Ham and dumplings was a dish my grandfather loved.

Chicken Pot Pie!

Banana Pudding. My grandma used to make this dish for the holidays..with vanilla wafers. So good! Since my grandma has gotten older, my sister has taken over making it. She made it this past Thanksgiving and it was sooooo good!

Beef stew…my mom still makes the best!

lasagna…my mom always made the best when i was little.

My dad’s spaghetti sauce!

Scalloped potatoes!

Pies, particularily the sound of piecrust being rolled out. My mother often would have pies in the oven before I was out of bed, and I remember waking to the sound of the rolling pin against the wooden board she used.

It’s been referred to as the redneck dish du jour, but Tuna Noodle Casserole brings back childhood memories for me!

I would love to win this book! Chicken potpie is definitely a childhood memory dish. My grandmother served it to us on New Year’s but she also made it as a special treat a couple other times during the year. Hers was a simple recipe but I can’t make it or have ot without thinking about her.

Homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, for sure!

My favorite dish that brings back childhood memories is homemade chicken soup which we called “Grandma Soup”. Grandma made homemade noodles by hand and had the tastiest broth with vegetables in it. Still, as a 23 year old I refer to it as “Grandma Soup” and crave it all the time, especially on a cold winter’s day!

My great-grandma’s rainbow jell-o salad brings back the best family memories for me. Thanks for the giveaway!

This may sound weird, but blueberry muffins bring back childhood memories. Every Sunday we would have a big family breakfast, and the request from all of us kids would always be blueberry muffins :)

Chicken noodle soup the way my mom makes it… nothing else compares

My grandma’s goulash with fresh veggies from her garden!

Ribley Soup

Mom’s matzo ball soup, of course!

My moms meatloaf. It’s the only one I love and I remember her making it when I was little.

My grandmother’s cherry pie!

My mom instilled the love of Mexican food in us, so her cheese enchiladas bring back fond memories. They are so simple to make and yummy. Leftovers taste even better!

John Mazzetti casserole!

Meatloaf. I used to ask for it as my birthday dinner. It was that good.

Arroz con Gandules. My Puerto Rican grandparents lived with us for many years when I was growing up. On every festive occasion, my grandmother would have a big pot of this traditional rice and beans dish cooking on the stove. It smelled (and tasted!) so good!

Hands down my Grandmother’s ham and bean soup with cornbread and honey. Mmmmmm

Growing up my neighbor and close family friend, Barb, always made chicken and dumplings from scratch. I always wanted her recipe for this but was not much of a cook as a teenager. My mother made a version of Barb’s chicken and dumplings that I LOVED. Everytime I was sick or had a heartache, my mother made this wonderfully comforting meal. It is now my go to meal anytime life throws me a curve ball. I actually do not use either of their recipes but have found my own. I hope that I will pass this tradition on to my own family one day.

I’d have to say my grandmother’s sweet potatoes. Nobody can seem to make them quite like her!

It would have to be pancakes for me.

I remember always eating chicken noodle soup growing up but with orzo not egg noodles. My mom still makes for us this way today.

Stuffed shells bring me back. It was my dad’s favorite dish and my mom saved it for “special occasions”. Not sure why because the recipe is neither complicated nor expensive to make. Maybe she just wanted to keep it special :)

Homemade chicken soup with homemade noodles brings back memories of chilly days at Grandma’s. She made the best soup and noodles! We loved her soup! I especially remember sitting around her large dining room table with my great aunt, and hearing their laughter and stories.
Nancy

Memories of childhood…Spaghetti and meatballs on Wednesday and Sunday. My dad is Italian….we love our pasta.
My mom is Scocth Irish so we had a lot of meat and potato meals growing up too!

My mom’s biscuit chocolate chip cookies. My mom is not really a good cook but we all loved her cookies.

For me it’s Biscuits and gravy! My father would make it every Sunday morning after we retured home from church. It was a tradition my husband continued with our family and today when our sons come to visit its the most requested “feels like home” meal.

Apple Cinnamon Rolls

As silly as it sounds, I associate Cream of Wheat with childhood. When I would visit my Dad (divorced parents), he would make me a nice hot bowl with milk, a sprinkle of brown sugar, and some raisins. Even now I love it on cold winter mornings!

The dish that comes to mind is spaghetti! I was a picky eater when I was young, and I loved spaghetti.

Pork chops and green beans and mushroom soup. My husband and I don’t eat this very often now, but the last time we did I got a little emotional thinking about all the times I ate it after a late swim practice or even on a Sunday night.

Memories of my childhood are the Christmas cookies I made with my mom every year! I still make them every Christmas with my family and the smell always reminds me of when I was younger!

Banana Pudding. Complete with vanilla wafers and, of course, plenty of sliced bananas. Mmmmmmmm……

My mom’s homemade fried chicken!

I was just talking about this to my husband. The dish that brings back many childhood memories is pork ragu with rigatoni. My grandma was a wonderful cook and this was her specialty. It’s definitely one of my favorites and reminds me of her every time.

I subscribe to most of CI’s magazines/on line sites and I am quite sure they have never reviewed my favorite childhood memory sandwich – Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches on ‘store bought’ white bread. Oh, so yummy!

I love ATK! My mom’s baked chicken is a dish that brings up childhood memories.

Apple pie takes me back to my childhood–my mom used to make it all the time during the fall.

I’d have to go with my mom’s ‘Beefaroni’ – w
agon wheel noodles, tomato soup, ground beef, greenpepper, and some chili powder. Decidedly un-gourmet, but I loved it as a kid and will to admit to making out occasionally when the craving hits!

When I was younger, probably in the duration between 1st and 5th grade, my mom and I were always the first in our house to be up on Saturday mornings, usually around 7 am. Mom would wake up first and make both of us a cup of tea, (at that time mine was more of a half-and-half delivery device), and she would cook white rice that we would eat while it was still warm like cereal with milk and sugar on it while watching the bird feeders out our dining room window. The order of the application of milk and sugar was so important, she woud tell me, because if you put too much milk on, or the milk on second, all the sugar would wash away instead of forming what was almost like a delicious crust on top of the rice. To this day if I have a leisurely Saturday morning and get up before my husband I will make this breakfast for myself and call my mom.

the dish that brings me back to childhood is: braised pork with rice

5 cup salad brings back memories from my childhood. We always had it at thanksgiving, when we would gather with family and I always LOVED thanksgiving. :)

I love and adore all things ATK!!

My mom is a wonderful cook, so it’s hard to pick just one memory filled childhood dish, but I guess, off the top of my head, I’ll go with her spaghetti sauce…yum!

My mom made Chicken and Dumplings a lot while I was growing up, yummy and comforting.

Yorkshire Pudding with a Rib Roast on Christmas!

Growing up, my mom used to make this amazing beef noodle soup with bok choy that was pure comfort in the bowl – the whole house would smell of it!

My mom’s Christmas morning cinnamon rolls bring back the memories for me.

Simply stated…spaghetti and home made sauce! My dad makes his own sauce. Growing up it used to be from canned tomatoes a family friend made. I LOVED the smell of the kitchen when his sauce was cooking. The tomato, the herbs…all of it was pure heaven. I request his spaghetti sauce for my birthday dinner every year.

lasagna. i remember watching my mom make it. i always requested it for my special birthday dinner. sweet times.

I don’t know what memories bring me back to my childhood, but I always remember my mom making the most amazing fried chicken. I’ve got her recipe, but it’s just never the same and NEVER EVER turns out as crispy and delicious as hers.

Definitely my mom’s potato soup. It’s packed full of onions, potatoes, milk, cream, and lots of salt and pepper. It’s unbelievably delicious topped with cheddar cheese and maybe a little bacon. I requested it as my birthday meal for years and years.

Pot roast allways makes me think of sitting at the kitchen table that my dad made to accomadate all TEN family members. We ate dinner together every night, all ten of us! Now that I am a mother with my own family I really cherish the examples my parents set for me. Coming in the door from school and smelling pot roast cooking or spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove. Having to peel 10lbs of potatoes-yuck! The kitchen provides so many memories. I hope I have made those same wonderful comforting memories for my own children.

My mother’s homemade sauce. It makes a huge pot- perfect for entertaining. She always put sausage, chicken, and meatballs in it…. the meatballs are my favorite! Every time our relatives came to visit, you could bet on having sauce. mmmmm

The dish that brings back memories for me is fried chicken! My mom made it every Sunday and then would make it for road trips. Good times and good food!

my mom’s hashbrown casserole. so amazing and it reminds me of family get togethers!

