With Mother's Day ahead of us it is a time of year that I always think of those recipes that remind me of my mum or nana.
Mum isn't a keen cook but did make lovely Louise Cake and also Vegetable soup.
Nana was well known for her Cheese Puffs, Blackberry and Apple Pies and Mince Pies.
What about your mothers and grandmothers. What recipes make you think of them?

One of my grandmothers did not cook but had acclaim for her Pears in Red Wine. The other one (Granny) made me a memory by serving the first ever Summer Pudding I enjoyed. The fruit for it being picked by us children from the netted fruit garden.
My mother was able to get more flavour in a dish than anyone before or since...I think because in wartime England she had to work with severely limited ingredients to feed us and various refugees and friends. Out here one of her specialties was the best steak and kidney pie in the world. Silly perhaps but I have never tried to do it myself. It was hers. Great standing rib roasts too, for family occasions when we were all home. Who does those now?

The recipes that my mother and grandmother used to make do not taste the same when I make them. I don't have the secrets of the extra things here and there that make them special. Yet I'm sure my son will say the same about me and my recipes later on.

Stephanie D Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The recipes that my mother and grandmother used to
> make do not taste the same when I make them. I
> don't have the secrets of the extra things here
> and there that make them special. Yet I'm sure my
> son will say the same about me and my recipes
> later on.

Stephanie, that is so true. One time I had my d-in-law ask me how I make my reduced cream dip. I asked her why and she said my son said hers was never as good as mine! But we both use the exact same ingredients, and I think his judgment has been clouded with memories

[www.bite.co.nz]

My mum Francie's Brownie recipe. At the time ( in the 1970s) , we did not call it brownie, it was Brown Betty . But these days I recognise it as a very economical brownie. The golden syrup and walnuts make it divine.

My mother was not a good cook and needed to be frugal, but she tried hard. The dish I remember fondly is what we called Pork Chow Mein, which was made out of pork pieces, onion, cabbage, carrots and soy sauce, served with boiled rice. I used to like it with a big lump of butter on top and to this day I love the combination of butter and soy sauce.

My maternal grandmother was a very good cook and when I went to stay with her she would feed me on rump steak grilled under her little gas grill, served rare with mashed potatoes and a green vege. She must have saved up her pension to buy the steak as she was not well off. I always think of her when I cook steak.

I say the same thing as you, Stephanie D. The stoves/ovens we use today are different to those my mother and grandmother used. Not to mention things such as the flour. Even though mine don't turn out quite as good as theirs they still make me think of them.
The baking Helen mentioned were all made, eaten and enjoyed in our household. Our purple fingers were proof of who picked the blackberries. Nutty Biffs (probably known to many as peanut brownies) were frequently made. Mum's recipe bible for baking was the good old Edmonds Cookery Book . The Three-Minute Sponge was another favourite.
For the more savoury foods, I cannot replicate the flavour of the roast beef but then I don't roast it in a coal-fired oven, basting it from time to time with the fat. I don't know how we never gained too much weight although I suspect it is because we were so active.

My mother was a great cook but the meal of hers I remember the most was a "curry", I think it featured curry powder out of an ancient tin, sultanas and dessicated coconut and apple might have come into it too. We loved it at the time.She used sheep meat from lamb through hogget and mutton.

Mum was brought up during the depression and could make a lot out of very little, no food waste in her house



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2018 09:11AM by jj.

Grandma made the biggest fluffiest sponges. She taught me how to bake - we used to have 'morning tea at Grandma's every Saturday with a selection of several things - pikelets, afghans (sometimes with green icing - my cousin Kim), ginger gems, scones, and bought chocolate biscuits like toffee pops or mint slice. She always cooked a roast chicken to have cold at Christmas teatime and her peas were so cooked they were dark green like tinned ones. her gravy always had lumps but was yummy as.

Mum's baking specialties were peanut bars - a chewy slice with golden syrup and roasted peanuts - and bran biscuits.

They both used the same pavlova recipe but Mums' was like a big white crisp meringue and Grandma's was beige and chewy in the middle. I use the same recipe now and mine is like a mixture of both.

They were both fabulous cooks but Grandma used to throw things in, and when she measured it would be with old serving tablespoons and teacups, whereas Mum used metric measurements to the letter.

I recently found in an op shop the same shape cutter that Mum used to make her bran biscuits - had to buy it.

I am lucky enough to have inherited all Grandma's saucepans, stainless steel bowls and baking dishes, pans and cake tins, including patty tins so often I am making her recipes in her items - it's such a neat thing.

strawberry pan cakes

Grandmother - Drop Scones and not much else.

My nana used to make me fried scones, she would set up her deep fryer in the wash house (where she also used to make soap in the copper). She had 30 grandchildren and worked so hard doing housework for others, plus cleaning the bank and picture theatre in Wairoa. She also made lovely sausage rolls and delicious cream horns.

