
Homemade egg noodels loved that and Dill bread,really miss my mom she was spscial.
Her fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, fried okra, and home grown tomatoes…..ahhh the perfect meal!
Easy ~ my mom’s “Spring Cake!” It was yellow cake with homemade whipped cream and cream cheese frosting but the frosting also had chopped pineapple, coconut, and walnuts in it. People go nuts for this cake all the time. I have carried on the tradition and I hope my children will too. I can relate memories of my mother to so many incredible foods she made from her stuffed cabbage to her lasagna to her Thanksgiving dinner (which is a whole other story!). Not only was my mom the best cook ever. she was the best mom ever and my very best friend. I LOVE YOU MOM!
My favorite memory happened this year. Not sure what I made but my 4-year-old daughter walked up and said “mommy you are the best cook in the whole world.” Can’t beat that.
When I was 10 years old, my mother gave birth to my 4th little sister. While she was in the hospital, her doctor advised her that she needed to get carpal tunnel surgery on both hands that was long overdue, and if she didn’t soon she could do some permanent damage to her hands. Apprehensively, she went ahead with the surgery. Because her hands were wrapped in bandages for quite some time after the birth and surgery, I offered to help my mother out by taking care of the meals in the household. So here I was at 10 trying to figure out how to make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for myself, 3 other sisters, and my mom and dad. She would watch over me and give me pointers and was very patient as I fumbled around learning the art of cooking according to her. She showed me how to follow recipes, make adjustments as needed, and find ways to add my own twist. She was a great teacher. I greeted this challenge with enthusiasm, and at 10, my love affair for the kitchen began. Now 30 years later, the passion for the culinary arts still flows in my veins and it all started with my mom. Thanks Mom!!! I love you!
When I was a child my mom did all her baking and cooking from scratch…no recipe…and she made home made noodles a lot…I used to sneak in and ever so slyly, sneak my hand up to the countertop and snatch the raw noodles. She always reminded me of that, as I grew older, and how she’d see that tiny hand crawl along the counter to steal those wonderful noodles. It’s a good memory!
My mom was an amazing Jewish Cook. So you would think that I would choose something about how she taught me to make her brisket, or chicken soup with matzah balls, or Noodle Kugle. No, my memory is about chocolate pudding. From a box.
I was about six, and my mom would pull a chair up to the stove, I would climb up, we would put the box of chocolate pudding in the pan, add the milk, and I would stand there stirring. I can remember how the pudding would get thicker as I would stir, and would bubble when it was thick enough. We had these special glasses that we would use, and mom would pour in the hot chocolate mixture. Then as she put the pudding in the refrigerator I would climb down from the chair, pull it over to the kitchen table, sit down and lick the spoon. My reward for helping her “make the pudding”.
My mother was never much of a cook and I basically had to teach myself and along the way I learned to love it… I am most certainly not a gourmet chef but my family eats ALMOST everthing I make. My fondest memory is of a day when my kids were at home for a traditional taco night and my son’s fiancee, who had never cooked, asked to help. I put her to work chopping veggies and she had no idea how to chop a green pepper. I showed her how and it was heartwarming to see the pleasure on her face as she chopped those peppers…..Since then we have had many more taco nights and my now daughter-in-law has helped prepare many a meal. My daughter-in-law frequently tells me how that one lesson has instilled in her a love of cooking and how she wants to pass this love on to her children… . How wonderful it was to know that this one little lesson had passed on my love of cooking.
My favorite food memories of my mother have little to do with the food and more to do with the time spent together in the kitchen. My mother was not that enamored with cooking, (My mother established a sitting area in her eat-in kitchen instead of a table with chairs.) but she was committed to providing simple and tasty nourishment for her family. So, what I really remember are lots of conversations and laughter as we stirred this and chopped that, or did nothing but sit to visit over a pot of tea. My mother has been gone for two years now, and my parents’ home was torn down a week ago. The yellow kitchen may be gone, but the memories are vivid and deep within me giving me comfort on days when I miss her most.
This is my first Mother’s Day without my mom. Remembering her in the kitchen always brings a smile. She made the absolute best cinnamon rolls. Every Saturday morning while growing up, she’d get up around 4:00 AM to start a huge batch of dough. She took orders weekly and sold them by the half dozen just to help support us 8 kids. I’d get up and get myself a bowl of cereal, have it teetering on my lap while watching her punch down the dough, roll it out, smear it with butter, cinnamon and sugar, then roll the dough up like a pinwheel. The entire kitchen, plus a card table, was covered with pans of rolls, waiting to raise and be baked. Oh, the smells are unforgettable! Each bite was filled with love and tender patience. I miss you, Mom.
I wish I did have some favorites with my mom, but unfortunatly I do not…my mom lived her whole adult life with a mental illness, which took her away from me most of my life! I had my grandmother, that was my “mother”, but I always dreamed about how life might have been with my mom if she was free of her mental illness, that dream never came true, but my mom is now free from her mental illness, because she is in heaven now! I still have my dreams of what my life might have been if she was well….but now I have kids of my own and I try to give them what I wanted all my life!!! My favorites are having my kids in the kitchen “helping”, some experiences are better than others, but they are always FUN!! Happy Mothers Day…to all the special mothers!!
My mom taught me how to cook, but not only did she pass on the secrets to how to make her wonderful recipes, she made sure that everything she made was with the special ingredient of her love. She passed on a love to cook to me, her most willing student, so that I might pass the love of cooking and preparing and serving my family with just as much of that love that she shared with us.
My mom was so great and finding out what was for dinner was so exciting for me.. I love food. But she did work full time, so a lot of the time she was tired and didnt want to cook, and my father never cooked.. LOL But when I started getting older, she would let me make a few things, as I do now with my teenager. Spaghetti was a meal that I was pretty good at making, so she would give me the go ahead to make it. I always felt so grown up and inspired to be able to do something so grown up. She was always so proud of me and my food. One time I decided to season the hamburger meat with curry, (I really like curry) and made the spaghetti, with the sauce and the spaghetti noodles. Needless to say, the meal did not come out like I had planned, but my mother ate it all and said that it was good. 🙂
It was hard for me to pick just one Mom Food Story, a lot of my memories of my mom are tied up in the kitchen. But I guess I have to share about her English Toffee Recipe, I’m not sure where she got it, but we always made it at Christmas. It takes a long time stiring constantly at the stove, but the end result is worth it. She would we would make a batch on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas Day take it out to my Aunt & Uncle’s house and everyone would sit around wrapping the pieces in wax paper and telling stories while waiting for Christmas Dinner. My mom is gone now, but she taught my daughter & I the tradition, so now we share it each year.
I love to cook! Although I have 4 older children that have grown up and left home, my 8 year old daughter loves to get her step stool and stand in the kitchen and help me cook. I have made photos of her since she was able to sit on the counter and help. I remember loving to watch my mother and grandmother cook also, and that is where I got the desire to cook. I know that one day with her passion, she too will be an awesome cook!
My favorite memory is coming home for lunch for soup and grilled cheese and watching Scooby Doo and Bewitched with my mom. And those were the originals. So long ago. Happy Mother’s day Mom.
Happy Mothers Day to all the moms,grandmas,aunts, and dads as well who have to be mom for whatever reason.
My fav mom meal was her spaghetti! She made THE most awesomeest(is that a word?LOL) home made sauce. She would cook it for hrs upon hrs. She’d also freeze some for later. I so wish I had her recipe and had paid attention more growing up how she made it. Sadly no recipe as she made it from memory. I sure miss ya mom and love you.
I remember my mother makes the best stuffed peppers. I can’t come anywhere near them. She used to make us swiss steak for our birthday’s. And she made the is dark chocolate cake with a cooked frosting-it whipped up so smooth and creamy. I can’t get the sugar to cream like she did. She is sick now and needs a liver transplant. She doesn’t even remember stuff anymore.
My favorite food memory is of my mom making silver dollar pancakes with blueberry syrup when I was ten. My mom was a single mom who worked all the time. I can’t remember ever eating anything for breakfast (at home) besides cereal before that and I thought pancakes were something you only had in fancy resteraunt. Someone gave us a gift basket for Christmas that had pancake mix and flavored syrups. My mom made the cutest silver dollar pancakes and at the time I was so impressed I thought she had invented the idea herself 🙂
my mom passed in 1998 so this is sort of a fond memory.we owned a restaurant so i have many of them ,but i have to say it was when she made me my (special sandwich) i now know it was just a cube steak seasoned w/ cheese,tomatoes ,lettuce & mayo on toast. But it was so good i’ved tried to make ,it never is as good as i remember lol. I guess its true it’s always better when mom makes it .