Probably my moms mashed potatoes, roast beef, and gravy. It was my favorite dish at my parents.

Probably my mom’s scalloped potatoes and ham. Great giveaway, thanks ATK! PS – I remember when you tried the marsala recipe from them, loved all the detailed instructions. You were hooked. Ahhh, memories!

Chocolate gravy and homemade biscuits! My grandmother makes the best!

Lots of dishes… homemade pasta sauce, creamed chicken crepes, and on and on!

Sweet potato pie. Every fall my grandmother and my mom always made sweet potato pie. I loved it so much I ate 6 pieces! It curved my enthusiasm for that pie somewhat but is still fun memory for my family.

Mom’s oven baked chicken with all the delicious skin (because it was ok to eat it back then ;) and as a side dish she would make Ramen noodles with most of the broth drained off and some sort of green veggie. Not fancy, but yummy.

crunchy dijon chicken

Mom’s chicken pot pie with drop biscuit crust

Mac and cheese always takes me back, but now it’s to the point where I feel like a child when I’m eating it. That’s why I like to make it a bit more “adult-like” and bump up the types of cheeses involved.

Baked chicken with homemade noodles and mashed potatoes – it was a Sunday dinner staple at my grandma’s house

At this time of year, I’d have to say Sweet Potato Casserole…and the holidays are not the same without it.

Macaroni and cheese

When I think of childhood foods, chicken pillows and mashed potatoes come to mind–comfort food at its finest! Yum.

My mom used to make a dish that was peas and potatoes in a light gravy. It sounds strange, but man do I love it. I’m a good ole Midwestern girl!

There are a few, but I think one that stands out the most is chicken and rice. It reminds me of home! :)

Liver brings back memories from childhood of not wanting to eat it! I see it on menus at restaurants and it brings back chills.

Roast beef brings back memories for me. It was our traditional Sunday dinner.

Chicken parm – it was my favorite thing ever that my mom made for us growing up!

Grandma’s homemade meatballs & bolognese sauce. My oh my how I miss her!

The dish for me is liver, onions and bacon.

Mom’s lentil soup with extra parmesan and warm bread on really cold nights.

It’s going to sound weird, but oatmeal really brings back childhood memories for me. My mom didn’t like to cook so my dad did most of the cooking for us when he was home (and not traveling for work). He’d always come in late (after I’d gone to bed), so when I woke up there was my dad and hot oatmeal for breakfast. Such great memories!

Since I’m a good Southern girl, I’d have to say my mom’s fried chicken is the best. I remember being a child and thinking it took *forever* to cook. She’s always fry a leg for me in the first batch so I could eat it while the other chicken cooked.

Chicken noodle soup always reminds me of being a kid!

Roast pork loin brings back my childhood memories of New Year’s Eve. Every year we’d prepare black beans, rice and beans, serve grapes, and eat the most moist pork loin. Every time I have it now I remember new year eve meals.

My dad got into cooking when I was in middle school and for years his #1 crowd pleaser was “Chuckwagon Stew” – basically a soup made from ground beef and frozen veggies! It was really tasty and he would make beer bread to go along with it. mmmmm I should get that recipe. :)

Grandma’s Lasagna. She was such an excellent cook, but her lasagna was everyone’s favorite.

A dish my mom used to make called pizza hot dish – it was a casserole with egg noodles, corn, tomato sauce and ground beef.

Really, the best cooking memories from my childhood are a staple -chocolate chip cookies! My mom used to make cookies and my siblings and I would wrestle for the privilege of licking the beaters. I would love to win this cookbook and make many more foodie memories for my family :)

Hmm…It would definitely be a Chicken and Rice dish that my dad used to make. I haven’t had it in so long, but anytime I do, I immediately think of him…

Chicken pot pie!

Macaroni and cheese; the oven baked, from scratch version! We had it on Saturday nights, ate it on TV trays and watched movies. I still love curling up with a big bowl.

black raspberry pie. it has been on our dessert table every holiday my entire life and it’s so amazingly good.

My parents are both originally from central Pennsylvania so my mom used to cook Pennsylvania Dutch dishes frequently when I was growing up. One of those is very similar to Chicken and Dumplings- Chicken Pot Pie (or bot boi, the german translation). It’s really not pot pie, more like chicken soup with homemade pasta cut into squares, but so comforting!

Mac and Cheese, with a creamy sauce and then baked in the oven. My mom used to make this all of the time and it is one of my favorite comfort dishes.

my mom’s homeade potato soup

Spaghetti with bolognese sauce

Homemade biscuits with chocolate “gravy”

Beef stew. My mom would make it with tomato sauce and red wine, and whatever meat she had on hand (although my all time favorite was when she made it with oxtails).

indian comfort food-lentils and rice for me…

Spaghetti and meatballs. My dad always got so excited when he came home from work and smelled meatballs cooking.

Actually, the dish that brings back the most childhood memories for me is chicken and dumplings. My great grandmother made the best, and to this day every time I even smell chicken and dumplings I automatically think of her :)

In Nebraska, we have a fast food chain called Runza. Runzas are kind of like a German cabbage roll — a bread dough stuffed with ground beef seasoned with salt and pepper and either cabbage or sauerkraut. You can add cheese, too, and I usually dip mine in ketchup. I am totally ruined for the fast food chain’s runzas, because my mom makes the absolute best runzas in the world. She used to make and sell them when I was a kid, and she still makes them for me as a special treat. I hope someday (when I have more counter space in my kitchen) I can make runzas like hers.

Tamales! They are a Christmas Eve tradition in my family, and I look forward to them every year.

Love Cook’s Illustrated as much for the recipes as the beautiful photos. My Grandma and Aunt used to make a dessert called Brazo Gitano. It’s a Spanish dessert and is delicious. Haven’t had it for a number of years but always think about this during the holidays.

Chicken and noodles. My Grandmother used to make them. She would serve them over mashed potatoes.

French toast casserole! We have had it every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. It’s funny because I have always loved it, however my siblings have not. They didn’t like the texture at first. But through the years, they both finally came to their senses. We have a lot of good memories involving that dish :)

Chicken and rice!

The dish that brings back memories of my childhood is when my dad would make a dish that was chicken baked with cheese and bread crumbs. It was always one of my favorite meals growing up and all of my friends would want to come over for leftovers after school!

Sunday pot roast with yummy slow cooked carrots and potatoes. Yum!

Chicken pot pie – though I grew up eating the microwave version! I’ve tried my hand at the homemade version since then, but sometimes I will return to the microwave-ready ones and it will remind me of my childhood.

There are so many! Taco bags (where you put taco goodness in a small bag of dorito chips and eat it out of the bag with a fork), my Mom’s beef and gravy, finger food nights…

Just plain old pasta with red sauce….and garlic bread….

Korean food!

chicken and gravy over egg noodles

Whenever I smell beans cooking and tortillas frying in oil, I know it’s going to be a good day :)

Sunday dinner with Moms yummy roast, potatoes and gravy.

My grandmother’s meatballs with pieces of fresh bread and raisins! mmmm!

Homemade Waffles! My mom would always make them for my sister and me along with our friends on Saturday mornings after slumber parties.

Vegetable soup! Not even really sure why, we did have it frequently growing up, but when I make it I always think of my parents and home :)

Creamed chipped beef – sooo good!

Traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings. That’s what my mom always cooked.

My Meema used to make “Pork Perlo.” Not exactly sure what that meant, but the dish was browned chunks of pork cooked with onions and seasonings (unknown) and simmered with rice. Not traditional, but a heavenly memory!

Cinnamon rolls…we always had homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes. mmmmm.

Meatloaf. It was a big staple of my mom’s and even in college, she always made it for me when I came home. I make mine from her recipe but it still doesn’t taste as good as hers…

Wow! How I would love to win this cookbook! I have recently dusted off some of my seldom used kitchen equipment (hello stand mixer and food processer) to try out some new recipes. My mother didn’t have either of these two products when I was growing up, but she did have a crock pot and a pressure cooker. She made the most delicious barbecue pork roast!

Spaghetti!

Egg casserole and caramel coffee cake on Christmas morning! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Taco salad, it was a birthday tradition in my family.

My mom’s Lasagna. I requested it every year for my birthday dinner.

Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and milk gravy. Yum!

