What is your favorite meal/snack or desert that is unique to you or your family?

[NJmaverick]

what is that one special food and how is it made?

[Symarip]

1. I'm of the firm assumption

If it's a meat product, I need to smoke it.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. That is beautiful ...

[InternalDialogue]

19. You should put the smoker back there in the pool.

Paint up the walls real nice and make it a destination.

[Symarip]

30. The pool will finally be completed in the next two weeks

It will be a destination for those who wish to swim.

[InternalDialogue]

35. Ah, that's a relief.

My cynicism led me to imagine it was a pool whose better days were behind it. Glad to know it's being born instead.

Apologies.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. I will always remember grilling steaks, tossed salad,

and baked potatos on the patio by the pool in the summer. Simple. As a family we were partial to Rib-eyes.

At Thanksgiving Mom made an oyster dressing that was out of this world.

[NJmaverick]

4. Oyster dressing sounds unusual

[Tuesday Afternoon]

32. Really ...?

All I know is it is delicious.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1 pint shucked oysters and their liquor
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped yellow onions
1 cup chopped green bell peppers
1 cup chopped celery
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped green onions
4 cups 1-inch cubes French bread or homemade-style white bread
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 11-inch baking pan with the butter and set aside.
Drain the oysters, reserving the oyster liquor. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, celery, salt, and cayenne and saute for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the bay leaves, garlic, and parsley, and saute for 1 minute. Add the water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the green onions, oyster liquor, and the bread cubes. Stir to mix well, and remove from the heat.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread and vegetable mixture with the oysters and cheese. Stir with a wooden spoon to mix thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking pan and bake for 1 hour, or until bubbly and golden brown.
Remove the bay leaves before serving.

[flvegan]

8. How do you grill tossed salad?

:shrug:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

25. very carefully.

and with a well placed comma.

[applegrove]

5. I used to make lemon souffle for dinner as a teenager. My family loved it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Trucker platelets.

Make it by opening up a trucker.

[Arugula Latte]

15. But what if truckers aren't in season?

Can you substitute UPS dudes? :shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. But you see, that's how we fool them! We hunt out of season.

They never see it coming.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. In our family, it is rice and raisins. It's something like a rice pudding, but we

make it as a hot breakfast cereal and it's all done on top of the stove, not in the oven.

Put two cups water and one cup rice in a pan and bring to a boil. Add a handful of raisins and a little milk, turn down the heat, cover and let simmer until the rice is tender. Add a little milk so you can stir it around easily. Beat an egg and add a little sugar and vanilla to it. Stir a little of the hot rice to the egg mixture and then add the egg to the rice in the pan while stirring constantly. We always served it with sugar, cinnamon and half & half.

[Ohio Joe]

9. Chicken X

The X is actually our last name but I'll not post it.

Put equal amounts of diet coke and ketchup into a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add chicken (still on the bone). As it simmers, use a fork to flake off the chicken from the bone and remove bones. Cook chicken about 40-45 minutes in the 'gravy' and serve over rice.

[blogslut]

10. Macaroni & Tomatoes

Not uncommon but man, did we love it. I almost returned blogslut jr to the baby store when she told me she hated the stuff.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

16. A cold chill went through my entire body when you posted that

I had an ex-girlfriend who claimed that as a young girl, her mom took her to the state fair, and a huge speaker cabinet that had been mounted in one of the trees feel down and hit her on the head and she went blind.

Then, years later, she and her family were gathered around the TV for the "Wonderful World of Disney" and at the exact moment where the fireworks go off in the opening credits, her sight returned.

HEY!

I was 22 years old. SUE ME!

ANYWAY...

...her recipe for "Macaroni & Tomatoes"...which she described as her "specialty"...was to boil elbow macaroni, drain it, and stir it with canned tomato juice.

She also claimed she had a black belt in karate, and had one hideously long nail on the big toe of her right foot which she claimed was for "slashing her attackers."

MACARONI & TOMATOES IN THE HOUSE! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

:eyes:

:rofl:

[blogslut]

17. Oh, hell no!

That is most certainly NOT how mom made it. She cooked and drained the macaroni, added canned stewed tomatoes, a spoon of sugar, a dollop of margarine and lots of black pepper.

Your friend's recipe sounds hideous.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Meat tortellini with white clam sauce and a side of poor man's garlic bread.

Note the tortelinni has to have meat, not cheese for the full effect. The trick is to get as much as the clams on within the ridges of the tortellini.

