What's the worse dish that your mother makes or made when you were a kid?

[VoteDemocratic2004]

My Mother could not make pancakes and I use to hate pancakes as a kid because of it.

My Mom would fry them in about 1 inch of oil and they would come out crispy. There was so much grease in each pancake that you could ring it out in a bowl. All of us kids would leave the house before breakfast time on pancake day and she couldn't understand why.

The first time that I tried IHops pancakes I didn't know that pancakes tasted like that and they became one of my favorite foods after I knew that no one made pancakes like my Mom did.

Sorry Mom triple puke :puke: :puke: :puke:

[MisterP]

1. undercooked wild rice, lemon juice, peanut butter

[VoteDemocratic2004]

2. My Mom's rice would come out crunchy

She had about 10 dishes that she could make that were very good.

She didn't know how to bake at all.

[mcar]

3. Tuna noodle casserole

and steak. My mother, God be good to her, was a terrible cook.

I thought I hated steak until I was in my 20s and had it in a restaurant once. She was a typical Irish cook - cook it until you're sure it's dead!

[VoteDemocratic2004]

4. Did she boil her roasts?

My Mom would put a roast in a pan and add water to it and bake it for hours until a 3 pounds roast came out the size of a hockey puck.

God rest her soul she did so many other things that she was talented at but cooking was not one of them.

[Katarina]

5. cook it until you're sure it's dead!

LOL! Ain't that the truth. With my mom, if it wasn't black it wasn't done. And the only "spices" she knew was salt and pepper.

A couple of years ago we were over at her house and she fried fish and said she was going to make BAKED potatoes. We'll she floured the fish, threw it in the deep fryer and cooked it up. Then she proceeded to wash her potatoes and put them in the microwave. OMG - Worst. Dinner. EVER!

I love my mom, but I like it when she comes to my house instead, teehee.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

8. Oh God you mentioned fish

Triple puke :puke: :puke: :puke:

My mom use to buy the frozen cod blocks and she would roll them in cornmeal and fry them until the fish was like a piece of cardboard.

We went through tons of ketchup in my house.

[msanthrope]

131. We call that block o'cod, my brother and I, who were forced to

eat that and block o'flounder. My Mom would let them defrost on the kitchen counter and then coat the 'filets' in Saltine crumbs. Then she would put them on a baking sheet and cook them until the edges curled. My mom usually served this with block o'broccoli, which was boiled until gray. We used lots of ketchup, too.

My Mom's famous pork chops: Take the cheapest, thinest chops you can find and lay them flat in a pan. Then drop dollops of Cream of Mushroom or Celery soup on each chop. Bake until the edges curl.

Must. Stop. Now. Getting. Sick....

[VoteDemocratic2004]

133. I bet you went threw ketchup at your house

Ketchup is the condiment for kids that need nutrition and they don't want to hold their nose at the table to eat their Mom's food.

[reprehensor]

6. beets

Nasty, nasty, beetses.

[KittyWampus]

35. LOL! These Are The BEST Kind Of Threads!

:D

[spooky3]

104. my mom put orange juice on beets and it made them even worse.

[Lefty48197]

7. eggplant

made it once. never again.

[politicat]

9. oh, how many dishes... can we do this the other way???

The things I liked?

She rarely screwed up the grilled cheese sandwiches.

If it came primarily from a box, it was usually safe unless she got "creative".

Her beef and noodles - learned from my paternal grandmother - was very, very good, as long as she didn't mess with the recipe.

Her baking was stellar.

But the hamburger fried rice, the goulash (aka sloppy joe +macaroni), the greasy crockpot spaghetti sauce, the Midwest chili with celery AND macaroni (and jalapenos, after she discovered them when we moved to AZ), the hamburger crumbles in white gravy, the shoe-leather steaks, the dried out pork chops, the baked ketchup-topped meatloaf that usually had way too much oatmeal in it....

The lack of spices, herbs, the excess of salt, the failure to drain grease..... and the f%^&*ing wonder bread....

I'm just glad I learned to read. I do fine with cookbooks.

Pcat

[VoteDemocratic2004]

13. Wonder Bread was a staple at my house

My mom put dill pickles in her meatloaf and tons of torn up white bread.

My Mom put homemade mashed potatoes with almost all of her dishes and they were the best mashed potatoes that I have ever had in my life. We would eat tons of her mashed potatoes.

You don't want to know about the boiled to death vegetables.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

22. My Mom made the best fried chicken and mashed potatoes

All of my relatives would come over for my Mom's southern fried chicken with gravy and mashed potatoes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

10. Meatloaf over scalloped potatoes.

Greasy icky mess. :puke:

[baldguy]

11. Everything.

My mom was not the cook in the family. The most infamous meals included bouncing meatballs, blackened baloney slices, and the mat-o-spagetti with the heartburn inducing pepperoni sauce.