Chicken and rice casserole with cream of mushroom soup of course. Some day I would like to try and recreate this dish completely from scratch.

mac & cheese for sure!

Catfish stew…yum! Both grandmothers made it growing up and now my dad makes it around Christmas time. So good.

Chocolate chip cookies!! Mom made them every week. I never can make them quite as good as hers. When my kids were at home, they told me to keep trying….

Definitely a baked chicken and rice casserole with cream of mushroom soup my dad used to make for us as kids.

My mother’s Thanksgiving spread… She makes the carrot dish, pea dish, and candied yams once a year, and it’s only for thanksgiving. Always reminds me of home, family and friends.

My mom’s chicken soup. Classic and delicious!

For sure, Mom’s award-winning chocolate chip cookies! The recipe is the first one I learned to make and is the only one I know by heart.

steaming bowl of Lentils and rice

My mother’s crock pot chicken and noodles. A whole chicken cooked all day in the crockpot with onions and carrots served with wide egg noodles cooked in the broth from the crockpot. It is so comforting and every time I’m sad or down its my go-to recipe. My entire family loves it and my mom made it several times a year at our request growing up and still will whenever I ask ;-)

Foods that reminds me of my childhood are desserts in general. My mom had a huge sweet tooth!

My mom’s version of King Ranch. My daughter loves it every bit as much as I did:)

Mississippi Mud Cookies – or, as most people call them, No-Bake Cookies. I spent countless hours with my mom and sister mixing these up in the kitchen and covering the countertop with little mounds of chocolaty yumminess.

I’d have to say homemade mac & cheese. I remember so distinctly coming home from piano practice in the evenings and smelling my mom’s mac & cheese in the oven!

Spaghetti pie or my mom’s grilled cheese sandwiches – I swear they’re different and better than any grilled cheese ever.

I think probably macaroni and cheese would be the number one. :)

Mom’s chicken and biscuits always makes me think of home!

Sweet potato casserole – the kind with the brown sugar and nut topping, NOT marshmallows. :)

my mom makes this chicken dish with dried beef and cream of mushroom soup- served over rice. It was my absolute favorite growing up!

Chicken and dumplings, though I haven’t had it forever!

My mom’s homemade vegetable soup – so good!

Chicken pot pie. It doesn’t bring back memories in a good way though; it was the dish I dreaded to eat. Nothing reminds me of my childhood dinners more than chicken pot pie.

There was some sort of red flannel hash my mom used to make. I loved it and remember putting ketchup all over it. I have never made it, and maybe it wouldn’t even taste the same as when she made it.

Poppyseed cake. My mom would make it every so often, especially around the holidays. It was a vanilla bundt cake with poppyseeds running all through it. So moist and yummy!

Sweet and sour pork. My dad used to make it for us on Sundays with a huge wok full of stir fried veggies. So good!

Goulash. My grandmother with whom I lived with would always make it, and I loved it, but I didn’t like onions, so I would always pick them out. One day I asked her to make it without them. The result was not the dish I loved, and I never complained again. Now I even eat it with the beans, and ask her to make it every other time I go visit. The other days I ask for my other childhood favorite, shepherd’s pie. Both are such big comfort foods, especially in these chilly winter months! : )

My mom’s asian pork chops brings back memories of when we first moved to Indiana. I dont have a lot of cookbooks and would love to have this cookbook!

Pancakes for breakfast is something we had every Saturday growing up, so I immediately am reminded of my childhood every time I have them. I can’t wait to have a tradition like that with my kids that they will remember as adults!

Strawberry pretzel salad!

My mom made stromboli for special occasions, like birthdays. It will forever remind me of her and my childhood. :)

My mom’s pumpkin pie is a huge comfort food for me.

Cornbread and turnip greens.

Hands-down, the dish that brings back memories of my childhood is angel hair spaghetti with homemade basil pesto sauce! I can remember on warm summer evenings, going out to the garden with my mom helping her pick the basil and then turning it into this wonderful, rich, pesto sauce. Even as a “picky eater” as a kid, I couldn’t get enough of mom’s pesto sauce!

My mom started a soup tradition for Christmas years ago. Our favorite soup that she made for our Christmas dinner was Cheese soup. This was always accompanied by homemade bread bowls. So delicious! I decided to carry on the tradition and even though we are not going to be home with my mom for Christmas I’m going to make soup for my kids this year and my moms amazing cheese soup is definitely on the menu!

Growing up dad made this cinnamon chicken dish that he clipped from the newspaper that I totally loved. We always got to pick what the family ate for dinner on our birthdays. My brothers always wanted carry out pizza or Chinese, but I asked for that cinnamon chicken dish.

My mom’s dirt cake! She always makes it for holidays!

Pasta with tomato sauce and Italian sausage- it always reminds me of my grandpa.

good ol’ spaghetti- my mom wasn’t much of a cook but it tasted like home to me! :)

I would have to say my mom’s mac and cheese. elbow noodles, chedder cheese, cream, butter, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. It’s soooooo yummy and creamy.

More of a dessert but my family would make no bake cookies together. Everytime I have then now I think about us doing that together.

My dad’s “topato” soup…. it’s TOmato soup with PotATOes and little meatballs. I don’t know where the recipe came from, but it’s delicious and comforting on a cold night! :)

Homemade burritos with homemade tortillas-always the meal we ALL requested when it was our birthday, or we had friends over. Now I make it when we have friends over or for my own birthday.
Sidenote: I live in Canada, but would love to win this for my mom who lives in the States! She taught me to love cooking, and I’d love to give something back to her.

Roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, and gravy! When I would come home from the hospital after being sick, my mom would always have this waiting for me when I got home! It was such a comfort and now when it is made I always think of her!

Risotto that my grandmother made. I later learned that she used Ragu, but as a kid, there was simply no better Italian food than what came out of her kitchen.

Spaghetti with tomato sauce — and you may cringe when you read this — with American cheese melted on top!

Very similar to this recipe, but instead, homemade chicken noodle soup. My mom would spend all day rolling and cutting noodles. Pure comfort food!! I miss those days.

Spanish Tortilla, although it’s not very Spanish. :) It’s really just a potato frittata with ham added in, but my mom always made this when I was growing up. I’ve tried a few times, but I just haven’t quite mastered it yet.

A chocolate layer dessert that my mom made for almost every holiday- so good!

Dumpling soup; the Lipton “red box” soup with Bisquick dumplings. As my grandma would say “it warms your bones.”

Potatoes and dumplings with bacon, just like my grandmother brought over from the ‘old country’ (Russia)!

Potato Dumplings with Salt Pork in the center. My grandmother, who never once measured anything and NEVER wrote anything down, would make these for my mom and I when we would visit her on the farm. It was her tried and true “go-to” German comfort food and although my mother and I have made several attempts to re-create them…we have failed miserably and it is the one recipe that died with her. I can still smell that salt pork frying in the pan. The only thing better than the day she made them was frying them in the pan the next day. Oh… so heavenly!

In fact, I think I will try that recipe again soon, even if it’s just to smell the salt pork. Maybe I’ll even leave out the measuring cups and just see what happens.

My mom’s meatloaf.

I would LOVE to win this. Hands down childhood meal….mac and cheese! thanks so much!

Apple dumplings that my grandma made… So yummy!

My mom just made a huge pot of Polish kapusta and it took me back 25 years!

Lasagna brings back memories from my childhood. My grandma made it, my mom made it, and now I make it!

Honestly? popcorn made in a pan with oil on the stove. It was our Sunday night dinner with a glass of milk as we sat and watched Disney together. Not much of recipe, but it is the food I most associate with childhood.

Childhood Memories = Mom’s Meatloaf. Yummy … getting hungry just thinking about it!! :)

Actually this recipe does, my mom always had a recipe for chicken and dumplings but it was from her Microwave cookbook and I hated it. Mushy dumplings, yuck. I am excited to try out this recipe and see if dumplings are something I have been missing all these years.

One of my most favorite meals from my childhood was baked potato soup. I loved the assortment of toppings that my mom would set before us. Today it is still my go to comfort food when I am feeling homesick!

Spaghetti with meatballs, sausage, chicken, some sort of hunk of meat. My mom loaded the sauce pot with meat and a tomato gravy. It was the best.

The recipe that brings back memories from my childhood would have to be homemade rolls. My mother was the queen of dinner rolls! While I can make them myself, they’re always better when someone else is doing the cooking! :)

My mom’s Chicken Marango, no clue where the recipe came from but we had it all the time.

