# Strange Foods Your Mother Used to Cook



## Seth (Mar 4, 2012)

I'm not talking about cultural or ethnic foods as such but just wondering if some of you remember somewhat weirdo foods from your childhood. My mother used to take leftover mashed potatoes, mix with chopped spinach and pan fry. I don't remember if any additional binders were used. I suppose this was supposed to be a form of potato latka. Also, sliced hot dogs in pea soup. I also vaguely remember a blintz type thing; cottage cheese sandwiched between to saltine crackers and baked or fried. (Didn't really eat these.)


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 4, 2012)

My folks were on the atkins diet and we'd occasionally have hamburger patties(just a lump of ground beef) with pickapeppa sauce on it. They also would put pepperoni on mozzerella cheese and microwave it on a plate. Stank something fierce, and ruined the microwave for days.

For some reason, growing up, all the salads had the stem still on the tomato.

I'm having trouble remembering...my mother was a damn fine cook, but I'm sure there were some more oddball things in there.


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## tkern (Mar 4, 2012)

Experimental casserole dinner- if its in the cabinet, its going to be in the casserole.


My grandmother- everything velveeta


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## The Edge (Mar 4, 2012)

My mom used cut up hot dogs in soup as well, though it was potato soup. A casserole recipe she liked to cook was called "Cat Barf" which tasted pretty good. It was spaghetti squash with marinara and cheese baked in the oven. Only other thing I can remember that was a little off the wall was when I was a little kid. We used to have these things called sail boats. Basically, a hot dog cut length wise, mashed potatoes on top with slices of american cheese cut to look like sails and held up with tooth picks.


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

Nuteena


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

Your family vegetarian?


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

bikehunter said:


> Your family vegetarian?


Family is SDA and no I am not vegetarian, but grew up eating that way a lot.


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

I'm a bit unclear on this. Some SDA eat meat but most don't??


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

bikehunter said:


> I'm a bit unclear on this. Some SDA eat meat but most don't??



The conservatives don't on general health principles. Don't drink, smoke, eat vegetarian, exercise. For example Loma Linda is a blue zone. Meaning longer life expectancy. Kind of guinea pigs for good health. Even school focus is usually, doctor,dentist,nurse, etc. Southern California is a little more casual ie church potluck with two tables at some churches a meat table, and vegetarian table. Nothing really weird just a Protestant church that has sabbath from Friday night to Saturday night from the ten commandments for sabbath like the Jews. That being said SDA schools like Loma Linda and PUC up in Napa Valley serve vegetarian food only.


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

Maybe that the source of my confusion. I lived most of my life in Napa Valley, so assumed all SDA were vegetarian. Thanks for clearing that up.


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## Keith Neal (Mar 4, 2012)

Mother's food was mostly normal, but my Dad had recently returned from Europe in WWII, and developed a love of Spam, sauteed until crisp, and served with scrambled eggs for breakfast, and Kippered Herring, also served with scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I still love Spam, but rarely admit it in public.


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

Fried Spam rules, and I don't give a rip what anyone think thinks about it....foodie snobs included. <g.


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

bikehunter said:


> Maybe that the source of my confusion. I lived most of my life in Napa Valley, so assumed all SDA were vegetarian. Thanks for clearing that up.


No problem :biggrin: Hope it didn't come across preachy. Just explaining the culture. I really miss Napa. I used to get walnuts from my grandparents orchard in St. Helena and found petrified wood around their house. I miss sandwiches at Giugnis Deli, and Cinnabar and Boskos in Calistoga don't know if I spelled those right. Used to run around with Robert Mondavi Jr. and Brian Power who's parents at that time had the Nut Tree on I80.


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

Not preachy at all. Just looking for information and you supplied it. As you know, almost all of those walnut groves (along with the apples and prunes) are long gone. Given over to grapes on every square inch of ground which could possibly grow them . I spent 25 years in the Napa Valley wine industry, but still feel a pang of regret when I see that every other Napa valley crop is gone forever.


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## 99Limited (Mar 4, 2012)

My mother used to fix Lamb Fries. As a kid who had a mother that was a great cook, I never asked what something was. If I liked it, I ate it and I loved Lamb Fries. It wasn't until I was 12 or 13 that my older brother told me what they were. Now that I'm quite a bit older and would like to fix them myself, I can't find them anywhere. I guess they end up in being used in Spam.


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## Eamon Burke (Mar 4, 2012)

*edit* ok I looked it up. Lamb Fries are testicles.

I would love to find some place that sells testicles prepared well, I'd love to try them after all the hype.




I'm having trouble defining what is cultural and what is just oddball. I mean, sometimes we'd have sliced white bread with butter and white sugar on it. That is strange, gross, and dangerous as hell to me today, but it isn't that uncommon(at least here below the Mason-Dixon line).

Also my dad would mix up rolled oats, great grains ceral, raisins, dates, and muesli into a cereal that was the only acceptable alternative to eggs and porkchops for breakfast(we raised pigs). I got older and loved watching outsiders who are used to Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs pour a bowl of that stuff bragging about how much cereal they eat. I don't think I've ever seen anyone outside of my family finish a bowl at all.