She's also Irish, so on St Pats day everything she could think of got green food coloring - milk, bread, butter, eggs, etc etc

My father, on the other hand, learned cooking in the kitchen of a gourmet chef.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

41. St Pat's Day my Mom

Would toss a can yes can of corned beef into a pot along with some potato's and cabbage and start cooking it at about 10:00 am and it would be done by 3:00 :puke: :puke: :puke: it went nice with yellow mustard all over it.

[Justpat]

141. LOL!!!!!

Your Mom and mine must have been sisters. I have been laughing so
hard at your posts. Everything, the boiled roasts, the goddamn fish,
the St Pat's day feast, is all exactly the same and the slop I ate
my whole life.

[Padraig18]

12. Meat loaf.

God bless her good heart, but my sister-in-law couldn't make a good meat loaf if you held a gun to her head and threatened to shoot her if she didn't. It always comes out dry, and so rubbery that you could bounce it on the floor and hit the ceiling with a slice.

Sorry, S., you know I love ya any way.

:P

[eleny]

14. Mom was a great cook, BUT...

Every once in a great while, later in years, she would throw together leftovers and give it the intriguing name - "medely". Yeah right! Some things just can't harmonize, if you know what I mean.

But otherwise, she could cook and bake up a storm. And she taught me to be adventurous.

Btw, I've been laughing a lot over the posts in this thread. You guys are a riot!!! Here's one for our moms :toast:

[VoteDemocratic2004]

15. My Mom's oatmeal was cut into squares

God rest her soul she knew that she wasn't a good cook and she would laugh at her culinary skills all of the time.

I didn't know what oatmeal really looked like until I got out of high school and I went on vacation. I ordered in a hotel and it looked and tasted so much different then my Mom's that I had to ask the waitress several times what the bowl of oatmeal was.

[TlalocW]

16. Mom cooked something called

"Porcupine balls." Sounds yummy, doesn't it? :)

They were some sort of big meatballs with rice that would stick out on the outside of the meatballs. I think she used part of her meatloaf recipe which I hated as well.

Other than that, I pretty much liked everything she made.

TlalocW

[mermaid]

28. Porcupine Balls!! I Thought That Was Something MY Mom Invented...

LOL!!

[nini]

36. OH NOOOOOOOOOOO

those were a regular at our house..

Good though

[jackieforthedems]

109. Were They Ground Beef With Rice In Them?

My mom used to make them in a rue-like gravy. Not sure if I spelled rue correctly?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

89. Oh how I laughed reading your post

because she TOTALLY got that from that red and white checkered Better Homes and Gardens cookbook everyone had (and I still do have!).

I've looked at that recipe several times, but it just scares me.

[jackieforthedems]

110. Yep, Been There, Done It

That's what my mom made, too. I think they all claimed to have "invented it". Lol!!!

[trof]

17. Not my mom, but a friend's.

He grew up in backwaters of south Florida.
Says his mom cooked the worst crap he'd ever put in his mouth.
One of her worst habits - she'd just keep a pot of bacon/sausage/ham grease on the back of the stove. Never dump it. Just keep addin'.
You'd get last night's fish and this morning's eggs fried in the same goop. He said after a while he couldn't tell the difference between the fish or the eggs.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

42. My Mom had a grease can

She fried her pancakes in that grease on the back of the stove

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[jackieforthedems]

114. That Generation

My mom had that grease can, too. Lol. It must have been something with that generation.

[seaglass]

126. I have a grease can but I don't use it to cook with - yuck!

I was told that you can't dump grease in a sink with a garbage disposal so I use it to collect fat from fried foods and then I throw it out.

My mom had one too but she never cooked with the grease.

That is really nauseating.:puke:

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

91. EWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

I would lose weight REAL quickly in that house!!!

[NewHampshireDem]

18. My mom was a terrific Italian cook ...

great pasta, spaghetti sauce, meatballs ... plus a whole slew of other dishes.

However, after she married my Puerto Rican step-father she started cooking some PR dishes ... ox-tail soup and "chicken and rice." The very idea of ox-tail soup is repulsive to me, and the chicken and rice also included capers ... not to mention a copious amount of chicken bones and other undigestable pieces ... Nasty, nasty, nasty ...

[VoteDemocratic2004]

21. I envy you Italian food is the best

I wouldn't trade my Mom's horrible cooking for anything in the world.

I have noticed something it seems like most of the Irish Moms were the bad cooks.

