re: What was your favorite recipe or meal that your mom prepared...

Mom was a great cook, she died much too young for me to get her recipes. Literally everything she cooked was amazing and I was not a picky eater. She must have had 30 eggplant recipes, I can make maybe 6 of them. We are Catholic so I was one of many kids she had to feed on a limited budget, but we never went hungry.

Funny I remember a funny failure that we laughed about for years. My dad did all the shopping at Schwegmann's, he took full advantage of all the beer stands while he shopped off her list, this lead to some weird purchases. One time he brought home this big chicken, my mom always make fried chicken on Sunday after church, so she cut this monster up and fried it. It was a baking hen, fried it was tough as leather, we all though this was hysterical. Mom gathered up all the inedible chicken and we had a tender chicken stew that night.

Three minute boiled eggs with butter toast mixed in a bowl for breakfast. Doesn't seem like much but to me it was the best thing before school in the morning. Vegetable soup and chili was also a treat she cooked. She was a wonderful cook and mom.