I'm trying to remember what my grandmother ate

[Marthe48]

I grew up in her house with my Mom, Dad, brothers, sisters, and my grandmother's invalid sister. no_hyocrisy had an OP in the Home & Family>Cooking and Baking topic about the small size of the pans on shows like The Brady Bunch. The post reminded me of the huge pots of soup my Mom would make. Then I realized, I didn't remember my very active Gram eating much of anything except sweets. Gram was the head cashier at our family grocery store, and she was at the store every day it was open, so maybe she ate most of her food there. At home, I don't even remember her having food at the holiday dinners. God knows there was plenty. I know she liked hot cereals, and my sister just told me she liked poached eggs and toast. Gram told me once that the only foods she didn't like was Swiss cheese and eggplant. But when she ate and what, I can't remember. I was 27 years old when she passed, and spent almost all of those years around her and yet, I didn't notice her eating habits!

Since I started a walk down Memory Lane, why not come along? Who remembers what their Grandma ate?

[rsdsharp]

1. I'd like too, but I only ever met one of my grandparents,

and he died when I was five. I do have one of his recipes, however.

[Marthe48]

6. I only knew Gram

My Mom's Dad was a pervert and also bad-tempered. She wouldn't let us around him and he avoided us as much as he could.

Gram was wonderful

Glad you have a recipe as a keepsake

[Phoenix61]

2. Anything and everything. Loved fried chicken skin.

She had a sweet tooth that would make a four year old proud.

[Marthe48]

8. That's what I remember about Gram

cake, pie, donuts , cookies. But not meals. She never gained weight, was never sick. Lived to be 86.

[Phoenix61]

12. Oh, mine ate meals.

Breakfast was usually corn flakes, toast, and coffee. During blackberry and blueberry seasons it was pancakes with berry syrup. Lunch was usually bologna and cheese sandwich on white toast bread with butter and mustard. Dinner was a full meal with desert later. Lighter in the summer. Sloppy joes was a favorite.

[Marthe48]

14. I remember Gram didn't like the name sloppy joe

She said would eat them, but thought they should have a different name lol

[Phoenix61]

13. Oh, mine ate meals.

Breakfast was usually corn flakes, toast, and coffee. During blackberry and blueberry seasons it was pancakes with berry syrup. Lunch was usually bologna and cheese sandwich on white toast bread with butter and mustard. Dinner was a full meal with desert later. Lighter in the summer. Sloppy joes was a favorite.

[Tetrachloride]

3. Fresh bread on a good day.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. My grandma has ulcerative colitis so

she just eats a piece of toast with margarine in the morning, a chicken sandwich at lunch, and a hunk of cheddar for dinner. This has been her diet since 1969.

[Marthe48]

9. Oh my

She must have an iron will to stick to the same food for so long.

[Elessar Zappa]

10. Yeah, I don't know how she does it.

[Siwsan]

7. I remember that my maternal grandmother always seemed to have chicken broth on the stove

Home made broth. When I'd come by for a visit she'd ask if I was hungry. Of course. She'd then start pulling out ingredients to make home made noodles - the best I ever tasted - and we'd have a bowl of soup. When ever I make home made chicken soup I think of her. I lack her noodle making skills.

She also always had some amazing butterscotch cookies in the cookie jar.

My paternal grandmother loved fried chicken and she made the best I've ever tasted. And she loved corn. Her sweet specialty was apple pie. She always had windmill cookies in the cookie jar.

[Marthe48]

11. I loved the windmill cookies!

Gram must have too, because we always had a pack. Always cookies and candy laying around. Nothing made it to a cookie jar. lol

[trof]

15. Granny grew up during the Great Depression.

She ate mostly ate dirt.
It wasn't much nourishing, but it was filling.
Once in a while she'd get a corn stalk and make either tea or broth out of it.

If they found a discarded potato, it had to be divided 17 ways.
(It was a large family.)

I think they flossed with corn silk, but that may just be a legend.
I'm pretty sure she made clothing out of cotton bolls.
Time were really tough.

[MFM008]

16. I never

Knew my dad's parents or my mom's dad.
I met my mom's mom a few times but we never hung around ..they didn't get along till they were reunited on the Oprah show in 1988. Robbie died in 1993.

[Delmette2.0]

17. My maternal grandmother died young and Mom didn't have any recipes from

her. My paternal grandmother raised 12 children so by the time I come along she wasn't cooking anymore.

My mom got most of her recipes from her Betty Crocker cookbook. I still have it, is must be at least 70 years old and well used. She learned a lot from friends, neighbors and church ladies.

I did learn to make Norwegian Krumkakes, and potato doughnuts from mom. I never did learn her recipe for turkey stuffing (heavy on the sage)

Betty Crocker taught me to make pie crusts.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. I lived with my grandmother for a year in 1959. I was 11. She fixed me calves' brains,

mountain oysters, fried squash blossoms, and dandelion salad. She took me out to forage for wild mushrooms, black raspberries, all kinds of 'greens' and nuts. She made the best cream pie and great soups. She always had a garden and canned. I would say we ate organic foods back then.

[UTUSN]

19. Buttermilk & cottage cheese (besides regular food).

[Marthe48]

22. That sounds like my Mom

She loved those foods

[lunatica]

20. Fried chicken and collards or mustard greens and

Corn bread every Sunday after church and venison stew with dumplings when my grandpa brought venison home from hunting. It was in North Carolina on their farm. She was a wonderful cook and she also made fantastic pies.

[wnylib]

21. I never knew either of my grandmothers.

One died long before I was born (on the night that she gave birth to my mother). The other died when I was 18 months old.

My mother's aunt raised her and lived with us when I was a child. We called her grandma, even though we knew that she was our great aunt, sister of our grandmother.

She was diabetic, so I remember her measuring out portions of food on kitchen scales. She was born in Germany and came to the US with her parents and siblings when she was 6 years old, so when she helped my mother cook, it was German style, but from northeastern Germany, where foods were simple. We had a lot of cabbage, beets, potatoes, and bratwurst. She ate braunschweiger (goose liver) sandwiches with mustard.

Whenever one of us had a birthday, my mother made sponge cake because "grandma" could eat that. She would scrape off the frosting and give it to my younger sister.

For breakfast, she always had half a grapefruit. She carried around a bag of horehound candy in case she needed it for an insulin reaction.

I remember that she and my mother used to bake together, making refrigerator nut cookies and sour dough bread.

[IcyPeas]

23. all I have a memory of is porridge

and quite thin porridge at that.

[Luciferous]

24. One of the things my grandma liked to make was macaroni and cheese, but she would

add raisins to it. I've never met anyone else who had heard of that combination! She is in her 90s and doesn't cook any more but she used to make really good pierogi. She wasn't much of a cook but those were good. She was an excellent baker and made amazing Christmas cookies every year.

[Marthe48]

27. I've got a friend

with a northern German background. She adds dried fruit to some of her casseroles that seem unusual. Maybe your Grandma had some family recipes she was using

[jmowreader]

25. I have no memory at all

One set of grandparents lived in Seattle. The other lived in New Plymouth, Idaho. And neither set liked my family - dad's parents didn't like us because he decided he didn't want to be a farmer all his life, mom's because we weren't ultra-Catholic. The one time a year we saw either of them the kids were ignored while the parents were busy being told how disappointing they were.

[electric_blue68]

26. Hmmm... I really don't remember that, but I think I remember her making....

(she being Greek-American) Greek cookies with us a couple of times.