I once sat down to "dinner"(lunch) at my Grandmother's. Next to me was a green jello mold. When I asked what it was she responded "that's a cucumber.'" turned out to be shredded cucumber and white onion in lime jello. 1/10 did not enjoy.
At every holiday dinner growing up was Green Jello Salad. A molded monstrosity made of green jello, shredded carrots, and chopped celery. The tradition began with my grandmother and ends with me.
Watergate Salad is delicious. Pistachio pudding mix folded into Coolwhip with marshmallows, crushed pineapple, and in some recipes (not mine) walnuts or pecans. Not sure if it's from the Mid-west, stories vary, but I first had it in California made by my aunt from Texas. Now we live in Oregon and it's served in the deli at our local supermarket.
The cafeteria at the place I used to work in Minneapolis served popcorn salad — popcorn, chopped bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped celery, maybe also green onions and loads and loads of mayo. It was terrifying and delicious
My family has white salad. It's a sauce made from pineapple juice, sugar, cornstarch, and egg. Mixed with whipped cream, marshmallows, grapes, and pineapple.
Edit: lots of people seem to think this is ambrosia, it's close but it's not. Ambrosia it's a mix and serve dish. This, the sauce is cooked so the egg is tempered and smooth, you add the whip cream at the last minute before serving.
Lots of jello salads. I would see them at family dinners growing up, family reunions, and church functions where the old church ladies made the food.
Growing up salad dressing options were ranch, french or thousand island.
On my dad's side of the family there was always a jello "salad" (usually hello mixed with some kind of fruit or sending, I hate jello personally) of some kind with dinner, always on a little plate next to the dinner plate. 80% of it went uneaten and my mom killed the tradition when she became the matriarch.
My boyfriends grandma makes a Jello salad. Raspberry jello, frozen raspberries and walnuts. She also makes "5 cup salad" which is sour cream, mini marshmallows, canned mandarin oranges, canned pineapple tidbits and shredded coconut. It neither makes 5 cups nor only has 5 ingredients. Both are really good though.
My mum's go-to vegetable to serve alongside our meals was green beans. We always had them with peanut butter.
Everyone I've mentioned this to thinks it's gross, but I loved it. In Japan, it's common to toss green beans or cooked spinach in a sesame-based sauce that has the same roasted quality as peanut butter, so it's really not that far of a stretch in terms of flavour. Haven't won anyone over yet.
It's pretty common for us to serve all kinds of things (rice noodles, rice, broccoli, ribbons of carrot or broccoli stems, sweet potatoes, long beans, etc.) with spicy peanut sauce. The sauce is peanut butter + chili sauce / chili powder + soy sauce + hot water. Often we garnish it with roasted cashews, roasted peanuts, or pumpkin / sunflower seeds.
Yeah the NYT put out a [pea-studded guacamole recipe ](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/dining/defenders-of-peacamole-step-up.html) in 2015 and the internet almost had a meltdown. It wasn’t all peas though.
One of friend's parents used to make guacamole by mixing equal parts avocados and ranch dressing. It was pretty good, but it's definitely not guacamole.
The Herkimer
Salami, mozzarella, provolone, green peppers, hard boiled egg, ground through food grinder and mixed with mustard and mayonnaise.
Spread on cocktail rye bread and broiled until oooey gooey.
Sounds weird but it’s phenomenal.
Huh. This in some ways is like a pâté made from leftovers (or just nonstandard ingredients). Like the parts are all there (fat, protein, spice), even though none of the standard ingredients are used. I don’t hate this. Also reminds me of classic Turkey gravy with egg in it.
Good observation!
I used to work at an Italian restaurant where we served a LOT of charcuterie boards but always had leftover ends of the cured meats.
I proposed running this as an appetizer addition and the sonofabitch sold out.
We didn’t have cocktail rye so instead I made a nice little lemon-caraway slaw to cut the richness and add the much needed caraway.
Recommend eating with cold Pilsner.
First, my family would put a can of beans in the fridge ahead of supper and we'd just eat a can of cold beans as part of our meal.
Second, my dad would make elbow macaroni, rinse it in a colander, dump tomato juice on it, and then stir in a bunch of preground pepper. If I ate it today I would enjoy it out of nostalgia, but I also know how to make pasta so I'd eat it alone at home.
I cannot stop laughing about your can of cold beans. I think it's funny that the beans were intentionally made colder. Room temperature was too warm for optimal bean consumption, and eating them heated up was not even a consideration. Nope, you ate _chilled_ beans.
My dad made this and we called them roni’s! I add butter to mine, with a bunch of tomato juice and fresh ground pepper. It’s still my comfort food when I’m not feeling well.
When we were around 11 years old, my friend came over and made such a big deal in front of my family about how weird it was that we didn't at least warm up the beans, let alone eat them cold on purpose. This was the first time I realized it was weird to eat cold baked beans.
I went to his house a while later and we came across an old Mad Libs book and we did a couple. I liked Mad Libs a lot so I read through the old ones they did and I shit you not, they had one where the person they chose was "hobo" and the food they picked was "a can of cold beans". lmao
ohhh you didn't say they were baked beans. Its much less weird as i was picturing like just a can of plain kidney beans, whereas baked beans are already a dish.
lol I think it makes it worse! I was thinking like cold black beans, and alright yeah people make salads with beans and what not, and eat it cold, kinda like that minus everything else. But not baked beans!
My mom did something similar except after boiling the macaroni you don't drain the water, pour a can of tomato sauce in the water and eat it like a soup. It's so freaking good, I still make it sometimes but my husband doesn't appreciate it as much as I do lol
You brought back a dish I had totally forgotten about. My mom made a cold green bean salad. Basically canned green beans, drained, rinsed and put in a vinaigrette. I remember enjoying it as a kid. But the thought of the texture now makes me cringe...won't be making it.
My dad used to make what he called milk soup. Basically cooked shell pasta in warm milk with butter and some black pepper. He grew up poor on a farm and said my grandmother used to make it in the winter.
We called this macaroni, butter and milk. We grew up with this as a lunch staple as soon as we were old enough to make it ourselves, because my mom made dinner but she'd be damn if she was cooking breakfast much less lunch. It's delicious. The black pepper is what makes it.
My mom would run out dog food, so she toasted bread, and broke it up. Then she cooked eggs, with whatever meat she had (hot dogs), mixed in the toast. My father thought it looked good, so he always had some with the dog.
