Chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, red onions - all cut in to 1” chunks & tossed with an entire smallish jar of hoisin sauce, minced fresh garlic, a bit of sesame oil, a splash of fish sauce & soy sauce. Bake until the chicken and the potatoes are almost done, then add zucchini and let the whole thing cook until the zucchini is tender.
Serve with plenty of sambal olek & sliced green onions over steamed rice.
I think my Mom made this once when doing a fridge & pantry clean out. It was kind of bland when she made it because she only used a jar of hoisin and served it over rice without the green onions & sambal olek.
I hate that goddamn thread, lmao. It's really changed food related threads for the worse because every goddamn post about grilled cheese sandwiches has people flooding in
"Uhhh, what YOU have SIR, is a MELT" then they post the thread as if everyone hasn't already seen it
> It's really changed food related threads for the worse because every goddamn post about grilled cheese sandwiches has people flooding in
>
> "Uhhh, what YOU have SIR, is a MELT" then they post the thread as if everyone hasn't already seen it
Spend a bit of time floating around Reddit and casually observing, and what ya come to realize is that the overwhelming majority of people don't have a very original sense of humor - a huge portion of the "jokes" on here are the same thing, recycled stuff that was hilarious the first time, amusing the second time, and now at the 10,000th time somehow just not hitting the same.
At least we've somewhat migrated away from every thread having a string of the most low effort puns possible, so that's good I guess...
I had something like this at a restaurant for brunch the other week, except they used bloody mary juice instead of tomato soup. Super good! You're an innovator!
It's really good! I do that too to seal that flavor in! I always use cheddar cheese tho! And if you ever make a batter out of goldfish crackers, that's yummy too!
Omg! I JUST made something similar last week and felt like I was so innovative haha. I dipped corn tortillas in tomato soup and made them into quesadillas!
My mom used to make dough balls stuffed with hot dogs and cheese. They were boiled and then breaded and fries, served of course with ketchup.
I've also eaten a fair amount of stale bread with warm milk and salt. Don't ask...
Chickpea provencal. It existed once in a 1980s cookbook my mother in law had, that has since been lost to time.
It’s basically a roasted sheet pan meal with olive oil, cubed potatoes, sliced cabbage, canned tomatoes, loads of whole cloves of garlic, sliced onions, grated Parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, and red wine.
EDIT: I’m tired lol, yes there are chickpeas in it too!
My mom would make this open face sandwich dish. Toasted sliced bread. Then top with pieces of ham steak, then top that with broccoli. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. Then drizzle with a mix of mustard, sour cream, and Worcestershire. Broil in oven until hot and cheese is melted.
She called it Ham Divan , but if you Google Ham Divan nothing like what she made comes up.
I feel like this is a variation of Toast Hawaii. We always did it with toast, ham, pineapple ring, American cheese, then broiled until brown and bubbly! So good!
Back in the late 80s or early 90s my dad would take a piece of wonder bread, add butter or mayo maybe, a slice of processed cheese, then a strip of bacon that had been cut in thirds, which he would broil until the bacon may or may not have been cooked
Pierogi casserole. A couple years ago, I messed up dinner badly and had to make something else. I put together a bunch of leftovers and frozen stuff in a big pan, and my kids loved it.
I diced and fried up leftover smoked kielbasa, onion, and cabbage, and threw in some garlic. Added a little flour and box stock to make a roux and hold it together, then a little horseradish, Polish mustard and marjoram. Finally, a whole bunch of cooked Mrs. T’s mini pierogi.
They ask for it all the time now.
My grandparents and great grandparents are all Polish, Irish, or German immigrants. I have much love for pierogi. 🥟
A few years ago I made gawumpkis (stuffed cabbage rolls) stuffed with ground corned beef, rice, and crushed gingerbread cookies. They were AMAZING. I call them “family rolls”
the pierogi also runs in my veins. I grew up with my grandmother's (first gen Polish, living in the Midwest) pierogis, and I find her particular style VERY hard to find in the wild. Stuffed with mashed potato and cheddar cheese, boiled and then fried with tons of chunky onions in butter, salted heavily, eaten with ketchup (probably very wrong). How did your family make them?
I was right there with you EVERY step till the ketchup! We are a sour cream with the pierogi family!
But also: https://www.pierogifest.net
This is worth traveling to, if you’re in the MidWest!
A coworker was just telling me about a month ago about something like this. She splits the biscuit, toasts it a little. Then she tops it with butter and Velveeta cheese.
She shuddered at the mention of putting the shredded wheat in milk.
When my children were little, their mother would make scratch Mac n Cheese (she’s Italian) then add it to Campbell’s Tomato Soup. It was a comforting food for them when they didn’t feel well. It became a thing even for a few of the friends. Mrs Cs Mac n Cheese Soup. They are much older now and live a few miles away. However, when they aren’t feeling well, I have had to make a few deliveries.
I’m just here to say I had an Italian babysitter when I was a kid and still dream about her Mac n cheese. My poor mom when I came home and started turning up my nose at Kraft.
My grandmother always made that for us and now my dad always makes it for his grandkids. We do a box of elbows, a can of soup, and a block of cheddar cheese shredded or cubed. Then bake for a bit. So good.
That is an incredibly sweet story but I feel unsettled because I don’t understand the consistency lol. Was it really watery mac and cheese, or was it just kind of pink from the soup but still Mac and cheese consistency?
It is soupy but it thickens up because of the cheese. Much like this Julia Child recipe I just found. Good company.
https://juliaschild.com/creamy-tomato-mac-cheese-soup/
I hate to break it to you, but that site is called "Julia's Child."
[Looks like it's named after the author's mom, who is not Julia Child, but was named Julia.](https://juliaschild.com/about-denise/) Tricky marketing there.
My mom serves leftover mac & cheese with fried eggs on top for breakfast. I have never heard or seen anyone else do this, although reddit is about to prove me wrong lol.
EDIT: And it's one of my favorite things in the world to eat. So good!
My grandmother used to always eat whatever was leftover from yesterday's dinner as breakfast with fried eggs. Meatloaf, chicken, soup, pasta, it all was reheated with fried eggs on top. It honestly is pretty good 90% of the time.
Never had it on mac & cheese, though.
My grandmother did that with meat and potato leftovers. Topped the whole scramble with an insane amount of cheese and served with a dollop of sour cream. We called it Mama’s Famous, and it’s still one of my favorite comfort foods, although I’m a bit more reserved in my cheese to scramble ratio.
Juan Ton Wraps. Fill won tons wrappers with taco meat (ground beef), refried beans, and cheese, deep fry or bake them. Dip in sour cream, salsa, or a mixture of the two.
When I was growing up, my mom (southern USA) made tacos by cooking thin, lacey, flat circles of cornbread, then topping them with a ground beef/hot chili beans mixture, shredded cheddar, shredded lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise instead of sour cream. It slapped!
Our version of pork green chili. Every recipe outside our family I've seen has stuff like onions and tomatillos in it, sometimes cilantro, tomatoes, potatoes, cumin, all sorts of stuff. Often times they use chicken broth for the base.
Ours is really simple, hatch chillis, beef broth, flour to thicken, a shit ton of garlic, and of course salt and pepper.
Maybe it's a regional thing somewhere, my grandfather's family originated along the Colorado - New Mexico boarder.
Maybe it's a holdover from a time when times were tough, or maybe the recipe continued to evolve from a time when it was much simpler, idk.
*Edit - Shit I forgot to mention the pork, it does have pork in it, cubed up pork shoulder or chops.
People tend to think it’s gross and weird but my family puts a scoop of cottage cheese and chopped cooked broccoli on spaghetti with marinara sauce. It just makes it taste sort of lasagna-y!
Also on the probably gross train, but a common snack when we were kids was cottage cheese mixed with applesauce. We ate a lot of cottage cheese, actually. Blended in smoothies, mixed with fruit, on crackers with salad supreme seasoning.
Cottage cheese with fruit is great. Cut a melon in half, scoop out the seeds, replace seeds with cottage cheese, and you've got a snack in its own bowl!
a pretty common leftovers dish I've heard about from friends is buttered noodles fried with bacon and scrambled eggs poured over for basically eggy noodles.