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

BurkeCutlery said:


> *edit* ok I looked it up. Lamb Fries are testicles.
> 
> I would love to find some place that sells testicles prepared well, I'd love to try them after all the hype.
> 
> ...



Sometimes had toasted bread with butter,sugar, and cinnamon. Muesli is great stuff doesn't take much to fill up.


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## bikehunter (Mar 4, 2012)

99Limited said:


> I guess they end up in being used in Spam.



And for the better, I'd guess. lol


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## slowtyper (Mar 4, 2012)

Spam is great. Thin and crispy or thick and juicy. Spam (well, its chinese-branded brothers) are staples in chinese households and Hong Kong tea houses!


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## Deckhand (Mar 4, 2012)

slowtyper said:


> Spam is great. Thin and crispy or thick and juicy. Spam (well, its chinese-branded brothers) are staples in chinese households and Hong Kong tea houses!


And Hawaii


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## apicius9 (Mar 4, 2012)

Deckhand said:


> And Hawaii



Yep!

My Mom is a decent cook but very conservative and not adventurous at all. My Grandma was not adventurous and a bad cook... But a few things from Grandma I really liked, e.g. Milk soup with roasted bread, yeast dumplings with cooked dried fruit, green pea soup with ham, just very simple country cooking of people who grew up poor. As a kid, I remember my Grandma cutting me a slice of the large country loaf (maybe 20" in diameter) and she always used a small knife like the ones that are being discussed in Karring's thread. The bread was generously buttered and then she poured white sugar on it. When I was a little older, I preferred salt on it. And by the time I hung around local bars, the same rustic bread with schmaltz and salt was what got you through a night of heavy drinking. My Mom made one strange dish I happen to like, 'warm cucumber' which is basically a slightly thinner mashed potato with sour cream, thin slices of English cucumber, and rendered lardons of cured bacon. What's not to like?

Stefan


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## Seth (Mar 4, 2012)

Well I don't if it's cultural but around here we do scrapple more than spam - thin and crispy. I tend not to admit to this in public either. Guess I'm a wimp.


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## ajhuff (Mar 4, 2012)

Mmmmm.... schmaltz. :hungry:

-AJ


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## 99Limited (Mar 5, 2012)

Seth said:


> Well I don't if it's cultural but around here we do scrapple more than spam - thin and crispy. I tend not to admit to this in public either. Guess I'm a wimp.



Scrapple ... includes every thing from the pig but the Oink. For the commercially available product this might be true, but I had a neighbor who made scrapple and it's nothing more than a pork butt, onions and seasonings with corn meal or grits for a binder. Tasted pretty good to me too.


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## MadMel (Mar 5, 2012)

slowtyper said:


> Spam is great. Thin and crispy or thick and juicy. Spam (well, its chinese-branded brothers) are staples in chinese households and Hong Kong tea houses!



Probably called luncheon meat in chinese supermarkets and tea houses. Love them to death... I prolly could go a full month eating nothing but crispy fried luncheon meat with white bread


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## GLE1952 (Mar 5, 2012)

Mother used to take leftover fried pork liver, we raised hogs too, ran it through the grinder and mixed it with scrambled eggs for breakfast.
The sound of it makes most people cringe but it was really quite good.

I really like bull fries, I'm the cook at our little testicle fry every year.

Glen


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## slowtyper (Mar 5, 2012)

MadMel said:


> Probably called luncheon meat in chinese supermarkets and tea houses. Love them to death... I prolly could go a full month eating nothing but crispy fried luncheon meat with white bread



Yep, last year I was eating hotpot and my friend kept asking me to check off luncheon meat but I had no idea what he was saying because he was pronouncing it "lawn-cheong". Burst out laughing when I finally figured out what he was trying to say. He grew up speaking english as his first language but I guess just never heard anyone say it, saw the chinese labels and assumed it was a chinese word...haha


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## JBC (Mar 6, 2012)

MMMM, Scrapple! Love that stuff. My Grandfather used to make it for me when I was a kid. Moved to Cleveland 8 years ago from Pittsburgh and can't find it anywhere up here.

Jason


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## lowercasebill (Mar 6, 2012)

try this if you can find it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetta i have never had it but i understand it is like scrapple except with oats instead of corn meal..
and thanks to all of you who posted about hot dog soup. i though i was the only one .. Mom would cube potatoes boil them and pour off most of the water and add milk and hot dog pieces yielding this stock of watered down milk she would 'finish' it by stirring ketchup into the broth and dotting the hot dog pieces with mustard . i served it to my friends once when i was in grad school thinking it was a 'normal' dinner offering .. they refused to eat it , kidnapped me, drove me to south philly and made me buy them all Pat's cheese steaks .
heading to a big green egg fest in Fla and will take 6 packages of scrapple to serve to the unsuspecting.. i tell them it is a special Philadelphia sausage .


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## Seth (Mar 6, 2012)

I appraise commercial real estate and I once read a report that claimed that Philadelphia's commercial real estate market was strong because Philadelphia is the home of scrapple and cheese steaks. We like to say these things occasionally to see if anyone is reading these reports. Potato hot dog soup sounds, well, ....ummm.....I'm going to take a ride to South Philly.


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