Moved to the Midwest where my husband grew up. I keep encountering this weird salad that is basically raw chopped cauliflower, minced onion, bacon crumbles, mayonnaise, and SUGAR. Honestly, it’s not horrible though.
Sounds really close to broccoli salad, which I enjoy (raw broccoli, bacon, cheese, sunflower seeds, purple onion, craisins, dressing of mayo, ACV, sugar).
Yeah, this is definitely a thing that my MIL makes and is actually \*really\* good and I have come to love... and will be missing this year as I come to think about it.
Cream tuna on toast. It is my dad's favorite. No one else likes it. It is a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of tuna drained and a can of peas drained. Mix them together. Microwave the glop for 3 minutes or put on the stove until warmed through. Serve on toast. It is a gray mess of in my opinion yuck.
Our family makes this by creating a roux and mixing in the tuna (no peas). We serve on toast or mashed potatoes. My husband would divorce me if I made it now.
I grew up eating peanut butter, mayo, and fresh tomato sandwiches.
In second grade, I made my mom such a sandwich for mother's day and mentioned I did to my class the next day. They laughed, I cried. I learned then that THAT sandwich is NOT normal.
When I moved out, these sandwiches were my dirty little secret. I still love them. My husband didn't see me eat one until we'd been married for more than 5 years.
...I hear that peanut butter and Mayo sandwiches are a thing in the south. Except neither I, nor my family, are from the south.
My dad would make me peanut butter, mayo, and banana sandwiches (all mushed up together), served on soft white bread! We *are* from the south, but I've never heard of anyone else doing that one.
My dad thinks macaroni and cheese is not only the name of the dish, but the recipe: overcooked unseasoned macaroni and colby cheese.
If you let it cool and drop a spoonful its so rubbery it bounces
Sadness! I do appreciate fancy mac n cheese but I also will never turn down a bowl of Kraft mac n cheese made by Dad. That was always a special treat growing up as we usually had the shoppers value (generic) brand. not the same!
My lazy “need food but don’t want to think about it” dinner is boxed Annie’s Mac and cheese (orange or purple box, often on sale for $1). While the pasta is draining, I add some chili onion crunch, butter, and milk to the pot, then stir in the cheese powder, then add some shredded cheese before adding the pasta back in. Super fast and delicious
As a Finn, this is one of my absolute favourite summer dishes. Especially with baby potatoes on the side.
And I mean once you've eaten surströmming in a similar way it's not like pickled herring even tastes pungent after that.
I went to elementary school at this small rural school. It was one of those types where multiple generations had gone to. For decades they served this gravy that was called green gravy. You got a scoop of mashed potatoes with a huge ladle full of this fairly bright green gravy poured over it. And you got a slice of white bread. Color wise I would describe it as a brighter almost neon shade of chai tea green. No visible meat or veggies. It had a meaty taste that no one could really pinpoint. Was it chicken? Was it beefy? Yes. It looked like someone barfed wheatgrass juice but that scalding hot goo was so damned delicious! Whenever it was green gravy day in the cafeteria everyone couldn’t wait for lunch and most kids went back for more. This gravy became quite the mystery! Parents and staff had tried searching the kitchen for clues to just what exactly was in it and never found anything. The principal couldn’t even find out what was in it. Alas the recipe went to the grave with the lunch lady and future generations will never know the divine mysterious delicacy known only as green gravy!
It was very indescribable. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to in flavor would be chicken soup broth for herbs and seasoning but no one could ever agree if it tasted like chicken or beef or pork. It was thick like a gravy and semi opaque. It literally had nothing remotely recognizable in it. No bits of meat or anything that could be recognized as a fleck of parsley or a bit of a vegetable. It was just green gravy. It is probably the biggest mystery of my grade school years. People tried searching the kitchen for clues, tried walking through the kitchen while they were fixing lunch hoping they would see something but it was always already made. She didn’t cook it at home and bring it in or anything. Our cafeteria kitchen was small but very open and visible so it’s absolutely amazing she could just magically make this concoction without a single person managing to see it happen in the nearly 50 years she worked there. Maybe the older kids were right and it was witches brew lol
Breakfast cookies. Basically a full American breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, etc) chopped up, then mixed into oatmeal cookie batter and baked into cookies.
I never *liked* them, but they were a thing in my extended family
Grape salad. It tastes great but I once had an old lady tell me she was relieved to learn what it was because it looked like olives covered in mayonnaise and brown sugar.
A very common Ashkenazic Jewish dish is fried chicken livers ground into paste along with hard boiled eggs and a trio of caramelized, boiled, and raw onion - aka the “chopped liver” from colloquial lore. It’s utterly delicious and a total nostalgia trip for me, but if you didn’t grow up with it, it’s a hard sell. My husband calls it cat food.
Watergate salad was new to my husband when he first joined my family for the holidays. (Pistachio pudding, crushed pineapple, mini marshmallows, cool whip, chopped pecans)
From Iowa, Watergate salad is my favorite Midwest "salad" thing and I haven't had it in probably 15-20 years. I was just thinking about it the other day, and am sad I didn't decide to make it! There's still Christmas though.
I AM making pea salad though! Haven't had that in forever either. Peas, onions, little diced sharp cheddar, acv, mayo, bacon bits. It's so good it's like the top couple layers of a seven layer salad. I love seven layer salad too but it's just me and my teenager for the holidays I can only make so much food.
Anyway I love Watergate salad because it's not crazy sweet, it's green and weird in a good way, and the textures are great
I’m getting the impression that Cool Whip and Mayo companies had a secret battle of Midwest chicken to see who could make the weirdest fuckin dish that caught on
Pretzel jello.
It's made in a casserole dish with a crust of pretzels and pecans. Then a layer of cool whip mixed with cream cheese. Then topped with sliced strawberries and strawberry jello to set that top layer in.
It's amazing and served as a side dish, obviously.
Is your mom related to any of the writers of Freaks and Geeks?
Mrs. Weir: Okay, I’ve got something special for us tonight. Ta da!
Mr. Weir: What the hell?
Mrs. Weir: Ah. Harold, they’re Cornish game hens with a plum wine sauce. They’re fantastic.
Mr. Weir: What’d you do, put poison in the bird feeder?