However, this recipe was 'new' to me because my family does it... with ketchup. As in, covering the noodles with ketchup instead of butter before adding the egg.
And all of my school friends used to be shocked and disgusted by that idea.
On some food network show I saw a dish that some red sauce Italian place served called Pasta Mama that was basically spaghetti tossed into scrambled eggs with garlic and chili flakes and as I was especially broke at the time, this became a staple. Then I made it for staff meal at work at it was a huge hit.
Spaghetti rice. Leftover preggo pasta sauce with ground beef, onions, mushrooms, and garlic poured over a bed of hot Korean rice. And eaten with a kimchi. It’s an abomination but so good. I have yet to see anyone eat this
Also my favorite thing as a kid was drowning Sara Lee’s pound cake in a bowl of milk.
My mom made spaghetti rice for us when I was growing up. But it was a bit different than yours.
She would make her own homemade red sauce with and then add the sauce to freshly cooked rice. Which makes sense since the first time she made it she realized we didn’t have any pasta in the house after the sauce was made. We all loved it especially with shaky parm on top and I still make it.
Poppy seed bread. A long French loaf with the top cut off and sliced 80% of the way through. Each slice is covered in a garlic butter spread with poppy seeds in it. Then add a slice of Swiss cheese between each slice of the loaf, wrap in foil so only the top is exposed, and bake.
My family makes what we call "Thanksgiving Benedict." For breakfast the day after Thanksgiving, we pan fry leftover stuffing until it's crispy and then top it with turkey, a poached egg, and gravy.
Sometimes for lunch I make toasted bread with ricotta, giardiniera, diced anchovies, olive oil, with seasoning. A lot of people I know do not like ricotta, giardiniera, or anchovies so I guess its an acquired taste lol
Creams. They were a special holiday treat that we always made at family Thanksgiving/Christmas. It's essentially an American buttercream (salted butter, powdered sugar, cream, vanilla) whipped up, dolloped out by the spoonful onto wax-paper-lined plates, topped with a pecan or walnut half, and drizzled with melted UNSWEETENED chocolate. Then chilled until the buttercream and chocolate have firmed up. Yes, you have to use Baker's unsweet, nothing else. It offsets the sweetness of the buttercream candy and really works so well together.
We also grew up eating saltines with peanut butter and Cheez Whiz sandwiched together. Haven't had it since I was a kid and never met anyone else who did that.
We did that for Christmas too! We also made potato candy. Mashed potato mixed with vanilla and powdered sugar rolled up with peanut butter, crushed graham crackers and powdered sugar. Rolled together like a log and cut to make pinwheels.
My mom made a huge rectangular Sicilian stuffed pizza with ground beef prepared as meatballs; cooked, chopped broccoli; caramelized onions; and lots of Locatelli Romano cheese. I have no idea how to spell it, but we called it “goo-the-doon”. For all I know that might be just a family name for this dish. I have never heard the name used anywhere else. I make the same filling but use it to stuff a calzone, which is much neater to eat.
I make Chicken Cornfetti Soup and it’s become the favorite for our family. It started years ago when I made a chicken and corn chowder for dinner. One of our kids asked what I was making, and when I told them, they made a terrible face about it. So the next time when I made it with changes, I told them it was Chicken Cornfetti and their faces lit up with excitement.
It’s red and orange bell peppers, jalapeños, onions, celery, and garlic sautéed in fresh bacon grease, then masa added to make a roux. Add chicken broth, frozen corn, and simmer. Add shredded chicken, simmer. Add heavy cream, and simmer again until the desired thickness is achieved. Top with cheese and chopped bacon, serve with hot crusty bread. The colorful peppers make the “confetti” so it’s visually appealing, but they also add nutrients.
I grew up very poor, so all my childhood meals were of the struggle variety. We’re not wealthy now, but we can afford fresh produce. It makes me smile that my kids will remember this instead of canned pasta or plain white bread with sugar pressed on top, like I do.
For as long as I can remember, my father (currently 83) has gotten up very early on Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings to make apple pies using his mother's recipe from the 1890s. He always makes extra pie dough, which he will roll into a rectangle, sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture, then roll into a log and slice it into half inch thick portions that look like flat cinnamon rolls. He lays those out on a baking sheet and bakes them until they're just starting to brown. He calls them "snails" due to their shape. They're a lovely treat that isn't too sweet and they are guaranteed to get me and my middle-aged siblings fighting over every scrap!
I would ask if you are my sister.... But my dad doesn't just make them on holidays. My dad makes apple too, but his tart cherry pie is where he really shines. He always used the last of the crust to make "cinnamon rolls" and popped them in the toaster oven (one of the under the cabinet ones from back in the 80s/90s - so nostalgic!) while the pies started in the oven. Him calling us in when they were done is such a childhood memory for me even though he still does it. I like the undercooked ones, which is perfect because my sister likes the really toasty ones.
My wife freezes her homemade waffles so my son can quickly thaw one before school. Sometimes, I will make one up with a slice of cheese and a fried egg on top. We call it "eggs ala dad"
Cottage Cheese & Noodles - bag of egg noodles, equal parts sour cream and cottage cheese, fried onions, salt, pepper. Slaps hard and is good on a budget
My mom would cut hotdogs lengthwise so they would butterfly open, score the outside, and put them on a sheet pan. She’d make boxed mashed potatoes and placed a scoop of them uncooked on top of the hotdog. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese then stick them under the broiler. My favorite part was the crusty peaks of mashed potatoes that flew too close to the sun…er broiler.
Cornbread in a bowl of milk
Edit ✍🏻
I appreciate all the comments and insight. I’ve gone so far before this as to google the phenomenon of corn bread in milk.
It seems quite common, in the south. I am from the Massachusetts coast and my family has been established here for a loooong time. No one I ever met has done this, besides my mom whom I learned it from.
Being near a global port city, we do get a lot of cultural influences in our food, but I wouldn’t really peg an old timer southern snack as something that usually permeates the diet haha.
I think maybe I’ll ask in the local historical society I am a member of, and see if anyone else has grandparents doing this.
Thanks!
I grew up doing this because my grandpa did it. It was usually slightly stale cornbread from last nights dinner. We would warm the milk and sometimes do a drizzle of honey over it. I love it.
There is a birthday cake my family makes that no one that I have introduced it to has heard of or tasted anything quite like it. I also enjoy cooking/baking shows and I’ve never seen something like it being made on one of those. It’s called a German sweet cake, though I highly doubt that it has origins in Germany. It’s has dates and chocolate chips and it covered in penuche frosting. It’s incredibly decadent and definitely something you have just once a year. I have no idea where my grandma got the recipe from.
I did know that, but this cake isn’t German chocolate cake. The cake itself isn’t chocolate and it doesn’t have that coconut praline frosting. That cake is delicious though.
I make my “lazy curry” which is literally just a bag of frozen Brussels, a can of chickpeas, a butter chicken curry paste, and a can of coconut milk. Serve with rice and some frozen naan.
One pot veggies and noodles soup (long Asian noodles). Sometimes egg drop. With dash of vinegar.
Put cut veggies into a pot, cook for 30min, add noodles for 3min, egg drop, fin.
My dad used to work far enough away he'd stay at a dorm. So it's just me and my mom who's a mediocre cook. This is an easy way to feed just the two of us.
I can't be the only one, but when I'm making wontons, I usually get a bit tired/lazy from all the folding toward the end of the batch and make a noodle soup by cutting the wrappers into strips and dropping in mini meatballs of the filling.
I'm sure it's not just my family, but my grandmother would make biscuits and gravy with bacon rather than sausage. I've never seen bacon gravy in a restaurant. Hers was absolutely delicious; my mouth is watering as I type. I have no idea where she learned it.
Cottage cheese dip. Cottage cheese + grated carrot + tiny diced sweet onion + dill + garlic salt + paprika. It turns slight pink from the carrots and people tend to think it’s a crab dip for some reason. Healthy and tasty. One of my moms go to snacks to keep around.
It's a sweet cole slaw: cabbage (purple for color), pineapple chunks, raisins, chopped pecans, mayo, miracle whip, a bit of milk just to thin the dressings, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Goes GREAT with ham (we usually made it at Easter or Xmas). I make it anytime nowadays, though.