Poor man's garlic bread = regular sliced bread pre-buttered with garlic power and basil, toasted.

I made this speciality when I lived by myself at school, and somehow it just stuck. Great for a day after I got back from the beach.

[FedUpWithIt All]

12. UNIQUE in my childhood was egg noodles and soy sauce.

It is odd but we grew up on it. Cooked egg noodles are returned to the pot. One or two eggs broken over the top and scrambled onto the noodles. Serve and add splash of soy sauce.


My SO's childhood it was Apple Pizza.

Buttered bread slices topped with mozzerella cheese and thinly sliced apples, baked. Really good stuff.


My kids' favorite is fettuccine with chicken and herbed veggies.

Seared chicken breasts, set aside. Add butter/oil to caramelized pan and sweat onions. Add sliced zucchini and yellow squash. Allow to cook well. Zucchini/squash will make a slight broth. Add extra chicken broth, basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary and thyme (generous with the herbs) sea salt and ground black pepper. Allow to reduce. Add diced tomatoes and toss with fettuccine. Serve over chicken.

[EFerrari]

13. Tamales made in the style of El Salvador, not Mexico.

We only have them on special occasions and the family FIGHTS over them. lol

In my first husband's family, it was Lady's apple pie. It was just the best apple pie anyone ever made every time.

Doug's family didn't really cook. Their favorite snack was ragging on their kids.

[NJmaverick]

14. Pasta with Cream Cheese is a favorite in my family

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. Latvian bacon and onion rolls

Lightly fry up some bacon and onion, make a slightly sweet yeast dough, form the dough into rolls with a bit of bacon and onion in each one.

Yum.

Their Latvian name is Piraga, but my grandmother called them by their German name of Speckgerausch.

[leftyclimber]

23. OMG piragi! The food of the gods.

I could eat myself to death on those. Mmmmm.....

[InternalDialogue]

20. The only thing that I recall being unique among our friends

was the fresh kohlrabi we'd pick from our garden. Sliced and sprinkled with salt. I loved it, but I've never met anyone else who eats it, much less knows what it is.

[DontBlameMe]

21. Peanut butter and mayonaise

Yummm!

[deucemagnet]

22. As the story goes, back during the Great Depression,

a common, inexpensive meal for my grandmother was egg noodles and stewed tomatoes. I ate it in grad school because inexpensive meals were a necessity back then, and I still eat it now because it's really fucking yummy. :9

[mentalsolstice]

24. Scalloped oysters and beer cheese for T'giving and Christmas

I haven't had either lately. However, my husband and I eat raw oysters on a weekly basis, as well as sushi.

[elshiva]

26. What is beer cheese?

:shrug:

[mentalsolstice]

28. It's a cheese spread, also known as "Snappy Cheese"

It consists of sharp cheddar cheese, beer, Worcestershire sauce, and other possible ingredients such as Tabasco and dill. The recipe can vary a little (but it HAS to have beer). It's a Kentucky delicacy just like bourbon balls and hot browns.

[mykpart]

29. My dad used to enjoy peanut butter on nearly everything.

He liked to smear it on hot biscuits, or vanilla wafers, or a hamburger patty, or put it on top of ice cream. And he liked to call it "goober salve."

[achtung_circus]

31. We call it "Red Lead"

a recipe of unknown provenance... via my Grandmother.

The red lead is supposedly a reference to the red coloured, lead-based paint used as primer on Navy ships, where the recipe (allegedly) originates.

Briefly thus:
Stewed tomatoes
chopped onion
salt and pepper
bread cubes
parmesan cheese

all mixed together

more parmesan sprinkled on top, then baked.

Yummy.

[Pacifist Patriot]

33. That sounds like a Basque snack my exchange students whip together.

[blondeatlast]

34. Lightly crushed graham crackers, sliced bananas, fresh wihipped cream. Super easy, healthy,

and oh, so good, especially on a hot Arizona evening!

[ForrestGump]

36. I'd say the Mojave,

but plenty of other people explore it. Much as I love the good old Mojave, I have to admit that the Sonoran is a pretty cool one, too.

[JohnnyLib2]

37. Sauerkraut with the Thanksgiving turkey.

But the younger generations reject it, alas.

[canoeist52]

38. Polish side- pierogies...Italian side - raviolis...same dough :)

[Dr Fate]

39. Tuna Dip. MMMMMMM!

1 can of tuna
one pack of room temperature cream cheese
1 tsp of lemon juice
several dashes of hot sauce
salt, pepper

Serve with ruffles or fritos.