My Mom cooked Italian once a week and you don't want to know about her gravy.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

67. You better believe it!

My mom is Irish and my dad's Italian. I couldn't believe what my cousins on my dad's side were getting to eat when I went over to their houses. They had such a sweet deal going, and all those spoiled brats didn't even appreciate it! My aunts secretly felt like my siblings and I were deprived, so they would cook like crazy when we visited and we would stuff ourselves with all the lasagna and tarts we could eat.

I don't blame my mother though, we had a big family and she always said she didn't enjoy it because it was like cooking for an army.

[mermaid]

19. My Mom Was An Excellent Cook....

as my nearly 250-pound frame will attest!!

BUT...my mom had the bad habit of washing out and saving Sour Cream containers, and putting anything and everything left over into them. sometimes, the containers would sit, undisturbed, for motnhs, in the refrigerator...and then, when you DID open them, looking for sour cream...or even something else...some green, bug-eyed, hairy-assed nasty thing would jump out at you, smelling like all the puke in the Seven Hells!!

To this day I am AFRAID of sour cream containers...except for the ones in my OWN fridge, which I CAREFULLY label, with masking tape...the actual contents...and the DATE they were put in there.

Mom never labelled them, and more than once I opened a sour cream container to something really puke-inducing!!
:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[notadmblnd]

97. Tell ypur mom to lower the temperature on her fridge to just about freezin

she'll get much more milage on those left overs... but seriously at one time I actually thought my sister used that method to diet. Whenever I went to her house (and the fridge has always been the first place we all go at each others house) and opened it up, there was always something dried up or moldy in there, when I asked her about it (and it made so much sense at the time), she said when she looked at the crap in the fridge, she lost her appetite and therefore she would lose weight. Funny, it never worked for me.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

20. Do you want my Moms recipe for vegetable soup?

5 cans of vegetables with salt and pepper in it.

Corn, Peas, Green Beans, Tomatoes and a can of Mixed Vegetables just in case she missed something. Boil everything for several hours and you have thick soup yes, thick vegetable soup.

My Mom did make good mashed potatoes and cubed steak.

[alphafemale]

103. That's just wrong!!!

Having to learn to cook Yummy things for my Veggie daughter has taught me that spices are key.

Plus making a rich yummy veggie stalk needs things like onion skins, (and believe it or not lettace) to bump up the flavor and give it good color.

(you skim those things out later.)

Add a couple cloves and ginger too.

Yum.

[samplegirl]

23. Stew

Just the sight of it makes me sick!!!!!!!

[The empressof all]

24. Ethnic cooking-Kishka--yuck, yuck, yuc,

My mom was a rather bland cook but she did make a few things that were absolutley disgusting. However, I don't think even a 4 star chef could do justice to Kishka. It is a big black sausage filled with Kasha (buck wheat groats and I think Blood) The stuff looked foul, tasted worse and smelled like 30 people were dead in the stove for 3 years. Just the thought of it makes me gag. Haggis is a taste treat compared to this stuff.

[sleepyhead]

27. Kishka is great

When made well. I shudder to think of what my mother would have made of it though. My grandma was the cook in the family - potato pancakes were her forte - I'd commit major mayhem for a plate of them now! Mom's cooking tended to run to the likes of shoe-leather beef liver and pork chops with all the life fried out of them (she had a phobia about parasites and trichinosis and such). She had a couple of specialties, but in general I tried not to be around at dinnertime.

[trof]

25. Oh yeah. My granny.

What she called "roast beef" I later found out was pot roast, kind of. I think she put it on the stove at sunup and boiled it until suppertime. I didn't taste rare roast beef until I was well into my teens. I thought it must come from a different animal.

Spaghetti was opening a can or two of Chef Boyardee.

Canned sliced pineapple and mayo sandwiches on Wonderbread. I've never heard of anyone else who's had one.

She made a homade salad dressing out of oil (Wesson) and vinegar. That's it. No salt, no pepper, no nuthin'. Just oil and vinegar.
When bottled dressings came out, we moved up to French. The orange stuff.

She was a sweet lady, but she was no Julia Childs.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

44. OMG Your Mom

Your Mom made the miracle whip and pineapple sandwiches? Did she add a slice of American cheese?

[trof]

86. Wow! Yess! I forgot.

Cheese (American) was a special treat.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

92. Oh thank you so much

for the hearty chuckle I got reading that entire post.

Sigh. So there WERE moms and grandmas out there like mine.

Wonder Bread SUCKS by the way. Whole wheat bread never touched my mouth until I was 24 years old and I loved it immediately! It tasted like bread and not chemicals!

[2Design]

26. Pea soup

[name not needed]

29. Meatloaf

I actually begged her to stop making it. She agreed. She wasn't that fond of it either, yet she still cooked it.

[mermaid]

30. On The Other Side...

I would kill for my mom's mock-chicken legs...chicken-fried steak, or potato pancakes!! yummy!!!