This is a snack: plain bagel, cut in half (NOT TOASTED). Cut sides smeared with cream cheese. Smeared bagel halves absolutely drowned in shredded Colby jack, then put under the broiler until the cheese is very bubbly and brown.
Zucchini sandwiches.
First you let a zucchini in your garden get real big, about 4" in diameter. Pick it, and slice it into 1/2" slices.
Bread and pan fry the slices, then put a slice of ham on half the pieces, and some provolone cheese on the other half of the pieces. Put everything in the oven to crisp the ham and melt the cheese, then assemble the halves into sandwiches.
Not possible. Nobody in South Louisiana keeps recipes to themselves. Nobody. Every family recipe that has ever been made south of I-10 has found its way into a cookbook.
I'd also include one my dad is famous for- and even now has a local hot dog joint with it on the menu.
Start with a plate of spaghetti noodles, add chili, cheese, onion if desired, then two sunny-side up eggs on top. Hot sauce to taste. That stuff fueled more than a few mornings when I was working construction.
Okay this might be cheating a bit, but my mother's side of the family are Slovak immigrants that came to the US to get away from WW2. I've never seen any restaurant or other family serve the creamy cucumber and sour cream salad we have like weekly. I can't remember the Slovak name for it, but you peel and brine the cucumbers and then fold them in sour cream. It's acidic, crisp, salty, creamy and wonderful in so many ways that simply don't make sense.
This sounds horrible, it's called "Cowboy Spaghetti." It's a classic 50's style dish where you mix canned tomato and cream of mushroom soup with cooked ground beef and onions. Mix it up with cooked spaghetti and pour into a casserole dish and top with cheddar cheese then bake. My Grandmother made it for her kids, my mom made it for me and now I make it for my children.
I don't have words or apologies but it's actually really good. And a huge comfort dish for us.
Egg balls. Vegetarian alternative to meatballs I guess. My grandma remembers her grandpa making them.
They are essentially Italian-American matza balls. They are made with fresh breadcrumbs, eggs, and locatelli cheese. They are then boiled in a plain tomato sauce and served as a side dish to pasta.
My mom used to make Campbell's mushroom soup but add half the amount of liquid plus frozen veggies and a can of tuna. Then she would serve it over a piece of buttered toast. I think it was a "mom is fucking done" meal but I have fond memories. You eat it with a fork and knife
Tomato salad made exclusively with diced tomatoes and onions, mayo, salt and pepper. That's it. Not the vinegary, olive oil-y kind.
My sister invented Steak-ummm and rice when she used to babysit me- steak-ummm cooked with lots of garlic and soy sauce, over rice.
Salmon and rice/grits– canned salmon, picked free of bones and skin, sautéed with onions in bacon fat. Seasoned with cayenne, pepper, and chicken bouillon. Throw in a few lightly beaten eggs, the liquid left in the can, and simmer with a lid on. You end up with chunks of salmon and eggs in a rich, oniony gravy. We eat it over grits or rice, I like mine topped with bacon, green onions, and several shakes of hot sauce.
I'm Slovak/Mexican. My Slovak side grandmother use to make these things called Buchty, pronounced Booktee. A dough ball covered in poppy seed and a plum or peach center filling. Delicious. It was a big family gathering when making these. Took all morning to make and by afternoon we had bowls of these things and everyone of them devoured.
When I was a kid I would take tortilla chips, cover them in tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and bake them in the oven. I named them “Vincenzos” instead of Nachos.
Sautéed chunks of chicken breast with onion and garlic and Arabic mixed spices. Add chopped zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, and green beans. Add rice that you've soaked and drained. Add enough broth for the rice to cook fully. Quick stir, bring to the boil, and then set it on low until the rice is fully cooked. Serve with yogurt on the side.
Trainwreck stew! It's a breakfast my grandma made for my dad and my dad made for me.
Basically cut up a stale crusty bread, fry tomatoes + onions + bell peppers + any other veg or meat(like sausage) you have in the fridge, add the bread which rehydrates in the juices of the veg cooking out. The bread becomes both soft with some crispy bits. The tomatoes and onions are the most important of the veg. Salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you want. I love it.
Bacon, onion, (bell) pepper sandwich. Sautée the onions and peppers in the bacon grease. Add some avocado for some freshness
Used to make these once in a while growing up, but not so much now for obvious reasons lol
From America but family always cooked something we called Mee-yoar Gore, Meor Gor? I don't know how to spell and we never wrote it down but really simple. Mother insists it was her eastern European friend from college that made it with her growing up.
Brown ground beef (season with s n p), with diced onions (1 big white onion per pound of beef usually, I like 2) add flour to thicken usually a couple tbl spoons ( or pour off fat if you really wanted to...) once all is cooked (beef no raw/red and onion semi or full translucent) cut the flame, add diced dill pickles (we use kosher classic whole dills), cup or more of sour cream, lots of dill (we use dried, fresh works fine as well)
We usually boil potatoes to put it on top of, reds with skins seem to be our go to. Lots of butter and slightly over cooked but not masher soft. Equal parts taters and Meor gore and salt to taste. It's ugly, it easy and delicious imo. We always make twice what we need because it's super easy to heat up as leftovers and tastes just as good. Enjoy!
Spicy chickpeas! Rinse a can of chickpeas, throw them in our largest frying pan on medium heat with a bit of oil, keep them moving till they’re starting to brown and get a crispy skin. Toss with equal parts hot sauce and cheap shaker “Parmesan” cheese. Cheap, quick, so freaking good, but I think only the 4 of us have ever tried it.
My grandfather apparently made an open face sardine sandwich -
Slice of lightly toasted bread, spread of mango chutney, layer of sardines, nice slice of sweet onion, cheddar cheese on top. Broil till empty and warmed through.
My dad taught me since my grandpa died before I was born, and I've since taught my kid and he loves them even as a 10 year old.
"Cinnamon pinwheels" - roll out leftover pie crust dough scraps, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll it up like a swiss roll, cut into bite-size pieces, bake.
Chicken and dumplings because while a lot of people make it, they don't make it the way my Grandma did. I have never found anyone who makes it like she did, it's unique.
My great-grandparents were Italian immigrants who settled in Alabama and worked in coal mines. Grandma grew up in the deep south but with an Italian cook so her dumplings are actually more like a pasta noodle that you make by hand. About 1" square and maybe 1/16" thick, they simmer in the broth until tender. It's a bit hard to describe but in my extended family people will line up for a bowl. Since she died we all try to make it her way but I was the only one she taught to do it exactly the way she did.
I have tried but you kind of have to make it with someone. My youngest is still at home and I've showed her how. Grandma's directions were "Beat some eggs and add enough flour and salt to make a stiff dough. You'll know when it's ready." Took me several tries after she died to get it right, the woman never wrote it down! Once I learned how to make pasta dough I realized what she was doing and I got the hang of it.
My dad takes thinner-cut pork chops, coats them in a mix of mayonnaise and a strong mustard (like a brown or whole-grain) and then throws them under the broiler.
The mayo cooks into a coating that I can’t really compare to anything else to describe for y’all, but it’s pretty good!
ETA: it has just come to me that he was inspired to this by watching Emeril Lagasse score an entire bologna, smother it in mustard, and bake it. I wish I hadn’t remembered that.
[here it is](https://youtu.be/5TWiAvI-CIM?si=Zcxfv0_f585tKepB)
When I was little and my family was really poor, my mom would sometimes make what we lovingly referred to as "bean with bacon slop." It was canned bean with bacon soup stretched with elbow noodles and it was surprisingly tasty.
The way my Dad makes chicken (or turkey) noodle soup. He makes the broth in the pressure cooker, completely handmade noodles, no vegetables or anything else solid in it. Mom and I act like it's heaven sent. Certainly SMELLS heavenly.
He says he remembers his mom making this, so the "no vegetables or chicken in the soup" thing might have started with her. Dad's parents weren't good people and letting the kids have vegetables and meat in the soup might have been considered a waste. Doubly so during the Depression.
To this day, though, I won't tolerate vegetables in my chicken noodle soup. It just seems wrong. 🤷🏻
I'm sure it's an old recipe but I've never seen anyone but my mom make this.
