Around the Kitchen Table--Our Moms' Favorite Foods! Plus 7-Book #Giveaway

 

LESLIE KARST here. Mothers’ Day is next Sunday, a holiday that can be difficult for those of us who—like me—no longer have our moms with us. But at the same time, I still like to observe the day, offering up thanks to the marvelous gal who bore me, raised me, cooked for me, and then—once I was older—became my very best friend, someone with whom I could drink Martinis, and get silly and shoot the breeze. So I thought it would be appropriate for today’s chat around the Kitchen table to honor all our mothers—both those alive and those now passed on—by talking about what are or were our moms’ favorite foods.

My mother’s two greatest food loves for much of her life were artichokes and avocados. (Can you tell she grew up in Southern California?). But in her later years, she became most passionate about ice cream.

She and my father would eat a bowl of ice cream every night in bed as they watched whatever happened to be on PBS, and then, once she went into assisted care and later hospice, indulging in ice cream became her favorite part of the day: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, coffee, cookies-and-cream, you name it. And I think ice cream may very well have been the very last dish she ate. I hope there are endless bowls of ice cream wherever you are now, Mom! 

 

What about you, fellow MLKers and readers: what is or was your mom’s favorite food? 

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I don't know that my mother had a particular favorite food when I was growing up.  I know she liked creamed spinach when the rest of us all said ewwww (I love it now!)  She also liked that orange French dressing that came in a bottle while my sister and I opted for my Dad's salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar.  She really loved streusel buns and Pecan Sandies. In her latter years, she became wild about pizza.  She would walk into town and order a slice at the local pizza parlor several times a week. It got to the point where when they saw her walk by, they'd automatically put a slice in the oven for her. When she went into a nursing home, that same pizza parlor would occasionally deliver a pizza to surprise her.  

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LUCY BURDETTE: My mother loved to eat but did not love cooking. I can't really blame her, as she had four kids close in age plus a job teaching elementary school students. When she got home from school, she would take a snack and a magazine to her room to chill out--usually something simple like potato salad or an onion sandwich with mayo (ugh!) Her inner chef goddess came out for parties. She loved making little triple-decker party sandwiches, and choux pastry puffs stuffed with tuna or shrimp salad. She also adored holidays with her two sisters and their families. Happy mother's day to all of you at MLK!

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EDITH MAXWELL/MADDIE DAY: My mom provided meals for a family of six, but she wasn't an inspired savory cook, and she trained us four kids early to make our own breakfasts and lunches.  

Where she shone was in the sweets department -which was also what she loved to eat. My two older sisters and I grew up baking with her. Six kinds of Christmas cookies. Four kinds of pies at Thanksgiving. Homemade hand-cranked ice cream in the summer (and I still dream of that creamy peach ice cream with peaches from our back yard trees, one yellow peach, one white). Her after-dinner Brown Sugar Candy (I think all she did was boil up brown sugar, butter, and walnuts and then let it cool on waxed paper).

And the cakes! One of my sisters shared our mom's recipe for Poppyseed Cake, which I posted last year. Mommy took a cake decorating class when I was young. I still have her cigar box of little jars of coloring. She could do roses and all kinds of shaped piping. She had a heavy two-part Santa Claus cake mold that ended up being a decorated standing St. Nick, with cherries in the cake so it looked festive. And so many more.

For years when my boys were young I tried to channel my mother's talent. I made a cake decorated to the wish of whichever son was having a birthday. I acquired frosting tips and sleeves and made a building cake, a bug, a fire engine, a soccer ball, a cowboy hat, and more.  Happy Mother's Day! 

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  As I've said here before, my mother was not a great cook, but could she bake! When I was a child, my dad told me if I wanted to bake great cakes, learn from my Aunt Peggy, but for pies, learn from my mother. She grew up on a farm, the 5th of 13 children, and learned to bake in 4H and from an aunt of hers. Here's her favorite cherry pie, with my stained copy of her recipe for an oil crust. (That's what I grew up with, though I make a butter crust now.) That's her rolling pin pictured.   

She loved Saltines with butter and ketchup. Buttered popcorn. Angel food cake. Strawberries fresh from the garden. Liver and onions. Breakfast for dinner. Merlot. Manhattans. Everything Mr. Right and I made when she visited. She was never a foodie -- and never free with compliments -- but truly delighted in watching us cook together. On her last visit, I asked what she would like -- she'd moved to an independent living facility and didn't have many choices -- and she said Shrimp Scampi, then told us it was the very best Shrimp Scampi she'd ever had.

 

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VICKI DELANY: I am incredibly lucky that I still have my mom with me, and going strong. She’ll be 99 next January. I remember when I was young my mother was considered an ‘adventurous’ cook. I mean, she made spaghetti bolognaise (which we just called spaghetti) and “Chinese food” – chopped chicken and vegetables in a sweet sticky sauce. A couple of years ago Mom asked me to make her favourite dessert for Christmas – chocolate mouse cake. I didn’t have a suitable sized baking pan so I did some fancy arithmetic on the recipe. That, plus the fact that there was a mistake in the recipe itself, gave me a sloppy mess. I wish I still had the pictures to show you. It was a mess, but it still tasted good, and Mom was very pleased.

Here's my mother with her youngest Great-Granddaughter, taken last June. 

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LIBBY KLEIN: My mother was the microwave queen. She worked full-time when I was growing up, so I made a lot of the family dinners myself. Although she makes delicious meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. She had never tried pizza until she was an adult because she said it didn't smell good. Crazy lady. Now she has it once a week with green peppers and onions. She loves beef lo mein and gets it with a mountain of scallions. And coming from South Jersey she does love a cheesesteak with fried onions. Geez, I guess her favorite food is onions.