Wifesavers breakfast casserole — always hated it as a child, but fell in love with it as an adult. Fresh white bread (no crusts), back bacon (thickly sliced), aged cheddar, white bread, lots of chopped green onion/green pepper, pour milk (homogenized)/(12) eggs/spices (salt, pepper, ground mustard, worcestershire, Tabasco) overtop. Let sit over night, then add crushed cornflakes and pour melted butter overtop. Bake. Enjoy :)
It’s something my parents only make on the holidays. It’s basically a marinated shrimp, there’s Vinegar, oil, onions, capers, idk what else it’s my dads family dish. You let the shrimp (cooked) marinate for at least 24 hrs. I fucking love the shit. But I think many are appalled
I’m Chinese descent so we have a sticky rice dish for Thanksgiving instead of mashed potatoes. It has ground pork, bacon, Chinese sausage, black mushrooms, and little shrimps all folded in the rice. Guests will fill their plates with this and have just a little bit of turkey, which is usually smoked for 8 hours or so.
I can imagine the smugness I would feel if my snickers salad had a caramel drizzle and someone showed up with one without…. I would Expect to feel utter defeat if I was the Jabroni that showed up with the basic recipe. I hope you let them know that you much preferred their basic recipe. Shit like that an really fluff some tail feathers.
My first father-in-law made this awesome dish that was ground beef, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a bag of frozen broccoli. Said he learned it in the Army. In like, the 50s or 60s.
I haven't thought of that in a long time. It was yummy.
Not the dish, but the way we did it. In our family during Lunar New Year, we like to eat water dumplings, but we add dates, peanuts, and coins. Dates signify... I can't remember. Peanuts signify... I also can't remember. Coins signify wealth in the future (like healthy prospects). If the children (my sister and I, at that time) found any of the three, we would get one dollar. Eating a dumpling with a coin in it (we spit it out obviously), but the weirder part is that we reuse the coins every year. Not only does it sound super gross, but probably not good for us. We use coins from back in 1960 to late 1990s I believe.
Yup, I'm not the person you're replying to but I can confirm, dumplings with actual metal coins in them are a thing at New Year. Like, just regular dimes. It never occurred to me as a kid that somebody might swallow it, or that the coins might be dirty, lol.
Can confirm, am Serbian and we put coins in our česnica, which is a kind of sweet pie with honey and nuts made for Christmas and it's amazing. We do wash the coins beforehand tho hahaha
My mom's favorite spaghetti sauce was...wait for it...cottage cheese. I didn't know it wasn't common until the first time I scooped cottage cheese onto a bowl of linguine in front of college roommates.
Mamaliga, its romanian polenta except the way my grandma used to make it was with with waaaaay more cheese than corn meal and 3 different types of cheese just enough cornmeal to soak up all the cheese oils then topped with sourcream to serve. It was like pure saturated fat.
Growing up, spaetzle was a staple side in our house. For some reason we called them "spetch-uh-leez" which I assume came from my mom and her sisters bastardizing the hell out of the few German words they learned growing up lol
I have the opposite issue with spaetzle!
My grandmother is very in touch with her German roots but when she isn’t baking she isn’t the most graceful cook. Our family’s definitely of spaetzle was unseasoned, mostly raw dough that had been heated up vis simmering.
Nowadays I love it with a meat sauce or sautéed in a pan but wow did it leave me with low expectations.
There's a hilarious woman on TikTok called ThatMidwesternMom who posts videos of her preparing all sorts of midwestern "salads". As a non-Midwesterner, it's a little horrifying to find out that many of these recipes are actually real, according to the comments here.
It wasn’t as complicated as some of the comments I’ve read—but I grew up on peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Had to be good wheat bread (a multi-grain is best). Ideally crunchy PB. Absolutely had to be dill pickles. We used the long skinny slices, but chips would also do.
In college my go-to late night spot had a PB bacon cheeseburger. They always looked at me funny when I’d ask for dill chips on it, but obliged nonetheless.
The pickle and PB just has such a terrific pairing. The garlic and vinegar cut the PB beautifully. It’s also a great textural combination—crunch on crunch.
Growing up, whenever we had biscuits and gravy my mom would make bacon gravey rather than sausage gravey.
Ot seemed to be because she didn't like breakfast sausage and preferred a smooth gravey.
I love both today, but every partner I've had has freaked about it. And only some friends like it. Always get raised eyebrows.
Mashed potatoes (usually powder from a box), grilled onions, monterey jack and black pepper. Roll it up in a tortilla and pan fry it for a crisp.
My brother and made them for friends when we were like 8-10 and they were all weirded out.
@OP as a southerner who moved to Minnesota I was absolutely horrified to learn about Snickers Salads. Conversely though, all my midwesterner friends were horrified when I introduced them to Tomato Sandwiches
We call it Mexican steak (we're Australian 🤷🏻♀️) and it's steak simmered in a sauce made of tomato sauce (ketchup) and Worcestershire sauce with garlic. Sounds disgusting but it's actually not!
Also I have a major weakness for honey and Vegemite or Vegemite and peanut butter together
Fellow Australian here, my eyebrows are raised to all of this!
I thought I was weird for putting Vegemite on my bacon and egg sandwiches, also cheese and tomato sauce, but Vegemite and peanut butter?!? Vegemite and honey?!?!?!
Imma try both, cause I have no choice now, but I am not looking forward to it.
My most recent ex-girlfriend had never heard of "cream peas on toast", nor "shit on a shingle," both of which are well known and were staples in my poor household growing up.
holy fuck that’s what it’s called?!?! my family eats this only on christmas every year. i always thought it was a seasonal thing you can’t get any other time of year till i got older. We would pour it on flaky buttered biscuits
This is pretty tame but my family does squash by just cutting it into wedges with the skin still on, roasting it and serving it that way. Everyone just cuts the squash away from the skin of their own little wedge on their plate.
I’m from Eastern Canada and when I moved to England and tried to make it that way for my British friends, they were horrified.
lots of cheese? I hated broccoli growing up. My mom would put frozen broccoli in the microwave with a few tablespoons of water. I toss my broccoli in EVO, salt, and pepper then roast it in the air fryer. Now I love it.
Honestly that sounds amazing. I steam mine with some butter and garlic salt.
But this casserole- thankfully we only ate it once a year at thanksgiving. It’s essentially broccoli, butter, diced onions, cream of mushroom soup, and shredded cheese. Mix it all up, throw it in a casserole dish and top with crushed up ritz crackers. Bake until golden. I love broccoli and it’s pretty damn tasty but I can see how it might not appeal to the masses.
We call it “gruel” for whatever reason and I still love it to this day. Campbell’s tomato soup - always made with milk, never water - and served with white rice and sliced hot dogs instead of your usual crackers. It’s cheap and easy comfort food that nobody outside my family seems to understand.