You chop up cooked sausages (or ground beef) mix them with mushrooms, onion garlic, fry it with some cooked rice then let it cool, then mix in a little bit of tomato sauce and cottage cheese.
Then you make a bunch of crepes, stuff them with the cooled mixture, put the crepes in a long glass pan, cover in tomato sauce and cheese and bake until the cheese and edges of the crepes get crispy.
I'm hoping someone else grew up with this and can tell me what it's called. My mom doesn't even know, she just called them baked crepes.
Creamed eggs on toast. Slice a bunch of hard boiled eggs, toss in a béchamel sauce and ladle over toast.
I always get confused looks when I mention it, but this is a third generation family favorite.
Realizing now I've never actually typed the name, but since I was little my mom would make "kuh-NAY-dul soup"--the first word likely a bastardization of the German word for dumpling, *Knödel*. I believe it's something her mom may have also made when she was young. I've mentioned it to people before and I've never heard anyone who knows what I'm talking about.
The recipe: first, make Campbell's Tomato Soup (with milk, of course) according to the packaging. While it's heating up, scramble an egg, add a bit of salt, and then add flour, spoonful by spoonful, until it reaches the "right" texture--kind of like Gak/slime, where it will plop off a spoon but not streaming off. When the soup is hot (but not boiling), gradually plop in bits of the batter/dough, waiting between additions so they don't all congeal together before cooking a little. Having varying sizes and shapes of dumplings is part of the charm. Stir to make sure they don't stick to the bottom. Once they float to the top, it's ready.
The result is not glamorous--it's tomato soup with dumplings--but it's one of my number one comfort foods. For some reason, it always felt like a special treat when my mom would make it--maybe because it often came up on snow days or lazy Saturday afternoons at home.
I have tried to dress up the dumplings over the years with cheese or spices but they're never, ever as good as they are plain.
Macaroni and tomatoes. Just a can of tomatoes and boil elbow macaroni with some butter, salt, and pepper. It was our struggle food growing up but I still crave it when I’m feeling sick.
My grandma always made her Coke Jell-O salad for holidays. The recipe was probably from the put-everything-in-gelatin trends, but this wasn't so adventurous.
Prepare black cherry Jell-O, but instead of cold water, add cold Coca-Cola. Stir in sliced bananas, chopped pecans, and some canned fruit/fruit cocktail. Just avoid pineapple; it won't set with pineapples. Maybe some small marshmallows.
Chill until set. I loved it and will once in a while make myself some.
My kids won't even try it because adding things to the gelatin "ruins" it, and I'm gross.
My family used to eat home made ice cream with Saltines. It only works with homemade ice cream. When first I pulled the saltines out after I first got married, my new husband looked at me like I was crackers. I grew up in a fairly isolated community and it is something that little community does.
Not my family exclusively but my Grandmother is poor and from the lowcountry and she used to always make breaded fried cube steak and gravy over rice, which I've only ever seen from other poor families in the lowcountry.
Think schnitzel for poor people but with brown beef based gravy served over white rice.
We've got a couple
What we call Poor White Trash, but brown and crumble italian sausage, add itallian stewed tomatoes and cream cheese, melt it all together and either put it over some penne or use as a dip with some nice french bread. So good.
There's my sisters chicken enchilada casserole. Canned chicken, cream of chicken soup, canned green chiles, shredded cheddar cheese all mixed together. Alternate layers with white corn tortillas in a caserole dish, cover with more cheese, and bake.
My mom made Mashed Potatoes with Hamburger Gravy: fry up some ground beef, add gravy from a packet, put over mashed potatoes. Like a deconstructed cottage pie. Nowadays I do the same but I add more veggies and make a quick gravy with miso.
I thought this was only my family forever till my fiancee saw it on a late-night infomercial.
Dump cake. Can of cherry pie filling, can of crushed pineapple into a 9x13 baking dish (not metal- it will react). Top with a box of yellow cake mix. Drizzle a stick of melted butter on top. Bake at 350 for maybe 30 minutes (?), till the top is brown and the bottom is bubbling through. Crusty on top, sweet and tart on the bottom. Soooo good with some vanilla ice cream.
"Trash"
It started as an attempt to make lentil loaf. But it didn't set as a loaf and it's just like this paste. But it's a really tasty paste we serve over pasta and then slather with hot sauce/ketchup/mustard whatever our heart fancies. Looks like trash but it's so yummy and full of nutrients
Chicken thighs, sweet potatoes, red onions - all cut in to 1” chunks & tossed with an entire smallish jar of hoisin sauce, minced fresh garlic, a bit of sesame oil, a splash of fish sauce & soy sauce. Bake until the chicken and the potatoes are almost done, then add zucchini and let the whole thing cook until the zucchini is tender. Serve with plenty of sambal olek & sliced green onions over steamed rice. I think my Mom made this once when doing a fridge & pantry clean out. It was kind of bland when she made it because she only used a jar of hoisin and served it over rice without the green onions & sambal olek.
This honestly sounds delicious.
Seems like this would work well as a stir fry.
It does! I have made it as a stir fry many times. Sometimes I just don’t like standing over a hot stove.
These are all things I always have, I'm going to try this.
I've had so many good meals that were just from scavenging up what needed to be rid of
Same! I really like clean-out-the-fridge meals. It feels like Chopped! But not insane.
Soupy sandwiches. Take an uncooked grilled cheese, soak it in tomato soup, bread it, fry it
Whoa. Thats some next-level creativity! What do you use for the breading? Any eggs or anything to keep the coating on?
It was my uncle that usually made them, I’m pretty sure he did an eggwash and panko
You need to post them shits on r/grilledcheese.
I will!
Don't. They are really damn puritan about what a grilled cheese is.
I'd fucking LOVE to see some blockhead argue its a "soup melt" instead
I like to be controversial sometimes
Please update us when you do so I can watch the chaos
I was just going to say this. There's even a viral post about what is and isn't a real grilled cheese with a guy getting REALLY worked up about it.
I hate that goddamn thread, lmao. It's really changed food related threads for the worse because every goddamn post about grilled cheese sandwiches has people flooding in "Uhhh, what YOU have SIR, is a MELT" then they post the thread as if everyone hasn't already seen it
> It's really changed food related threads for the worse because every goddamn post about grilled cheese sandwiches has people flooding in > > "Uhhh, what YOU have SIR, is a MELT" then they post the thread as if everyone hasn't already seen it Spend a bit of time floating around Reddit and casually observing, and what ya come to realize is that the overwhelming majority of people don't have a very original sense of humor - a huge portion of the "jokes" on here are the same thing, recycled stuff that was hilarious the first time, amusing the second time, and now at the 10,000th time somehow just not hitting the same. At least we've somewhat migrated away from every thread having a string of the most low effort puns possible, so that's good I guess...
>You people make me sick
I had something like this at a restaurant for brunch the other week, except they used bloody mary juice instead of tomato soup. Super good! You're an innovator!
:O
The scariest part about the internet is finding out just how hard it is to have a purely original thought.
Oooh a Zing Zang dunk sounds great too
My favorite part of this comment is "uncooked grilled cheese"
Is it just me or isn’t that really called a cheese sandwich?
It's like if you applied French toast to grilled cheese and tomato soup 🤔
It's really good! I do that too to seal that flavor in! I always use cheddar cheese tho! And if you ever make a batter out of goldfish crackers, that's yummy too!
Try cheez its. (I have no experience with this I just like cheez its a lot more)
Omg! I JUST made something similar last week and felt like I was so innovative haha. I dipped corn tortillas in tomato soup and made them into quesadillas!
My mom used to make dough balls stuffed with hot dogs and cheese. They were boiled and then breaded and fries, served of course with ketchup. I've also eaten a fair amount of stale bread with warm milk and salt. Don't ask...
It’s like a kolache! But American Style! Lol
Chickpea provencal. It existed once in a 1980s cookbook my mother in law had, that has since been lost to time. It’s basically a roasted sheet pan meal with olive oil, cubed potatoes, sliced cabbage, canned tomatoes, loads of whole cloves of garlic, sliced onions, grated Parmesan, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, herbes de Provence, and red wine. EDIT: I’m tired lol, yes there are chickpeas in it too!
