Strange Recipes from Childhood

Pear salad

iceberg lettuce>canned pear half>mayo>grated cheese>maraschino cherry

a canned pineapple ring can sub for the pear

Tuna fish gumbo. Canned tuna. Tomatoes. Bell pepper. No garlic.

It wasnt gumbo. It was soup. Tuna fish soup.

Mom now tries to convince me she never made such a thing and it was some sort of fever dream I had. It was not. I seent it.

It was better than it sounds and I always liked it. (I dont think it could be worse than it sounds…)

In the category of sounding gross but wasn't, mom would scramble eggs with canned salmon and sweet peas mixed in. I loved it and still make it sometimes.

Gou-Lash

Wieners (had to be the cheapest and reddish in color)
Pasta
Onion
Tomato sauce.

Brown cut wieners with onions. Add tomato sauce and cook down for about an hour. add water and pasta and boil til pasta is done. or something like that.

From Cousins house:

Mashed potatoes (real mashed potatoes with real potatoes) and rice.
Holy Carbohydrates Batman. lol

Same cousins house:

Coffee-Milk

Mourning Milk straight from the cow. Pasteurized and then chilled.

Afternoon drink for the kids. 50/50 mix. add sugar to taste. and ice.

People pay a lot of $$ for drinks like that now. But it will never be as good.

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Pear salad

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I’ve suppressed that from my memory as a child of the 1970’s and early 80’s, but my mom made that pear concoction with some kind of mayonnaise and it was not all that good.

In Louisiana a lot of the recipes start with and first you make a roux. In the 1970’s it sure seemed like recipes must have started with go the pantry and grab a can of cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, etc. My mother made something called Kings Ranch Casserole and another one had Frito corn chips in it with hamburger and cheese. I’m sure she tried others too. They would eat, but not all that good.

Numerous times my mom made a canned tuna hamburger. That one my friends and I still laugh about because back then your neighbor buddies often ate dinner with you and vice versa.

Back in those days there was no internet and the cookbooks really didn’t explain stuff well, nor would the chef’s give you the real recipe without leaving a few ingredients out or crucial steps. My mom was not the best cook, but she tried. The thought of eating some of my mom’s trial and error recipes brings back fond memories albeit many of them simply were not very good to eat.

A couple of cans of tuna fish.

Squeeze the lid after opening.

Mix with an egg and stale Ritz crackers.

Make a patty and fry in a tablespoon of bacon grease from a coffee can, in an iron skillet. Serve with a clump of grits.

We weren't poor. Mother just hated cooking.

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Pear salad

iceberg lettuce>canned pear half>mayo>grated cheese>maraschino cherry

a canned pineapple ring can sub for the pear

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It was the first thing that came to my mind too.

Every gaggle of housewife club fundraising with a cookbook featured this "recipe"

Short and Warm- Basically a stew made with a brown roux, sliced hot dogs, and diced peas, carrots, and potatoes.

Cheese toast with warmed cream of mushroom soup as a gravy over the top. I am not sure where my nanny found that one but she made it for us often.

Couldn't afford sausage growing up so we had lots of red beans and rice with cut up hot dogs.

Liver and onions. Nobody seems to cook that anymore. My mom wouldn't make a gravy. She'd almost burn the shite out of the onions. Still nostalgic over it