Both my grandmothers were dead by the time I was three, so they never cooked for me.
(never marry late in life)
But my mom made the best thing. Liver dumpling soup.
I loved it, and there weren’t mnay foods I did like.
People alwasy say ewww when I mention it, but it was good!
ANyone else ever have it?
I refuse to read this thread. November is way too far away. Grandma throws down the best Thanksgiving spread in East Texas. Just thinking about her mashed taters (“potatoes”, if you’re not from around here) makes me hungry. I think that reading this whole thread would just make it worse.
::reads thread anyway::
AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!
I think I’m gonna go visit grandma this weekend.
I have a complicated family.
Maternal grandmother: reputed a great cook, she died when I was a baby. I have her phenomenal oatmeal cookie recipe.
Maternal step-grandmother (married my grandfather when I was 4): rum cake (no real rum, but great anyway), preserved figs with lemon rind.
Paternal grandmother: fabulous North Dakota cook. Chicken and dumplings, kaese knoephla (a sort of cheese ravioli, fried, with croutons, lettuce, and a chilled cream dressing), kuchen, lighter-than-air sugar cookies, rhubarb custard pie.
Step-maternal grandmother (my father was widowed and remarried): coleslaw, green bean salad, “confetti” cake (yellow sheet cake with a whipped cream, pineapple and coconut topping).
They’re all gone now, but what memories!
Mom’s mother: Sociable crackers and sweet red wine.
Dad’s mother: Pretzel sticks, Saltines with butter, cubed cheese, whiskey sours and scotch on the rocks.
(Not a lot of cooking went on with the womenfolk in my family, I’m afraid.)
Another hand raised for neither grandma being able to cook. I remember visiting my paternal grandma once and being served grape juice and grape jelly she had made using the grapes she had grown - there were pips and skin throughout both juice and jelly.
Mum survived her childhood and became a great cook. Dad on the other hand thinks vegimite and apple sandwiches consitute a meal.
Thinking a bit more on the subject I remember my paternal grandad being a great cook - his specialty was breakfasts - lots of fried bacon, eggs, ham, tomatoes the lot yum.
Paternal grandmother was a mediocre cook, but she did soups and stews pretty well. Unfortunately, she was curious to cook any living creature she could get her hands on. She used to send my Dad and his brothers (who all hunted) out to get whatever critter crossed her mind to fix. Squirrel, rabbit, quail - okay fine; I’ve had them. But my uncle was telling us about her sending them out after opposum, groundhog, moles and her even liking to cook drum fish. Yeck! Glad I missed those days.
My maternal granmother is mostly a terrible cook. I hate her overbaked ham at Thanksgiving. Despite being Polish, I hate boiled cabbage because of her. She burns every Polish Sausage she ever laid her hands on. My Dad had to teach my Mom how to make fried chicken when they got married because her Mom never knew how.
But Gramma can make sweet pickles that are so delicious it’s sinful, she has no telling how many years worth stored in a cellar behind her house. No one ever sees her making more, but she never runs out.
She makes “oatmeal” cookies that are fantastic, IF you get them while they are still soft and warm and just out of the oven. After a few hours they turn rock hard; when I first read of battle bread in the Discworld novels I knew exactly what Prachett meant: my Gramma’s cookies after about two days. The reason for this is that instead of oatmeal, she uses crushed Corn Flakes.
I’m told her chocolate spiral bread is devine, most of my family fights over it at holidays. I hate chocolate and won’t go near the stuff.
I really haven’t eaten much food prepared by any of my grandparents, since they hardly ever cooked when we would visit them, but let’s see:
My maternal grandfather fishes all the time in the lake behind his home and serves the results for breakfast & dinners…YUMMM!
Can’t seem to think of anything specific my maternal grandma made, but my mom tells me that she used to be really good at canned goods, I think it was, and became famous for them. She told my mom to watch and learn because people were going to expect her to know how to make them since her mom did, but my mom didn’t learn, and people did expect her to know.
My paternal grandfather made really good hamburgers the one time I got to eat his cooking. But I got sick afterwards because I ate too much, and then had ice cream, and then went swimming.