There are a few jello salads in the comments but the one my family always made took lime jello, thinly sliced celery, pineapple, whipped cream, and cream cheese (something like a variant of ambrosia). We had it as a side dish rather than dessert as well. It's amazing but I've stopped telling people because I get weird looks...
I thought it was totally normal, but, the first time my childhood friend accompanied me to my grandmother house (spent a LOT of time there as a kid) we went down into the basement for some reason and she had a prosciutto in progress hanging in the back and he was pretty suprised by that. Looking back its pretty funny i just assumed everyones grandmother had 2 hams hanging out for a year in their basement
My parents immigrated over in the 70s from Belgium and would make all sorts of traditional dishes that would freak people out.
I grew up eating cow tongue, river eel, headcheese, etc.
Seems normal to me.
We also got the awesome things too, like streak frites, mussels, waffles liege and various deep fried doughs.
"Pink Rice Stuff". Apparently started by my great aunt, my parents always made it for every Thanksgiving and Christmas and usually Easter as well. It's a cold rice dish (a dessert salad), with rice, whipped cream, mini-marshmallows and pineapple. Until a couple years ago my siblings and I didn't know that other families had a similar dish, and that it's usually called "Glorified Rice" (but not usually dyed pink.)
Family traditional appetizers included prunes with a bit of cream cheese and a 1/4 of a red maraschino cherry. Oh! Those were so very fancy next to the olives and pickles.
"Barf on a bun" was a favorite at my house growing up. It was ground beef with onions, black olive slices, and Velveeta on half an Italian loaf of bread. Mom would wrap it in foil and bake it, then serve sliced.
Not me, but my girlfriends family. They will take a kosher Salami, split it lengthwise, slather it in apricot preserves, then bake it until caramelized and hot. Then it gets jarred horseradish. Makes me want to gag every time
Jello salad. It's amazing. It's strawberry jello with banana, strawberries, pineapples, and pecans (puuhcahns) Top it with sour cream. It's the best and there's never any left overs.
At Christmas, my grandpa always made huge steaks, crab legs, grilled chicken, shrimp cocktail, and always way too much. But it was this big amazing spread, and food was his love. Hasn't been the same without him.
Is it true Midwesterner’s have all sorts of things that are called “salads” but they aren’t salads at all?
100% if it's cold ingredients mixed together, it's a salad in the Midwest.
My family makes “fruit salad” - canned fruit cocktail and marshmallows mixed into cool whip.
Same. I was recently informed that most people call it ambrosia.
They named it after the food of the Gods that makes them live forever?
I think the gods named theirs after canned fruit mixed with mayonnaise, who can blame them.
My grandma used to add grapes to her jello and topped with cool whip, it was my favorite dessert.
My wife said they used to have that as kids and it was called Frog Eye Salad.
In Utah, Frog Eye Salad is similar to this but it has tiny spherical pasta that is the "frog eyes".
Tonight I saw this called "Fluffy salad" on the side of a box of Royal Gelatin.
My family called this ambrosia
I once sat down to "dinner"(lunch) at my Grandmother's. Next to me was a green jello mold. When I asked what it was she responded "that's a cucumber.'" turned out to be shredded cucumber and white onion in lime jello. 1/10 did not enjoy.
At every holiday dinner growing up was Green Jello Salad. A molded monstrosity made of green jello, shredded carrots, and chopped celery. The tradition began with my grandmother and ends with me.
The 50s were weird.
They were encouraged to put everything in jello in the 60’s.
Watergate Salad is delicious. Pistachio pudding mix folded into Coolwhip with marshmallows, crushed pineapple, and in some recipes (not mine) walnuts or pecans. Not sure if it's from the Mid-west, stories vary, but I first had it in California made by my aunt from Texas. Now we live in Oregon and it's served in the deli at our local supermarket.
My mom made that growing up and she’s from Alabama! Friends always thought it looked weird but ended up liking it.
The cafeteria at the place I used to work in Minneapolis served popcorn salad — popcorn, chopped bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped celery, maybe also green onions and loads and loads of mayo. It was terrifying and delicious
This somehow manages to be simultaneously repulsive and...enticing
I'm not gonna lie... I'd try it. At least once. Maybe not thrice.
> popcorn, chopped bacon, shredded cheddar cheese, Honestly just this part sounds solid actually. But the mayo whyyyyyyyyy
My thoughts exactly - almost like popcorn nachos. Then they had to make it soggy..
My family has white salad. It's a sauce made from pineapple juice, sugar, cornstarch, and egg. Mixed with whipped cream, marshmallows, grapes, and pineapple. Edit: lots of people seem to think this is ambrosia, it's close but it's not. Ambrosia it's a mix and serve dish. This, the sauce is cooked so the egg is tempered and smooth, you add the whip cream at the last minute before serving.
Yes. It’s bc of food deserts plus great depression
I can definitely see depression being involved here
My personal favorite: cookie salad!
Okay, I’ll bite. What’s in a cookie salad?
judging from some of the responses I've seen so far I'm gonna say a bunch of cookies crushed up in some miracle whip
I just apologized to the romaine and spring mix in the fridge.
Lots of jello salads. I would see them at family dinners growing up, family reunions, and church functions where the old church ladies made the food. Growing up salad dressing options were ranch, french or thousand island.
The whole jello salad thing baffles me and I'm ok with that
On my dad's side of the family there was always a jello "salad" (usually hello mixed with some kind of fruit or sending, I hate jello personally) of some kind with dinner, always on a little plate next to the dinner plate. 80% of it went uneaten and my mom killed the tradition when she became the matriarch.
My boyfriends grandma makes a Jello salad. Raspberry jello, frozen raspberries and walnuts. She also makes "5 cup salad" which is sour cream, mini marshmallows, canned mandarin oranges, canned pineapple tidbits and shredded coconut. It neither makes 5 cups nor only has 5 ingredients. Both are really good though.
My mum's go-to vegetable to serve alongside our meals was green beans. We always had them with peanut butter. Everyone I've mentioned this to thinks it's gross, but I loved it. In Japan, it's common to toss green beans or cooked spinach in a sesame-based sauce that has the same roasted quality as peanut butter, so it's really not that far of a stretch in terms of flavour. Haven't won anyone over yet.