Soup and sandwiches : ) More specifically, Campbell’s chicken and RICE with grilled cheese!

My nana used to make us these really simple that dishes that were sooooo good and always remind me of home: hamburg and gravy and chicken cutlets were my favorite

Manicotti especially on Christmas Day!

My mom’s beef stroganoff or chicken and mushrooms over rice (using Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup, of course!)

Sloppy joes and mac and cheese! It may not be fancy, but I love it!

Chicken cordon bleu was one of my absolute favorite dishes my mom would make for our birthday dinners.

Pot roast. My mom used to put one in the slow cooker every Sunday before we left for church.

Creamed tuna on toast: can of mushroom soup, can of tuna, frozen peas all mixed in a pot and then served over toast. It sounds gross, but it was a meal that my mom made for me when she was short on time… and I loved it!

baked pasta+veggies – my mother was not a fan of cheese, so she’s leave one half of the dish bare and the other side coated with cheese for my brother and I. It’s not something I make for myself, and I’ve never had it anywhere else (though I’m sure plenty of people make it), so it tends to remind me of home.

Tuna noodle casserole!

My mom made the best pumpkin cheesecake growing up. I look forward to it every Thanksgiving!

My mom used to always make a roast in the crockpot with potatos and carrots. She was always running us around all afternoon to different events so crockpot meals were a staple!

The dish that brings me most back is pasta sauce–a really nice, heavy, thick pasta sauce simmering on the stove all day with a healthy splash/glug of a nice red wine. Heavenly!

Chicken matzo ball soup, no question.

Chinese style pork short ribs. My grandma used to make them for us all the time.

Baked macaroni and cheese. It was something my grandma made for every family gathering, and now it’s what I bring to pot locks. It’s always a hit.

Tomato soup and grilled cheese!

My grandmothers rhubarb cake. She didn’t bake frequently but I will always remember it.

Nothing beats homemade food! So whenever my mom or grandmother makes pho, a vietnamese noodle broth dish, or banh bot loc, a pork with shrimp dumpling, it always brings back memories from whenI was younger!

Swedish meatball. I requested them for my birthday meal for quite a few years in a row!

We call it chicken in a biscuit, but it’s basically a chicken salad type mixture nestled into a crescent dough bundle and baked in the oven. My sister and I both requested it every year for our birthday meals. I still make it for myself on my birthday!

I was a really picky child so mealtimes were normally a struggle. I was happiest when people just let me eat cottage cheese and fruit.

Cookie baking at Christmas-time! My mom always made TONS of cookies for Christmas – more than we could ever eat or giveaway – but it was more about making them all together. We still make a few batches together every year!

Childhood memories come back when making English Toffee, Fantasy Fudge, or Mama Roxie’s Sugar cookies, all heirloom recipes passed down for generations in my family (I am at least the 5th gen to make them). I make them myself now, but I remember watching my mom make them, and then learning to make them with her in a flurry of holiday cheer!

My pa-paw’s chili. He would make a huge pot and we would all go over for dinner. It must be served with spaghetti!

Though I don’t eat meat, meatloaf always brings back memories of childhood!

Homemade bread cooking in the oven makes me remember my Mom every time. She used to bake a dozen loaves and have us kids take at least half to neighbors in a brown paper bag, still warm from the oven. Our neighbors put up with a lot of nonsense from our large and boisterous family, but warm homemade bread made up for it all!

Chicken and rice brings back the most memories for me!

amanda @ fakeginger.com

There are so many, but it’s the first night of Hannukkah tonight so my mind is completely distracted by the unbeatable brisket my mom makes and has made for every special occasion for as long as I can remember. It wouldn’t be a family gathering without it!

A good pot roast, slow cooked with potatoes and carrots!

Cherry glazed ham. My dad always made this for the holidays!

I would love this cookbook, thier magazines rock!!

Spaghetti alla Bolognese. My grandmother always made it for my birthdays growing up along with a chocolate cake. They are still two of my favorite foods to date.

Popcorn! Every Sunday night while we watched Walt Disney.

Chicken and dumplings and homemade cinnamon rolls!

Mmmmm I will always remember coming home from school and seeing Mom pull a strawberry cake out of the oven just as we walk in the kitchen!

Spaghetti with my mom’s homemade tomato sauce, which we had every Sunday. I still make her tomato sauce on Sunday sometimes, so that I can relive those memories.

This dish is nothing fancy, but my Grandma would always make me Chicken A La King when I was growing up. I absolutely loved it… and no one can quite duplicate the way she made it.

tacos!

Family gatherings with homemade spaghetti and meatballs that my dad would make.

Roast. It was easy and my dad loved it, so my mom always fixed it. But I hated it! I had to drown it in ketchup just to get it down. But now I love it!

i would LOVE to own this, like you I love ATK & CI!

pepperoni bread reminds me of my childhood (basically stuffed bread with pepperoni and cheese!)

Broccoli and cheese soup on my mom’s side. Gumbo on my dad’s side!

Rice, beans and cornbread with butter and honey. Lots of salsa and sour cream too!

Pot pies made with leftover Thanksgiving turkey.

Hi Annie!

I share your appreciation for Cook’s Illustrated. I use them so much for “go to” recipes that my family accuses me of belonging to a cult.

A childhood favorite of mine and it is an odd one for a kid – chicken livers either fried or cooked in wine. In fact we are having a chicken liver appetizer, Rumaki, for our Christmas day spread that we will be celebrating with our 89 and 99 year old mothers.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Funny, like you I never had Chicken and Dumplings as a child, but when I tried this recipe about a year ago (the same recipe), I thought wow–I can’t believe I missed this all these years. I’ve browned the chicken and veggies and put it in the crockpot and finished it when I got home from school (work).

Meatloaf reminds me of my childhood–my mother’s was delicious and my children love mine. My husband isn’t a fan of meatloaf and doesn’t appreciate what it does for me:)

Yankee pot roast always reminds me of my childhood. Every Sunday my mom would make this and sometimes she would make her own noodles to go along with it. Yum!

Grits, eggs and handmade biscuits, every Sunday morning!

Grits, eggs and handmade biscuits, every Sunday morning!

Meatball soup!

Spaghetti with garlic bread! Mother would make that every Monday night without fail! Thank you for a chance to win!

At the risk of seeming unoriginal, chicken and dumplings is the dish that immediately takes me home. I was raised by my grandparents and my grandmother was (still is) a fantastic cook. She would make chicken and dumplings on a rainy cold Saturday while my sister and I colored on the floor and played games. Every time I make them or eat them somewhere I always think of Grandma. It is still one of my favorite dishes to make and eat, especially when cold weather rolls around.

My mom always made a broccoli cheese rice casserole for the holidays. It was a side to the honeybaked ham, which we also ate EVERY Christmas!

One of my favorite dishes that my mom makes (and that I requested she bring after the birth of our daughter to feed me) is her chicken and rice casserole.

Definitely spaghetti with bolognese sauce..so simple yet so delicious!

Cherry fritters. My mom would make them for breakfast on the first day of school. I haven’t had them in quite a while. Maybe I’ll have to get the recipe out and see if I can make them as good as she did.

Roast chicken. My mom is not much of a cook and that was the one thing she had down pat and made it every weekend.

Chicken and noodles served over mashed potatoes takes me back to my childhood.

Spaghetti and red soda. We had it every weekend at my grandma’s.

Pork chops–it was my mom’s standard go to meal. For years into adulthood, I couldn’t stand pork chops because I was so sick of them!

Two dishes come to mind: home made spaghetti sauce & meatballs, and Kraft Macaroni & Cheese with hot dogs. If it’s extremely cold outside, or my day was especially rotten, I make either of these dishes, and as soon as I take that first bite, it doesn’t seem so ‘bad’ anymore.

Grandma’s Christmas punch! Though it’s not exactly a dish, it is a big part of our holiday. The slushy green ice and sugar in a cup brings out the best stories from the past and is truly a sweet part of Christmas.

Shellfish stew!!

Mom’s pan fried porkchops with creamy mashed potatoes. Such a comfort meal for me. :)

Broccoli Rice Casserole!

Growing up in Michigan we always had a Yankee Pot Roast in the winter and its still one of my favorite dishes even living in Myrtle Beach, SC now!

Monkey bread…my Dad always made it for special occasions and during the holidays.

My grandma used to always make a Swedish Tea Ring for Christmas and now that she has passed away, my mother has taken on the tradition. It is delicious and I can’t wait to introduce my children to this holiday treat.