I will always remember waking up to the smell of turkey cooking in the oven and the light sounds of kitchen utensils clinking in the kitchen. It would always bring a warm feeling in my stomach. It was the same every year Thanksgiving morning always sent a thrill through me like no other, not even Christmas morning would compare. When I was younger my mother worked 3 jobs to provide for my brother and I. It was always a rare thing to have my mom home let alone cook dinner for us. I had to start cooking for my brother and I when I was just 10 years old. On Thanksgiving Day, however, my mom was home and we spent it all together. As dinner neared I would always help butter the dinner rolls. I always was so excited to help my mom with that task she appointed me ever year. My brother would be making us laugh in the background. Dinner time would come-and I had saved all the space in my tummy for my dinnertime meal- I would be starved. We would all say grace and take turns saying the thing we were most thankful for from the past year; we would all of course say our family. We would all dig in and though my mom wasn’t much of a cook, it would be the most delicious meal ever. The turkey was always perfect, the stuffing-homemade from the box- was always so yummy and the green beans were always my favorite. This memory every year growing up is something I will always remember. Now I am living with my future husband and getting ready to start my own family. I am so excited to pass these traditions on to my family. On Mother’s day I am always so extra thankful to my mother for everything she has ever done for me.
My favorite memory is a childhood memory of my great-grandma, my grandma, my mom and myself making poppy seed coffee cake from scratch. I watched the women I loved most in the world kneading and rolling the dough, and talking and laughing, and creating the most wonderful treat. That’s when I learned that cooking could be more than just the finished product.
One of my favorite moments as a kid is cooking in the kitchen with my all the strong and many talented women in my life.
As I was growing up I can remember all of the kids playing outside and I would be the one inside with my mom, grandmas, and aunties cooking in the kitchen. I am sure I got in the way more then I helped, but they let me help anyways. We would pick the fresh fruits and vegis out of my grandma’s garden at her farm and get them ready for dinner. I learned to make everything from scratch most of my grandma recipes were in her head. I also remember life was pretty simple back then the stores closed at 2pm, there was a set dinner time and everyone ate together.
What I took away from my mom was how to make cakes. Not just any cakes a GREAT cakes!
Now that I have kids of my own I enjoy the kitchen time we call it in our home with my kids. I look forward to every mothers day so I can show my mom how much she means to me, that awesome breakfast in bed I get from kids (with a little help from their daddy) and a big family dinner with all the special strong women in my life. oh yeah and the husbands too ;).
Thanks for letting me share,
Kara
My favorit recibe is tipical from Puerto Rico :
Fan de Calabaza /Punkin Flan
1 can 7 oz of evaporated milk
1 can 7 oz condense milk
7oz of cook punkin
5 eggs
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2tsp ginger
1/2tsp cinamin
1/2tsp clove
1/2tsp nut meg
1 1/2tsp salted butter
1/2tsp vanilla
Mix all ingredients together just like you would do a fan ( But first prepare the pan with melted sugar bottom ). In another larger pan with water cook at 350 to 3750 for an hour or until the top is golden. And you have memories of a sweet loving care of Puerto Ricos fans Happy mothers day
My best memory of my mom, besides canning everything from the store and garden in the summer, is coming home from school, trying to beat my siblings there, because we knew mom was making homemade bread that day. You wanted to get home first to get that first outside crust slice. It smelled SO good and was SO crusty on the outside and SO soft on the inside. Mmmmmm. She made a huge batch of 5 loaves all mixed by hand. They were huge loaves, so golden brown. It was truly amazing! We never did get an exact recipe from her because she cooked with “a little of this”, “some of that”, and “enough of the other thing”. What I wouldn’t give to have a slice of that today!
My fondest memories of food are with my great grandma (my mom’s grandma). Mom used to spend special time with her grandma as the oldest grandchild and I guess great grandma just liked me best (as the great grandchild) although she had a ton of family. I remember sitting on a step stool in her kitchen in Camden, Ohio as she would prepare all her wonderful desserts and special entrees. She always made sure I got a special “little something” that no one else got. The biggest cookie with the most raisins, the mixer blades to lick, the bowl to scrape down with my fingers. Just feeling like I was the favorite made me feel so special. Of all her recipes the one I remember most was her homemade spare rib pie with picalilly (sp?) relish. I can’t remember how she did it or what was in it, but up until her final days, she would work through her pain and make that special dish for us. She was the best grandma a little girl could wish for!
My favorite recipe was my Mothers stuffed cabbage rolls. And to this day I still don’t know how she did it. It was in a light red gravy with ground beef and rice but they were so delicious and I”m sure they were not expensive because we normally lived on beans and potatoes or spagetti. But that was a weekend treat when she was not working. Most people think Moms where not divorced back in the early 60’s but my Mom raised us from the late 50’s and divorced in the early 60’s. she was strong willed and a survivor. I miss you Mom. 1932-1971
My favorite mom food memory is waking up every morning to go to school and having Kraft macaroni and cheese for breakfast. We lived in the Philippines and having american food (during that time) was great! I still love macaroni and cheese, although my kids would prefer something else. :o)
PS. Keep up the good work on this website. I’ve copied a few recipes.
My mom always cooked her holiday turkeys in a brown paper bag. The year after mom passed away, I was trying to impress a new boyfriend with my stellar cooking skills.
I set my turkey on fire. A girlfriend helped me rush it out the back door, each of us holding it by a leg. We put it on the picnic table, used the garden hose to douse the flames, and put the turkey back in the oven~~ without the paper bag. 🙂
I am glad no one had a camera. I wish I had spent more time learning from my mom, but it must not have been too bad (other than we laughed for weeks, and my neighbors gave me a fire extinguisher for Christmas!) ‘cuz that new boyfriend and I have been married for 20 years next week. 🙂
my favorite mom food moment would be with my grandmother. growing up i lived next to my grandparents house and i would go over there everyday after school to do my homework. i remembe always stalling and taking forever to do my homework so i could help her make dinner every night. secretly i think she knew this but didnt mind. my grandmother is the one who taught me how to cook and instilled the love of food in me. i was always amazed at how she made it look so easy and fun. the feel of the ingredients, then endless combinations, all you have to do is be creative.
My favorite memory of my mother is of our making Christmas candy together. Pecan divinity, chocolate nut fudge, Martha Washington candy – just to name a few. . . I will always remember the wonderful warm feelings. . . the wonderful smell of the kitchen and, of course, the wonderful memories. . .
My Mom learned to cook really cool ethnic dishes from her years traveling around as an Army wife. When we finally settled down at home in Arkansas, she became famous among my friends for her unusual (to them) dishes. Things like beef curry, amazing enchiladas, sukiyaki-cooked on an authentic hibachi brought back from Korea and a Finish bread called Pulla. She taught me how to make the bread and I now back and give away loves of it every year at Christmas. She was always adventurous in her cooking style, and I hope I inherited that from her!
My mom and grandma were the best BAKERS in the whole world. They have now passed on but I have all of their recipes. I get up when I can’t sleep and look at all of their recipes, written in their handwriting and become SO SENTIMENTAL. It brings back such WONDERFUL LOVING memories remembering cooking with my mom and waiting for my grandma to bring over warm Swedish Rye bread and Cardamon Rolls. Her and my grandpa would bake and bring us her goodies FRESH FROM THE OVEN. OH, HOW I MISS THOSE DAYS. And YES, I do use their recipes because there are NONE BETTER.
My mom makes the best asparagusdish in the world! It’s creamy, fresh, with cheese and little tomatoes. Water get’s into my mouth when I think about it 🙂 We are probably going to eat it tomorrow, yeah!! x from Holland!
My Mom and Dad divorced when I was very young.I lived mostly with my dad and he would take me to visit my mom.She did alot of canning and I would get to help her,it was always so much fun!The one thing I really loved was creamed peas and she would always make them for me,that is one of my favorite memories of my mom,sadly she died many years ago and my children were not able to enjoy as many times with her as I did.
My best Mom Food Memory: Sunday Dinners! I think back to when I was a child and my favorite memory (period) was the Sunday Dinners my Sicilian Grandma used to cook and host. It brought us all together for good times and great food. I used to watch my Grams cook and learned everything I know from her. She made the best sauce with meatballs and braciole! My Grams passed away 2 1/2 years ago and I miss her terribly. Being in the kitchen and cooking all of her recipes always makes me feel so close to her. Love you Gram and thanks for being my inspiration in the kitchen! Happy Mother’s Day to all you amazing Moms out there!
My favorite food memory is sitting in the kitchen with my mom, doing homework as she prepared dinner.