She doesn't like "fancy" food, so just about anything I make is new to her. She loves Lemon Meringue Pie and Angel Food Cake. And neither one of us has ever met an ice cream we didn't like. One of her absolute favorite desserts is the chocolate peanut butter fudge I make every year for Christmas. I have to make a special tin of it just for her. Here she is with her oldest great-grandbaby. Don't anyone tell her I posted this super cute picture of her or she'll kill me.

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MAYA CORRIGAN: When I was growing up, my mom made balanced meals every night--meat or fish, a starch (mostly mashed potatoes), a vegetable (from frozen), and a salad. I don’t remember anything she was particularly partial to, except maybe steak, which we rarely ate. She never cooked food she disliked eating (e.g., liver) and never used garlic in any dishes. After we all left home, though, she expanded her repertoire, cutting out recipes from women's magazines, from Parade, and from food packages. The photo shows two of her well-used recipes from that period. She was most enthusiastic about the braised turkey breast cordon bleu and the pecan tartlets (my favorite too).

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MOLLY MacRAE: My mom? What a gal. She was a good and adventurous cook with eight mouths to feed. She adored dark chocolate and would have one small square after supper each night.  

 

Before the younger half of us came along, she and Dad and the older half lived in quite a few places including Bogota, Columbia. Then they settled down, in a small Illinois town, but even there she went beyond meatloaf, green beans, and iceberg lettuce. She did those, too, but she also served up chop suey, artichokes, asparagus, tomato aspic, and molded salmon salad (with a ring of black olive for the salmon's eye) made in her beautiful copper mold. Dad built an outdoor pottery kiln for her one summer, and while we fed the fire with wood, she fired her pots and cooked an all-day stew flavored with juniper berries on top of the kiln. Mom and I watched Julia Child and the Galloping Gourmet religiously. I lost her too soon, but wow, what a gal. Time for a bite of dark chocolate. Happy Mother’s Day!

 

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TINA KASHIAN: I love each of our MLK’s stories about our mothers! My mother was a talented cook and, together with my dad, they owned a restaurant in South Jersey for thirty years. The two would often bicker in the kitchen. But she was the better cook! We all worked in the restaurant, and food was an important part of my childhood and teen years growing up. You would think my mom would be sick of cooking when she got home, but no, she cooked every night. Lots of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern dishes. I have memories of lamb kebab, tabouleh salad, and simmering grape leaves and tomatoes and peppers stuffed with meat and rice in a traditional dish called, dolma when I came home from school. I shared this recipe at MLK here. Sadly, both my parents passed away. My mother when I was in my twenties, but I have her treasured recipe box. I make her recipes, but they never taste as good. I think it’s the memory I’m holding onto. Miss you mom!

  

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VMBURNS: My mom was a good cook, but she didn't enjoy cooking. When I was a teenager, she used to complain when our busy schedules meant that food wasn't eaten in a timely manner and was sometimes wasted. Eventually, she committed to cooking one day per week —Sundays. Every Sunday, my mother would get up early and start making dinner before church. She was often cooking dinner at the same time that my dad was making breakfast (he always made breakfast on Sundays). After my sister and I grew up and moved out, my mom stopped cooking and became a regular at many local restaurants and was well known by most of the staff. The day after my mother died, my sister, my dad, and I went to breakfast at one of her favorite restaurants. The server asked where my mom was and we had to tell her that she had died. The poor woman burst into tears. The restaurant refused to charge us for that meal. I'd have to say, my mom's favorite meals were the ones she didn't have to cook herself.

FYI - I was told it rained on the way to the photographers - hence the hair.

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CLEO COYLE: Great topic, Leslie K.! Marc and I are loving these foodie memories. My mom (Rose) is gone now. She died of cancer in 1991, and I miss her greatly, but I remember she had a real sweet tooth (candy, chocolate, cream puffs) throughout most of her life. On the other hand, Marc’s late mother, Evelyn, relished making hearty main dishes. In fact, she gave her love of CITY CHICKEN to Marc, who made it for me, and now it’s a favorite of mine, too.

CITY CHICKEN is a Depression-era dish that makes use of butcher's meat scraps, which were easier to come by back then and much cheaper than chicken, especially in urban areas that were far from poultry farms. Of course, these days it’s the other way around with scraps of beef often costing far more than chicken! The result? The taste of this dish is rich and delicious. Depression-era turned gourmet delicacy—at least in our opinion. If you’d like to learn more and get our version of the classic CITY CHICKEN recipe, click here or on the photo below, and happy (almost) Mother’s Day to everyone!

CITY CHICKEN (which has no chicken),
a Depression-era favorite of Cleo's MIL. 
For the recipe, click here or on the photo above.

GIVEAWAY!

To be entered in this week's drawing for

the 7 (seven!) terrific mysteries below,

join us in the comments.

Include your email address,

so we can contact the winner!

> THE FRAGRANCE OF DEATH by Leslie Karst

> MURDER AT A CAPE BOOKSTORE (ARC) by Maddie Day 

> MURDER IS A PIECE OF CAKE (ARC) by Valerie Burns

> MURDER IN A TEACUP by Vicki Delany

> ARGYLES AND ARSENIC by Molly MacRae 

> BREWED AWAKENING by Cleo Coyle

> HUMMUS AND HOMICIDE by Tina Kashian

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