GTKY- Favorite Family Recipes

tumbleweed-1

I didn't see a GTKY started yet, so here we go! 

What is your favorite family recipe? It can be something you/another family member cooks for your family now, or something your family made when you were growing up. It can also be something you love when other family members make, but you can't/prefer not to make yourself. Every day meals, special occasions/holidays, desserts, party food, drinks? 

Gwyneddlesliegrace

My family always made a clear Rhode Island chowder. I still dream it. 

maureenmce

I'm don't really know any recipes (but I'd like to!) and nothing special was handed down in my non cook family so I'm just going to lurk this thread and get ideas, haha.

kristah2

I make a homemade sweet and sour meatball sauce. Mmmmm 
my mom always made it but I’ve adapted the recipe a little for my family. 

flamingomomma

My great aunt’s mac n cheese! I’m the only one who can make it like her. And my boys love it! 

morgantu

+1 for Mac and cheese @flamingomomma! The whole family on my mom's side makes it the same way and we all love it! 

texas_t

Porcupine Meatballs!!!!  Meatballs with rice mixed in and dropped in tomato sauce and served over mashed potatoes. 

Although, describing them at the moment makes me want to vomit 

hkom

Ooooohh I like this thread.  

I have a bunch from my paternal grandmother.  She made New England-style piccalilli, which is a relish made mostly from green tomatoes, peppers, and onions.  It is amazing on hot dogs, burgers, but especially pot roast (sounds weird, but trust me).  I eat it straight from the jar with a spoon.  I don't currently make it, but my dad does, so I always have a jar on hand.  

I also make her recipe for pfeffernusse at Christmas.   They are little German spice cookies with molasses, anise, cloves, and black pepper.  I can smell them now...

We also can tomato sauce every summer, from tomatoes we grow ourselves.  The recipe is adapted from my MIL's (it's one of the only things the woman cooks - almost everything else comes out of a microwave bag).  It is a PROCESS but man it is so good and we usually get enough to last a whole year!

The one I have that is just mine, that I will make sure endures, is a gumbo recipe that I have developed over the past several years.  I am not even the least bit Cajun so I don't have any authority over whether I'm doing it "right" (but I do have a French last name now - thanks husband!) but I've read a bunch about it and just combined and adapted multiple recipes to my tastes and I honestly think it is amazing.  I make a huge pot of it every year on Fat Tuesday and freeze portions to last, but the last batch was so good it's almost all gone now so I may have to make some more soon!!

texas_t

@hkom I make Paula Deene's gumbo recipe.  I love it but gumbo takes a LOT of work, doesn't it!?

hkom

@texas_t YES! I have to really mentally prepare myself to be doing like 4 things at once for 2 or 3 hours but it is SO worth it!

Some of Paula's recipes are just the best.  I will never ever make a red velvet cake recipe that isn't hers.  

kadeephd

Ok so this sounds weird, but jell-o cake.  My dad's parents are both Norwegian and my grandmother claims this is a Norwegian recipe, but I seriously doubt it.  I think she just says everything is Norwegian.  You basically take two cake pans, line them with slices of fruit (banana usually but you can use other fruits), tear up angel food cake and put it on the fruit, the soak it all with jell-o (usually raspberry or strawberry).  Refrigerate for it to firm up, then used whipped cream to ice it.  It may sound weird/gross, but it's actually pretty good.

kadeephd

@hkom Growing and preserving things from my own garden, especially tomatoes, is a life goal of mine!  It must be so nice to have those throughout the year.

mag1cbeli3ver

This is a great topic! I  food! So I have 2 recipes that I absolutely love!  The first is from my side of the family.  My paternal grandmother makes amazing coffee cake.  I have her recipe (among the cards my mom made up for me when I got married) and I make it anytime we do a brunch. I actually have coworkers request it anytime we have a coffee social.  It has a delicious brown sugar topping that is making me drool just thinking about it!

The other recipe is from DH's side of the family.  His paternal grandmother has a recipe for chicken pie (not like a pot pie, but a normal-sized, double-crusted pie) filled with shredded chicken, shredded potatoes, shredded carrots, and some heavy cream to make it gravy-like.  We top it with more gravy and I can just eat the whole pie! I never got to try DH's grandma's version (she died before we met), but ever since I had his dad's version the first time, I've been in love!!!

@kadeephd That jell-o cake actually sounds like a great summer dessert! I wanna try!

hkom

@kadeephd That jello cake honestly sounds really good!