My paternal grandmother makes really good chocolate brownies.
Most of my memories of good food are from church dinners…and YES, the only real way to make mac & cheese is with real macaroni and REAL cheese! I never saw the Kraft kind until I was in my teens, and was fascinated by it when I encountered it, but really I wasn’t missing anything.
My mom is a great cook–salisbury steak, green bean & hamburger, freshly baked bread (mmmmmm!) and cinamon raisin bread, mashed potatoes and fried chicken. At church dinners whoever was cooking would always have to announce what we were eating beforehand, and people always said that they liked my mom because she always sounded really thrilled and excited about what she’d made, even if it was just cheese sandwiches… She’d be like, “And today we are having delicious chicken soup and freshly-baked rolls, along with crispy green lettuce that Sarah just picked from the garden this morning…” She could make anything sound good. She’s a born saleswoman, but the thing is that her food doesn’t even need selling tactics…
Mmmm, cheese sandwiches…now I’m really hungry…
Reminds me of my Mama and Daddy’s “great game argument”: Daddy was a hunter and fisherman, too, and we all enjoyed venison, rabbit, squirrel, and just-caught catfish–but he insisted that muskrat and groundhog were ‘good eatin’.’ My mother refused, saying, “I’m not eating rats!” Of course, squirrels are just rats with fluffy tails, but Mama refused to be convinced. 
Don’t know if I could bring myself to munch squirrel either… they’re kinda cute. 
My maternal grandmother was a serviceable cook but really didn’t want to be in the kitchen, everything she made was rather on the unseasoned side. But, mercy, could she make a fabulous fried apple pie! She used a tender, flaky biscuit dough made sans recipe and fresh apples from the tree in her yard. As a kid I always loved to see a big plate of fried pies sitting on the stove when we would visit.
My paternal grandmother cooked up big Sunday dinners whenever we’d visit her. Great pot roast, mashed potatoes and chocolate cream pie with mounds of meringue. I didn’t like meringue much then so I always ate the chocolate pie out from underneath. Not surprising that she was a good cook though since she and her sister used to run a restaurant. I think my youngest brother inherited her talent.
My dad’s mother is Mexican and used to live far away, so I didn’t get to have her cooking much. However, I have fond memories of visiting California and enjoying her very authentic tamales. Spicy and lots of cheese. Mmmm.
My mom’s mother, on the other hand, has always lived locally, so I’ve had her cooking lots of times. She is, bar none, the blandest cook I’ve ever experienced. Bland Ho. Blandy Crocker. Very mild flavor, like warmed-up skim milk, whether it was turkey or pie. She passed on these “skills” to my mother. I had no idea just how tasteless the stuff I grew up on really was until my wife made a concerted effort at re-training my palate.
Example: My wife and I had our wedding at my parents’ house (mom and stepdad). They’ve got a big back yard, a very natural setting with woods and stuff, so it was perfect. My wife wanted to get caterers for the food, but my unbelievably cheap mom wouldn’t hear of it; she insisted that they could whip up everything they needed themselves. My wife argued half-heartedly, but eventually decided it wasn’t a battle worth fighting.
She did, however, put her foot down when my mom said she wanted to make cocktail weenies. :eek:
I eat much, much better now, thanks to the attention of my wife. But even so, when we go down for the obligatory Thanksgiving feast, it’s all we can do to restrain our giggles as the brightly-colored but totally-flavorless dishes are set before us. You’d think my family had never heard of salt…
My grandma is an old southern woman who has now found the virtues of pre-prepared food at the new gourmet grocery store. We don’t fault her – many, many holidays and picnics were at the mercy of her cooking for 20 people so we don’t mind. What I do know she makes is absolutely killer sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping. When another family member tries to make them they only come out watery or not sweet enough.
My maternal grandma died when I was a year old so I have no memory of her cooking, but my mom insists she made the best Polish and Slavic food she ever had.
My mom is a fabulous cook and will give her future grandkids memories of amazing food. Anything she makes – spaghetti sauce, pot roast, meatloaf, rib roast, roast chicken, hamburgers – comes out spectacular.