My mum was a wonderful cook and loved baking - Louise cake and the best pavlova.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2018 10:43AM by gran.

what a lovely thread Helen.
Both of my grandmothers died before my parents married but I do remember my Mum & her huge range of baking, often at the last minute as visitors pulled into our driveway - I loved watching her measure things by eye too (ie never seemed with a cup or teaspoon, lol).
Mum made real Neenish Tarts with condensed milk filling, amazing pikelets - often in the shape of a pussycat for little children treats & girdle scones. Lots of things that I have forgotten right now.
When I was growing up we often had desserts too & while I cant remember many there was often a blancmange (sp) of sorts in summer & fruit sponges in winter.
Sadly, Mum is widowed now & has lost a lot of confidence in her cooking now she is much older, so her food is often very well cooked, & rather bland - but I guess it suits her for this time.

I do have my maternal grandmas recipe book which is pretty amazing with her handwritten notes & recipes of lots of fruit & vege type wines, tips on how to skin a rabbit, & clean bone handled cutlery. Memories.

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The enduring memory of my mother and food was she was always trying new things. She would attend cooking classes of every ethnicity and then we'd be eating that style for the next 6 months. One of the old fashioned standards I loved though, was roast potatoes - deep fried, aaah. She was not very good at a roast, but Italian and French styles were right up her alley and she did them very well.. she had a good way with sauces.

Mum was not good at baking because she never measured, and unlike other mothers in this thread, her eyeball method was not accurate at all.. and then she wondered why cakes were flat ;-) It is in response to this that I am a very precise baker.

My least favourite was some vegan thing she did in the late 80's, an instead of sandwiches in my lunch, like everyone else, I would get brown rice and celery stir fry, with tamari, cold - ick. As a child, I also found difficulty with being presented with poussin.. all I could think of was how cute that chicken would have been!

My mum now suffers from a form of motor neurone and is in a rest home at the young age of 72, it has been sad watching her decline, especially a couple of years ago when she had to stop cooking because it was not safe for her to handle knives, hot or heavy things. I feel especially sad for her with the fairly revolting food served in the rest home. She has to frame it as "food is fuel", but I know it is really hard for her. A life spent creating and enjoying big and complex flavours, and she's now eating overcooked beef with watery mashed potatoes and boiled peas.

My mother was a good cook. My parents were farmers and in my first six years of life we lived quite isolated in those days from the nearest country village store. Our food came from Dad's vegetable garden, fruit from his large orchard, eggs from the hens, meat from the farm and cream and milk from the herd of cows. So we were pretty well set up. Mum would phone her grocery order in to the grocers and it would be picked up and delivered with bread by the cream lorry on its return trip from taking the cream to the dairy factory. A variety of hot or cold milk puddings were an every night occasion interspersed with fruit pies/puddings. Stale bread was never thrown out it was often served for breakfast in large cubes in a bowl, hot full cream milk poured over and sprinkled with brown sugar. Surprisingly it was a rather nice breakfast and in the winter it was a warm and comforting way to start the day. I never tired of it.

Blackberry pies were frequent desserts and very yummy. When blackberry season arrived it was a day planned for all the rural neighbouring families in our strip of road to socialise. The families would spread out over a very large area of land with rambling blackberry bushes everywhere and pick to their heart's content. There was bubbling, stoney fresh water stream running through the land where the blackberry bushes were and by lunch time there was a multitude of blackberry laden milk billies and that was the time for everyone to come together for a picnic and a swim to cool off and soothe their blackberry scratches and cuts. A fire would be lit and billy tea served.

Mum bottled fruit from the orchard and she had her own brine recipe for corning and salting meat in a huge crock which stood almost to her waist high. I remember sponges, butterfly cakes, fruit loaves and fruit cakes, oaty biscuits, scones and pikelets and ginger gems.

My Grandmother was also a good cook and I mainly remember the frequent weekend visits we made to my Grandparents farm and the beautiful Sunday roasts Granny cooked and we all enjoyed so much. I also remember her fruit cakes and loaves and ginger gems and her apple pies.

My parents sold their first farm when I was six, and they bought another farm much closer to 'civilisation' which meant for the first time in her life Mum had necessary amenities within much easier reach although she relied on Dad to drive her to them. She was also lucky enough to have her first dishwasher, automatic washing machine and stove to replace a coal range and a freezer which was a fairly new phenomenon and a boon for the housewife at that time. It gave her the opportunity of being able to attend cooking classes where she learned to make cuisine from other countries and this opened up a whole new style of cooking for her and she was a keen learner. If she could live in today's culinary world she would be amazed by what is available to New Zealanders by way of different ethnic foods, varities of fresh fruit and vegetables, not to mention the recipe books and recipes available from the w.w.w. - she would be gobsmacked - but an absolutely enthusiastic starter to give something new a go.
Regards,
Dawn.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2018 09:53AM by Dawn.