My favorite mom food memory is always helping to make food for the family get togethers. This year, while my mom was busy with ham and potatoes for Christmas, I made the caramel from scratch. It was always my favorite thing that my grandma made, now I can make it almost as well as she did.
My Favorite memory of my mom was that she tried so hard. She was a working mom and my Grandma was more of the cook.. My mom would do alot of quick meals. I think she was one of the inventors of the 30 minute meals.. We always ate a meal everynight even if it was not gourmet.. My mom taught me the best recipe for life, Everything always tastes better when you are in great company…. Thx Mom……
I was a little kid just getting home from the hospital and couldnt play outside with the other kids. Mom made Gingerbread men cookies and asked the other kids to come and decorate them with me. She had a huge mess to clean up afterwards, but she never ever complained about it. She is the best!
Well…where do I begin~ my Nanny’s meatloaf, my Granny’s banana bread, or my Mama’s tomato gravy? I was very blessed to have 3 amazing cooks in my life and these 3 women are the reason for everything I know about cooking. I really can’t narrow it down to just one good memory…they were all wonderful! One that stands out though is me, my mama, and my sister all in the kitchen the night before her wedding cooking all the food for the reception. Laughing, crying, talking, and cooking. I also have very fond memories of Sunday lunches with family…..and LOTS AND LOTS of love. Food is love. ((:
My favorite Mom food memory is:
Every Sunday morning my mother would make dinner rolls. She would get up before the rest of the family and start her bread making process. By the time the rest of us were up, she would have the dough rising in her large stoneware bowl with a floursack towel covering it. I would get to help her shape the dough into rolls – mine never looking as smooth as hers. Once again the dough would be set to rise. In the meantime, we would go to church. When we returned, the rolls would be ready for the oven. Mom would put them in and soon the house would be filled with the wonderful smell of baking bread.
Since I’ve become an adult, I have often asked Mom for her recipe. Unfortunately for me, my mom cooks and bakes by sight and feel. Though she guessed and wrote down what she thought, my rolls have never tasted as good or been as fluffy as hers.
My first memory of being in the kitchen is my mother letting me stand on a chair and letting me cook scrambled eggs, I was 4yrs old. I have always loved cooking. I had each of my sons in the kitchen at an early age and they are all good cooks.I am now the proud Rah Rah (granny) of twin girls 4 1/2 and a grandson 3 1/2. I have a picture on my frig. of the twins at about 13 months, sitting on the counter with their cup and spoon cause they had to help their Rah Rah “took” (cook). Now, they still love to come help me and always have a lot of questions! there father says now at least one female in the house will know how to cook! haha ( the twin’s mother does not cook) I love the time I have with my grands in the kitchen!!
I’m truly bless to have a mother who just turned 75 years old on April 22nd. She is the mother of 11 sons and 5 girls. By the way, she had 5 sets of twins. She is one amazing women and I love her with all my heart.
The one desert I remember and she still cooks today is her amazing German Chocolate Cake. We as children would hand around the kitchen just to want to lick the spoon. Oh my can you imagine what that was like. So my mission in life is to alway feed those that are always in need for food.
I decided to dedicate my life to make make good food that will make people smile just like my mom.
Gwendolyn Woods
Cookin’ By Dollop & Pinch
“Good Food By Real People”
My “mom” memories always seem to revolve around holidays. They were always such a big deal at our house. My dad was in the Air Force, so most of the time we had not just our family at holiday dinners, but many of the single airmen who were away from home at the holidays. I remember helping my mom cook for days. We made all kinds of homemade candies and cookies and other goodies. My brother and I would fight over who got to lick the beaters when she was finished mixing the batter. My favorite times tho were getting up early on Thanksgiving and getting the turkey stuffed and ready to bake.
When I was a young girl I remember sitting down at my Grandmother’s table filled with 15 to 20 people every Sunday. She never not once forgot to ask me what I would like her to bake or cook for me. My mother has done the same with my daughters. Now that my own daughter will be having a child of her own soon, I hope I can do the same for her and her children. The one thing she has made sure that I make is Meatloaf, mashed potatoes,corn,and brown gravy. The other is Zucchini pie. (tastes just like Apple pie but with Zucchini instead) I can’t cheat and buy the crust, she makes sure it’s homemade.
When I was a young girl I remember sitting down at my Grandmother’s table filled with 15 to 20 people every Sunday. She never not once forgot to ask me what I would like her to bake or cook for me. My mother has done the same with my daughters. Now that my own daughter will be having a child of her own soon, I hope I can do the same for her and her children. The one thing she has made sure that I make is Meatloaf, mashed potatoes,corn,and brown gravy. The other is Zucchini pie. (tastes just like Apple pie but with Zucchini instead) I can’t cheat and buy the crust, she makes sure it’s homemade.
My favorite mom food memory involves both my mother & my older sister (who is also an awesome mom to 3 wonderful girls!). My mom was an amazing cook! Of course, she never wrote down a recipe, never measured a thing, so now that she’s gone, all those wonderful recipes she made have gone with her. What dumb girls we were to not sit down with her & make her at least tell us how to make her best dishes. (Ladies, if your moms are still with you, please please please take the time to sit with her & write down the recipes that you feel you just can’t live without!) Our father’s favorite pie was lemon meringue pie. About a year or so after our mother passed away, my sister came to visit. (She’s in Connecticut, we’re in Ohio) The two of us got it in to our heads that we were going to make our daddy a lemon meringue pie. Did the fact that neither one of us had ever even attempted to make one before, or that we didn’t even have a recipe stop us? Nope! We searched online & found one that we thought sounded good, and off to the grocery we went. We took our ingredients to our dad’s house & the two of us made that pie for him. The thing we were most scared of was making the meringue. But, while I was mixing it, it just didn’t seem to be coming out right, and I think I started to cry a bit & I said, come on, Mom…help me do this right! And it just seemed to come together perfectly. While I’m sure that pie didn’t come close to my mom’s…my dad claimed it was “fit to eat”, which was his way of telling us it was good!
I have 2 daughters of my own & my oldest one is away at college, in an apartment, just beginning to cook. I am making sure that I show her how to make her favorite recipes that I have made for her growing up. I know to her, the things she makes won’t taste as good as the things that I make, just as the things I make don’t taste as good as the things my mom made…it’s because of the love that mom adds to every dish. That can’t be found in any recipe.
My mom is not a good cook. She is from the Netherlands and only cooks with butter and cheese–no seasonings or spices. She grew up having to eat raw onion sandwiches, and therefore has NEVER cooked with an onion in her life. I never even tasted an onion until I was away at college and Subway accidentally put them on my sandwich. (I was instantly in love!)
I think she got her lack of cooking skills from her mother, my Oma. I remember Oma coming to babysit the 5 of us kids and attempting to cook a frozen pizza in a skillet on the stovetop. We still have good laughs over that one.
I have attempted to improve on history and try my hand at all types of dishes. I would LOVE this red mixer–might even give me the extra pizazz I need in my kitchen to make cooking exciting & delicious!
Happy Mother’s Day!
My favorite Mom recipe are her YEAST ROLLS that she made by hand, no mixers. I have never been able to make them like her. She did not have a written recipe, did it all by memory. I remember a time when she called me to let me know she made some rolls for my husband and my son and I. We drove 5 miles out to her house and picked them up and ate them on the highway back home! They were all gone by the time we reached the city limits! Nothing better than Mom’s yeast rolls. I tried to write down ingredients once when she was making them. She didn’t measure, just added…. Oh how I wish I could do that.
My Mom, my brother, and I always cooked and delivered Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner for a needy family in our town. We helped her baste the turkey, mix the stuffing, mash the potatoes, make the pie crust and filling, make and decorate cookies, roll out dough for the chicken and dumplings, and anything else that she was cooking.
Mom wanted us to be a part of making a family less fortunate than ours feel special. We LOVED it…… We looked forward to our special time in the kitchen with Mom and cooking and delivering the food. It was well worth it all to see the happy faces. It was a tradition that I carried on with my children and now my son and daughter in law do it with my grandchildren. Makes me feel warm inside and brings tears to my eyes.
There are so many memories associated with my mother and the food we shared. But a favorite childhood memory is about my mother and my grandma. They had an old recipe for Dixie Cream Glazed Doughnuts. The recipe made, probably 6 dozen. So, about once a year, Mom and Grandma would set everything up in the kitchen and start in on the doughnuts–it was like a party–so much fun and sooooo delicious. Many years, later, when my first husband died, suddenly and very unexpectedly, after 27 years of marriage, I came home to Missouri to spend time with my family. I was heartbroken and grieving. My mom had my brother, sister-in-law, their 2 sons, and my best friend from childhood come over to her house and she started in on the doughnuts. It was the most soothing, wonderful nurturing experience. My mom is now, also, deceased but that was a gesture of pure love and will always live in my heart.