BUT, I think her greatest achievement was this:

We lived in a rented duplex in New Jersey when I was nineteen, and our stove broke a few days before Thanksgiving.
Our landlord got us a new one. As he was coming up the driveway, with our new stove in the back of his truck, he hit a bump...CRASH!!! there went our new stove, smashed to shit on the driveway.

My mom actually managed, the next day, to prepare an entire Thanksgiving dinner, Turkey and ALL the trimmings and side dishes...ON TOP OF A KEROSENE HEATER!!!

Not only was it delicious, she ALSO managed to have everything hot all at the same time...I still don't know how she did it...Now THAT is one hell of a cook...but damn her and those sour cream containers....

Love ya, mom!!!!!!

[alphafemale]

107. Not only does your resouceful Mom ROCK! You do realize...

you've got a tale worthy of being repeated to at least 12th generation removed?

Your mom is special. Go give her a hug or call her to say "Luv' Ya."

[marigold20]

31. Spam casserole

It had chopped spam, white sauce, peas, sliced hard boiled eggs, with crused potato chips over the top.

[nini]

37. LOL

you may be the winner :-)

[VoteDemocratic2004]

47. We have found the winner

Your right that spam casserole is the winner.

[BlueCollar]

32. I'm no idiot...

my mother reads this board

[CO Liberal]

33. "This Is a New Recipe"

The phrase that struck fear into the hearts of my sisters and me. Some of the recipes Mom found in Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, and Woman's Day weren't bad - but some were real disasters.

The worst one I can remember was fried chicken that was coated with mashed potato flakes. It was dried out, overly cruinchy, and completely tasteless. :puke:

[RetroLounge]

34. She used to mash her own potatoes

and sneak rutabaga in it.

"Mom, why are the mashed potatoes yellow?"

Tasted like shit, too...

RL

[mermaid]

53. Oh, Man...How BARFARICIOUS Is This???

God, i HATE rutabaga...the most noxious food God, or insert YOUR favorite diety here, ever allowed on, above, or below the face of the earth!!
Sounds like someone knew how to ruin some good potatoes, man.

My dad liked rutabaga, and my brother and I both used to barf over it. finally, my mom started making broccoli for us two when dad insisted on having rutabaga.

Broccoli with cheese sauce isn't actually all that bad...

But RUTABAGA?!?!?! :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[KittyWampus]

38. Beef Barley Soup

with only salt and pepper and grease... no onion or vegetables.

Still hate barley to this day.

[alphafemale]

57. LOL! My 6th grade inner-self can't resist! Barfley Soup! nt

[bearfan454]

39. hot dog stew

sliced hot dogs, onions, potatoes, and tomato sauce served on a plate with bread and butter. Sometimes more than once a week. My sister and I joke about it even to this day.

[franmarz]

60. Hot dog stew

I dont care what my children say, I did love HOT DOG STEW. It also was handy when I was working nights, most of my 40 years, and it did taste good. Nothing was ever said about all the good Spanish dishes that we ate-so there too!

[bearfan454]

68. Oh shit.

I was hoping my Mom didn't see that post. Too late now.

[Nikia]

40. Tomato soup

Chunky tomatoes and milk and probably a couple other ingredients. It was just gross though to me as a kid, not being a fan of tomatoes not in ketchup or pizza/spaghetti sauce or milk.

[fortyfeetunder]

43. Boiled chicken and other critters

Put the chicken in the pot with some water...Ewwwww..ANd maybe an onion and some celery. Serve with, I have no idea.

Once I moved from home I discovered the joys of grilling my food. I prefer to cook my turkeys in a Weber kettle.

And then there was the pressure cooked rabbit, she tried to make me eat....

Mom did have her limits. Dad brought home two groundhogs one evening and she politely asked him to give them to someone else for dinner.

[DianeG5385]

45. egg salad sandwiches, rice pudding

To this day they are vomit inducing. Since I was Catholic and my mom was not a great cook, I grew to despise fish sticks, peas and white rice. It seems that was the de riguer Friday meal.

[CanuckAmok]

46. Anything in a crock pot.

Oh, how I hated that fucking crock pot. The worst was turkey or chicken stew, with big-ass neck bones just wating to fragment my delicate pre-teen teeth.

I was ELATED the day she absently turned on the elment under the crock pot, melting it all over the stove.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

48. My Mom had an electric skillet

Someone accidentally tossed the cord to it in the garbage can one day and it put a damper on her frying days.

[CanuckAmok]

49. accidentally, or "accidentally"?

n/t

[VoteDemocratic2004]

52. It fell into the trash can when she was at work

It was an "accident" honest it was an "accident".