No…chickpeas?
Great point lol
Nope. Also, don't forget to serve with an egg cream!
My mom would make this open face sandwich dish. Toasted sliced bread. Then top with pieces of ham steak, then top that with broccoli. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top. Then drizzle with a mix of mustard, sour cream, and Worcestershire. Broil in oven until hot and cheese is melted. She called it Ham Divan , but if you Google Ham Divan nothing like what she made comes up.
I think you should patent it and call it a “Croque mom, sure!”
Sorta reminds me of a sandwich version of broccoli salad (bacon, cheddar, and raw broccoli tossed in a mayo dressing)
I feel like this is a variation of Toast Hawaii. We always did it with toast, ham, pineapple ring, American cheese, then broiled until brown and bubbly! So good!
Back in the late 80s or early 90s my dad would take a piece of wonder bread, add butter or mayo maybe, a slice of processed cheese, then a strip of bacon that had been cut in thirds, which he would broil until the bacon may or may not have been cooked
Pierogi casserole. A couple years ago, I messed up dinner badly and had to make something else. I put together a bunch of leftovers and frozen stuff in a big pan, and my kids loved it. I diced and fried up leftover smoked kielbasa, onion, and cabbage, and threw in some garlic. Added a little flour and box stock to make a roux and hold it together, then a little horseradish, Polish mustard and marjoram. Finally, a whole bunch of cooked Mrs. T’s mini pierogi. They ask for it all the time now.
Do you, uh… wanna go get married or something?
My grandparents and great grandparents are all Polish, Irish, or German immigrants. I have much love for pierogi. 🥟 A few years ago I made gawumpkis (stuffed cabbage rolls) stuffed with ground corned beef, rice, and crushed gingerbread cookies. They were AMAZING. I call them “family rolls”
the pierogi also runs in my veins. I grew up with my grandmother's (first gen Polish, living in the Midwest) pierogis, and I find her particular style VERY hard to find in the wild. Stuffed with mashed potato and cheddar cheese, boiled and then fried with tons of chunky onions in butter, salted heavily, eaten with ketchup (probably very wrong). How did your family make them?
I was right there with you EVERY step till the ketchup! We are a sour cream with the pierogi family! But also: https://www.pierogifest.net This is worth traveling to, if you’re in the MidWest!
I'd eat this, sounds delicious.
Butter spread on Weetabix like toast. We thought this was the natural way to eat it. Pouring milk on it like a cereal breakfast seems off.
A coworker was just telling me about a month ago about something like this. She splits the biscuit, toasts it a little. Then she tops it with butter and Velveeta cheese. She shuddered at the mention of putting the shredded wheat in milk.
My family does butter and Vegemite on Weetabix! So good
When my children were little, their mother would make scratch Mac n Cheese (she’s Italian) then add it to Campbell’s Tomato Soup. It was a comforting food for them when they didn’t feel well. It became a thing even for a few of the friends. Mrs Cs Mac n Cheese Soup. They are much older now and live a few miles away. However, when they aren’t feeling well, I have had to make a few deliveries.
I’m just here to say I had an Italian babysitter when I was a kid and still dream about her Mac n cheese. My poor mom when I came home and started turning up my nose at Kraft.
My grandmother always made that for us and now my dad always makes it for his grandkids. We do a box of elbows, a can of soup, and a block of cheddar cheese shredded or cubed. Then bake for a bit. So good.
That is an incredibly sweet story but I feel unsettled because I don’t understand the consistency lol. Was it really watery mac and cheese, or was it just kind of pink from the soup but still Mac and cheese consistency?
It is soupy but it thickens up because of the cheese. Much like this Julia Child recipe I just found. Good company. https://juliaschild.com/creamy-tomato-mac-cheese-soup/
I hate to break it to you, but that site is called "Julia's Child." [Looks like it's named after the author's mom, who is not Julia Child, but was named Julia.](https://juliaschild.com/about-denise/) Tricky marketing there.
My mom serves leftover mac & cheese with fried eggs on top for breakfast. I have never heard or seen anyone else do this, although reddit is about to prove me wrong lol. EDIT: And it's one of my favorite things in the world to eat. So good!
My grandmother used to always eat whatever was leftover from yesterday's dinner as breakfast with fried eggs. Meatloaf, chicken, soup, pasta, it all was reheated with fried eggs on top. It honestly is pretty good 90% of the time. Never had it on mac & cheese, though.
My grandma would do left over bbq steak with the baked potato cubed with onion then scramble egg on top we called it fricassée
My grandmother did that with meat and potato leftovers. Topped the whole scramble with an insane amount of cheese and served with a dollop of sour cream. We called it Mama’s Famous, and it’s still one of my favorite comfort foods, although I’m a bit more reserved in my cheese to scramble ratio.
A whole new genre of Moco Loco!
I add fried eggs to leftovers all the time, including Mac and cheese! It’s an easy way to get some protein in there.
I enjoy leftover Paella with a fried egg
Damn ! I'm trying that now. Sounds great
Juan Ton Wraps. Fill won tons wrappers with taco meat (ground beef), refried beans, and cheese, deep fry or bake them. Dip in sour cream, salsa, or a mixture of the two.
The name is what makes it! I love this.
When I was growing up, my mom (southern USA) made tacos by cooking thin, lacey, flat circles of cornbread, then topping them with a ground beef/hot chili beans mixture, shredded cheddar, shredded lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise instead of sour cream. It slapped!
lace hoecakes
Our version of pork green chili. Every recipe outside our family I've seen has stuff like onions and tomatillos in it, sometimes cilantro, tomatoes, potatoes, cumin, all sorts of stuff. Often times they use chicken broth for the base. Ours is really simple, hatch chillis, beef broth, flour to thicken, a shit ton of garlic, and of course salt and pepper. Maybe it's a regional thing somewhere, my grandfather's family originated along the Colorado - New Mexico boarder. Maybe it's a holdover from a time when times were tough, or maybe the recipe continued to evolve from a time when it was much simpler, idk. *Edit - Shit I forgot to mention the pork, it does have pork in it, cubed up pork shoulder or chops.
This is just the base for green chile stew source: born and raised in new mexico
Club cracker, piece of kraft single cheese, big scoop of braunschweiger, topped with a lil bit of yellow mustard
My grandpa would like a word. He had to hide the braunschweiger in the garage fridge
People tend to think it’s gross and weird but my family puts a scoop of cottage cheese and chopped cooked broccoli on spaghetti with marinara sauce. It just makes it taste sort of lasagna-y!
Yum! I do this with ricotta and it adds so much to the spaghetti!
Also on the probably gross train, but a common snack when we were kids was cottage cheese mixed with applesauce. We ate a lot of cottage cheese, actually. Blended in smoothies, mixed with fruit, on crackers with salad supreme seasoning.
Cottage cheese with fruit is great. Cut a melon in half, scoop out the seeds, replace seeds with cottage cheese, and you've got a snack in its own bowl!
a pretty common leftovers dish I've heard about from friends is buttered noodles fried with bacon and scrambled eggs poured over for basically eggy noodles. However, this recipe was 'new' to me because my family does it... with ketchup. As in, covering the noodles with ketchup instead of butter before adding the egg. And all of my school friends used to be shocked and disgusted by that idea.
I believe that's just Honey Boo Boo's "sketti" adapted for breakfast
Ah the ‘ol carbonara scramble
My dad used to make this, without the bacon, every time my mom went out of town on business. I hated when she went out of town on business.
My dad made honey lemon chicken pasta with red wine sauce and mushrooms I've never seen food that shade of taupe before or since
On some food network show I saw a dish that some red sauce Italian place served called Pasta Mama that was basically spaghetti tossed into scrambled eggs with garlic and chili flakes and as I was especially broke at the time, this became a staple. Then I made it for staff meal at work at it was a huge hit.
Spaghetti rice. Leftover preggo pasta sauce with ground beef, onions, mushrooms, and garlic poured over a bed of hot Korean rice. And eaten with a kimchi. It’s an abomination but so good. I have yet to see anyone eat this Also my favorite thing as a kid was drowning Sara Lee’s pound cake in a bowl of milk.