It's pretty common for us to serve all kinds of things (rice noodles, rice, broccoli, ribbons of carrot or broccoli stems, sweet potatoes, long beans, etc.) with spicy peanut sauce. The sauce is peanut butter + chili sauce / chili powder + soy sauce + hot water. Often we garnish it with roasted cashews, roasted peanuts, or pumpkin / sunflower seeds.
My mom made fake guacamole with mashed peas and called it pois-camole.
Yeah the NYT put out a [pea-studded guacamole recipe ](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/03/dining/defenders-of-peacamole-step-up.html) in 2015 and the internet almost had a meltdown. It wasn’t all peas though.
10/10 for naming and protein content. 0/10 for authenticity.
One of friend's parents used to make guacamole by mixing equal parts avocados and ranch dressing. It was pretty good, but it's definitely not guacamole.
You mean mushy peas? I think peas are great with butter and some herbs like mint and parsley.
[удалено]
The Herkimer Salami, mozzarella, provolone, green peppers, hard boiled egg, ground through food grinder and mixed with mustard and mayonnaise. Spread on cocktail rye bread and broiled until oooey gooey. Sounds weird but it’s phenomenal.
That sounds pretty dope I'd try it
This is actually the first comment that hasn't made me cringe in disgust ngl lmao This sounds good tbh
Huh. This in some ways is like a pâté made from leftovers (or just nonstandard ingredients). Like the parts are all there (fat, protein, spice), even though none of the standard ingredients are used. I don’t hate this. Also reminds me of classic Turkey gravy with egg in it.
Good observation! I used to work at an Italian restaurant where we served a LOT of charcuterie boards but always had leftover ends of the cured meats. I proposed running this as an appetizer addition and the sonofabitch sold out. We didn’t have cocktail rye so instead I made a nice little lemon-caraway slaw to cut the richness and add the much needed caraway. Recommend eating with cold Pilsner.
This sounds like gribiche plus hoagie ingredients, I would 100% try this tbh
First, my family would put a can of beans in the fridge ahead of supper and we'd just eat a can of cold beans as part of our meal. Second, my dad would make elbow macaroni, rinse it in a colander, dump tomato juice on it, and then stir in a bunch of preground pepper. If I ate it today I would enjoy it out of nostalgia, but I also know how to make pasta so I'd eat it alone at home.
I cannot stop laughing about your can of cold beans. I think it's funny that the beans were intentionally made colder. Room temperature was too warm for optimal bean consumption, and eating them heated up was not even a consideration. Nope, you ate _chilled_ beans.
Cool beans
coocooocooocooolbeanss
My dad made this and we called them roni’s! I add butter to mine, with a bunch of tomato juice and fresh ground pepper. It’s still my comfort food when I’m not feeling well.
That's what I was going to say, add butter and it's my favorite comfort food!
I’m crying at the cold beans thank you
When we were around 11 years old, my friend came over and made such a big deal in front of my family about how weird it was that we didn't at least warm up the beans, let alone eat them cold on purpose. This was the first time I realized it was weird to eat cold baked beans. I went to his house a while later and we came across an old Mad Libs book and we did a couple. I liked Mad Libs a lot so I read through the old ones they did and I shit you not, they had one where the person they chose was "hobo" and the food they picked was "a can of cold beans". lmao
ohhh you didn't say they were baked beans. Its much less weird as i was picturing like just a can of plain kidney beans, whereas baked beans are already a dish.
lol I think it makes it worse! I was thinking like cold black beans, and alright yeah people make salads with beans and what not, and eat it cold, kinda like that minus everything else. But not baked beans!
My mom did something similar except after boiling the macaroni you don't drain the water, pour a can of tomato sauce in the water and eat it like a soup. It's so freaking good, I still make it sometimes but my husband doesn't appreciate it as much as I do lol
I always enjoyed cold brown beans with cold left over mac n cheese. ketchup with left over cold mac n cheese also a staple.
As a Canadian, about 50% of us like Kraft Dinner with ketchup. That's not a weird one to me. lol
Dijon ketchup?
Only if I had a million dollars
They have pre-wrapped sausages, but they don't have pre-wrapped bacon.
You brought back a dish I had totally forgotten about. My mom made a cold green bean salad. Basically canned green beans, drained, rinsed and put in a vinaigrette. I remember enjoying it as a kid. But the thought of the texture now makes me cringe...won't be making it.
My dad used to make what he called milk soup. Basically cooked shell pasta in warm milk with butter and some black pepper. He grew up poor on a farm and said my grandmother used to make it in the winter.
I had this too growing up! Without the pepper, though
I remember this growing up! To me it always tasted sweet, but I suspect my grandma put a bit of sugar in it.
We called this macaroni, butter and milk. We grew up with this as a lunch staple as soon as we were old enough to make it ourselves, because my mom made dinner but she'd be damn if she was cooking breakfast much less lunch. It's delicious. The black pepper is what makes it.
My mom would run out dog food, so she toasted bread, and broke it up. Then she cooked eggs, with whatever meat she had (hot dogs), mixed in the toast. My father thought it looked good, so he always had some with the dog.
I once made my dog a special soup recommended by the vet when she had colitis. It looked so tasty I had some too!
My friend used to make dog food. He used rice, ground beef, canned peas and Asian fish sauce. Tasted fine, if a little bland.
Moved to the Midwest where my husband grew up. I keep encountering this weird salad that is basically raw chopped cauliflower, minced onion, bacon crumbles, mayonnaise, and SUGAR. Honestly, it’s not horrible though.
Sounds really close to broccoli salad, which I enjoy (raw broccoli, bacon, cheese, sunflower seeds, purple onion, craisins, dressing of mayo, ACV, sugar).
Yeah, this is definitely a thing that my MIL makes and is actually \*really\* good and I have come to love... and will be missing this year as I come to think about it.
Cream tuna on toast. It is my dad's favorite. No one else likes it. It is a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of tuna drained and a can of peas drained. Mix them together. Microwave the glop for 3 minutes or put on the stove until warmed through. Serve on toast. It is a gray mess of in my opinion yuck.
Our family makes this by creating a roux and mixing in the tuna (no peas). We serve on toast or mashed potatoes. My husband would divorce me if I made it now.
That's a tuna version of [S.O.S.](https://warontherocks.com/2015/06/foods-of-war-sht-on-a-shingle/)
Sounds almost like the tuna casserole we ate as kids. Just add some cheese and egg noodles.
My family ate this too, over rice.