[curse10]

50. Meatloaf and Swedish meatballs

even as a kid I hated meat. That shit was nasty

[AVID]

51. Hungarian Goulash nt

[Liberal Veteran]

78. Oh crap...we had the same mom.

Nasty stuff that was.

[alphafemale]

54. My mom'd often do "Stovetop Stuffing" & forget to add the seasoning bag.

Greasy, soggy blop of bread.

And you'd best eat it and not complain.

The bitch-athon dished out as a substitute would not have been worth it.

My mom was a wretched cook.

I was 18 before I realized that pork chops generally were moister and tenderer than beef jerky.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

59. Pork Chops had meat on the bone?

By the time my Mom got done with them they were the size of lamb chops. I didn't know what meat tasted like until I got out of High School.

My High Schools food was good compared to what was served at home.

My Mom knew that she couldn't cook and I think that she only owned one cookbook that had dust and cobwebs on it.

[franmarz]

61. Stove top Dressing

Dont blame the busy MOMS for forgetting the flavor packet, I have done this many times myself, only to quickly add it when I noticed-same taste.

[alphafemale]

73. But my mom wouldn't "fix-it" or even admit to a mistake.

As bad as it might be. You shut-up and ate.

[Mrs_Beastman]

55. My mom and dad were natural food freaks

an made there own peanut butter...it was just gross...I can even describe it. I just remember being in the second grade eating peanut paste on homemade wheat bread/brick wishing and wishing I had something to trade for with the other kids for a fruit roll up.

[peach720]

125. My mum and dad are too.

My father made horrible homemade ketchup which was so vingery.
My packed lunches always contained think whole wheat bread and health food shop snacks :eyes:

Reading this I am recalling my grandmothers cooking,Sunday lunch was marked by the combined smell of overcooking brussel sprouts and the overcooking lambs hearts, which were for the cat and dog. Absolutely sickening. Then the actual dinner was without flavour. She once did a horrendous Spagetti Carbonara, made me gag. My grandfather used to make sure they eat out often!!!!

[non sociopath skin]

56. I was lucky - mum was an excellent cook...

... but my wife says that her mom made the worst gefillte fish in the world. She can't even think about it without wanting to throw up!!!

The Skin

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

58. Pork chops, potatoes, canned string beans, canned tomatoes

...all in a frying pan. The pork chops would be like shoe leather, the potatoes would be semi-cooked, the string beans had a strong canned taste, and the tomatoes would just give everything a very unpleasant acid aftertaste.

She made this once a week, every week, until I was at least 15 years old. When we moved to California she stopped making it. That was one of the best aspects of moving to California.

:evilgrin:

[The Flaming Red Head]

62. Anything with Tuna

just the smell makes me gag.

[amazona]

63. salisbury steak

..and chicken fried steak. I don't even know what meat was in those "steaks," and I don't think I want to know.

[JackDragna]

64. Creamed chip beef on toast..

..the nastiest crap in the world. No wonder it was called S.O.S. (Shit on Shingles)

[Bertha Venation]

65. jeez... thinking about it, I liked everything my mother cooked.

She made chicken cacciatore once (that I remember) and I'll never forget it. It may not have been prepared so that a chef would say, "that's chicken cacciatore," but it was wonderful. Browned chicken parts in this wonderful chunky marinara sauce -- this was long before pasta sauce came in jars; my mom cooked from scratch -- to which she added huge whole olives. :9

She made this thing that sounds disgusting but was quite good; she called it "goulash." It was Minute Rice, browned ground beef, canned corn, canned tomatoes, seasonings. Wish I knew how to duplicate it just right.

I even liked the frequent tuna casserole she served. She always crumbled potato chips on top.

Sometimes I really, really miss my mom.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

69. I miss my Mom

She knew that she couldn't cook and it was a joke with her.

My Mom had to go to work when she was 15 and she never learned how to cook properly. I don't think that she liked to cook at all. She use to take us kids to the Bonfire Restaurant every other day for a mushroom burger with fries and I can remember them charging her for every cup of coffee that she would drink because refills weren't free back in the old days.

Don't get me wrong my Mom was my life and I loved her so much that it tore me apart when I lost her. She could cook a mean can of food and she was great at heating up TV dinners and frozen pizza.

[Bertha Venation]

70. Sounds like she had a hard life.

I'm sorry it hurt so much when you lost her. Mine died when I was eleven. I couldn't grieve for her properly until I was about thirty. I don't miss who she was, but if she'd lived I think she would've healed from what made her crazy, and grown, and been a fine, loving woman today.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

71. You were very young when you lost your mom

I lost mine when I was in my 20's but part of you is gone when your mom dies.

My mom's twin sister wanted to go to College and she graduated High School when she was one month away from her 16th birthday. My mom went to work because she put her sister through College and she also needed to help out with money at home. I think that she didn't learn to cook because her mother was blind and he Dad would do all of the cooking for the family.