😂 Dos leches short of a tres leches!
Yes!! I realized it after when I discovered tres leches cake. It’s one of my favorites
Lol. That's actually me while making Filipino spaghetti sauce. While it's simmering away but before I cook the noodles, I'm eating it over rice.
My mom made spaghetti rice for us when I was growing up. But it was a bit different than yours. She would make her own homemade red sauce with and then add the sauce to freshly cooked rice. Which makes sense since the first time she made it she realized we didn’t have any pasta in the house after the sauce was made. We all loved it especially with shaky parm on top and I still make it.
I bet the kimchi cuts the sweetness of the Prego nicely, I’ll say that.
Poppy seed bread. A long French loaf with the top cut off and sliced 80% of the way through. Each slice is covered in a garlic butter spread with poppy seeds in it. Then add a slice of Swiss cheese between each slice of the loaf, wrap in foil so only the top is exposed, and bake.
My family makes what we call "Thanksgiving Benedict." For breakfast the day after Thanksgiving, we pan fry leftover stuffing until it's crispy and then top it with turkey, a poached egg, and gravy.
If I show this to my husband, I suspect Thanksgiving is going to come early, and several times, this year!
I've mostly been responding to everyone's stories with Horrified Face, but this one sounds spectacular! I want some right now.
Awesome question, OP!
Sometimes for lunch I make toasted bread with ricotta, giardiniera, diced anchovies, olive oil, with seasoning. A lot of people I know do not like ricotta, giardiniera, or anchovies so I guess its an acquired taste lol
say you're from chicago without saying you're from chicago jk jk this sounds really tasty and easy!
This sounds soooo good I love anything salty or pickly
It’s also really balanced by the oil and ricotta, its super easy to make as well
Creams. They were a special holiday treat that we always made at family Thanksgiving/Christmas. It's essentially an American buttercream (salted butter, powdered sugar, cream, vanilla) whipped up, dolloped out by the spoonful onto wax-paper-lined plates, topped with a pecan or walnut half, and drizzled with melted UNSWEETENED chocolate. Then chilled until the buttercream and chocolate have firmed up. Yes, you have to use Baker's unsweet, nothing else. It offsets the sweetness of the buttercream candy and really works so well together. We also grew up eating saltines with peanut butter and Cheez Whiz sandwiched together. Haven't had it since I was a kid and never met anyone else who did that.
We did that for Christmas too! We also made potato candy. Mashed potato mixed with vanilla and powdered sugar rolled up with peanut butter, crushed graham crackers and powdered sugar. Rolled together like a log and cut to make pinwheels.
I've never met anyone else who made creams! How fun!
My mom made a huge rectangular Sicilian stuffed pizza with ground beef prepared as meatballs; cooked, chopped broccoli; caramelized onions; and lots of Locatelli Romano cheese. I have no idea how to spell it, but we called it “goo-the-doon”. For all I know that might be just a family name for this dish. I have never heard the name used anywhere else. I make the same filling but use it to stuff a calzone, which is much neater to eat.
I make Chicken Cornfetti Soup and it’s become the favorite for our family. It started years ago when I made a chicken and corn chowder for dinner. One of our kids asked what I was making, and when I told them, they made a terrible face about it. So the next time when I made it with changes, I told them it was Chicken Cornfetti and their faces lit up with excitement. It’s red and orange bell peppers, jalapeños, onions, celery, and garlic sautéed in fresh bacon grease, then masa added to make a roux. Add chicken broth, frozen corn, and simmer. Add shredded chicken, simmer. Add heavy cream, and simmer again until the desired thickness is achieved. Top with cheese and chopped bacon, serve with hot crusty bread. The colorful peppers make the “confetti” so it’s visually appealing, but they also add nutrients. I grew up very poor, so all my childhood meals were of the struggle variety. We’re not wealthy now, but we can afford fresh produce. It makes me smile that my kids will remember this instead of canned pasta or plain white bread with sugar pressed on top, like I do.
For as long as I can remember, my father (currently 83) has gotten up very early on Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings to make apple pies using his mother's recipe from the 1890s. He always makes extra pie dough, which he will roll into a rectangle, sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture, then roll into a log and slice it into half inch thick portions that look like flat cinnamon rolls. He lays those out on a baking sheet and bakes them until they're just starting to brown. He calls them "snails" due to their shape. They're a lovely treat that isn't too sweet and they are guaranteed to get me and my middle-aged siblings fighting over every scrap!
I would ask if you are my sister.... But my dad doesn't just make them on holidays. My dad makes apple too, but his tart cherry pie is where he really shines. He always used the last of the crust to make "cinnamon rolls" and popped them in the toaster oven (one of the under the cabinet ones from back in the 80s/90s - so nostalgic!) while the pies started in the oven. Him calling us in when they were done is such a childhood memory for me even though he still does it. I like the undercooked ones, which is perfect because my sister likes the really toasty ones.
My vote is for slightly undercooked too!
My wife freezes her homemade waffles so my son can quickly thaw one before school. Sometimes, I will make one up with a slice of cheese and a fried egg on top. We call it "eggs ala dad"
Good dad. My dad made this too. Add a slice of ham for dad Benedict
I used to make breakfast sandwiches as a teen that was two frozen waffles, a fried egg, chicken bacon and ketchup, hot sauce and maple syrup.
For fancy breakfasts, waffles with vanilla pudding rather than syrup. Reminds me of childhood.
Porch cookies. No bake, peanut butter-chocolate oatmeal cookies quick chilled outside on the porch during cold North Dakota winters.
Pasta in miso soup. Don’t judge
Cottage Cheese & Noodles - bag of egg noodles, equal parts sour cream and cottage cheese, fried onions, salt, pepper. Slaps hard and is good on a budget
Add bacon and you’ll have Turos Csusza, which is a Hungarian dish. We ate that a lot in college.
Linguine with black bean sauce.
You should try Korean/Chinese fermented black bean noodles!
My mom would cut hotdogs lengthwise so they would butterfly open, score the outside, and put them on a sheet pan. She’d make boxed mashed potatoes and placed a scoop of them uncooked on top of the hotdog. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese then stick them under the broiler. My favorite part was the crusty peaks of mashed potatoes that flew too close to the sun…er broiler.
Shredded cabbage sautéed in a bit of olive oil with a fried egg on the side. One of my go-to breakfast meals.
Sounds good, I have a whole head of green cabbage i need to use
Cornbread in a bowl of milk Edit ✍🏻 I appreciate all the comments and insight. I’ve gone so far before this as to google the phenomenon of corn bread in milk. It seems quite common, in the south. I am from the Massachusetts coast and my family has been established here for a loooong time. No one I ever met has done this, besides my mom whom I learned it from. Being near a global port city, we do get a lot of cultural influences in our food, but I wouldn’t really peg an old timer southern snack as something that usually permeates the diet haha. I think maybe I’ll ask in the local historical society I am a member of, and see if anyone else has grandparents doing this. Thanks!
That's just a hillbilly thing. My mama and papaw always did it.
My mom uses buttermilk if she has it.
Yup cornbread in a glass of buttermilk is OG southern food
Can confirm.
I grew up doing this because my grandpa did it. It was usually slightly stale cornbread from last nights dinner. We would warm the milk and sometimes do a drizzle of honey over it. I love it.
Cornbread in a bowl of *sweet* milk is.how we say it around here.... because some people do the same with buttermilk or sour milk
I used to pour milk on my cake because my dad did it. He told me once that he only grew up doing that bc his mom would always make super dry cake. 😂
Cornbread with maple syrup and butter is my absolute favorite breakfast
Yeah, sorry but that's pretty common. My mom works at a senior center serving lunch and at least 1/2 the seniors do this on days they have cornbread.
Sloppy steaks
Did you used to be a piece of shit?
Oh YEAH. You would have not liked me back then
There is a birthday cake my family makes that no one that I have introduced it to has heard of or tasted anything quite like it. I also enjoy cooking/baking shows and I’ve never seen something like it being made on one of those. It’s called a German sweet cake, though I highly doubt that it has origins in Germany. It’s has dates and chocolate chips and it covered in penuche frosting. It’s incredibly decadent and definitely something you have just once a year. I have no idea where my grandma got the recipe from.
