Boomers: back in the day, what food did you parents rely on (canned, boxed, etc.) (move, milk)
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Well, as stated before, mom was a short order cook before marriage and having kids. Damn near everything from scratch. The only time she eagerly bought store stuff, was those totinos pizzas for $0.50 each and she'd buy 50-70 put in the freezer.
One time she had a friend offer her 1/2 a cow for $200. She damn near danced around as this was a special favor and took full advantage.
I have a very strong olfactory memory associated with Swanson TV dinners: Chanel No 5 perfume. Why you ask?
Chanel No. 5 was the only perfume my mother ever wore, but she didn't wear it daily. It was reserved for special dressy occasions like a dinner party or trip to the theater or concert. Which translated into a special occasion for us kids. On rare nights my parents went out without us, we had permission to set up TV trays and watch a TV show in the family game room. We normally didn't watch TV on "school" nights or during the day, so any time other than Friday or Saturday evenings (with an exception for a Walt Disney special on Sundays) was unusual.
My favorite Swanson's meal as a kid was their fried chicken accompanied by buttered mashed potatoes and green peas (a bit crusty around the edges of course). When our parents eventually descended from their bedroom in their evening finery, my mother exuded her Chanel No. 5. At just about the same time our TV dinners popped out of the oven. To this day, if I catch a breeze of Chanel No. 5 my mouth starts watering for fried chicken!
OMG! Except for the perfume it sounds like we had exactly the same experience! Loved those fried chicken dinners, and I can just picture the crust around the edge of the mashed potatoes. Yum!
Add me to the list of kids for whom our mothers cooked. The only thing I remember of TV dinners in the 60s is that they sucked and nobody wanted them. If there was one packaged item we kids depended on I think frozen "fish sticks" would be the answer.
Mom didn't go to work until we were teenagers. She was a good cook. Dinner was usually meat, potatoes or noodles, whatever vegetables were in season a green salad or cole slaw. She made the best soups My dad hunted so we had deer meat, pheasant and rabbits in hunting season. In the summer we fished and crabbed. I begged her for Trix cereal she bought me Kix instead because it didn't have food coloring. It was terrible, like sawdust pellets. Not much modern food. No caserole, no macaroni and cheese, no frozen food, no soda, no peanut butter and jelly. The only canned foods were tomato and pineapple juice and canned fruit in winter. She baked the best cakes and cookies. Every year she baked me a Boston cream pie for my birthday. Mom worked hard to make a nice home for us. I miss her.
None of that. My mother cooked from scratch. No, this is not some post about how superior my mother was. She cooked meat to shoe leather. She's the only person I ever knew who dried out a leg of lamb.
Dried out a leg of lamb? I did not know that was possible. I've never managed to overcook lamb, even when I got tied up while grilling lamb chops and left them on far too long. The were still juicy.
None of that. My mother cooked from scratch. No, this is not some post about how superior my mother was. She cooked meat to shoe leather. She's the only person I ever knew who dried out a leg of lamb.
We had mashed potatoes with whatever overcooked meat was on the menu five out of seven days a week, but she made good gravy. Rice was an occasional different changeup, as well as noodles, like egg noodles. Sometimes they were in a casserole with canned corned beef glued together with a white sauce and topped with potato chips. Once every other month or so, my mother would make spaghetti with meatballs and a jar of Ragu.
But she grew up during the Depression and did not buy convenience foods other than canned goods. I remember the commercials for those foods, but we never had them. We did not get takeout food, either, until maybe when I was a teenager.
I was nine years old before I had pizza. I was in the Girl Scouts, and there was an end-of-year trip for all the troops to go to a local pizza place. Everyone was excited and I pretended to be, too, because I was embarrassed to tell anyone that I'd never actually had pizza before. And that day, I fell in love with it!
But not stuff out of boxes, ever. As a matter of fact, when my sister had a kid and fed her Kraft Mac n Cheese (known where I am now as "KD") I thought it was a new product. I had no idea it existed for decades!
I don't know when you grew up but your story is very similar to mine (50s and 60s), except my Mom was a great cook. She learned from her mother, an Irish immigrant who worked for rich families until she married. That said, it was basic meat-and-potatoes cooking, with a side of veggies. Her gravy was fantastic, geez I wish I could have that again. We never had salad, I don't think we had bread with the meal, and we usually didn't have dessert (preferring to have a treat before bed). I don't remember having spaghetti. I also didn't have pizza until I was probably 10. Prior to that, every Friday night (Catholic, no meat) would be Kraft mac 'n cheese and fish sticks. Uggghhhh. I didn't realize mac 'n cheese could be great if it was cooked from scratch. Anyway, we moved to a neighborhood with a lot of Italians, and someone's parents ordered pizza for all the kids one night. That became our standard Friday night cuisine.
Sunday was always a roast. No lumps in the potatoes or the gravy. I don't remember if the veggies were fresh or canned or frozen. I was an only child and she never made me do anything, so I really didn't know how to cook when I got married. At 72, I can cook basics but really hate to do multi-dish meals where everything has to be coordinated.
Pretty much everything was cooked from scratch and very good. We weren't wealthy but my dad and his father had a fishing boat they would take out before they went to work and on the weekends, so we probably had fish 3 or 4 times a week. We also would go up the coast during abalone season and pry them off rocks with a tire iron, sometimes we would drive to Santa Cruz and catch crab in nets. My mother was a very good cook and I still use a lot of her recipes. On the weekends we would frequently eat at my grandparents house, they were French Basque and my grandmother was an amazing cook. I tried my best but could never get close to the ultra flaky pastries she would make. I started cooking when I was 4 or 5 and by the time I was 10 I could turn out a pretty good meal without any adult intervention.
We never had meals growing up that didn't involve opening cans. Canned vegetables were simmered with bacon until they were barely identifiable. Canned chili, ravioli, stew, salmon, fruit in syrup, etc. Meat was doused with ketchup. and sandwiches always included Miracle Whip. Lots of frozen food and Hamburger Helper as well.
As an adult, Albacore tuna is the only thing that I buy in cans, and I can go for years without a bottle of ketchup. I still despise Miracle Whip and won't eat it.
My parents were from the South and neither were very inspired cooks. My dad was frugal and insisted on food with extended shelf lives (canned, frozen, lots of preservatives). He often stated that brands like Hormel, Kraft, and Del Monte were "the finest that money can buy". (What about fresh? LOL!)
In retrospect, we ate "poor people" food even though we were solidly upper middle-class.
Last edited by Futuremauian; 07-01-2022 at 11:44 PM..
I recall TV dinners entered our house briefly but they never caught on. They were sort of trendy when they came out. They just didn't taste very good and weren't appetizing to look at. I dont think they have improved much. My mom was a skeptic and tried to figure them out -- deconstruct them to see what was in them. She thought there was mystery meat and too much corn starch. Oddly, were had a better opinion of the frozen pot pies and had them on occasion.
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(What about fresh? LOL!)