The grieving process starts in years after someone is gone and I still can't figure out why it takes so long.

My Mom's tuna was a can of undrained oil packed tuna with miracle whip in it and sometimes she would put relish and large chunks of onion and hard boiled eggs. Believe it or not I have cravings for some of her food.

[yvr girl]

66. It got better as I got older, but there were some winners

Pancakes: Black on the outside, raw (runny and gooey) on the inside. Actually, one needed to be leary of any 'breakfast' food. Mom was not a morning person.

Turnips. It's not that she cooked them badly, just that she made them at all. Sometimes she'd hide them by mashing them up with carrots. For a few years, as an adult, every time I went to visit my parents for dinner, we'd have turnips. Finally, I complained. "Mom, you know I don't like turnips, why do you serve them every time you invite me to dinner?"

"You don't like turnips?" (Visits have been turnip free since then)

Her "Crowning Achievment" had to be the cold beet soup. I came home from school one day for lunch. (I know that I shouldn't be complaining about homemade lunches.) She placed before me a bowl of cold, bright-pink soup. I think that it was beet purree in yoghurt. It was truly dreadful.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

72. LOL

I didn't know that pancakes were anything but black when I was growing up.

[timtom]

74. My mom was one of the world's best cooks

She made a spaghetti sauce that would fool native Italians (in fact it did). Her pies were superb (a perfect lemon meringue pie where the meringue didn't shrink).

However, here are some of the things that made me gag:

macaroni and cheese
squash
lima beans
escalloped potatoes
string beans

[skygazer]

75. Meatloaf

Dry, bland and appalling. She made the world's best spaghetti and meatballs but her meatloaf could have been used for stopping up broken levees.

[DemWitch]

76. Macaroni and Shrimp salad.

My Mom is a great cook, but this mess is awful, She puts everything she can think of into it, and then so much paprika it turns pink. It's just really nasty, but for some reason she thinks everyone loves it. You'd think by now she'd get the hint when it's the only think at a pot luck that wasn't touched. Or by my Dad and me saying, "no, I really don't like it".

[VoteDemocratic2004]

80. Macaroni salad ewwwwwwwwwwww

Large onions, tons of miracle whip, hard boiled eggs and hot macaroni shells. My Mom made hot macaroni salad to die for and you did after you ate it. She even laughed after making it.

[faithnotgreed]

77. my moms cooking was awesome! course the step mothers was a whole

other story

good thing i didnt go(wasnt invited) until i was 10 yo

man - the whole 70s thing down pat: dried flake mashed potatoes from the brown box, spaghetti sauce of unkown origin

the edible part was the shirley temple with a cherry on top. gotta give her that.

[Cuban_Liberal]

79. Can't think of any, offhand.

My mom's a fantastic cook; even her 'failures' are better than a lot of 'successes'.

:)

[Malikshah]

81. Acorn Squash with butter/brown sugar in middle

It looked like a space alien with the green skin and piss-yellow interior.

Totally gross. Never would eat it.

She did a good job w/ it (if you like alien skulls)

Beyond that, I'd even eat the Texas Hash (ground beef, rice, tomato sauce w/ chili seasoning)-- cheap and plentiful for a family of six on a military income...

[VoteDemocratic2004]

82. Did she ever use margarine?

My Mom did and it didn't melt for some odd reason it just wouldn't melt.

[alphafemale]

122. LMAO. I never thought of Acorn squash in terms of "Alien Optopsy"

But honest, toss a few walnuts, apple and raisins mixed in with that brown sugar and butter.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

83. Beans and Cornbread

She'd force feed me this crap, and to this day I can't even look or smell either one without :puke: And oddly enough, I CAN eat refried beans. I'm weird.
Duckie

[VoteDemocratic2004]

88. Pinto Beans and Cornbread?

With lots of green onions on the side?

I grew up with that smell but it's the smell that happened after you at them that was worse.

[yellowdog]

96. Pinto beans and cornbread.

This is my favorite meal and always has been. I would rather have them than filet mignon. You are right, though, after eating them it is better to spend a day by yourself, preferably outside.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

100. LMAO

[shanti]

84. two actually

stuffed bell peppers and liver and onions. i couldn't leave the table without forcing them down. dad would drape a belt over one of the chairs just in case we protested:-(

to this day, i will not eat these foods.

oops, forgot one - "tamale pie" - yechhh!! mom was a very uninspired cook, and since dad wouldn't eat anything with onion or garlic, everything was soooo bland.

[northstar]

85. Tuna Noodle Casserole (w/crushed potatoe chips on top)

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!