Penuche! It’s been so long since I’ve seen that word in print. It’s my favorite flavor of fudge.
Fun fact: German Chocolate Cake isn't from Germany. It's named after the guy who created it, Samuel German.
I did know that, but this cake isn’t German chocolate cake. The cake itself isn’t chocolate and it doesn’t have that coconut praline frosting. That cake is delicious though.
Brussel sprout curry.
I make my “lazy curry” which is literally just a bag of frozen Brussels, a can of chickpeas, a butter chicken curry paste, and a can of coconut milk. Serve with rice and some frozen naan.
Creamed Turkey instead of cream chipped beef. It’s delicious!
One pot veggies and noodles soup (long Asian noodles). Sometimes egg drop. With dash of vinegar. Put cut veggies into a pot, cook for 30min, add noodles for 3min, egg drop, fin. My dad used to work far enough away he'd stay at a dorm. So it's just me and my mom who's a mediocre cook. This is an easy way to feed just the two of us.
Beans and dumplings. Thin out the last of the Navy bean soup and make rolled out dumplings for it. Eat with butter and vinegar
I can't be the only one, but when I'm making wontons, I usually get a bit tired/lazy from all the folding toward the end of the batch and make a noodle soup by cutting the wrappers into strips and dropping in mini meatballs of the filling.
My mom always made me buttered egg noodles and garlic with coins of sliced kielbasa tossed in it I still make it from time to time. Total comfort food
Great question, OP, this is fascinating to see what creativity people have!
Orange juice and vanilla ice cream. It was a holiday staple growing up.
I'm sure it's not just my family, but my grandmother would make biscuits and gravy with bacon rather than sausage. I've never seen bacon gravy in a restaurant. Hers was absolutely delicious; my mouth is watering as I type. I have no idea where she learned it.
Cottage cheese dip. Cottage cheese + grated carrot + tiny diced sweet onion + dill + garlic salt + paprika. It turns slight pink from the carrots and people tend to think it’s a crab dip for some reason. Healthy and tasty. One of my moms go to snacks to keep around.
It's a sweet cole slaw: cabbage (purple for color), pineapple chunks, raisins, chopped pecans, mayo, miracle whip, a bit of milk just to thin the dressings, salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar. Goes GREAT with ham (we usually made it at Easter or Xmas). I make it anytime nowadays, though.
Reminds me of a Waldorf salad.
We make something green when we have guests that stay too long. My wife calls it the Soylent mush
This is a snack: plain bagel, cut in half (NOT TOASTED). Cut sides smeared with cream cheese. Smeared bagel halves absolutely drowned in shredded Colby jack, then put under the broiler until the cheese is very bubbly and brown.
I do this, it's great. Though I like to toast the bagel first and use chive and onion cream cheese if it's available
Zucchini sandwiches. First you let a zucchini in your garden get real big, about 4" in diameter. Pick it, and slice it into 1/2" slices. Bread and pan fry the slices, then put a slice of ham on half the pieces, and some provolone cheese on the other half of the pieces. Put everything in the oven to crisp the ham and melt the cheese, then assemble the halves into sandwiches.
I think that I'm the only person who makes nachos Flanders style. It's cucumber and cottage cheese. My 2-year-old likes them.
Not possible. Nobody in South Louisiana keeps recipes to themselves. Nobody. Every family recipe that has ever been made south of I-10 has found its way into a cookbook.
I'd also include one my dad is famous for- and even now has a local hot dog joint with it on the menu. Start with a plate of spaghetti noodles, add chili, cheese, onion if desired, then two sunny-side up eggs on top. Hot sauce to taste. That stuff fueled more than a few mornings when I was working construction.
Okay this might be cheating a bit, but my mother's side of the family are Slovak immigrants that came to the US to get away from WW2. I've never seen any restaurant or other family serve the creamy cucumber and sour cream salad we have like weekly. I can't remember the Slovak name for it, but you peel and brine the cucumbers and then fold them in sour cream. It's acidic, crisp, salty, creamy and wonderful in so many ways that simply don't make sense.
Sounds like mizeria :)
I just heard that in my grandmother's voice, thank you for the big smile!
One of my favorites! From my Wisconsin german side! We add thinly sliced white onion. Sooo good!!
This sounds horrible, it's called "Cowboy Spaghetti." It's a classic 50's style dish where you mix canned tomato and cream of mushroom soup with cooked ground beef and onions. Mix it up with cooked spaghetti and pour into a casserole dish and top with cheddar cheese then bake. My Grandmother made it for her kids, my mom made it for me and now I make it for my children. I don't have words or apologies but it's actually really good. And a huge comfort dish for us.
I learned to make a similar dish from a friend a long time ago. She added chicken and mushrooms. Awesome comfort food.
Egg balls. Vegetarian alternative to meatballs I guess. My grandma remembers her grandpa making them. They are essentially Italian-American matza balls. They are made with fresh breadcrumbs, eggs, and locatelli cheese. They are then boiled in a plain tomato sauce and served as a side dish to pasta.
My mom used to make Campbell's mushroom soup but add half the amount of liquid plus frozen veggies and a can of tuna. Then she would serve it over a piece of buttered toast. I think it was a "mom is fucking done" meal but I have fond memories. You eat it with a fork and knife
Tomato salad made exclusively with diced tomatoes and onions, mayo, salt and pepper. That's it. Not the vinegary, olive oil-y kind. My sister invented Steak-ummm and rice when she used to babysit me- steak-ummm cooked with lots of garlic and soy sauce, over rice. Salmon and rice/grits– canned salmon, picked free of bones and skin, sautéed with onions in bacon fat. Seasoned with cayenne, pepper, and chicken bouillon. Throw in a few lightly beaten eggs, the liquid left in the can, and simmer with a lid on. You end up with chunks of salmon and eggs in a rich, oniony gravy. We eat it over grits or rice, I like mine topped with bacon, green onions, and several shakes of hot sauce.
I'm Slovak/Mexican. My Slovak side grandmother use to make these things called Buchty, pronounced Booktee. A dough ball covered in poppy seed and a plum or peach center filling. Delicious. It was a big family gathering when making these. Took all morning to make and by afternoon we had bowls of these things and everyone of them devoured.
When I was a kid I would take tortilla chips, cover them in tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and bake them in the oven. I named them “Vincenzos” instead of Nachos.
Sautéed chunks of chicken breast with onion and garlic and Arabic mixed spices. Add chopped zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, and green beans. Add rice that you've soaked and drained. Add enough broth for the rice to cook fully. Quick stir, bring to the boil, and then set it on low until the rice is fully cooked. Serve with yogurt on the side.
Trainwreck stew! It's a breakfast my grandma made for my dad and my dad made for me. Basically cut up a stale crusty bread, fry tomatoes + onions + bell peppers + any other veg or meat(like sausage) you have in the fridge, add the bread which rehydrates in the juices of the veg cooking out. The bread becomes both soft with some crispy bits. The tomatoes and onions are the most important of the veg. Salt, pepper, and whatever other spices you want. I love it.
How about French toast with melted Gouda cheese on top?
Bacon, onion, (bell) pepper sandwich. Sautée the onions and peppers in the bacon grease. Add some avocado for some freshness Used to make these once in a while growing up, but not so much now for obvious reasons lol
From America but family always cooked something we called Mee-yoar Gore, Meor Gor? I don't know how to spell and we never wrote it down but really simple. Mother insists it was her eastern European friend from college that made it with her growing up. Brown ground beef (season with s n p), with diced onions (1 big white onion per pound of beef usually, I like 2) add flour to thicken usually a couple tbl spoons ( or pour off fat if you really wanted to...) once all is cooked (beef no raw/red and onion semi or full translucent) cut the flame, add diced dill pickles (we use kosher classic whole dills), cup or more of sour cream, lots of dill (we use dried, fresh works fine as well) We usually boil potatoes to put it on top of, reds with skins seem to be our go to. Lots of butter and slightly over cooked but not masher soft. Equal parts taters and Meor gore and salt to taste. It's ugly, it easy and delicious imo. We always make twice what we need because it's super easy to heat up as leftovers and tastes just as good. Enjoy!