My favorite memories from growing up are that I never knew what store-bought bread, cookies, or donuts, tasted like…..as she always made these things from scratch/homemade. I remember always asking to lick the spoon and bowl from the cookies, eating the donut holes while she made the donuts, and watching the dough rise while it sat next to the wood burning stove and smelling the fresh bread baking. Thanks Mom !!
Oh so many to remember I think just being with my mother anytime was always special because when your little she always protects you and when you become a mother and grandmother and watching your mom age it becomes more special because then you become protective of them and realize finally all the sacrafices made. Being a mother is special and being a grandmother is special but being able to finally reach a time in life when you look back at all the times that your mom made special it just means so much. Thank You for letting me post my thoughts of how special my mom is and if I could hug her right now it would make me the happiest child on earth. Happy Mothers day to all the special mothers in the world over. Remember MoM she is a joy to behold <3 <3 <3
mmmmm… Mom’s blonde brownies! The smell still gives me flashbacks to being a kid. I have the recipe, but it never tastes as good as when she makes it! Also, she makes gingersnaps, from a recipe from my great grandmother. When I made them for my daughter, I loved the feeling of all the generations of women from 2 centuries coming together over cookies.
My Mom made the best chicken, fried or baked.
My Mother made the best Chicken or Ham Pot Pie. I think she was a far better baker than a cook. She went crazy ever Christmas making Sand Tarts’s in all shapes and decorated with colored icing.
My favorite memory of my Mom is -Every Saturday she would bake pies for my Dad who had the biggest sweet tooth in the world,and she would make the flakiest crusts(she would say always put in a little vinegar.) After the pies were made she always made sure there was just enough dough left to make each of us kids our own little sugar pie,as she called it. She would press out the dough in a little pie pan and we would get to add the milk,sugar cinnamon and a little butter. When they came out of the oven it was like heaven. She would always have the biggest smile like we had just made the biggest and best pie ever. I sure miss those days. My Mom is the BEST!!!
My favorite Mom moments where Saturday mornings. since my parents were farmers breakfast on Saturday mornings were the best. My Mom would make pancakes, eggs, bacon, toast and all the other great fixins for breakfast. All the family would sit around the table and discuss the daily chores and other things to do. It will always stick with me. My mom was the best and always made things look so easy.
My mom makes the best chicken soup (Italian style with little meatballs). It was also great to have on a cold winters night.
My mom was always in the kitchen while I was growing up and to this day, she still makes the world’s best homemade mac and cheese. I have never been able to duplicate it exactly even though I have watched her make it a thousand times.(I will keep trying, though) Well, 3 years ago, my mom suffered a stroke that landed her in the hospital for 5 months. During her recovery at home, we had to help her re-learn many activities of daily living as she frequently forgets things and gets confused. Whenever I was in town and could help her cook, I would. One memory that sticks with me was when she and I were making dinner for the whole family and my mom commented that I was such a good cook and where’d I learn to cook like that? My reply was, of course, “Well,I learned it from you, Mom.”
Although my mom is no longer with us, and I am now the grandma…I remember the special scalloped potatoes with pork chops. Very basic meals, nothing estravigant back then. But it brought me love and warmth when she made it. Also she made tuna noodle cassarole with crushed potatoe chips on the top and I carried it through to my 5 children. This is a favorite of my youngest son. Generation food that bring love goes on. Thank you for letting me share.
My Mom is a true southern cook and a great one. She always made great food. But I have to say that one of favorite memories is one summer day she was hand waxing the hardwood floors and to keep me off of them, she took me outside for a picnic. I remember just how special I felt. We sat on a old quilt underneath the mimosa tree. She made sandwiches and cut them in diagonal quarters. (And we all know how much better that makes sandwiches taste.) We had sweet tea, the southern staple. Then we had fruit for dessert. I have no idea if she even remembers this because it was just a break in a hard day’s work, but it such a warm, fuzzy memory for me. Because it was so out of the ordinary, I felt like a princess. It’s not so much the food but the one on one time with Mom that makes it such a special memory.
I love you, Mom!!
There were six kids in my family and we went to a little country school growing up. We all remember walking home from school together and stepping into the kitchen to the wonderful smells of homemade cupcakes, cinnamon rolls or homemade flat bread waiting for us! My mom was the best baker in the world!
My favorite memory of my mother and her cooking is when she would make me cookies, and we had a pull out cutting board built into the counter. I would “hide” under the cutting board and reach up and sneak dough, thinking she couldn’t see me under there snitching! She never acted like she could see me and I made out like a bandit on yummy cookie dough!
My favorite memory is my mom frying meatballs and sausage and dipping fresh Italian bread afterwards into the gravy and drippings…..yummy
When I was younger my mom cooked most things from scratch. I have pictures of myself as a three year old, sitting on the counter and covered in flour as I “helped” bake cookies or bread. Making cookies at Christmas time include some of my favorite moments. One of my favorite cookies that we made were chocolate crinkles.
My mother passed away just over 21 years ago when I was only 13. Unfortunately, I don’t remember much about the time we spent together, because she was battling breast cancer for 7 years. Most of the memories I do have of my mom revolve around us cooking together. We used to bake Christmas cookies together every year. We would make 10 or 12 different kinds…the kitchen was filled with great smells and every flat surface was covered with cooling racks full of beautiful and delicious cookies that we packaged up and gave away to friends, family, neighbors, and all of my teachers. My uncle was a farmer, so during the summer we would pick fresh fruits and vegetables. We would can peaches and pears, make lots of spaghetti sauce, and freeze veggies in seal-a-meal bags. My job was always to hold the sealer down and count “1-2-3”. We also made jams, jellies, pickles and relish. I’m so grateful that my mom gave me the gift of knowing how to do all of these things – since most people my age never had those experiences. I really miss being able to cook with my mom, but whenever I make something she and I used to cook together, I always feel like she’s right there in the kitchen with me.
At every holliday, at every celebration, all the women in the family, mothers and their daughters, would gather in the kitchen, and share stories and teach the young ones their cooking craft. It is how I learned to make pies, how I learned to make thanksgiving dinner, to share wonderful family stories with my own children. I thank God for the time I have with my mother now and everything she has taught me in the kitchen as well as how to be a mom to my own children.
At every holliday, at every celebration, all the women in the family, mothers and their daughters, would gather in the kitchen, and share stories and teach the young ones their cooking craft. It is how I learned to make pies, how I learned to make thanksgiving dinner, to share wonderful family stories with my own children. I thank God for the time I have with my mother now and everything she has taught me in the kitchen as well as how to be a mom to my own children.
I remember my mom making homemade pies. There was always extra pie crust that she would make into a little cinnamon pie. My sister and I would always fight over who got to eat it!! Love you Mom !
My mom didn’t really like to cook when I was growing up, but she did have a few special recipes. We loved her “Chicken Garden Skillet,” and I know she was always excited when we asked her to make it for us! She loves it now when I cook for her!
My favorite Mom memory cooking was the annual Christmas decorated sugar cookies. Of course my brother and I ate more of the decorations than we put on the cookies.
The greatest memory with my Mom and Grandma,Is when I was finally old enough to learn how to can all the food from Grandma and Grandpas garden.We were all at Grandmas.I remember how proud i felt,and that i was with all the big girls now..
In the mid-1960’s, my mom had a Kitchen-Aid mixer, and we had just finished mixing chocolate chip cookie dough with it when a thunderstorm knocked the power out. Luckily, we had a gas oven and were able to bake anyway. I was 5 years old and TERRIFIED of lightning and thunder, so my parents decided to drag out the sleeping bags so we could curl up on the living room floor together and wait for the cookies to be finished. All these years later, I still have that “scent memory” of lit candles and fresh-baked cookies every time there is a thunderstorm! I don’t have a gas oven, but I do have red and black appliances in my kitchen – that gorgeous new red Kitchen-Aid mixer would complete the “ensemble”!
At every holliday, at every celebration, all the women in the family, mothers and their daughters, would gather in the kitchen, and share stories and teach the young ones their cooking craft. It is how I learned to make pies, how I learned to make thanksgiving dinner, to share wonderful family stories with my own children. I thank God for the time I have with my mother now and everything she has taught me in the kitchen as well as how to be a mom to my own children.
There are so many favourite “mom food” moments for me – mostly baking related….but one of my favourites was when we would make fresh pasta by hand and a hand crank pasta maker. It was my job to find places to hand all the pasta while it dried.