(She's an awesome cook....just goes to show that even the 'good' can make their mistakes from time-to-time)

[Canuckistanian]

87. Something that my mom called "goulash"

But it didn't resemble anything I've ever had at a Hungarian restaurant. Spaghetti, tomato sauce, onions, mystery spices and the piece de resistance..... kraft sandwich cheese slices melted on top.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

90. We were mostly left to fend for ourselves

which meant bowls of Cheerios or frozen burritos for dinner.

But she did go through a cooking frenzy in the late 70s (she is bipolar and has Borderline Personality Disorder) and the really horrid stuff was Beer Cheese Soup. Came up with the recipe ALL by herself! Was very proud of herself! My brother and I had to stop our gag reflex just SMELLING it.

Now *I* happen to think I am a decent, though unimaginative cook. But my daughter would disagree. It got to where she'd ask me what I was making for dinner and I'd say, "It's called 'Yuck I Hate It'" because that's what she'd say everytime, regardless of whether she had had it before or not. Now when I say I'm making some "Yuck I Hate It" for dinner she gets pissed off.

[yellowdog]

93. Almost everything.

Mom was a terrible cook. I was actually getting better food when I was in the Navy.

[notadmblnd]

94. My mothers pigs in a blanket

her recipe was to take the left over mashed potatoes and some hot dogs, slice them down the middle, stuff with potatoes and a half a slice of American cheese, wrap it all up with a big greasy slice of bacon and bake it all in the oven. It was the gross-est thing in the world

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

95. I am laughing so hard

there are tears running down my face. Why? Partially because your comments are so damn funny, partially because this whole thread is making me feel better as a mother/cook.

When my daughter was a baby, I would only feed her organic fruits and veggies, washed, steamed, then pureed. Hey she didn't complain. But I wanted everything that went into her mouth to be ALL natural.

So for her first birthday I made this carrot cake I found the recipe for in a HEALTHY BABY! cookbook. No sugar, just apple juice to sweeten. Even the cream cheese frosting used apple juice to sweeten (organic, mind you). I think it might have called for molasses. Anywho, all the adults very very politely choked down a small slice each and it was very very quiet while we were eating. Katie the one year old wouldn't even eat her carrot cake.

For her second birthday, I decided screw it and made her a very decadent very chocolate cake with tons of chocolate frosting.

It was fun getting it out of her ears and nose later.

I have bought my daughter organic beanies and weenies. We are natural food freaks and boy is she going to have some stories to tell someday!

[VoteDemocratic2004]

116. My Mom made homemade fudge one time and

It stuck to the plate and my aunts and uncles couldn't get it out and the plate broke and the fudge was still stuck to the plate.

You don't want to know about her cakes and pies.

[SeekingTruth]

98. Cow Tongue - But I didn't eat any...

We were in the grocery store and I saw it in the grocery cart and freaked out. Then about two weeks later there was this weird, rectangular shapped piece of "beef" on the table. I asked what it was and when my Mom wouldn't answer, I immediately knew what it was and refused to eat it.

[Red State Rebel]

119. I thought we were the only ones tortured with that....

You have my sympathy....

[shanti]

120. jesus christ

did you REALLY have to jack my screenname?? :grr:

[Red State Rebel]

121. Mom was raised on a farm - you ate all but the moo and the squeal!

We were treated to beef heart, kidneys, tongue, pigs feet and tails with saurkraut, oh yeah....you name it!

[Cerridwen]

99. This thread is great! Thanks everyone for sharing.

My mom is actually a fairly good cook; nothing fancy, though.

When I was a kid the worst meal was chicken fried steak. Used to have to swallow the bite whole 'cause I just couldn't chew the damned thing and there was too much for my napkin.

Salad - iceberg lettuce, cut tomatoes, mayonaise - erk.

Today, same salad

And now here spaghetti sauce is usually bland and watery. Not sure why. Wouldn't tell her for the world.

[Baja Margie]

101. It would have to have been

lima bean soup, or boiled cabbage. The smells when they were cooking just made me sick, but now, I love 'em both. thanks, Mom , love 'ya !!!

[Chomskyite]

102. I hate to say it

. . . but there's not a single dish my mother is bad at cooking. That's the god's truth, too.

[puerco-bellies]

105. Sorry Mom, but oh' that awful tamale pie

Yuck!!!!

[aQuArius]

106. Chicken Dumplings... they were AWFUL!

Might as well been raw dough for the dumplings, YIKES!

[jackieforthedems]

108. Sandwiches

She used to accidentally get some of the egg shells in the egg salad, which I wasn't too happy about. Also: my mom was all Czechoslovakian and loved slicing butter about 1/2 inch thick on the other sandwiches she made. Lol.

