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Our big special was meat pockets. They are like a pierogi but with ground beef inside. My grandmother made the dough from scratch. Then you cut it into circles. Put a small amount of meat on it with all the flavoring and stuff you put in the raw meat. and fold over the dough and crimp it down with a fork to seal it. Then you boil it to cook. Then you put them on an oven pan and bake them with chopped up and pork fat back or salt pork, you fried up. My grandmother would make about 200 of them at a time. Took her all day. I would help. It was fun. My mom makes them still about once a year, but she just buys wonton wraps at the supermarket instead of making her own dough from scratch. The supermarket wonton wraps are not as good as home made though.
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My grandfather lived with us when I was a child, and my mother cooked Bedfordshire worker’s foods for him. Collared head (brawn in jelly), milk mess (bread heated up in milk, butter and sugar), and of course beef tongue (which I like, although it’s not so nice cutting the root off at the back). Befordshire clanger, which had onion and a bit of meat at one end, and veges and apples at the other end, like a double ended Cornish pastie. Kidneys, Liver (calves was better and more expensive than lambs). Field mushrooms, and Gramp swapped vegetables from around the neighborhood that Gramp patrolled on his bicycle, aged 83. Chicken gizzards in soup. There have to be more, but it’s a long time ago. My problem has been male partners from backgrounds that don’t make them all that keen on these old things, and they’re hard to make for one.

We weren’t wealthy, and my grandfather planted two soft drink bottle tops in the back garden on Christmas Eve. In the morning, the soft drink bottles had grown underneath the bottle tops. Big treat for us!

I'd love to hear some more!
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Souse.

 Souse is actually just a type of head cheese. When head cheese has vinegar, it's considered souse meat.

I came across this word when looking up head cheese. My parents ate both; us kids wanted nothing to do with that stuff!
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Odd. I think for the 1950's-60's in New England... at least none of my friends ever heard of this "stuff"
My Grandma lived with us and she would cook these are some of the things I recall her making.
Shrimp Pilaf
"Welsh rarebit" was another my Grandma made quite a bit.
Creamed Finnan Haddie (Oh, I wish I could find smoked Haddock now!)
And I recall she would mash her peas into the mashed potatoes. She said it made them stay on the fork better.
And occasionally she would make an avocado salad for herself, with a bit of Thousand Island dressing on it (Or French if I remember correctly)
On Fridays if we had pancakes for dinner my Mom would sprinkle hers with sugar then squeeze lemon juice over them. I still eat pancakes this way and will do the same with a waffle.
When my sister and I were little we had a place in Florida and when we went to the beach Mom would pack a lunch, COLD tomato soup and cheese sandwiches. Don't think anyone I knew ever had cold tomato soup.
And to this day I do not know how my mom and grandma made a particular dressing for our Thanksgiving and Christmas it was the regular bread cube dressing but it was dry so it soaked up a lot of gravy!

And once, just once my mom got it into her head that she would make beef tongue. Bless he heart...she tried. probably would have been better if she did the following
1. Cooked it longer so it was tender.
2. Removed the bumpy outer portion
3. Fed it to the dog!
Thanks for the memories.
Oh, side note...
I lost my Mom, Dad and Grandma at a pretty young age. All the great recipes are GONE. (my Dad's coleslaw, Mom's coffee cake (that she only made for company) the holiday dressing, Dad's pasta sauce, his beef mushroom barley soup to name a few)
PLEASE write down and share family treasures.
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I'm a rural child of the 60's in Ontario and I think my household was pretty typical of our neighbourhood.
Pasta was rarely eaten, macaroni was something you put in tuna casserole (yuck) and spaghetti came out of a can with extra pasta added and cheese (cheddar) melted on top (yum).

Until rice-a-roni came along rice was for rice pudding, never as a main course.

Tang was a big thing and I never tasted real orange juice until I was in my teens.

We had bread and milk delivery - I think the milk man had ice cream as well.

The local diner served the same kind of meals we'd get at home with the addition of deep fried things like french fries and battered fish, which made eating out special.