My most favorite mom food memory would be when I entered a cake baking contest that my girl scout troop was having. There was a cookie category that would have been much easier, but my mom knew that I wanted to bake a cake and supported me in that. To top it off, I wanted to bake a green cake covered in white frosting to surprise the judges (who knows why, I was 10, if that explains it a little) My mom didn’t discourage me, she helped me find a recipe for a cake that you could incorporate green food coloring into. Then she helped me to perfect a boiled icing recipe. When it came to bake-off day, the cake was probably putrid (I thought that it was beautiful, but let’s face it, it was deep, dark green. What self respecting 10 year old goes easy on the food coloring?) Then, when I made the boiled icing on my own, it turned out runny, not fluffy. My cake came in third in the contest (because there were only 3 entries) so I got to take home a ribbon, but even if I hadn’t, I’m sure that my mom would have made coming in last place a great experience as well.
My son who is 24 now, was going to surprise me with breakfast one day, so i came down stairs after waking up to discover him setting on the stove with about a dozen eggs broke every where and a giant smile on his face. About 6 eggs were ready to flip. How could a mother be mad at her 3 year son for that 🙂
Almost every meal my mom makes is memorable and terrific!! She puts in great detail and love into her cooking and she has instilled a love for cooking in me and my family is very grateful!!
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!
I will never forget one of my 1st experiences cooking with my mom. We decided to make Challa ( A Jewish egg bread). My mom went to the store to shop for all the ingredients. We Always began by washing our hands. My mom would say, “Measure Exact”. This meant go into the drawer and get out Grandma’s knife which was very old, and flat on both sides This knife gave us perfect, exact measurements.There was always a huge mess in the kitchen when mom cooked or baked. we combined all the ingredients and mom told me to start kneading the (what looked a bit like) Dough. I kneaded and kneaded. Mom looked over and said keep going. My hands were aching, this blob in my hand was not really looking so much like dough at all. I kneaded for hours. Finally, Mom had a great idea. She ran and grabbed our old kitchen Aide mixer. She said “This will work. It is the best. We turned it on and put the blob of what somewhat resembled dough in there. we turned it on and the dough, just like magic, rose, and covered the entire mix master in a perfect, thin coating, including the chord. With that, we looked at each other and cracked up. We laughed so hard. I remember my mom and I peeling the dough off the kitchen aide.(My mom with great defeat in her eyes)Mom said roll it up the best you can, put it in the oven, and we will see what happens. Within 30 mins the most fabulous smell filled the air. When it was done, it looked beautiful. I was amazed…Not quite as amazed as I was at how wonderful it tasted. I think it lasted on our table for five mins. What a great memory and still one we laugh about.
Oh my goodness……..my favorite memories with mom are definately helping “bake”. I would scoot a step stool to the counter, make sure my hands were freshly washed and review the measuring cup amounts with her! There were 6 of us kids and any alone time spent with mom was so precious to me. My “baking memories” are my favorite, just next to having tea and tasting our freshly baked treasure……thanks mom, I love you!
My mom being Japanese always made something a little bit Asian and a little bit American (my dad was German) for dinner every nite. So we always had a pot of mashed potatoes and we also had a big rice cooker of rice with our dinners growing up. Being the oldest of 3 girls, we used to wonder who was going to eat all of this wonderful food! But she loved us so much and wanted to make sure we were never hungry! I guess I feed my family this way to this day! I love her so very much!
One of my favorite Mom food-related memories is how she would take scraps of pie crust leftover after trimming the pie, and baking triangle-shaped tarts sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Such a treat! I did the same thing recently, and it just brought back how special we all thought it was to get a little extra treat. Mom is gone now, but certainly not forgotten.
About every year, my mother take us all to Harry’s Berry farm where we would eat, I mean, pick strawberries. Then we would bring home bushels of strawberries, wash them, slice them, and eat them some more. My mom would make strawberry jam, strawberry cake, and a delicious strawberry angel food cake. I still love strawberries to this day. Thanks for helping me bring back that memory!
Marly
My favorite mom food memory is her making Crab Curry on Sundays! :)) She would go to the fish market early in the morning, while I was still asleep, to get the freshest catch, come back home to clean and cook. The curry takes atleast 2 hours to make and she would lovingly make it. I’d wake up around noon to the gorgeous aromas floating around the house, quickly get the daily routine done and would be all set to dig into a nice plate of the awesome crab curry served over piping hot rice..
It always made for the perfect day! nothing could go wrong after such a lovely meal!:)))
Now, I do make this curry at home for my hub and me. Although it tastes awesome, I feel like it’s never quite the same as my mom’s …. 🙂
I always loved baking with my mom, cookies, cakes, pies, anything and everything. Now I bake for my mom, she says she can’t make things as good as I can. Where does she think I learned how to bake? I love to bake and I thank my mom for this! I also remember Sunday dinners at my grandmothers. Wow the spread she would put on was amazing!
My fave mom food memory happend about ten years ago, when I first moved to Portland Oregon. I moved up here by myself in sept. to go to culinary school. Well I was here all alone for Thanksgiving and mom had some friends here and asked them if I could spend the holiday with them. So I did the food was ok but NOTHING like moms cooking. And it was the first time I spent a holiday away from my family . Then the following year when I was with family again mom tried to do new recipes but I begged and pleaded for her to make the same recipes that I new and LOVED… Happy Mothers’ Day everyone!!!!
For our birthdays, my mom would alternate years between a party or a special dinner where she prepared our choice of favorite dishes. One year I requested angel food cake with peppermint frosting. I told her it tasted like Crest toothpaste (which wasn’t a bad thing in my mind). She never made that cake again, but I carry on the special birthday dinners with my family, and they seem to love having a night where they rule the menu.
My mother was and is a great cook and baker. I grew up in rural Michigan farm country and mom was the best with comfort foods…meats, potatoes, breads, vegetables and always a wide array of homemade desserts. Our family favorite has always been her homemade gingerbread cake with real whipped cream. It was and is a treat when she makes it and I can smell and taste the warm gingerbread even now as I think about it. It is always amazing how something as simple as a scent/smell and/or taste can give a person such a great sense of comfort and security. Thanks mom!
One of my most favorite food memories is of Sunday mornings at my grandmother’s home. Every Sunday, without fail, my grandmother would make the most fabulous pancakes from scratch. She used an electric griddle, which I thought (at age 10) was the most amazing kitchen appliance!! On one side she would make perfectly browned pancakes and on the opposite side she would fry sausage links. She would also make a simple maple syrup from sugar, water and maple flavoring. It WAS the best!! She never used recipes, it was always “a little of this or a little of that.” I’m grown up now and have a griddle of my own–and two fabulous grandsons that just love Sunday mornings at Nina’s.
My Mom has always made the best Monster Cookies. Her recipe has been in the family for years and is highly protected. Our childhood friends STILL beg Mom for Monster Cookies at Christmas time. The best gift ever!
Sunday brunch was always my favorite. My mom had warm bagels, cream cheese, lox, and scrambled eggs.
My favorite Mom food memory is the candy and treats she makes at Christmas time.
loved your story Lucy – I just submitted by own, but yours caught my eye and wanted you to know that it made me cry. Your Mom sounds like she was a wonderful woman and an amazing Mother to you and those who were in need of a Mommy’s touch when they had no real Mother figure to turn to.
Keep those memories out there and talked about and your Mom’s compassion will live on for year to come….
Happy Mother’s Day…
Amber Morris
Loganton, Pa.
My mom is a gourmet and cooking is a passion! My favorite food memory is not of a particular recipe, but of the time together as a family preparing the meal. We had to pay close attention because the recipe often was only a guideline! But if I had to pick one, it would be our pie making sessions. I passed on this legacy to my oldest daughter when I visited her in Brazil for the birth of her first baby and we had to adjust the ingredients for what was available in a country that doesn’t make pies! Thanks, Mom!
I best Mom Memory involving food is when my mom tried to teach me how to make pumpkin pie. There I was doing every step and following each directions she was telling me to do. I was a great student, or so I thought, until I went to put it in the oven. I don’t know what exactly happened, but it flipped over onto the rack. Yes all the pumpking pie was running down the racks of my mothers very hot over and needless to say she didn’t yell, or get upset, she just told me how to clean a messy hot oven and to start again. My mom is 65 today on MOther’s day-she always shared this day with her birthday-and it might be her last one with us as she has Alzheimer, but I always keep this one memory close to heart because she showed me that day a mother with great patience and understanding. She could of yelled she could of show exhaustion, but instead she showed grace to her eager daughter who wanted to be a part of baking on one Thanksgiving year. I am a great baker today because of her:) Love you mom!!!