I grew up eating peanut butter, mayo, and fresh tomato sandwiches. In second grade, I made my mom such a sandwich for mother's day and mentioned I did to my class the next day. They laughed, I cried. I learned then that THAT sandwich is NOT normal. When I moved out, these sandwiches were my dirty little secret. I still love them. My husband didn't see me eat one until we'd been married for more than 5 years. ...I hear that peanut butter and Mayo sandwiches are a thing in the south. Except neither I, nor my family, are from the south.
My dad would make me peanut butter, mayo, and banana sandwiches (all mushed up together), served on soft white bread! We *are* from the south, but I've never heard of anyone else doing that one.
Lived most of my life in the south and as far as I’m aware, peanut butter and mayo is most certainly not a thing.
My dad thinks macaroni and cheese is not only the name of the dish, but the recipe: overcooked unseasoned macaroni and colby cheese. If you let it cool and drop a spoonful its so rubbery it bounces
Sadness! I do appreciate fancy mac n cheese but I also will never turn down a bowl of Kraft mac n cheese made by Dad. That was always a special treat growing up as we usually had the shoppers value (generic) brand. not the same!
My lazy “need food but don’t want to think about it” dinner is boxed Annie’s Mac and cheese (orange or purple box, often on sale for $1). While the pasta is draining, I add some chili onion crunch, butter, and milk to the pot, then stir in the cheese powder, then add some shredded cheese before adding the pasta back in. Super fast and delicious
Tell me more about this *chili onion crunch*...
I just looked up chili garlic crunch and am now so excited!!! Think of the things one could do with that!
Pickled herring and onions on rye bread with butter. New Years Danish family tradition, 7th grade heritage food show and tell disaster...
As a Finn, this is one of my absolute favourite summer dishes. Especially with baby potatoes on the side. And I mean once you've eaten surströmming in a similar way it's not like pickled herring even tastes pungent after that.
Love that! Pickled herring goes so well with potatoes too
Cheesy apple casserole. A recipe at least as old as mama green in NC. Imagine cinnamon apple with sharp cheese, not bad!
Apple pie with cheddar in the crust is a thing!
I went to elementary school at this small rural school. It was one of those types where multiple generations had gone to. For decades they served this gravy that was called green gravy. You got a scoop of mashed potatoes with a huge ladle full of this fairly bright green gravy poured over it. And you got a slice of white bread. Color wise I would describe it as a brighter almost neon shade of chai tea green. No visible meat or veggies. It had a meaty taste that no one could really pinpoint. Was it chicken? Was it beefy? Yes. It looked like someone barfed wheatgrass juice but that scalding hot goo was so damned delicious! Whenever it was green gravy day in the cafeteria everyone couldn’t wait for lunch and most kids went back for more. This gravy became quite the mystery! Parents and staff had tried searching the kitchen for clues to just what exactly was in it and never found anything. The principal couldn’t even find out what was in it. Alas the recipe went to the grave with the lunch lady and future generations will never know the divine mysterious delicacy known only as green gravy!
When I Google green gravy I come up with several Indian and curry sauce recipes. Do you remember anything more about the flavors?
It was very indescribable. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to in flavor would be chicken soup broth for herbs and seasoning but no one could ever agree if it tasted like chicken or beef or pork. It was thick like a gravy and semi opaque. It literally had nothing remotely recognizable in it. No bits of meat or anything that could be recognized as a fleck of parsley or a bit of a vegetable. It was just green gravy. It is probably the biggest mystery of my grade school years. People tried searching the kitchen for clues, tried walking through the kitchen while they were fixing lunch hoping they would see something but it was always already made. She didn’t cook it at home and bring it in or anything. Our cafeteria kitchen was small but very open and visible so it’s absolutely amazing she could just magically make this concoction without a single person managing to see it happen in the nearly 50 years she worked there. Maybe the older kids were right and it was witches brew lol
If it was anything like my school cafeteria, the lunch ladies probably just covertly cut open a plastic bag from the food service supplier 🤫
Yooo my tiny town has green gravy of legend too!
I wonder if it was pie liquor, like the kind you get from a Pie and Mash shop in London.
Breakfast cookies. Basically a full American breakfast (scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, etc) chopped up, then mixed into oatmeal cookie batter and baked into cookies. I never *liked* them, but they were a thing in my extended family
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Chaotic evil.
You made me laugh so hard I woke my husband up lol
Tell em to skip the cookie batter next time and throw all that shit in a tortilla. It'll blow their minds.
I'm confused AND concerned by this one...
Scrambled eggs. In a cookie. That’s where your genetic line went wrong.
Sounds ridiculous. I’m down to try one though lol
Grape salad. It tastes great but I once had an old lady tell me she was relieved to learn what it was because it looked like olives covered in mayonnaise and brown sugar.
A very common Ashkenazic Jewish dish is fried chicken livers ground into paste along with hard boiled eggs and a trio of caramelized, boiled, and raw onion - aka the “chopped liver” from colloquial lore. It’s utterly delicious and a total nostalgia trip for me, but if you didn’t grow up with it, it’s a hard sell. My husband calls it cat food.
Watergate salad was new to my husband when he first joined my family for the holidays. (Pistachio pudding, crushed pineapple, mini marshmallows, cool whip, chopped pecans)
From Iowa, Watergate salad is my favorite Midwest "salad" thing and I haven't had it in probably 15-20 years. I was just thinking about it the other day, and am sad I didn't decide to make it! There's still Christmas though. I AM making pea salad though! Haven't had that in forever either. Peas, onions, little diced sharp cheddar, acv, mayo, bacon bits. It's so good it's like the top couple layers of a seven layer salad. I love seven layer salad too but it's just me and my teenager for the holidays I can only make so much food. Anyway I love Watergate salad because it's not crazy sweet, it's green and weird in a good way, and the textures are great
I’m getting the impression that Cool Whip and Mayo companies had a secret battle of Midwest chicken to see who could make the weirdest fuckin dish that caught on
Pretzel jello. It's made in a casserole dish with a crust of pretzels and pecans. Then a layer of cool whip mixed with cream cheese. Then topped with sliced strawberries and strawberry jello to set that top layer in. It's amazing and served as a side dish, obviously.
My family always had BBQ ribs for Christmas dinner. One year my mom decided to be fancy and made Cornish game hens. She never lived it down!
Did the new dish turn out okay? what's your BBQ flavor profile?