Hamburgers and hot dogs were usually served as is and eaten with a fork, putting them on a bun with a handful of potato chips on the side was special.

We like visits to my grandmother's house because she always had bottles of pop on hand, and popsicles. You broke the popsicles in half to share, and the pop was poured in a glass and shared too. Oh and her grilled cheese was the best because she used Kraft cheese slices instead of cheddar like my mom did 😂

Summer sausage and bologna were household staples and bought by the piece from the local butcher, we raised chickens and ducks and arranged to buy a half of beef at the abattoir, since we didn't raise hogs pork was bought in town and was more of a special treat.
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My sister and I have been texting back and forth about this and she just reminded me of one..I still love this...
Peanut Butter and lettuce sandwiches.
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My husband says his mom used to make creamed hot dogs--same idea as creamed chipped beef or chicken a la king, i.e., a cream sauce, but with sliced hot dogs. He still loves pretty much anything made with a cream sauce. In Girl Scouts I learned to make "tuna wiggle," also a cream sauce but with canned tuna and peas in it; could also be made with shrimp, but that was too expensive for the Girl Scouts. Served on toast or over rice. Also often made with Campbell's cream soup, mushroom or celery. My husband also said that his dad would eat something he called "super deluxe," which was basically bread with gravy, but the dad gave it a fancy name and made a big deal out of it so the kids thought it was wonderful. This would be for a snack or light supper. Also for a snack or light supper, people would have bread and milk (hot or cold) or "milk toast," which was buttered toast with hot milk poured over it. Did anyone have codfish cakes growing up? You had to soak dried salt cod for quite a while, changing the water frequently, to get out most of the salt, then mixed with mashed potatoes, formed into patties, and fried. For us is was a treat, but in past generations it was considered poor person's food because salt cod and potatoes were both very cheap. Someone mentioned peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches; we used to like peanut butter with sliced banana or with crumbled bacon. I used to love canned black bean soup, which we had often for lunch when I was young, but I haven't seen it in years--not the kinds with whole black beans, which is still available, but the kind where the beans are pureed. My mom used to like a variety of Campbell's soup called "pepper pot," which had small bits of tripe in it, but that was discontinued by Campbell's in 2010 (I just looked it up).
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Newbi my husband used to make Hamburger Helper for our DD,, He called it "daddy surprise" and she loved it! My dad would cut up hot dogs and put them in the canned Campbells baked beans.. I hated that but my hubs still does it and he loves it.
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Chicken and Dumplings.
Beef Stew and Dumplings.

Dh says "NO", that is stupid food.

Ate it growing up, served it to my son as he was growing up.
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sounds good to me Send ;)
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I’ll eat most thing. I like liver, in pate or nice lightly cooked slices, but unfortunately it’s starting to upset my bowel. I’ve refused brains, it just doesn’t seem right. I tried cooking sheep’s testicles (called ‘prairie oysters’ in the US). OK, and it's a pity to waste the food, but I haven’t done it again – not hungry enough, thank heaven.
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Margaret...do you clip the "Prarie oysters" before you shove the sheep into the gully?
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Fried cornmeal mush.
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Pammzi,
Tonight for dinner, I served hot dogs (Oscar Meyer Knockwurst) cut up in baked beans. Yum!
Then, leftover deli turkey cut in chunks and added to chicken noodle soup.

I miss Hamburger Helper. So many years ago!
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Since we're talking about food when we're growing up....

I have to say that the then-USDA standard that all elementary-schoolchildren be provided with milk and only milk may have saved my bones. I'd be more insistant on Tang than for any milk at home, but at school that's all you could have.

Most of the food was super yummy. To this day, I still cut cheese exactly in the blocks that I remember. To this day, I prefer the thick crust pizza originally offered and am tolerant to almost everything.