My dad’s mom makes wonderful pot roast with carrots, and good brown gravy. Killer mashed potatoes. AND…three-layer German Chocolate Cake with sweet, rich pecan frosting.
My mom’s mom makes fried chicken that clogs the arteries just looking at it, and white gravy that you would eat by itself. I don’t even like gravy, but it’s delicious.
My mother makes 1000-calorie-a-slice Italian Cream Cake. It starts with a dozen eggs. I would commit felonies for a taste of it. Luckily, I know where her recipe is.
Just to be a decent cook, I’ve had to branch out into areas that my family has never even touched. I got compliments on my soy-and-vinegar chicken last time we were down…(soy sauce is NOT a condiment found in my family’s kitchen)
Fortunately, the biscuit-making gene skipped a generation; although my mother toasts bread in the oven, I can make a halfway decent biscuit, and surely with another 40 years of practice I’ll be as good as Granny is.
I hope.
Corr
Faggots, my (paternal) grandmother used to make the most delicious faggots.
:eek: 
The word has more than one meaning, of course; Faggots are a delicious sort of meatball made with liver (and, traditionally, lungs, but I don’t think gran used to make them that way), served in a rich onion gravy.
Boiled Chicken. No, really.
She took a chicken, put it in a pot with salt and pepper, a little chopped celery and onion and boiled it for quite a while. It was fantastic! And I cannot reproduce it. I probably don’t have access to the right kind of hicken.
She was from a long line of English-style cooks.
Her pickles and relishes were also amazing.
My memere (french for grandma) used to use one of those crock pot type steamers on EVERYTHING 
.
But, she made the best French Toast ) Mmmmmm. . . . .
My Granny’s from the South. Beauford, SC, to be exact. She makes the most wonderful southern dishes.
Her fried chicken in unparalleled. I don’t eat fried chicken that often and I never fry it at my house but I look forward to family occasions when I know her fried chicken will be served.
I used to think her kale was good until I started making my own. I make mine with two-thirds kale and a third mustard greens. I start by sautéing shallots in bacon and then adding the greens. I then put some smoked pork neck bones in the pot, cover and simmer until done. Sometimes I add a few cloves of garlic. When Granny tasted mine she exclaimed how much better they were than hers. I almost cried.
Her cornbread dressing is the best I’ve ever had. In fact, I’ve told my family the only reason I put up with them during the holidays is so that I can eat Granny’s dressing. I think they think I’m joking.
Her potato salad is so good; I’ve never tasted another that I like as much as, let alone more than, hers. She rarely makes it these days, though.
She also makes the best scrapple. Well, she doesn’t make it, but she pan-fries it and it doesn’t fall apart like mine does. I’m going to ask her secret one of these days.
Her cornbread is WONDERFUL. I try and try to duplicate her recipe, but like the other grandmothers mentioned in this thread, she doesn’t measure her ingredients.
Also, she makes this wonderful concoction of shrimp in gravy. It is SO good over basmati rice. In fact, I think I’m going to buy some shrimp this weekend and ask her to whip up a batch for me.
I’d like to say, culinarily (is that even a word?), she can do no wrong, but that’s not the case. She makes the worst pancakes! They’re thin and flavorless.
Mangetout, thanks for the clarification. I’m not crazy about “innards”, but I won’t say no to anything until I’ve tasted it.
Motorgirl, that sounds like the beginning for my mother’s chicken-and-noodle soup. After what you’ve described, she’d throw in some sliced carrots and then a little later, a whole bunch of wide egg noodles. Mmmmmm! I can’t think of why yours doesn’t taste the same, except that you need the skin and fat on the chicken (later, you take the chicken parts out and remove the skin and bones). Just a WAG.
JuanitaTech, scrapple is one of my all-time favorite foods! I think that when you fry it you need to start with your fire high to brown the outside and that will hold it together; flip it, sear the other side, then turn the fire down low. Just a WAG, again.
Funny thing: my sister is best at ‘main courses’ but can’t bake worth a damn; I’m an excellent baker, but the timing on my main courses always seems to be a little off.
Anybody’s grandmother/mother make gingerbread? My mother’s was simply to die for!