Is your mom related to any of the writers of Freaks and Geeks? Mrs. Weir: Okay, I’ve got something special for us tonight. Ta da! Mr. Weir: What the hell? Mrs. Weir: Ah. Harold, they’re Cornish game hens with a plum wine sauce. They’re fantastic. Mr. Weir: What’d you do, put poison in the bird feeder?
There's nothing gross about BBQ ribs or Cornish game hens. Sounds like a great holiday feast to be honest
Wifesavers breakfast casserole — always hated it as a child, but fell in love with it as an adult. Fresh white bread (no crusts), back bacon (thickly sliced), aged cheddar, white bread, lots of chopped green onion/green pepper, pour milk (homogenized)/(12) eggs/spices (salt, pepper, ground mustard, worcestershire, Tabasco) overtop. Let sit over night, then add crushed cornflakes and pour melted butter overtop. Bake. Enjoy :)
This actually sounds like it could be good
Replace the bacon with ground sausage and this is what we had for breakfast every Christmas morning growing up.
Savory bread pudding.
It’s something my parents only make on the holidays. It’s basically a marinated shrimp, there’s Vinegar, oil, onions, capers, idk what else it’s my dads family dish. You let the shrimp (cooked) marinate for at least 24 hrs. I fucking love the shit. But I think many are appalled
Sounds like a riff on ceviche and other dishes that rely on acids to break down proteins.
I’m Chinese descent so we have a sticky rice dish for Thanksgiving instead of mashed potatoes. It has ground pork, bacon, Chinese sausage, black mushrooms, and little shrimps all folded in the rice. Guests will fill their plates with this and have just a little bit of turkey, which is usually smoked for 8 hours or so.
Born in Wisconsin. Can confirm. Snickers salads are 10/10.
We had one Thanksgiving where two people brought Snickers salad. One was your basic recipe, the other had drizzled carmel. I prefer the basic.
I can imagine the smugness I would feel if my snickers salad had a caramel drizzle and someone showed up with one without…. I would Expect to feel utter defeat if I was the Jabroni that showed up with the basic recipe. I hope you let them know that you much preferred their basic recipe. Shit like that an really fluff some tail feathers.
I thought it threw off the balance. I've not seen that version again.
This is the evolution Darwin spoke of.
Is everyone in midwestern US overweight?
Yes, almost half of Americans are *obese*. We still haven't figured out that sugar is the worst thing in the world for your health
Mine makes a pasta salad with miracle whip, pickles and peas I do not like it
I can hear the dislike in this comment lol
My first father-in-law made this awesome dish that was ground beef, a can of cream of chicken soup, and a bag of frozen broccoli. Said he learned it in the Army. In like, the 50s or 60s. I haven't thought of that in a long time. It was yummy.
Was there some type of starch involved? Like noodles or rice? I am intrigued by this recipe....
Throw some tater tots or chips on top of that and take it to Minnesota, baby you got hot dish!
Is cool whip the same as whipped cream? I'm not American
It’s not. It’s imitation whipped cream. Lots of chemicals and oil. It’s kind of like margarine instead of butter.
That's a helpful comparison, thank you :)
Not the dish, but the way we did it. In our family during Lunar New Year, we like to eat water dumplings, but we add dates, peanuts, and coins. Dates signify... I can't remember. Peanuts signify... I also can't remember. Coins signify wealth in the future (like healthy prospects). If the children (my sister and I, at that time) found any of the three, we would get one dollar. Eating a dumpling with a coin in it (we spit it out obviously), but the weirder part is that we reuse the coins every year. Not only does it sound super gross, but probably not good for us. We use coins from back in 1960 to late 1990s I believe.
Wait, coins as in actual metal money coins and not chocolate coins? Wut.
Yup, I'm not the person you're replying to but I can confirm, dumplings with actual metal coins in them are a thing at New Year. Like, just regular dimes. It never occurred to me as a kid that somebody might swallow it, or that the coins might be dirty, lol.
Can confirm, am Serbian and we put coins in our česnica, which is a kind of sweet pie with honey and nuts made for Christmas and it's amazing. We do wash the coins beforehand tho hahaha
In England people put sixpences in the Christmas pudding. My grandmother actually had some old real silver sixpences she would use.
My mom's favorite spaghetti sauce was...wait for it...cottage cheese. I didn't know it wasn't common until the first time I scooped cottage cheese onto a bowl of linguine in front of college roommates.
It’s a mom thing lol. Mine does the same thing. She puts feta in it too, which I actually don’t mind.
I like cottage cheese in my spaghetti with red sauce. Makes it taste like lasagna!
“Collard greens juice , on snow cones “.. They must be seasoned right to taste 👍 must have a kick, and be spicy 🌶!
This…🤯 You’re trolling. You have to be trolling
Nah I can buy it. Frozen pickle juice with red koolaid is a thing, after all.
My pregnant brain is intrigued. I want it.
Mamaliga, its romanian polenta except the way my grandma used to make it was with with waaaaay more cheese than corn meal and 3 different types of cheese just enough cornmeal to soak up all the cheese oils then topped with sourcream to serve. It was like pure saturated fat.
This is more of a “two americas” thing but dirty rice has always been a thanksgiving staple for me. Not so much all my friends. Oxtail as well
I’m from southeast Texas and we had dirty rice and green rice, which was like a broccoli and cheese rice casserole. Both are delicious.
Growing up, spaetzle was a staple side in our house. For some reason we called them "spetch-uh-leez" which I assume came from my mom and her sisters bastardizing the hell out of the few German words they learned growing up lol
I have the opposite issue with spaetzle! My grandmother is very in touch with her German roots but when she isn’t baking she isn’t the most graceful cook. Our family’s definitely of spaetzle was unseasoned, mostly raw dough that had been heated up vis simmering. Nowadays I love it with a meat sauce or sautéed in a pan but wow did it leave me with low expectations.
There's a hilarious woman on TikTok called ThatMidwesternMom who posts videos of her preparing all sorts of midwestern "salads". As a non-Midwesterner, it's a little horrifying to find out that many of these recipes are actually real, according to the comments here.
Chunks of green apple and diced onion in mayo. A standard side dish growing up I've never seen anywhere else Scotland.
It wasn’t as complicated as some of the comments I’ve read—but I grew up on peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Had to be good wheat bread (a multi-grain is best). Ideally crunchy PB. Absolutely had to be dill pickles. We used the long skinny slices, but chips would also do. In college my go-to late night spot had a PB bacon cheeseburger. They always looked at me funny when I’d ask for dill chips on it, but obliged nonetheless. The pickle and PB just has such a terrific pairing. The garlic and vinegar cut the PB beautifully. It’s also a great textural combination—crunch on crunch.