My grandma, then my dad, made a yummy dish that we called Ketchup Meatballs. I don’t think it was just ketchup, but it was a red, tomatoey sauce. We had it over mashed potatoes. No matter how hard I search, I can’t really find a similar recipe. I miss that one!

Making yeast donuts with my Grandma.. :)

Martha Washington fans. I don’t even particularly like them, but my mom makes them every year for Christmas breakfast.

Butter beans and corn! Ok, maybe not a complete “dish” but I eat enough of them in one sitting to be considered a meal! My Nannie (grandmother) used to make butter beans and corn for every family get together/holiday. My cousin, grandmother, and I were the only ones who would eat them, which was strange because my cousin and I were each named after her with our middle names! The year that she passed, no one made butter beans and corn for Thanksgiving and I was extremely upset. No one has ever forgotten to make them again!

The meal that will always remind me of my childhood is my “special” birthday dinner. Bruscetta, oriental salad, marinated beef tenderloin and angel food cake for dessert. Yum!

Mom used to make the best chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy. Soo good! I miss mom’s cooking.

A good tender pot roast with mashed potatoes always takes me back

Taco salad

Coconut cake – it always reminds me of staying with my grandmother over the summers and us baking cakes together!

My mom’s Chicken Cacciatore!

Vietnamese Pho brings back the childhood memories!

My mom’s bone marrow soup. Truly comforting any time of year.

Slippery pot pie. Yummy! Now I want some! :o)

Mashed potatoes bring back memories of childhood for me. I never met a potato I didn’t like.

Oh my Annie! I love that you posted about Chicken and Dumplings!! My dad made us chicken and dumplings all the time when we were young and I loved it! He made mini dumplings instead of the large dumplings though. I keep asking him for his recipe and he laughs and says he doesn’t have one. I’ll have to make this version and see if it tastes anything like my dads!

My moms Shepards pie, it’s still my favorite :)

Grandma’s Christmas caramels, especially the year I lost a filling to one of them!

My mom used to brown pork chops and then cook them in a can of cream of mushroom soup and I loved it!

Dumplings, as we always called them, but really they are traditionally called klub. Shredded potatoes and flour, boiled in ham juice, then cut up and slathered with butter. Yumm….

The dish that brings back fond memories of my childhood is fried chicken and mash potatoes and gravy from the drippings. Always on Sunday and always delicious.

Steak and noodle casserole!

Thinking about my mom’s meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn takes me right back to childhood. That was my all-time favorite dish as a child. I think that’s why my mom doesn’t do a lot of meatloaf now because that’s all I wanted to eat as a kid.

Lasagne, yum!

Homemade pizza! I remember going to my grandma’s house every weekend and many times we would all gather around the kitchen to help make pizza.

When I make my grandmothers recipe for Cavatelli. Pasta with italian sausage and tomato sauce with green peppers!

Chicken and rice casserole — the kind with the onion soup packet and cream soup. My mom is a fabulous and adventurous cook, but for whatever reason, this ho-hum dish was always my favorite growing up.

My mom’s Filipino version of spaghetti with hot dogs and ketchup….yeah it was interesting, but tasty!!

Pork chops and buttered noodles. Everytime I eat that combo it takes me right back to our little kitchen on Crystal Street.

My parents were wed in the 1960′s and predictably had a retro (read here: totally fabulous) fondue pot. Because of the work and mess that went into this tasty table side dinner, we enjoyed it only once a year on the birthday of my family’s most fanatic fondue fan–me! These days, fondue, whether meat, cheese or chocolate, always brings back very fond memories of my family celebrating together on January 28th–hey, coming around again soon!

Would love a copy of this cookbook — both for myself and for my mother-in-law, a very scientific “by the book” cook who adores America’s Test Kitchen for that reason. Anyway, mac & cheese is my childhood (and adulthood) favorite. I have a very specific memory of being home sick from school with chicken pox one unexpected day, and all I wanted was mac & cheese, which my Mom was very sweet to make. I remember that it seemed like it took FOREVER for the pasta to boil! Thanks for the giveaways!

Fudge Pie with a crisp, chocolatey top and gooey center with a flaky crust that surrounds the chocolate cloud of greatness…

My mom’s beef stew with homemade dinner rolls……with the windows open and the breeze blowing the scent of baking bread through the house :)

When I think of a dish that makes me recall my childhood, it has to be fried chicken and dumplings. I loved the smell of the chicken being fried and although the dumplings were nothing fancy (and made from Bisquick), the thought of them still makes me smile and feel like I’m sitting in my childhood kitchen anxiously holding my plate and waiting.

White candy – my grandmother made this melt in your mouth white candy for New Years and would put it out with another chocolate candy – the white candy was always gone first!

my moms beef stew!

Tomato soup and grilled cheese. It was always on the menu when we were sick.

My dad’s spaghetti– I have grown up in the kitchen cooking with my dad and it was one of the first things I ever learned how to make. I now know he pretty much made it up as he went along and threw whatever we had in it, but it was the root of our time in the kitchen together and some of my best memories.

Pork and vegetable dumplings! My family loved getting together with our friends and making tons of dumplings together for dinner.

Christmas sugar cookies always take me back.

My dad used to make us blueberry pancakes every Saturday morning. Pancakes always take me back to those days.

chicken a la king is what my mother called it, not really sure of the real name. flaky homemade biscuits, peas, gravy and chicken- yum

Great book, I’d love to win! I was a very picky eater as a child, but I remember loving my dad’s sticky buns!

Sausage Stuffing. One scent of the poultry seasoning with the sausage, and I am standing in my grandmother’s house on Thanksgiving.

Grandma’s cinnamon toast!

I always loved my mom’s meatloaf as a kid. Funny, I have only made it a few times myself though.

I have fond memories of my Mom baking roast beef, noodles in beef broth, baked potatoes and salad. The odd thing is that we split open the baked potatoes and put the salad on top of it, sounds weird but it is making me hungry for it right now. I would be thrilled to have this cookbook. I used to subscribe to the magazine, but with times being the way they are had to cancel my subscription to my magazines.

I ate this growing up also. My youngest son saw me eating it one day and he now requests it also.

Lasagna! it was always a staple for our Birthday’s growing up, Anne

Pasta salad with broccoli and parmesan! I made my mom make it on my birthday every year. :)

Unfortunately we ate a lot of hamburger helper growing up. I’m trying to give my kids better memories of home cooked food. One thing that I do remember my mom making once in a while was home made chicken and noodles. The noodles were the best!

My grandmother’s Swedish rye bread :) Oh so yummy and she made it for every family gathering!

Chicken (or turkey) pot pie. My mom would make it with Thanksgiving leftovers, but I will make it any time of year. Total comfort food!

My grandmother used to make a chicken casserole with cream of mushroom soup & stuffing. Simple – but delicious!

Stuffed cabbage in the fall always reminds me of my childhood.

It’s a toss up between my mom’s chicken tetrazzini or beef and noodles. I always loved when we had those meals for dinner. Yum!

Coming home from elementary school to the smell of fresh baked bread! Yum! I also remember having to sit at the table for a long time with a plate of liver and onions!! :)

Hmmm…twice baked potatoes or veggie dinners of green beans, squash, corn, all the good stuff!

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into small triangles. This is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about childhood food memories, which is kinda odd, since my mom DID cook for us.

Pot Roast. My mom makes the most amazing and tender beef!! I have the same recipe and use the same techniques, but it always tastes better when she makes it for me!!

Every year we have the same food at Christmas – it’s predictable and it’s part of the holiday. We always have ham and mostaccoli (sp?). Of course, lots of cookies!

Carmelized pork belly and steamed jasmine rice. Yuuum.

mmm….matzo ball soup!

Mom used to love to make meatloaf. She has the largest collection of meatloaf recipes I have ever seen!

My mother’s family is of German/ Austrian origin and every year at Christmas my mother and grandmother would make a Topfkuchen which is a German fruitcake made with yeast. It would take all day to make this cake, adding some of the ingredients and then letting the cake rise, then adding some more, etc. My mother always made the making and baking of this special cake a fun adventure, allowing us to peek at it to see if it had risen, adding the fruit, nuts, etc. This continues to be a very special tradition in our house at Christmastime, bringing back wonderful memories every year.