My favorite memory is when we were so broke that we could barely afford the rent and mom would buys some refrigerator biscuits and make homemade donuts for us, like no matter how bad it got she found a way to make us not notice the hard times 😉
My mom would make Chineese food from scratch,
Two hours of labor of love to be gone in a few minutes. What labour of love!
Funny enough, Mom was not a great cook, leaving the door wide open for me to take over as the family chef as soon as I was tall enough to reach the stove, LOL!
I do remember a Valenine’s Day when I was in grade school. My Dad worked for the school system and they were on strike that fall leaving money a bit scarce for a while. We could not afford fancy store bought Valentines for our milk carton mailboxes at school so we used red and pink construction paper and lacy paper doilies to make our Valentines for the class.
I remember the amber bottle of mucilage (do they even make that stuff anymore?) and the sticky fingers as we layered the different colors to make 3-D effects even though this memory is nearly 40 years old, just being at the kitchen table with Mom is still very precious.
As the only daughter and fourth child in my family, I decided at a young age to rebel a bit and was headstrong in becoming like the rest of my family, who were very much down home country folks living in the central Pa. My Dad and Mom, as well as my 3 brothers were always doing something that involved the outdoors or just plain “Valley” living. Hunting, fishing, cutting their own wood, canning and cooking were all part of the daily routine. My Mom was, and still is known for her delicious culinary skills and always welcoming anyone to sit at the table come meal time, no matter how rich or poor we were at the time. My Mother has cooked everything from the standards like steaming hot chili and amazing stromboli or a wonderful baked zucchini to local favorite (Pennsylvania Dutch) pot pie to whipping up some of the catches my Dad and her brought home from hunting over the years, including ground hog, rattlesnake, snapping turtle stew and the meat that kept us going when times were really tough – venison. She is an expert at homemade pies and various other desserts and is frequently asked to bake things for public events in our town. When we were growing up my Dad had a good job at the local paper mill, but even though money was sometimes scarce, we as her children, never knew it. There was always, and I mean always, a hot meal on the table at every meal with enough for everyone to have seconds or thirds.
As time went on, and I was approaching my middle elementary years, I too found that I had developed this same love of cooking and my Mom eagerly taught me how to make many things just by adding a “dash” of seasoning here and a “few cups” of this there. Now, I as an adult, have found that cooking does more than just feed our bodies – it feeds our souls as well. It gives people comfort when they feel alone, it shows caring when your neighbor has lost a loved one, and it gives a sense of peace when nothing else in the world is dependable. Because of my Mom and her love and compassion for her family and her community, I have become everything that I tried not so hard to be. I am my country bred, born and raised Mom, Vivian. And I am proud of it. Thank you Mom….
My fav Mom recipe story is her teaching me her family famous Lasagna recipe. Just typing the words makes me hungry! She showed me how to make it, then afterward gave me a binder filled with her recipes…with protective covers! Another fav is her teching me how to make the Christmas tradition (in our house) of Monkey Bread. I was probably 10 and it was a proud moment for me. :)Happy Mothers Day!
My mother remembers all the foods that her mother could make without recipes. Like home made bread, gravy and to die for veggie soup made from scratch with fresh garden veggies Yum.
My favorite memory is mom’s lasagna. My mother isn’t one to cook a lot of things from scratch but every Christmas her contribution to dinner before Midnight Mass and then for Christmas dinner the next day was mouth watering lasagna. Though she really only makes it that one time of year, it is without a doubt– my favorite food. And nobody’s compares to Mama’s. <3
My best food memory of my Mom, may she rest in peace, is when she made Potato Salad! She knew I absolutely LOVED the hard boiled eggs she put in there, and she always cut a chunk off the hard boiled eggs and give them to me. Even when I was upstairs or even outside..I would smell those eggs and come running! My daughter, now 16, does the same thing to me!
I have to say my favorite MOM memory would be teaching me how to make lefse, a Swedish flast bread made of potatoes, we would do this every year for Thanksgiving, all of the personal instruction, “don’t add too much flours, it will be tough” “remember the potatoes are already cooked, don’t need to cook this too much”, remember don’t eat these warm you will get a tummy ache”, I have 40 great years of memories of her and friends and family getting together to chat, have some wine and make lefse for hours on end. Sadly I lost my mom when she was only 62, but I still have those memories and I now say the same thing to my son as I teach him a family holiday tradition. And his response, “Yes, mom, I know, not too much flour, don’t cook it too long, but I don’t mind the tummy ache” So much fun. Thanks Mom, I miss you terribly but have so much fun every year making lefse, thanks to YOU.
My favorite Mothers Day Memory is my mother teaching me how to make Lasagna. She told me if I ever wanted to impress someone this would be the recipe to make, so I should pay attention. Turns out the secret to her fabulous home made lasagna are the “no bake” noodles. In under 30 minutes you are putting a lasagna in the oven that taste like you worked on all day long. She was right, this is the dish to impress, and have since taught my boyfriend how to make it. He’s in the kitchen making one to deliver to his mother on this Mothers Day right now!
My favorite Mommy meal is my mom’s stuffing on Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas too! It’s the best bread stuffing….very simple yet sooooo yummy! Now that I have my own home, I can’t make Thanksgiving without her stuffing!! This recipe originated from my Father’s Mother and then passed down to my mom and then to me!
My favourite Mom Food memory??
Well, I guess it must have been when I was about 8 years old. Once again, my mom, who is almost positively the worst cook on the planet, had made yet another inedible, noxious monstrosity and titled it: “Dinner”
I pointed out that seeing as she clearly hated to cook, and I was already a much better cook than her, I would be happy to cook dinners in future instead of her (she was a single mom and worked all the time) and she could do the dishes after.
This arrangement suited her perfectly, and it remained in existence until I moved out of the house when I was 14, and started working in the kitchen of a restaurant.
Which is what I have been doing ever since.
So in a way, my Mom, the worst cook on earth, is responsible for the start of my lifelong passion, and my career- as a professional chef!
thanks Mom!!
Waking up early Thanksgiving morning to the smell of butter and sauteing onions getting ready to stuff the HUGE turkey. Mom was so surprised and thrilled that I wanted to help, but I NEEDED to get a load of laundry in (teenager and company=no clean clothes, of course!) So we’re valiantly cleaning the 25 lb. bird in our new deep sink when the laundry starts to drain… INTO THE SINK!! I’m screaming, she’s pulling, I’m tugging, water’s flying everywhere and the turkey thinks he needs to go the other way! We finally grab him out, sliding on the now very slippery floor, saving the Turkey from the quite blue laundry water. Which was funnier; Dad running in OMG are you alright with that look on his face or 2 drenched women in pajamas on the soaking wet floor hugging a 25 lb. raw turkey, grinning ear to ear? (btw, we made 6 desserts that year and it was YUMMY!!)
My mom taught me how to make homemade noodles from the recipe of my Dad’s mother. It is a truly special tradition.
One of my favorite memories comes from when I was a very little girl. We (my mother, sister and I ) lived with my grandparents while she got back on her feet from a messy divorce.
My Mother and Grandmother would prepare a big batch of spaghetti and meatballs, tossed salad and garlic bread from scratch, singing and chattering like to magpies on a summer day. After the meal was served, and everyone was sated, we would sing old ballads, hymns, and new songs from the radio, together. *smiling*
It is a joy and a blessing that I have been able to share those precious gifts with my own 3 children, and now with my grandchildren.
Thank you Nana and Mom for the gift of joy in serving others, and the blessing of the gift of music.
((hugs)) and much love- Gina
My Mom is a great cook and I have lots of great food memories. My favorite would have to be making Christmas cookies, especially the red and white candy cane cookies. Now I bake them with my own children, creating another generation of memories.
I have many favorite Mom food memories. But one of them is all the Saturday morning breakfasts Mom used to make. She fixed us breakfast every morning before school, but on Saturdays she fixed pancakes. And not from a mix. Homemade, wonderful pancakes. She cooked and served as many pancakes as all four of us kids could eat. One time I managed to eat twelve before calling it quits. (I was going through a growth spurt and Mom declared I had a tapeworm.) To me, fixing all those thousands of pancakes through the years, was a real act of love. Thanks, Mom!
On mothers day, May 13th 2007 my husband and I had a steak dinner to welcome the birth of our 3rd baby girl Allison. A meal that I didn’t have to cook myself or get dressed up for and also didn’t have to clean up the mess after. That is the perfect dinner. I would have never thought that I would spend mothers day in a hospital, but I have to say this was the best mothers day I have ever had and one I will never forget.