The tomatoes are a lot of work, but so worth it!  They are probably the one part of summer that I look forward to the most.  Unfortunately that's pretty much all we have space for right now at a large scale.  We grow other stuff, but it's only enough to be eaten fresh, or maybe to freeze a few portions.

gracie4400

I love to make dips! I have a great recipe for a buffalo chicken dip, a spinach and artichoke dip, a chili dip, a beer cheese dip...basically if you can make something into a dip I've probably tried to!

kristah2

@kadeephd in the world where the thought of everything makes me want to vomit right now, your cake actually sounds really good. In fact it sounds like the only thing I can eat. Do you ship to Canada?

hclzmm14

You guys are making me so hungry 

westcoastfoodie

This all sounds so good right now. 

For me, growing up it was always my mom's quiche. Which sounds terrible right now. 

My babcia (grandma) makes a mean polish potato salad. It's got a lot going on it, it's creamy and with tart apples and then crunchy parsnip. I know that prob sounds terrible, but it is amazing. 

DH is a fantastic cook and I love trying all of his venezuelan favs from his childhood. 

The most requested things I make for my family are my stuffed mushrooms, balsamic chicken, and banana pudding. Oh god I love banana pudding. 

mag1cbeli3ver

@westcoastfoodie AHHH! Banana pudding! So delicious

westcoastfoodie

kristah2 said:

I make a homemade sweet and sour meatball sauce. Mmmmm 
my mom always made it but I’ve adapted the recipe a little for my family. 

I don't know what this is, but what I'm imagining sounds so good! 

asun123

Right now I'm obsessed with taco stuffed potatoes in the instant pot
-put potatoes in the instant pot on their own for a little, take out and stick them in the oven to get skin crispy
-saute half an onion, 1 red bell pepper, one yellow bell pepper in the instant pot for 5 minutes, then add 1 and a half pounds of ground beef (brown it) and then add garlic, franks red hot buffalo sauce, packet of taco seasoning.
-mix it up and pressure cook in instant pot for 10 minutes
-DINNER'S READY.
-Cut potato in half, mash up the middle a little bit and add a couple spoonfuls on top
- Put some cheese on top if you're feeling special (:

So good, my mouth is watering now.

morgantu

Omg @asun123. I'm making that asap. 

asun123

morgantu said:

Omg @asun123. I'm making that asap. 

https://paleomg.com/instant-pot-taco-stuffed-potatoes/

Here's the recipe that I go off of.

tumbleweed-1

I’m glad we weren’t all too nauseated for a food theme gtky. 

@asun123 tacos potatoes sound right up my alley. In the Wednesday ticker update thread I picked tacos or potatoes as my “if you could only eat one food, what would it be”, lol. Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to try them. 

@kadeephd when I was a kid, my best friends mom used to make jello cake. I forgot about that! Hers was a little different. She’d make a box of white/vanilla cake in a pan following the cake directions. After it was cooked, she’d poke some holes in it, then she mixed up jello and poured it over the cake while it was still liquid. The whole pan goes in the fridge to set, then gets iced with cool whip. That sounds so good right now. I’ll have to make that too. 

@hkom I’ve always wanted to try making sauces with fresh tomatoes. The most I do with them is make salsa. I have a community garden plot with some friends this year, and we just planted 4 different varieties of tomatoes, so hopefully we’ll have a lot of them to work with this summer. 

Speaking of tomato sauce, I think my favorite childhood recipe is my dad’s (stepdads) spaghetti sauce. He doesn’t have a real recipe, so I can’t make it quite the same, but he puts a bit of everything in it: tomato sauce & paste, a pinch of brown sugar, worchestershire sauce, etc. It’s so good. Maybe I’ll have him write it down for me.
Also my birth father’s brownies. I requested a tower of them instead of a birthday cake one year. He’s pretty much always worked in the food industry, although he doesn’t have formal training, so he can make a lot of foods. I grew up with my dads cooking more than my mom & step mom, which is “unusual” for someone my age, I think it’s more common for younger generations. 

hkom

@tumbleweed-1 It's really not that hard, it just takes a long time to cook down.  The plus side to that is it makes your house smell AMAZING all day!

echo-charlietango

asun123 said:
https://paleomg.com/instant-pot-taco-stuffed-potatoes/

^ Thanks for the link! I know DH would love that

Otherwise, I wish I had awesome family recipes to rely on like most of you! My mom didn't cook much when I was growing up, but she did make a dessert around the holidays. We just called them Peanut Butter Balls, but it's PB, corn flakes, and corn syrup. It's super addicting, but I stopped making them years ago because I try to avoid added sugars.

So without family recipes I have been making our own and sharing them with visiting family. I thought that our Mushroom and Tortellini Soup was a hit until our nephew ate my Sausage Gnocchi. He makes it once a week, and we figure it must be good when a busy high schooler makes time to cook for himself *high fives to self*