Posted on 06/14/2017 5:54:44 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
My husband and I no longer have anyone in our families to celebrate on Father’s Day; but I got to thinking of things that our Dads liked to eat.
My father-in-law, being Pennsylvania born-and-bred, was very fond of Chicken Corn Soup. We used to make big batches of it, and take it up to stock his gigantic freezer. It was at least a small comfort to us that when he was dying of cancer but still able to eat, he could enjoy this soup.
We never made ‘rivels’, the traditional tiny ‘dumpling’ that goes into this soup; but the following recipe from ‘Taste of Home’ is very like the one we have always made, and includes instructions for rivels:
http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chicken-corn-soup-with-rivels
One of my favorite writers on the history of food and eating - and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking in particular - is William Woys Weaver:
https://www.amazon.com/William-Woys-Weaver/e/B000APZL4A/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1497487363&sr=1-2-ent
My own father was very fond of Chinese (or American-Chinese :-) foods, which he learned to like while living for a time in the San Francisco Bay Area right after his WWII service as a Marine in the Pacific. He especially liked Egg Foo Yung, which was my own introduction to Chinese food when we began to have Chinese restaurants in our community in the late 1950’s. It’s easy to make this at home, almost as fast and a lot less expensive than calling up for delivery ;-) Here's a good recipe from Food.com:
http://www.food.com/recipe/egg-foo-yung-24687
-JT
My dad would take my mom’s home-made chocolate chip cookies and stack them. His philosophy was that when the stack fell over, that was his “serving” size. He joked that he got VERY good at stacking cookies.
veggies on the grill (charcoal of course)
also made this for a potluck this past Sunday. Old recipe - late 80's. I came up with the idea of serving it with pea pods, they go great together.Carrot pate - 
here is the recipe - 
I love the ‘sunflower’! and your grilled veggies look great.
2 oz. butter
1 medium onion chopped
1 garlic clove chopped
1 lb. chicken livers
4 oz (at least) chopped bacon
pinch mixed dry herbs
1 tsp. brown sugar
salt & pepper
melt butter, brown onion and garlic until soft. Cook bacon separately til browned, save some of the grease not all. Add cut up livers to the onion and garlic, fry about 10 minutes or less. Add herbs, sugar and seasoning, cook a few more minutes. Let cool. Process bacon, some of the grease, and all the contents of the liver pan til smooth. Chill before serving. If it is too liverish for your taste you can add a tablespoon or 2 of sour cream.
When I was real young I barely remember my Noweigien grandfather eating lutefisk.I think you could add that to your list of despised foods. You can post all the recipies you want but I ain’t gonna try them. LOL
Sherry goes very well in a liver pate.
I think the original recipe called for some red wine. I am a teetotaler. :)
It’s a trick my mom used. I really miss her because we could talk cooking. My older daughter is getting there though.
I don’t think I’d want to try that either.
That seems a lot like spaghetti alla puttanesca.
The way my dad likes it is basically making a fresh tomato sauce with homemade, jarred peeled tomatoes packed with basil. Saute garlic in olive oil, crush the tomatoes, cook them and add salt. Undercook the spaghetti and then finish cooking it in the sauce and then serve with parmesan cheese.
The variations from region to region include adding kalamata olives, anchovies or capers.
That’s a great Dad memory :-)
Thanks for posting that; I’m not sure about me, but my husband would probably love it.
Your post reminded me of something I’ve heard all my life; and while I took the ‘gist’ of it, I never understood where it came from/really meant; so I looked it up:
“What am I, Chopped Liver?”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopped_liver#Chopped_liver_as_an_expression
Thank you for introducing me to WW Weaver. Never heard of him and I ADORE food history and food writing. When I was a very young newlywed spirited away to Europe I read MFK Fischer’s account of when she did the same, and became utterly addicted to her writing. I might as well have known her; I’ve read just about every word she wrote about her life. Putting Weaver on my list.
I wanted to add this link because it is giving me some more kitchen joy. Yes, sorry, it is the lying NYT, but they don’t lie in their recipes so far. Some good eats and good ideas. They give you a weekly email if you sign up, about what to cook, going with seasons and holidays, and I’ve been trying some new recipes. We loved the chipotle cream sauce cod tacos. Mmmmmmm. And last night I made the broccoli rabe lasagna though it was not worth the 2+ hours of prep. Still good though.
https://cooking.nytimes.com
Maybe they could close down the news part of their biz and just focus on cooking and stuff.
Re Father’s Day — second year without my dad. Trying to think of favorite recipes of his. He was a meat and potatoes guy at home, but loved Asian foods and new ethnic foods when we went out. One thing he adored was Green Papaya salad at his favorite Thai restaurant. He didn’t keep kosher so he probably ate it with the crab or shrimp where I would have to ask for a vegetarian version. http://www.thaitable.com/thai/recipe/green-papaya-salad
And his favorite dessert was creme brûlée. And it had to be a good version with a bit of warmth still on the flamed brown sugar crust and still cold inside. He also loved his family’s favorite cake, which tradition I put a stop to in the line of heritage. It was a Germanic marble chocolate vanilla bundt cake with dark chocolate glaze. The cake itself made the Sahara Desert look like a marsh. Yes, I’m talking dry as a bone, you might choke to death if you don’t slam coffee or milk like a freshman would beer at a frat party.
I may have mentioned this before, I kinda invented an icebreaker game asking people to tell me what thier favorite childhood comfort food is.
I love Fisher’s writing as well; but my one attempt at a recipe of hers was a disaster - it was a potato thing, and turned out like tasteless gray mush!
Thanks for reminding me - I’ll have to dig up her books, and try again soon.
Oh yeah, I forgot, my Dad was ALSO a Cookie Monster. A few months before he died, when the Alzheimer’s had taken away most of his ability to speak, we were sitting at the table with him after dinner and we had some Oreos on a plate. I asked him if he wanted a cookie, and he responded perfectly clearly with a hearty laugh as if nothing was wrong, “Did you have to ask?” Meaning of course he did. He brought the whole table to cheering laughter.
Foods People Hate list: has anyone listed liver???? I know how healthy it is but I just can’t.
Another food for the Hated list would be Brussels Sprouts, and I can roast them to make a lover out of a hater. I can make them yummy.
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