My most memorable with my mom is when I was 7 months pregnant and we were making bread.So we put it in the oven for 1 hr. Then while baking we decided to fix the color in my hair and we started stripping the color and you would’nt believe this, MY WATER BROKE!!!! So OMG needless to say the bread was jerked out of the oven and off to the hospital. Here I am with white hair and baby on its way. My mom has never forgotten that bread making. Its funny now.
My favorite Mom/food memory is that we don’t want my mom to cook. LOL She just isn’t cut out for it somehow – not her forte by any means. But we love her just the same!
Sunday dinner: My Mom would put a ham in the oven to roast before we left for church. When we got home the house smelled so good! Sunday dinner was always a wonderful meal using all the best dishes. While Mom donned an apron and began making the sides (including Raisin Sauce for the ham) we kids would either help her or set the table with the linens, china, silver and crystal. Once we were seated Papa would carve the ham and the other dishes were passed family-style. We grew up knowing all the correct forks, glasses, etc. to use, and their placement, because of those Sunday dinners. When everyone was sated, we all helped with the clean-up. I remain grateful for my Mom being a wonderful cook and setting such a good example for us.
My favorite memory of my momma is how she would always
make sure whenever we had dinner she would always make sure that I had atleast one thing on the table to eat. I’m a picky eater & I’m allergic to a lot of
different foods so no matter what was being cooked no matter where we were at home or somewhere else she always made sure I was taken care of. I love her so very much & miss her so much too. This is the 6th mothers day I have had without her but I know she is looking out for me & my family everyday!
My mom made the best macaroni and cheese ever. She could never tell me the recipe because she just kind of knew what she was doing so I learned by watching. That’s how my sons have learned it as well and it is now their favorite mom recipe. They are teaching it to their significant others and TODAY that is what my youngest said he wanted to give me as a gift. He is making macaroni and cheese and steamed broccoli for dinner. My sons can’t even smell steamed broccolli without thinking Mac and Cheese.
My favorite confort food was my grandmother’s bread.
She would wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to start kneading the dough using her own bare hands.
Waking up with that scrumptious, delicious, fragrant smell around the house made us run to the kitchen every morning.
She passed away one morning, after she had kneaded her last batch of bread.
I would give up 10 years of my life to smell her homemade bread once more. :°(
Thanksgiving dinner was always at Mom’s house after all of the kids moved out. Cooking the dinner was always the highlight of my Thansgiving because Mom & I always cooked together. No cookbooks, just the recipes I had grown up with – turkey in the roasting bag, cornbread dressing, baked sweet potatoes just peeled & buttered, freshly cooked cranberries . . . nothing fancy, but the togetherness made it a feast.
Definitely Christmas Cookies! Sugar cookies in cut out designs, then we all gather around the table while Mom ice’s them & then hands them to us to decorate 🙂 Takes a long time to do, but it’s so much fun! After 50 years, we still get together every year to continue this tradition & for the last 24 years with the grand-daughter too! Oh, and sometimes Valentines & Easter cut out cookies 🙂 Love you Mom & thanks for the memories 🙂
I remember my mom making me toast with butter and sugar, so yummy!!
Spaghetti and Meatballs! It was the best!
When I was a kid, my German grandmother Joan would visit from Wisconsin and make her Liver Dumplings. I always choked down as few bites as I could get away with. They were probably my least favorite meal of all time. In fact, I think I would still hate them today. Luckily, I have no memory of their flavor. In first grade, for Mother’s Day, our class put together a recipe book of our favorite recipes for our Moms. What did I bring? Liver Dumplings. I’m sure as a kid, I just grabbed whatever was accessible that morning. I bet my recipe is the only one in that book that never got made!
i love to bake and make different thing my mixer kick the bed and die may it rest in peace as my mother alway use to say nothing last foe every thank you have greatmother day
I remember having Mother’s Day at my grandmother’s house…. old fashioned, skillet-fried chicken, crispy hashbrowns, broccoli w/ broccoli sauce, always homemade pickled beets and fresh bread. Beautiful memories.
My favorite memories are the ones I have with my kids baking cookies. My girls love baking and my youngest wants to be a baker and cake decorator when she grows up. I love when my kids come to me and ask me to make a certain meal, it makes me feel great when they love what I cook for them.
I remember my Mother teaching me to make pie crust when I was a little girl. As I grew up, and began my own family, every time I began to make a pie I called Mom to have her refresh my memory on pie crust. Eight years ago my Mother passed away. The first Thanksgiving without her, I began to prepare the days foods….I got all the ingredients together for my pies….but panicked and sat down and cried and cried because Mom wasnt there to call to walk me through pie crust 101 again. After the crying ceased, I began to flip through recipe books of Mom’s for another recipe finding none that sounded as good. Finally opened up my own little book of clippings and recipes given to me….I found Mom’s- not sure if she wrote it or I, but there it was…of course, that just brought more tears. Not sure how those pies finally got made through all the tears. But, they did! I think I had an Angels help!
My mom would always cook enough food to feed an army. But, I was the youngest of 8 kids. Every morning before I went to school, she thought I had to have a hot breakfast. And standing in front of the stove, with an apron around her waist, frying chicken, mmmm, that was one of my favorite foods. Now, I use cooking a meal as an excuse to get my kids to come over and spend time with me. They are always willing to come when I offer to cook them a home-cooked meal.
My favorite food memorys with my mom is helping her in the kitchen when I was growing up. My fondest memories are at Christmas, baking all kinds of goodies, and in the summer. We would make homemade icecream (with the old crank icecream maker)after picking fresh peaches. To this day, my mom loves icecream.
On summer, my sister was a camp counselor and the cook at the camp walked out on the job leaving nearly one hundred under-priveleged girls without someone to prepare their meals. My mother stepped up.
She left us for several weeks and my sisters and I who remained at home had to put to use those things she taught us. I was about 8 years old and remember feeling jealous that those “girls” who didn’t know my mom got to enjoy her fabulous cooking. By the end of the camp, those “girls” had experienced more than an excellent cook. They found tenderness, affection, and more love than they had bargained for. My mom had a big heart and a great imagination. Lucky for them! Those girls had excellent home-cooked meals (industrial sized and not missing ANY flavor)! They also got many hugs and lots of affirmation. Ingredients which came all too natural from my mom.
One little girl in particular, about my age, told me, “You don’t know how lucky you are to have a mother like Janet.” She was right. At the tender age of 8, I didn’t. 36 years later, and my mother having passed on, I do. She taught me to ALWAYS have room at my table for one more. She knew how sharing a meal builds intimacy in a family. This is a tradition I have implemented into my own life, along with her fabulous recipes and standards. I thank you Mama. Miss you. Happy Mother’s Day Dear Lady!
My father was raised in the depression and he was really a miser. He wouldn’t let my mom use the oven in the summer because it caused heat. He made her plug her fry daddy in outside on the porch so it wouldn’t cause heat. One day she fries me some tater tots. As I am eating, I notice the grease spots all look the same. It’s then I realize I am eating fried ants. They had crawled in the cooled grease and became fried as she heated it. Needless to say, I threw up! Thanks for the memory, Mom!
One of the memories I have of cooking, when I knew it would be my favorite thing to do, is when I was about 14 years old. I had found a recipe for almond toffee. I figured out we had all the ingredients, so I dived in, without asking permission.
When my Grandmother (who had raised me) realized what I was doing, she threw a fit! See, she grew up during the depression and had lived through WWII, so butter and sugar was precious to her. Taking a chance on wasting a cup or two was extreme to her.
Well, I had already started. And I couldn’t look back. I followed that recipe to a T. It turned out wonderful! And guess who was in charge of neighbor and friend gifts that Christmas!! Me! My Grandmother commissioned to make several batches of that recipe.
And now that I think about it, I haven’t made it since! But I love trying new recipes all the time and hold my encourage my 6 children to do the same. I love it!
My favorite memory is the first time me, my sisters brother and friend attempted making pierogis for the first time by ourselves…so much fun and drinking…we believed that the more we drank, the easier it got to make these things….a polish tradition so they say 🙂
Silver dollar pancakes. She’d make just bunches of these little bite sized pancakes for us. For some reason, the always tasted better than one large pancake – lol. And good ole Log Cabin.
I remember making chocolate pudding with my mom. She used to let me climb up on a step stool and stir the pudding mixture. We’d wait for that “magic moment” when the liquid mixture suddenly morphed into pudding. The feel of it changed as I movesd the wooden spoon through the pot. I had to be five or six, and I remember just looking at her with … See Moreamazement, and her eyes would twinkle as she leaned in and said.. “see cooking is magic!” and I believed her. I remember sitting by the stove, and watching her cook, talking about our day and just relaxing. My siblings and I have tried to recreate our favorite recipes, but just can’t do it. We seem to always be missing an ingredient, but we know what it is. When she died she took the “magic” with her.