This time of year makes me nostalgic for the holiday foods and I have had the same thing for Christmas breakfast every year of my life. My family called them Dutch babies, but they are also called German pancakes. We ate them with a heap of powdered sugar and lemon juice which combined on the cake to make a delicious lemony glaze.

Curried Shrimp! My mom used to make it for as long as I can remember and even though it’s the simplest dish ever I still love it so much. I actually made it last night and instantly felt like a little kid again.

For me it’s cornbread. Being from the south, we’d have it with just about every meal…slathered in butter. I don’t eat it that much anymore, but when I do, it always takes me back.

lasagna. My mother made it for special occasions which makes me feel like a kid at home again!

I think the dish that brings back the most memories for me is chicken spaghetti. It was the first dish my mother taught me to cook when I was little- I graduated from helping chop vegetables to cooking pasta and mixing the sauce to finally making it on my own. To this day I always smile when I make this recipe, thinking of how it started me on the journey of cooking.

I loved my mothers fried chicken. she always served it with mashed potatoes and green beans

pot roast, for sure :)

My Mother always made Western Hash. It wsa ground beef, tomatoes, rice, onions and peppers cooked in an elctric skillet with cheese melted on the top. We ate it a lot.

One meal my family always loved was a chicken and rice casserole that my mom often made.

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

My favorite childhood dish was creamed tuna on rice (with peas mixed in).

Broccoli casserole. My mom only made for special occasions. It was always my favorite and I always wished she’d make it more.

Mmm. Pirohi! Or pierogi, I guess, is how most Americans spell it. I’m immediately back at Grandma’s table when I make that.

Cream chipped beef. At least, that’s what we called it. Not sure that I’d even like it anymore, but we used to eat it all the time.

my mom’s corn chowder.

My mom always made hamburgers and gravy (similar to salsbury steak). I haven’t had it in years, but love it!

scalloped potatoes and ham!

Rouladen and Beef Bulgoki were to of my favorites when I was a kid. We loved a variety of foods in our house growing up!

Lasagna! My grandmother made it when I was a child, then I learned to make it myself as a teenager. It’s still my favorite meal to eat and cook.

my moms roasted chicken and orzo

My mom’s spaghetti pie…simple to make and really versitile for sauce options!

New England clam chowder brings back memories because we always had a huge pot of it at our Christmas party/open-house and it is a tradition that I continue.

Verenika and sausage from my German grandmother. Makes me smile just thinking about it!

Absolutely, positively chicken and waffles!

Green Bean Bundles

Slow cooker pot roast, I loved knowing at the end of the day you were finally going to get to eat the delicious food you were smelling all day!

I love my mother’s potato cheese soup! It is one of my favorite dishes! She even makes me one summer pot every season. :3 It is also one of the earliest dishes I learned to make, I still prefer moms though.

The dish that most reminds me of my childhood is baked barbecue chicken, lima beans (loved them as a kid and as an adult!), and macaroni and cheese. This was the meal I always requested on my Birthday.

Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and gravy!

My father would make the best cream of asparagus over toast from fresh asparagus from our garden! It was the best and that’s sayin something if a kid liked cream of asparagus! ;)

Peanut butter bears! Sugary peanut butter rolled up into bear shapes :)

My mom makes the best eggrolls – everything from scratch, including the wrappers.
Cathy

My grandma’s chicken and noodles (homemade noodles!)

My mom’s Hungarian Goulash and my dad’s bbq anything are some of my best food memories growing up!

My mom’s risotto. Rice, peas, shrimp, sausage…always yummy.

My mom’s beef noodle soup (pho)

macaroni and tuna (somewhat gross concoction of kraft mac and cheese, cream of mushroom soup and tuna, topped with french’s fried onions–but I STILL love it and it will always remind me of growing up)

Pot roast and spaetzle brings back wonderful memories of childhood Sunday dinners.

Stuffed shells. Always requested them when I came home from college.

Making Rum Cake with my mom and how she let me soak up all the rum/sugar drippings with the baster and pour it back on top, repeating several times. She always made it around the holidays and it was so good!

Oh, the Jewish classics: Noodle kugel, potato latkes with apples sauce, not sour cream!, and matzoh ball soup- from the box!

Probably fried chicken . . . actually most of the memories of food involve something being fried or deep fat fried. I think it was a popular way of cooking in the early 70′s. I work hard not to use much fat in cooking now but sometimes fried chicken just tastes sooo good!

My mom has always made the most perfect bread pudding. It brings back lots of winter memories for me!

Oven baked chicken with diced potatoes cooked in butter and onions (also in the oven) a salad and blueberry muffins. With all that oven baking, I don’t know why it was always on the summer menu…

Spaghetti & Meatballs = Childhood memories
I can picture and smell my grandpa in the kitchen over a kettle.

My mom’s famous Christmas cookies always make me nostalgic, because she always used to make the same ones every year. :)

Cornbread. My grandmother is from the South and would make her cornbread in a frying pan. To this day, the smell of cornbread makes me feel like I am home.

Pork fried Rice..

Creamy Mushroom Soup!

Spaghetti brings back memories for me – we’d have it rather often and every time, mom would send us kids to change into a red “spaghetti spill friendly” shirt because it inevitably happened! :)

Hashbrown casserole! Always reminds me of Christmas time with my Mom and my Dad.

Chicken & noodles does it for me. It was a big deal to help mom in the kitchen when she made her homemade noodles. She would let my sisters & I help her roll out the noodles. Then we cut them with our butter knives. Perfect imperfection.

Rice pudding. NOone. Repeat no one has ever made it like my grandmother did.

A hot, simmering pot of homemade Vegetable Beef Soup made by my absolute favorite person in the world – my Grandmother. I can hear her infectious laugh just by thinking about it.

My mom made a soup that we nicknamed “poop” soup. It was full of veggies and lots of beans (I think that’s where it got its name). We both still make it!

In the winter weather I miss my mom’s chili. It’s only as an adult I found out she puts a can of beer in it when she makes the batch!

I have to admit–I can’t see a bowl of oatmeal without thinking of my dad. He always used to make it for us in the mornings (my mom worked nights so he got us ready and off to school) and I hated it. Now I make it for my daughter (who loves it)…

My mom didn’t love to cook but her sugar cookies are still my favorite.

Okay, this is a different kind of memory….. every Friday night, we had corned beef and cabbage. My dad loved that dish and my mom made it for him. I ate the cabbage, but wouldn’t touch the corned beef. So, I remember him loving it…which is a good memory!

I often cooked with my gramma, and there are two recipes that just take me back in time to being by her side. Mac and Cheese made with a brick of Land O Lakes cheddar (skip that Velveeta stuff!), and Calico Beans. This is my special Gramma Dinner and I’ve made it a few times just in the past month for comfort.

Actually, chicken and dumplings is what my grandma used to make all the time. They bring back great memories.

My mom’s chili

I was and still am a huge fan of my mom’s homemade chicken pot pie.

My mom’s meatloaf brings back memories from my childhood. At first I hated it, eww meatLOAF? But I learned to love it, and now I make it for my family!

My mom used to make “lasagna” or lasagna noodles with braised beef in a mushroom tomato sauce, but it was served like spaghetti. The lasagna wasn’t in a traditional stacked form. I didn’t know lasagna was stacked until I ordered it a restaurant and I was very confused!

My mom’s chicken kiev was awesome. I was always in charge of making the rice-a-roni to go with it:)

My family would always go pick fresh apples and then make homemade applesauce, apple cake and dried apples. So when fall rolls around and all those apple recipes start appearing it always brings back memories.

Lasanga brings back the most memories for me. My mom would make the most awesome lasagna and spaghetti. I wish I had some of her lasing right now!

Cheese potatoes! Basically just frozen hash browns (the square kind) with cheese, can of mushroom soup, and more cheese. It’s a staple here when we have big meals, but it will always remind me of childhood.

When I was young, my mom was a working mom who used her crock pot a lot! I absolutely love her stuffed peppers with mashed potatoes. My family today won’t touch the stuff, so I look forward to mom’s even more today.

Creamed peas and potatoes.

my mum’s congee or any of her homecooked dishes. yum!

Clam chowder! And spaghetti. But not together, blech!

For me, I think it would have to be either my Dad’s famous honey glazed ham, or his strawberry poke cake. I actually believe both recipes he got from Cook’s Illustrated! They just scream family and holidays for me, with my dad sweating by the stove, me helping glaze the ham, and my loud Italian and Polish families yelling with joy at each other. Ahhhh the holidays…

My mom traveled a lot when I was little so my dad took care of dinner most of the time. We would always go to a Mexican restaurant that had a “Kids Eat Free” deal. I lived on tacos al carbon! It was far from homemade but I will always remember our daddy-daughter dates.