But OMG, that 1970s school spinach. I saw no child who never ate it, even those who snarfed down their peas and veggies, like me. To this day I would rather eat any of the foods mentioned here than canned spinach that looked like it was staring at me, at the time. I just won't have a relationship with it!
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Growing up, we never had an avocado mushed onto toast, but I love that now!

Looking for ideas now that may be on the healthier side, like anti-inflammatory foods.

Kiwi?

What to do with that? I started to eat one, and it was not ripe-so unfamiliar with Kiwi.
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I love kiwi, I can't believe you haven't tried them before! IMO they are kind of like bananas in that they get mushy and less tasty when they are more ripe... I actually like them a little on the green/sour side, you have to find that sweet spot where they are just starting to soften. Also like bananas they don't do well in fruit salads unless you eat it all up right away.
DON'T mix it with anything dairy, it will turn bitter🤢
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In the 1960s Dad hunted bull frogs at night at a nearby lake/river. We had BBQ frog legs. I remember loving those things. Haven't had any since then.
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In the mid 1970s, Nata, dad took us to a place that served frog legs. He ordered them for my then 9 year old sister so he could have a bite. She melted down because she thought they’d be green.
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A small town here that used to be at the edge of a swamp (long gone now) had a water hole full of turtles and apparently it was a popular spot for "the Americans" to come fish them out to eat. I have no idea if the locals ever sampled the turtle (soup? stew?) or why the Americans couldn't find turtles at home 😂
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I heard my mom talk about eating frog legs, and bear meat. She moved around a lot and must have had adventures before she married and settled down!
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Kiwi, yes I have had it before. They were round, and already ripe I guess.
These came in a clamshell box, so many that we gave some away to neighbors.

But the shapes were more oval and flat. Felt soft, but not ripe, sour.
I won't give up on this strange fruit, but will not have it delivered-I will pick it out.

It is just not going to be something I add to my regular diet.
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Cwillie’s breakfast cereal post reminded me of a work trip where I took my daughter along (school holidays) to Oonadatta up north. We stayed at the only pub in town, mostly frequented by teams of road and telephone workers. The pub bought its breakfast cereal in packs of 6 mini-boxes, and the pack had to be finished before the next one was opened. Mine was a sugar-frosty-free home, and Jenny immediately became very popular. The guys queued to make sure she had the cocopops and all the rest of the junk that she viewed as a huge treat. she cleaned out the least favorite of the current packet and then the least favorite of the next packet they opened. She remembers it well, 30 years later.
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My dad liked left over grits fried like pancakes and he ate them with butter and syrup. For breakfast My mom loved left over cornbread smothered in gravy. Have to admit,. I like it too.
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Fried Green Tomatoes harvested from the late summer gardens.
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Pickled herring, pickled pigs feet, liver, fried okra and fried green tomatoes, crawfish, plain sardines and crackers, sardines w/ marinara sauce over rice or pasta.
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Pig tails!

My google search is turning up a lot of soul food recipes, locally these were made more like chicken wings (slow roasted with or without a sauce).
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Thanks for your contribution today CWillie!
Are you going to eat the pig tails?

Moving on, starting my first meal with zucchini, eggs, mushrooms, fresh tomato casserole.

This is in keeping with my new diet that I am developing around the intermittent fasting idea, the almost Keto diet, high proteins. Not sure about the rest, but limiting carbs (I love pastas and bread) (Oh NO!), and other fancy stuff.
So far, I am enjoying the skip morning eating to continue the fast overnight. Last food will be about 9 p.m., eating no earlier than 11:00 a.m. (coffee is one cup, anytime).

I use to go by "must eat late to be able to sleep all night".
No longer true for me. No more expectations of sleeping for more than 6 hrs. at a time.

Disclaimer: Don't try this at home. Don't go by what I am doing. It is just an experiment and includes chocolate in there, somehow.
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We called it "Nana's stuff" because my Dad's mom used to make it for him when he was growing up. It was left over spaghetti, chopped up hot dog, and an egg all cooked up together in a pan like an omelet, topped with Ketchup. It was fast and easy, a simple meal to provide some sustenance on hard days.
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