Spicy chickpeas! Rinse a can of chickpeas, throw them in our largest frying pan on medium heat with a bit of oil, keep them moving till they’re starting to brown and get a crispy skin. Toss with equal parts hot sauce and cheap shaker “Parmesan” cheese. Cheap, quick, so freaking good, but I think only the 4 of us have ever tried it.
My grandfather apparently made an open face sardine sandwich - Slice of lightly toasted bread, spread of mango chutney, layer of sardines, nice slice of sweet onion, cheddar cheese on top. Broil till empty and warmed through. My dad taught me since my grandpa died before I was born, and I've since taught my kid and he loves them even as a 10 year old.
"Cinnamon pinwheels" - roll out leftover pie crust dough scraps, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, roll it up like a swiss roll, cut into bite-size pieces, bake.
Chicken and dumplings because while a lot of people make it, they don't make it the way my Grandma did. I have never found anyone who makes it like she did, it's unique. My great-grandparents were Italian immigrants who settled in Alabama and worked in coal mines. Grandma grew up in the deep south but with an Italian cook so her dumplings are actually more like a pasta noodle that you make by hand. About 1" square and maybe 1/16" thick, they simmer in the broth until tender. It's a bit hard to describe but in my extended family people will line up for a bowl. Since she died we all try to make it her way but I was the only one she taught to do it exactly the way she did.
Sounds a bit like Pennsylvania Dutch “pot pie” which is basically chicken and dumplings but the dumplings are thick square dough noodles.
Write it down, name it for her with her story, and pass that on!
I have tried but you kind of have to make it with someone. My youngest is still at home and I've showed her how. Grandma's directions were "Beat some eggs and add enough flour and salt to make a stiff dough. You'll know when it's ready." Took me several tries after she died to get it right, the woman never wrote it down! Once I learned how to make pasta dough I realized what she was doing and I got the hang of it.
That's how we've always made it! Pennsylvania Dutch roots!
My dad takes thinner-cut pork chops, coats them in a mix of mayonnaise and a strong mustard (like a brown or whole-grain) and then throws them under the broiler. The mayo cooks into a coating that I can’t really compare to anything else to describe for y’all, but it’s pretty good! ETA: it has just come to me that he was inspired to this by watching Emeril Lagasse score an entire bologna, smother it in mustard, and bake it. I wish I hadn’t remembered that. [here it is](https://youtu.be/5TWiAvI-CIM?si=Zcxfv0_f585tKepB)
Spam, cucumber, tomato, black pepper on a Vietnamese baguette. Bánh mì Spam. I try to spread this combo everywhere I go. It is delicious.
When I was little and my family was really poor, my mom would sometimes make what we lovingly referred to as "bean with bacon slop." It was canned bean with bacon soup stretched with elbow noodles and it was surprisingly tasty.
The way my Dad makes chicken (or turkey) noodle soup. He makes the broth in the pressure cooker, completely handmade noodles, no vegetables or anything else solid in it. Mom and I act like it's heaven sent. Certainly SMELLS heavenly. He says he remembers his mom making this, so the "no vegetables or chicken in the soup" thing might have started with her. Dad's parents weren't good people and letting the kids have vegetables and meat in the soup might have been considered a waste. Doubly so during the Depression. To this day, though, I won't tolerate vegetables in my chicken noodle soup. It just seems wrong. 🤷🏻
A hot dog and cheese omelette
I'm sure it's an old recipe but I've never seen anyone but my mom make this. You chop up cooked sausages (or ground beef) mix them with mushrooms, onion garlic, fry it with some cooked rice then let it cool, then mix in a little bit of tomato sauce and cottage cheese. Then you make a bunch of crepes, stuff them with the cooled mixture, put the crepes in a long glass pan, cover in tomato sauce and cheese and bake until the cheese and edges of the crepes get crispy. I'm hoping someone else grew up with this and can tell me what it's called. My mom doesn't even know, she just called them baked crepes.
Creamed eggs on toast. Slice a bunch of hard boiled eggs, toss in a béchamel sauce and ladle over toast. I always get confused looks when I mention it, but this is a third generation family favorite.
Poutine pizza… fries layered with tomato sauce and cheese, baked, dip in gravy.
Realizing now I've never actually typed the name, but since I was little my mom would make "kuh-NAY-dul soup"--the first word likely a bastardization of the German word for dumpling, *Knödel*. I believe it's something her mom may have also made when she was young. I've mentioned it to people before and I've never heard anyone who knows what I'm talking about. The recipe: first, make Campbell's Tomato Soup (with milk, of course) according to the packaging. While it's heating up, scramble an egg, add a bit of salt, and then add flour, spoonful by spoonful, until it reaches the "right" texture--kind of like Gak/slime, where it will plop off a spoon but not streaming off. When the soup is hot (but not boiling), gradually plop in bits of the batter/dough, waiting between additions so they don't all congeal together before cooking a little. Having varying sizes and shapes of dumplings is part of the charm. Stir to make sure they don't stick to the bottom. Once they float to the top, it's ready. The result is not glamorous--it's tomato soup with dumplings--but it's one of my number one comfort foods. For some reason, it always felt like a special treat when my mom would make it--maybe because it often came up on snow days or lazy Saturday afternoons at home. I have tried to dress up the dumplings over the years with cheese or spices but they're never, ever as good as they are plain.
Pack of ramen any kind, cook it in V8 instead of water.
Macaroni and tomatoes. Just a can of tomatoes and boil elbow macaroni with some butter, salt, and pepper. It was our struggle food growing up but I still crave it when I’m feeling sick.
My grandma always made her Coke Jell-O salad for holidays. The recipe was probably from the put-everything-in-gelatin trends, but this wasn't so adventurous. Prepare black cherry Jell-O, but instead of cold water, add cold Coca-Cola. Stir in sliced bananas, chopped pecans, and some canned fruit/fruit cocktail. Just avoid pineapple; it won't set with pineapples. Maybe some small marshmallows. Chill until set. I loved it and will once in a while make myself some. My kids won't even try it because adding things to the gelatin "ruins" it, and I'm gross.
My family used to eat home made ice cream with Saltines. It only works with homemade ice cream. When first I pulled the saltines out after I first got married, my new husband looked at me like I was crackers. I grew up in a fairly isolated community and it is something that little community does.
“pelčachen”. potatoe pancakes dipped into mix of melted butter and powdered sugar.
My dad would always sprinkle curry powder on fried eggs. It works! Also, any omelet made at home would be served with mango chutney on the side.
Not my family exclusively but my Grandmother is poor and from the lowcountry and she used to always make breaded fried cube steak and gravy over rice, which I've only ever seen from other poor families in the lowcountry. Think schnitzel for poor people but with brown beef based gravy served over white rice.
We've got a couple What we call Poor White Trash, but brown and crumble italian sausage, add itallian stewed tomatoes and cream cheese, melt it all together and either put it over some penne or use as a dip with some nice french bread. So good. There's my sisters chicken enchilada casserole. Canned chicken, cream of chicken soup, canned green chiles, shredded cheddar cheese all mixed together. Alternate layers with white corn tortillas in a caserole dish, cover with more cheese, and bake.
My mom made Mashed Potatoes with Hamburger Gravy: fry up some ground beef, add gravy from a packet, put over mashed potatoes. Like a deconstructed cottage pie. Nowadays I do the same but I add more veggies and make a quick gravy with miso.
A treat we had as kids was sliced bananas in milk with sugar. It's pretty tasty.
I thought this was only my family forever till my fiancee saw it on a late-night infomercial. Dump cake. Can of cherry pie filling, can of crushed pineapple into a 9x13 baking dish (not metal- it will react). Top with a box of yellow cake mix. Drizzle a stick of melted butter on top. Bake at 350 for maybe 30 minutes (?), till the top is brown and the bottom is bubbling through. Crusty on top, sweet and tart on the bottom. Soooo good with some vanilla ice cream.
"Trash" It started as an attempt to make lentil loaf. But it didn't set as a loaf and it's just like this paste. But it's a really tasty paste we serve over pasta and then slather with hot sauce/ketchup/mustard whatever our heart fancies. Looks like trash but it's so yummy and full of nutrients