My favorite food memory with my Mom was when she began showing signs of Alzheimer’s. She actually forgot to put the milk in her sweet potatoe pie. When I arrived at her house she was boiling sweet potatoes and I said “I thought you made the pies already”. She sheepishly said “yes, but I forgot the milk!” We both laughed hysterically!!! It was a great moment for her to explain to me how to make sweet potato pie!! She didn’t cook much after that but she guided me through the recipes, as she remembered, of all of the great meals she served me while I was growing up.
I love you Mom…Rest in Peace!
I favorite mom food story is that my grandmother makes this amazing chocolate cake with fudge icing. This recipe has been pasted down from generation to generation. My nephew made this cake with my mom (his grandmother) and entered it into a cake competition and won first place. Just this year me and my daughter made this cake for a County 4H show and again we won first place. So 4 generations have made this chocolate cake, I cannot wait to pass the recipe to my grandchildren. Happy Mother’s Day!
I don’t know what it was but Mom and I could be working side by side in the kitchen, I could mirror her EVERY move, and what she made ALWAYS tasted better.
My favorite mom memory is having to park at the bottom of our snow covered driveway in Franklin, NC, growing up. The driveway was very steep and there was NO way a vehicle could navigate it safely. To get down safely, we would use the concrete ditches on either side as slides in our snowsuits. Fun!
Thanksgiving, My mom makes the very very best roast turkey and dressing ever. MY little brother and I still fight over the crunchy part.
My best memory of my mom is her Vegetable Beef Soup she made and her Rice Pudding it was the best. Oh this will sound funny, but her Egg Gravy she made nothing like it.
I would have to say it was when my son who was 3 at the time and now hes 18. My husband and him were making me a cake for Mother’s Day and when I got up that morning, there was a cake and several presents waiting for me. I notice that my son is being really quite, so I ask him whats wrong and he said. I was just wondering how come you have two Birthdays and I only have one..I thought that was the cutest thing, I think about that every Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day.
My best Mommy meal, when I was young, was making homemade ravioli’s. We helped make and roll the dough. It was so delicious, tasting the meat filling. Then, when we done, we all sat down for an enjoyable dish of homemade ravioli’s. It was the best time for me!!! I miss those moments, since my mother has passed, just love to make 1 more batch with her, even get the recipe from her.
Thanx for letting me share,
Colleen
Hmm..I have so many memories of cooking with my mom-she made everything! Every night was a fresh dinner-but what I loved was picking ingredients from our garden and making polish dishes-such as goumbki-Stuffed cabbage..It would take hours to make and there are no recipe cards because everything was in her head and that’s how it’s passed down..and that’s how all of our cooking memories were made..
My mother and grandmother taught me to cook at a very young age. They both loved cooking from scratch and both made sure a meal was on the table every evening and we ate dinner together. Both my mother and grandmother have passed away but they left their legacy with me with their recipes and techniques that I have passed on to my daughter and my son. Growing up money was tight as it is now, but they always could take a few ingredients and have a beautiful tasty meal on the table. I miss them both but am so grateful for the skills and knowledge I have because of them.
My favorite Mom memory is the yearly canning we did. I remember sitting down in our back yard and shucking bushels of corn and watching my mom and older sisters can baskets of tomatoes. 🙂 Thanks mom for all the lovely lessons on how to care for my family!!!
My birthday is in April. One year Easter and my birthday fell on the same day. My mom always baked a cake for our birthday and for special occations. I did not know if I would get a bithday cake since it was a holiday but my mom baked a cake for me in the shape of a bunny. This was before most people could afford pans shaped as animals so she baked round cakes and cut shapes so that I could have a bunny cake for my Easter birthday. I have always remembered that cake. I love my mom dearly. She is 73 now and buys me shaped cake pans so I can bake special cakes.
We moved a lot when I was a kid. Big moves. Across state moves. When we moved to California from Montana, it was a huge culture shock. In Montana, most of our friend’s Moms were stay-at-home Moms. In California, everyone worked. Our home became the center for all of our friends after school. Mom would frequently have a big pan of cookies or homemade cinnamon rolls or bread coming out of the oven just as we walked in the door from school. I remember one of my brother’s friends commenting that he didn’t even know you could make bread at home 🙂 Childhood memories are full of happy noises and wonderful smells.
My favorite Mom food memory is when from the time I was very little until present day, (I’m now 43)around Christmas time every year, my Mom and I make Scottish Shortbread Cookies (both cut out and bar) to mail to the rest of my Scottish family using the recipe that has been handed down between many, many generations straight from Scotland. We usually have the same conversation, about the traditions of Scots for Christmas and New Years but that is always a treasured time for both of us.
My food memory is of my paternal grandmother. We lived about 8hrs away so when we would come to visit of course she would put on a big spread… that’s what grandmothers did in those days 🙂 She would make this delicious homemade mac’n cheese for me and banana bread that was to die for! I have her recipe for the banana bread and I try and try to make it like she did but it is never right! It tastes the same but it doesn’t look right. Everyone says it’s delicious but I always say it’s not right… it doesn’t look right. So every time I make it I always think of my grandma and her busily and lovingly making everyone’s favorite foods. <3
My favorite Mothers Day memory is being with my Grandmother & trying to learn how to make her special chicken & dumplings, of course mine didn’t turn out at all, not even close to it. Grandma’s just have that touch..I love my Grandma & everything she has done for me in my life & still does.
I always was one who was interested in food. I can remembering pulling a chair in the begining and watching and when I got to stir my first batter and see the end results I was hooked. Each time my mom would cook I would bring my chair and ask what I could do? Each time it was something different, then as I got older I got to use more of my moms items it was great. Today I love to cook and always cooking for friends and co workers LOVE IT and when I found this site now I am in heaven thanks
Favorite mom food memory has to be helping my mom make bread when I was little and the fact that I am the only daughter out of us 4 girls that can actually attempt my mom bread.
BTW…AWESOME site!! LOVE IT LOVE IT!!! Great ideas for anything you need.
My grandmother was the greatest. She was always willing to sacrifice for others. I remember her baking me a Pineapple Cake for my Birthday even though she was allergic to pineapple. I will always remember was she was willing to do for me.
Rhonda
My Mom would make the BEST pie Ritz cracker pie Mom would make it for everyone birthday or holiday we all loved.
MOTHER’S RITZ CRACKER PIE
20 crushed Ritz crackers
3/4 c. pecans
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 pt. cream, whipped & sweetened to taste
1 c. sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix pecans, 1/2 cup sugar and cracker crumbs in bowl. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff; gradually add vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar. Fold crumb mixture into egg white mixture; pour into greased pie plate and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool thoroughly; top with whipped cream; chill.
My favorite mom memory is a recent one of myself shopping with my two year old daughter. I was trying to figure out what she’d actually eat for dinner and asked her if she’d like some cheesy rice. She gave me a funny look and said “Mom. It’s not called cheesy rice. It’s called risotto.”
my favorite mom food memory would definitely be pierogies! my mom makes them from scratch and takes her all day to make! i would remember leaving for school while she got all the ingredients and supplies out and coming home to the smell of them frying in the frying pan!! she made enough to feed an army! and we didn’t complain when we ate them for dinner for a week :)!!! MMMMM!
Happy Mother’s Day! My favorite Mom food memory is making pizza with my mom. She made the most amazing crust and then we could add anything we wanted to make it our own! So yummy! I did the same thing with my children and now with my grandchildren. Amazing how many food memories came to mind when I saw this. Keep ’em coming!
My favorite mom food memory…
One of my most recent is a few years back some friends and I were traveling from Michigan to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for a conference, in the process there and back we were passing RIGHT by my parent’s house. So on the way back from Oshkosh, we stopped at my mom and dad’s in Milwaukee. It was me and 3 guys and my mom had offered to make us lunch. Well, we got there and she had made some homemade pizza and garlic bread for all of us. We were so amazed at how much food there was, so we got to pack up left overs for the road!
Thanks, Mom 🙂
Helping my Mom make homemade cookies! The time it too to measure and mix everything, then cutting them out and being creative with decorating and learning how to bake them just right…It’s the best time! Then enjoying the fruits of the labor and having some with a cold glass of milk!
My favorite mom meal memory is her making spaghetti. She isn’t a cook with many memorable recipes but she makes great spaghetti. 🙂 It is still my favorite comfort food.