My mom’s yams always make me happy! Oh, and her good ol’ roast and veggies.

Warm cookies from the oven after school.

Fried Dough!!! Only pre 1985 could such a thing be considered breakfast.

I loved going to my great grandma’s house on Sundays for her pot roast, mashed potatoes, carrots, and homemade bread. When I fix this in my own home now, the smell of the roast cooking takes me straight back to her kitchen. :)

Not the best memory, but I remember boycotting my mom’s meatloaf and having to sit at the table in front of my plate until bedtime. I refused to eat it and my mom insisted that I did. I was stubborn and so I was punished. It happened a couple times until my mom realized I wasn’t going to eat it and she stopped forcing me to sit at the table all night. It was probably more painful to hear me whine and have me sit at her “crafting” table all night. Lesson learned…persistence pays off!

Sloppy Joes always remind me of childhood. I used to despise them, but now I actually make them a few times a year and love it!

Chicken and rice casserole

Mmmm lasagne!

My grandmother’s macaroni pie is my ultimate comfort food and brings back such warm memories.

Chocolate chip cookies, for sure. My mom’s are the best. :)

Grape leaves- a Lebanese staple and still my very favorite!

A dish that I always long for from my childhood is my neighbor’s Peach Dumplings. I guess it’s more of a dessert. But I never got the recipe (was too young), so I’m still searching for it! They were sooooo good, and comforting too.

Chicken pot pie…from scratch. The crust was the best part!

Tomato and cucumber salad always remind me of my grandmother. We lived on a working farm with my grandmother. Fresh veggies were a staple.

My mother liked to make meatloaf so I always think of her when we have it.

My Mama’s & Mom’s chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes.

tomato pie!! YUMMMM!!!

my mom never cooked so mac and cheese from the box. hope to create a better answer for my kiddos!

My mom’s homemade baked macaroni and cheese. So gooey and bubbly….she always served it as a side dish, but it could be a meal in itself! And pineapple upside down cake for dessert!

The cheeseball that my mom made was just amazing. Other people may not think it as much but I dearly love it!

My mom’s chili (and cornbread of course!)

Blueberry cake! My gram and I would pick fresh wild Maine blueberries from her backyard and then make to most delicious cake. It was super moist with the crust formed on top from the sprinkled sugar. YUM! I may have to go make one now……

Congee and dim sum. yum

Chocolate cake that my grandmother used to make all the time:)

The last dish you posted Chicken and Dumplings, my grandmother made it for us every time we visited!!!! I also wanted to say how sorry I am to hear about your daddy. I started reading you blog about a year ago while searching for cupcake recipes, when your site came up with some fabulous Strawberry Cupcakes with photos(which I made and they turned out perfectly, will always use the merguine buttercream frosting since making those cupcakes). At that time I read one of your posts about you loosing your mother to cancer and it really hit home for me, because I too lost mine to cancer, and it is difficult every single day! Since then I have kept up with all of your great posts and especially love the pictures that go along with them all! Thank you for sharing! :)

My aunt’s coffee cakes made from my great grandmother’s recipe. I haven’t made these in a long time. I really should make some of them again.

Chicken Noodles, not the soup, but the thick chicken and noodles. My mom made it all the time!! YUM!

Baked beans and hotdogs. Not very fancy but when my parents went out on date night this is what we got everytime.

My mom’s homemade pizza will always bring back memories of her trial-and-error strategy in the kitchen… I wish I was as fearless with flavor as she is!

Turkey and noodles… mmmmmm.

Pot roast. My mim would make it every Sunday!

My Mothers broccoli and chicken curry casserole. I still request it every time she visits!

Spaghetti always makes me think of my childhood!

Thanksgiving was always a huge tradition in my family. With a house full of Italians, we celebrated tradition with homemade noodles in gravy, the secret great grandma “dressing” (not stuffing), and crunchy baguettes… the smells are coming back to me as I speak.

Fried okra! It’s a comfort food that will always remind me of my father.

The dish that brings back childhood memories for me would have to be roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. It has always been the ultimate comfort food for me. Whenever I have a difficult day, this is the dish I always want.

My mom’s macaroni salad and potato salad. She got the recipes from her father. For both salads you start by soaking the cooked potatoes or macaroni in a syrup made with Heinz white vinegar (must be Heinz), sugar and grated onion for a day. Ancient family secret!

Beef stew and dumplings was a winter favorite.

My mom made the BEST stuffed peppers and mashed potatoes … yummy, warm, “winter food”!!

I think of my grandmother’s brunswick stew!

What a wonderful question as I have been thinking about the foods I grew up with that made me happy then and still do now. Grandma’s mashed potatoes always made in the yellow Pyrex bowl, her toasted cheese sabdwiches, gingersnaps always in a coffee can covered with Contac paper, mom’s buscuits and Dutch Baby pancake, my aunt’s snickerdoodles and my uncle’s bourbon cranberries. All of them are gone now but I still make the recipes. Who knew a food blog post would make me cry. Miss them so!!

Macaroni and cheese always takes me back to my childhood!

Ahhh, red beans and rice – it was a Monday night tradition!

Tuna and hamburger helper! My mom worked nights and with 4 daughters to feed, these meals were cheap, easy, and fed all of us. :)

The first thing that came to mind was this casserole that I’d help my mom make. It was just French style green beans, cheddar cheese and tuna. Nothing fancy, but it’s still something that I make from time to time when I need a little pick me up.

Fried chicken dinners at Grandma’s house.

Mashed potatoes for sure!! Can’t wait to eat them at Christmas!

Danish Pastries. My mom makes them every year on Christmas morning. So amazing. Tender, buttery, the best ever!

a dish that brings me back to my childhood is tamales. i don’t eat them too often, but when i do eat them, man they bring back memories :D

Chicken & dumplings were a favorite at our house. My mom’s recipe was not quite as healthy as this one. Looking forward to trying this one. I’m a HUGE fan of CI & their recipes…their quick tomato sauce & red beans & rice recipes are staples in our house now and we are adding more everyday.

My mom was a big casserole maker, so any casserole reminds me of my childhood. I in turn try to make more put together dishes for dinner and tend to stray from casseroles, thats why I could defietnly use a cookbook like this.

Oh, man, wow. I love America’s Test Kitchen, and that looks like a blockbuster collection of recipes.

Dishes in our family were simple growing up. The ones I associate most with the first house I grew up in are meatloaf with frozen veggie mix (carrots, corn and lima beans, ugh) and spaghetti and meatballs (especially getting to eat a meatball before dinner was properly served), with plastic-can parmesan cheese on top. My mom would cut the spaghetti for my sister and me.

Beff stroganoff and chicken monzerella!! I make them for my kids now!!

Beef Stroganoff. It was my brother’s favorite so Mom always made it when he would come home from college.

Roast with rice and gravy…yum!

Ham loaf that Grandma always made for Thanksgiving, but I never make it.

There are three – Hungarian goulash, tuna fish casserole and meat and potatoes. Nothing screams my mom and comfort for me more than these dishes!

Any time I have penne with Italian sausage reminds me of being in my great grandmother’s kitchen and watching her make her own pasta!

I remember my mom making my sister and I Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes on special occasions, and I’d always pester her to attempt making a Minnie Mouse bow! She was never quite as much of a cook as I am, but this treat holds a special place in my heart :)

One of my favorite meals made by my mother growing up was Spanish steak with mashed potatoes.

Chicken noodle soup that my grandmother made. She always made the noodles and I loved watching her roll out the noodle dough and cooking them in the wonderful chicken broth. She served it with lemon pepper, and hot Russian tea! It was wonderful!! :)

Growing up in a Korean family, the majority of our meals centered around Korean cuisine, which I love to this day. But whenever Mom whipped up a huge batch of her spaghetti with meat sauce, I gorged myself until I couldn’t breathe. It was such a welcome change amidst all the Korean food. I still vacillate between Korean and Italian food.

My fathers french toast always brings back memories of my childhood!

Cherry pie with sugar baked on top. When we would visit my grandmother, she would have about six cherry pies cooling on her washing machine and dryer waiting for us to eat.