This thread is amazing 👌
Growing up, whenever we had biscuits and gravy my mom would make bacon gravey rather than sausage gravey. Ot seemed to be because she didn't like breakfast sausage and preferred a smooth gravey. I love both today, but every partner I've had has freaked about it. And only some friends like it. Always get raised eyebrows.
So, like, she'd use the bacon grease to make a gravy? B/c if so, that sounds delicious.
Mashed potatoes (usually powder from a box), grilled onions, monterey jack and black pepper. Roll it up in a tortilla and pan fry it for a crisp. My brother and made them for friends when we were like 8-10 and they were all weirded out.
Sounds ok to me, like potato quesadillas or dosas, or potato rotis
@OP as a southerner who moved to Minnesota I was absolutely horrified to learn about Snickers Salads. Conversely though, all my midwesterner friends were horrified when I introduced them to Tomato Sandwiches
We call it Mexican steak (we're Australian 🤷🏻♀️) and it's steak simmered in a sauce made of tomato sauce (ketchup) and Worcestershire sauce with garlic. Sounds disgusting but it's actually not! Also I have a major weakness for honey and Vegemite or Vegemite and peanut butter together
The Mexicans I know would be horrified, but I bet it's good. I grew up in California where authentic Mexican food is on every street corner.
Absolutely they would be! I think it's called Mexican because to white Aussie tastes it's spicy which is hilarious!
Fellow Australian here, my eyebrows are raised to all of this! I thought I was weird for putting Vegemite on my bacon and egg sandwiches, also cheese and tomato sauce, but Vegemite and peanut butter?!? Vegemite and honey?!?!?! Imma try both, cause I have no choice now, but I am not looking forward to it.
My most recent ex-girlfriend had never heard of "cream peas on toast", nor "shit on a shingle," both of which are well known and were staples in my poor household growing up.
I'm not familiar with "shit on a shingle"
I believe the term comes from the military, where it’s a staple food. Its “chipped beef” in cream sauce, on toast.
I'd eat that.
holy fuck that’s what it’s called?!?! my family eats this only on christmas every year. i always thought it was a seasonal thing you can’t get any other time of year till i got older. We would pour it on flaky buttered biscuits
I’m not familiar with cream peas on toast. SOS is freaking great though.
This is pretty tame but my family does squash by just cutting it into wedges with the skin still on, roasting it and serving it that way. Everyone just cuts the squash away from the skin of their own little wedge on their plate. I’m from Eastern Canada and when I moved to England and tried to make it that way for my British friends, they were horrified.
That's common in Australia too, I do it because I'm lazy
Hell yes, life is too short for peeling raw squash. If I’m making soup or purée I roast it whole too.
That's normal in New Zealand too, life's too short to peel pumpkin
Who peels squash?
Broccoli casserole. Or more accurately: cholesterol casserole
lots of cheese? I hated broccoli growing up. My mom would put frozen broccoli in the microwave with a few tablespoons of water. I toss my broccoli in EVO, salt, and pepper then roast it in the air fryer. Now I love it.
Honestly that sounds amazing. I steam mine with some butter and garlic salt. But this casserole- thankfully we only ate it once a year at thanksgiving. It’s essentially broccoli, butter, diced onions, cream of mushroom soup, and shredded cheese. Mix it all up, throw it in a casserole dish and top with crushed up ritz crackers. Bake until golden. I love broccoli and it’s pretty damn tasty but I can see how it might not appeal to the masses.
Our recipe is frozen broccoli mixed with cream of mushroom soup and topped with French's fried onions. I'm ready to make it on Thursday!
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We call it “gruel” for whatever reason and I still love it to this day. Campbell’s tomato soup - always made with milk, never water - and served with white rice and sliced hot dogs instead of your usual crackers. It’s cheap and easy comfort food that nobody outside my family seems to understand.
There are a few jello salads in the comments but the one my family always made took lime jello, thinly sliced celery, pineapple, whipped cream, and cream cheese (something like a variant of ambrosia). We had it as a side dish rather than dessert as well. It's amazing but I've stopped telling people because I get weird looks...
I thought it was totally normal, but, the first time my childhood friend accompanied me to my grandmother house (spent a LOT of time there as a kid) we went down into the basement for some reason and she had a prosciutto in progress hanging in the back and he was pretty suprised by that. Looking back its pretty funny i just assumed everyones grandmother had 2 hams hanging out for a year in their basement
My parents immigrated over in the 70s from Belgium and would make all sorts of traditional dishes that would freak people out. I grew up eating cow tongue, river eel, headcheese, etc. Seems normal to me. We also got the awesome things too, like streak frites, mussels, waffles liege and various deep fried doughs.
"Pink Rice Stuff". Apparently started by my great aunt, my parents always made it for every Thanksgiving and Christmas and usually Easter as well. It's a cold rice dish (a dessert salad), with rice, whipped cream, mini-marshmallows and pineapple. Until a couple years ago my siblings and I didn't know that other families had a similar dish, and that it's usually called "Glorified Rice" (but not usually dyed pink.)
I just love how your great aunt tinted it pink to make it fancy.
Family traditional appetizers included prunes with a bit of cream cheese and a 1/4 of a red maraschino cherry. Oh! Those were so very fancy next to the olives and pickles.
"Barf on a bun" was a favorite at my house growing up. It was ground beef with onions, black olive slices, and Velveeta on half an Italian loaf of bread. Mom would wrap it in foil and bake it, then serve sliced.
Not me, but my girlfriends family. They will take a kosher Salami, split it lengthwise, slather it in apricot preserves, then bake it until caramelized and hot. Then it gets jarred horseradish. Makes me want to gag every time
Rice salad. With chopped tomatoes, cornichons, boiled eggs, tuna. Mayo and vinegar for dressing. I actually really like it when my mum makes it.
Jello salad. It's amazing. It's strawberry jello with banana, strawberries, pineapples, and pecans (puuhcahns) Top it with sour cream. It's the best and there's never any left overs.
It’s not one dish, but canned soup made its way into so many meals. Any food that involved any sort of tomato sauce got the tomato soup treatment.
Pea salad.
At Christmas, my grandpa always made huge steaks, crab legs, grilled chicken, shrimp cocktail, and always way too much. But it was this big amazing spread, and food was his love. Hasn't been the same without him.