[TrogL]

111. Steak

She still doesn't understand steak. She took a $25.00 cut of the best sirloin and turned it into a hockey puck.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

117. My Mom boiled our Christmas Prime Rib

It must have cost around $70.00 bucks because we were having company over. I came home from shopping and it smelt like a good beef soup was cooking and I freaked out when I took the lid off of the pot and it was my expensive Prime Rib.

It turned out gray and soft and I will never forget that one.

[LWolf]

112. hamburger gravy on toast.

A grocery stretcher.

[marigold20]

123. You're making me hungry.

I always liked HB gravy - but we had it over mashed potatoes.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

113. american chop suey

[latebloomer]

115. KIDNEYS!!!

But, thank God, she didn't make us eat it-- she and my dad liked it. The smell was VILE!

Dad liked tripe, too-- she made this occasionally for him.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

118. I know what kidneys smell like cooking PU

Triple puke :puke: :puke: :puke: URINE :puke: :puke: :puke:

[peach720]

124. Chilli con Cane....

My mother is a great cook and it is the one thing she can't make.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

127. Anyone can make my Mom's chili

Fry onion and hamburger together and dump in a can of kidney beans and tomatoes sprinkle in a pkg of chili seasoning and serve it with sour cream.

A student can make this dish thats on a budget.

[Lisa]

128. well, she'd make birthday cakes and forget to put sugar in them ...

It happened at least twice, when I was a kid.

[Amaya]

129. So many to choose from.

My personal favorite was 'shit on a shingle' at least that what she called it. Chipped beef with cream sauce on toast. :puke:

[arwalden]

130. Liver And Onions

[VoteDemocratic2004]

132. Liver and onions

Triple puke :puke: :puke: :puke:

[ze_dscherman]

134. One puke on liver

I HATED that stuff. In addition, the liver was fried hard, so I had to chew on it to get it swallowd. Just I could not swallow it, so it got all dry in my mouth ... arrgh.

One day I really got sick with stomach cramps and explosive vomiting after eating liver with onions. The doctor had to come to our house, and when I tried to walk from the living room (where I had laid curled into a knot) to my bedroom I actually fainted - for the only time in my life.

I never had to eat liver again, and never have eaten it since.

But then there were still brussel sprouds. Until today, I hate just the smell of it.

To be fair, my mom was a decent cook when I was a kid and has become a very good cook nowadays. We do swap recipes.

[Swamp Rat]

135. Liver... just the smell of it, no matter how it was cooked,

would make me puke. Fortunately, this was seldom and I was usually allowed to eat my favorite foods: seafood, gumbo, oyster and shrimp po-boys, crabs and crawfish. On special occasions I'd get to eat turtle soup and alligator jambalaya!

[VoteDemocratic2004]

136. We lived across the street from a Chinese Restaurant

When I got hungry I would go and buy an egg roll.

[Beer Snob-50]

137. broiled liver and boiled til it was colorless spinich

once a week. she would also boil potatoes to go with it. my father loved it! he would for some reason forbid ketchup being used on it. he also liked cold spam once a week!

[Mandate My Ass]

138. Luckily mom was a very good cook but

While I was growing up she hated butter. It was never served except on toast at breakfast.

The first time I tasted mashed potatoes made with butter I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Ditto with pancakes, corn on the cob etc.

[VoteDemocratic2004]

139. My family lived on the mashed potatoes

My Mom made the best mashed potatoes and I would say that they were better then Boston Markets mashed potatoes.

[Mandate My Ass]

140. You're lucky

My mom will eat butter nowadays but we have a pact, I don't eat her plain mashed potatoes and she doesn't eat my buttery version

[Justpat]

142. Absolutely everything.

My mother is Irish. Need I say more?

Her dinners were appalling, but the school lunches she packed
for us were criminal. The other kids would get peanut butter
and jelly or some normal thing like tuna, but we would open our
little lunch boxes to find a yummy sandwich of pimento loaf with
cheese whiz on wonder bread. I was very, very thin as a child.

Breakfast was almost as bad as lunch. She would cook eggs in
bacon grease and serve them up totally black and swimming in grease.
I did not eat an egg until I was in my thirties.

Dinners were beyond belief.

[noonwitch]

143. Swiss steak

Mom made it, and she learned from Grandma. It's not their cooking, it's the actual food. I hate the way it tastes, whatever is used to make it.

[cmf]

144. Pepper Steak

My mom's one foray into Asian cooking. She was a little heavy handed with the soy sauce. Yuk.

I also wasn't a fan of baked chicken. Not roasted, but baked in foil. So dry, but it was easy and heart healthy and thus eaten in our house.

[yellowcanine]

145. Baked rutabaga - to her credit after my sister and I made it clear we

didn't appreciate it by chanting "thecky thecky rudabecki" over and over she didn't bother making it again.