TJ–

Never heard that called Johnny Marzetti before, but that really does sound like good comfort food.  Thanks for posting that.

Johnny Marzetti, otherwise known as chili mac – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Marzetti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Marzetti

Pot roast (chuck) with carrots, potatoes, celery, and onion

She also frequently made cottage ham with cubed potatoes, onions, and green beans all cooked in the same pot roast pan, later in my childhood she switched to a crock pot

Mom was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and a maid in the kitchen, so needless to say, post-maid, after my granpa died, the pickings were slim and the portions were small, unless Dad took over to burn the hell out of a steak. ( I do remember some 12-15 lb lobsters bought from some place over in Sandwich MA that had to be cooked in a roaster that were pretty good. Mom was into Herring roe, Sweetbreads and tripe which none of us kids would ever take, except for my sister. After 12 years of PB&J or tuna for lunch every schoolday, my memories of “home-cooking” are limited.

The one massive exception was codfish cakes and baked beans ( YAY on the former, bleh on the latter). About every third or so Sat night, especially in winter when Dad couldn’t grill, we’d have them along with salad or store-bought cole-slaw.  Made with mash potatoes, dried, reconstituted cod, spices and fried in an old electric fry pan ( I still have and use on Thanksgiving and Christmas for saut�ed whole pearl onions – another Mom+), they were delightful – crispy on the outside, soft and fragrant inners although I seem to remember liking the coating more.  Some 60+ years later I still remember them and have tried, in vain, to re-create them

CK–

Whenever you show up!

Better set a place for me too!

CK–

Whenever you show up!

What time is dinner!

I do my friend!  We have started something in the last year or so where every Wednesday,  I pick up my twin 17 year old nephews (one is 6′ 3″, the other is 6′ 1″) and we head to her place for dinner.  Needless to say, she makes a lot of food to feed three healthy appetites.

The rumor is next week she will be making turkey devonshires!

I had forgot about tuna noodle casserole, we rarely had it cause my mom and sister didnt like canned tuna (the new pouches make tuna SOOOOO much easier and better tasting).  Mom always used crushed ritz crackers on the top instead of potato chips.

Her desserts were:

Cream Puffs with homemade chocolate custard

carrot cake with cream cheese icing

Jewish apple cake

apple crumble/crisp

She would also make some durn good home made soups over the years. 

Her chicken was also the best, I have never gotten close to hers either even after watching her do it for all those years.

I really miss her.  BB Cherish those meals.

Butterbeans and cornbread

Pound cake

Popovers

Stuffed porkchops

Mmmmm……

There was this steak, (round steak I think) and potato thing, made one of two ways one was a creamy sauce assume with Cream of Mushroom Soup and the there was a tomato type sauce kind that I think she got of a can of Hunts tomato paste. The best fried chicken anywhere. Chocolate Mayo cake. Chicken and Noodles with mashed potatoes. Indiana Chili (more of a soup and with spaghetti). There  are more, but right off it is these.

Then there’s my father.  He was from Poland.  He never went in to the kitchen unless he had the urge to cook a Polish meal.  His rolled cabbage in a sweet and sour sauce was devine. 

He made verenki which were like pierogies, filled with mashed potato, lots of pepper and fried onions.  Hard, dried sausage and sauerkraut with caraway seeds was also a favorite.

What I remember him making most was Cholent.  You’ll have to look it up.   His involved short ribs, barley, noodle pudding and maybe beans.  I’m mixing it up with cassoulet which for some reason he also made.

He was also master of the grill.

BelleReve: You are clearly a person after my own heart.  I started eating the wings from the fried chicken when I was very small — probably 4 or 5.  I loved them then; still do.  As I little kid, I referred to them as “little drumsticks,” although I ate both parts of the wing.  When I was older (and had a greater capacity to eat more chicken), my mom would sometimes buy four extra wings at the butcher for me, but she would never fry just the wings. She said that frying all the parts from a whole chicken (including the back!) was essential to get the full flavor.  Sometimes she would fry two whole chickens in stages.  But we always had mashed potatoes and milk pan gravy and some kind of green vegetable (usually green beans) to accompany the meal, so it’s not like it was ALL chicken.

When I go to Hollyhock Hill with an old friend when I am back in Indianapolis, I always (somewhat rudely) claim the wishbone from the family-style platter.  I love the wings and the other breast piece, too, but that wishbone is so special!

I love city chicken!  Ours was with pork and veal.

I’m pretty sure ours was, too.  Always served with peas and apple sauce!

I don’t really recall anything great my mother made. She’d usually start out with something that would probably have been good, but then she’d “experiment” and add something to it that made it turn out not as good. I always ate it though, whatever it was. Except for the one time she made homemade green pea soup and I threw up after a couple bites. She thought I was being dramatic when I said that I really didn’t like it. Ha. Love it now though, go figure.

My mother’s parents though, cooked us Sunday dinner every week. Usually roast beef, mashed potatoes, some kind of casserole, vegetables, and a salad to start. Once a month, ham or turkey, sometimes chicken. And my grandmother would sometimes make Shepard’s pie, which was amazing. We all made fun of my grandfather because he’d cook the hell out of the roast beef, but I still on occasion cook a roast the same way because it takes me back. I can even make the gravy exactly as he did, so I don’t care if the meat is a little dry.

Edit: One of the casseroles was zucchini and squash with cheddar cheese, I just made it last weekend as I was feeling nostalgic for it. Just zucchini and squash layered with cheddar, s&p, and baked at 400 for an hour or two. So good.

My Mom was impervious to heat. On the hottest summer day (no air-conditioning back then) she’d think nothing of using the oven for hours on end to make dinner. I don’t recall what my Dad thought of all this, but I remember even at a young age, coming home from playing ball all day, sweaty as all hell, and wanting nothing but a cold drink and maybe some ice cream, instead being confronted by a 102 degree kitchen and meat loaf for dinner.

On the other hand, one of my favorite comfort foods from when I was a kid was bologna on white toast with mustard. Mom would make it as a treat for me, usually on Saturday night. Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Curiously, I don’t like bologna at all any more, haven’t had it for years.