Spaghetti. My dad coached my soccer team for 10 years and before each big game he would whip up a huge pot of spaghetti and have all the girls over to load up on carbs :)

Meatloaf and mac and cheese, Donnabelle style:)

Swedish meatballs always remind me of the holidays and the hours spent rolling them into just the right shape with my relatives.

A cake my grandma made called Cherry Carnival Dessert. A yellow cake with cherries in it and warm cherry sauce poured over a serving. Very good.

It’s a toss up between chicken soup and my favorite meal my mom always made for my birthday, brisket with buttered noodles and french cut green beans with almonds. That was my birthday dinner from the age of 7 to when I turned 18. Always reminds me of home!

Homemade orange bread with melting butter reminds me of childhood.

Homemade tamales with roasted chilies…yum! Also, my mom’s amazing homemade spaghetti sauce…legendary!

I always feel like home with my Mom’s Brunswick stew. She used to make a huge pot of it and the smell still makes me nostalgic.

Raviolis bring me back to my childhood! Not just any ones, my grandmothers were to die for. She had this sauce that she cooked for hours, ohh it was amazing.

I really enjoy trying recipes I see on Amer.Test Kitchen on public TV…. most of the time I even get them to work…. lol

I know this is weird but chick-0-sticks candy. My mom was NOT great cook or even a good one (which is why I think I strive to be)…whenever I see that candy it brings back many fond memories of childhood.

Strawberry cake. My mom made it every year for my birthday and would let me have it for breakfast. I still make it every year around my birthday.

Oreo Mint Ice Cream Dessert :)

I’d have to say thanksgiving dinner, it always reminds me of my grandma and the fudge she used to make

Meatloaf – my mom never made it, but my childhood babysitter always did and it has a special place in my heart.

The dish that brings back some of the best memories from my childhood would have to be chocolate chiffon pie. I always helped my Nana make it for birthdays and specials occasions. She has been gone for many years now, but making/eating that pie reminds me of the special times I had with her.

Miso soup. Made by my grandma!

Stuffed green bell peppers!

Chicken noodle soup! Especially when I stayed home sick from school…

For me it is meatloaf. I know, don’t laugh… loved the stuff. My Mom would put in cheese and apples and it was moist and flavorful. Mmm… now I am getting hungry. :)

andrea.kruse at gmail dot com

Fish fillet congee for sure! My mom always made that for me when I was sick…she still does :)

I’m sure it has an official name, but we call it “toonanoodles” or that’s how I spell what we say. It’s tuna & noodles. Cooked egg noodles with a “sauce” that’s a roux, with milk (I’m allergic to dairy now so I use unflavoured soy milk these days) to make a white sauce, then dump in a packet/well drained can of tuna and heat that until warm. Stir the squidgyness up and serve. I’m sure it’s a lazy-adapted recipe from somewhere but I love the stuff.

And, man, ATK. I adore the blend of science and food without the camp of Alton Brown (whom I do also like). The shows even get my engineer partner cooking new things not from boxes! We only own two cookbooks (joy of cooking and the Martha Stewart Living original cookbook) so we actually really *need* this.

Thanks Cooks Illustrated and

my mom’s chicken and biscuits:)

Christmas time means Babci’s rum balls! So so good!

Japanese curry! It is so delicious I love the leftovers the most!

Fried peach and apple hand pies always bring memories of childhood. After I left home to go out on my own, my mother and grandmother would offer to fry pies when I came in for visits. It would make me laugh to see who would get to me first — “If your mother hasn’t already fried you some pies..” or “If your grandmother hasn’t already fried you some pies..” No pies since have tasted as good, but the memories are always there.

I grew up in an Italian family so every Sunday my Grandpa would religiously (no pun intended) make past w/ meat sauce with either meatballs or braciole. Oh the memories!

Since it’s the holiday season, I’d have to say my mom’s christmas cookies (although all 5 girls helped). She made special cookies for christmas. We had bon bons, cut outs, rum logs, thumbprints, etc. We also made poppy seed and nut rolls. And, the one that made the house smell especially delicious was the homemade hard tack and peanut brittle.

When I was growing up, my favorite dish was my mother’s chicken curry. Love it to this day…

My great-grandma’s potato pancakes. Even though the family has the same skillet that she used to make them, no one can replicate how amazing they were.

You just posted my favorite memory from childhood – chicken and dumplings. When we went to visit my aunts, grandma & cousins, I could always look forward to their chicken & dumplings cooked over a wood burning kitchen stove. Now, when I make this dish, it always brings back those wonderful memories – the smell of the wood, that wonderful bubbly dish and the anticipation of eating with my family.

I think the dish I most remember from when I was growing up is Blood Soup. On Sundays after Church we would all go to Grandma’s and this is the dish I remember with homemade noodles. Just awesome.

Dried beef gravy over toast. My mom loved making soup on Mondays, but I never really liked soup. Any Monday she’d make this instead made me very happy!

Great memories from my childhood is my mom’s roast beef on Sunday afternoons…..

The one dish that will always bring back memories for me is macaroni and cheese. Even though it was never made with any fancy cheeses, it was warm, comforting, and made by mom.

Mom’s meat loaf and mashed potatoes! Home cooking at it’s best.

Meatloaf straight from the back of the Quaker Oats box–the aroma of home!

The most simplest of dishes – spaghetti. We had that so much growing up, especially if we were having guests over, that I began to dread my mom saying that we had company because that meant more spaghetti. I’m back to liking it now though!

My Mom’s meatloaf with a home-made slowly simmered rich tomato sauce and cheesy scalloped potatoes , yum!

My Beef Stew recipe from America’s Test Kitchen is the best!

My mom’s meat loaf with a slowly simmered tomato sauce and cheesy scalloped potatoes. yum!

tuna casserole always brings back memories. I can never get to turn out like mom though LOL

my grandma’s “sea shell soup” basically a homemade tomato soup with shell noodles, served with lots of ritz crackers!

I have awesome memories of making homemade pierogies with my mom and sisters. All of us being covered in flour and probably just making it harder for my mom.. but we were so sure we were “helping”

Love Cooks Illustrated! Beef stew for me – my grandmother, mother, and mother-in-law all made stew, each a little different; and now I make it too on cold, blustery days.

I have the fondest memories of my wonderfully quirky mom making Cornish game hens, and eating them by candlelight.

Chicken Paprikash – my grandmother, being of Hungarian descent, was the best cook. She made the best paprikash that no one can replicate. My mother makes a good one, but nothing like my grandmother. Mine doesn’t even come close.

Tuna and potato chip casserole!

My mom made savory pork chops with gravy. She browned them, then simmered them on the stove on low with onions and spices until they were melt in your mouth delicious. She always made her gravy from scratch and would give us a little bowl of gravy on the side to dip bread into. And of course, we always had applesauce with this dish, which led us to drive her crazy with the famous line from The Brady Bunch, “Pork chops and applesauce!” (accent included)

Tuna noodle casserole. It was a treat for my sister and I but an easy last minute dinner for my mom.

I’d have to say that one of the many dishes to bring back childhood memories would have to be chicken and dumplings. I will definitely be trying this version and thanks for the giveaway!

My mama makes the most wonderful roast with potatoes, carrots and onions. I love coming home and upon entering the door, getting hit with the most amazing smell! Then, I start to drool…haha!

My mom’s ravioli’s with meatballs. She was a fabulous cook. She made her own tender pasta for the ravioli and her meatballs were scrumptious. I still remember a table full of the homemade ravioli waiting for the water to boil.

My favorite childhood meal? Grilled cheese and tomatoe soup of course!

Spaghetti reminds me of home – we ate it every Wed. night without fail!

Homemade lasagna and garlic bread!!!

My favorite recipe that I remember growing up was my mom’s broccoli chicken casserole. I still make it to this day!

Homemade thin sliced chicken cutlets! My Mom makes the best recipe and everytime I have one it takes me right back to my childhood! This recipe books sounds amazing!

Broccoli and Chicken Curry Crepes and my mom’s Christmas Cinnamon Rolls. :)

Pot Roast and fresh baked bread.

The delicious sour cream biscuits that my mom always served with soup! :-)

My mom baked alot, so I’d have to say baked goods bring back childhood memories!

The traditional sunday dinner of pasta with a meat sauce. Love the smell of meatballs frying!!!!

Baked Macaroni and Cheese…a simple dish but it always reminds me of Mom!

I remember my mom making spaghetti – broomsticks between the backs of our ladderback chairs covered with homemade pasta, and my friends coming in wondering what on earth. My parents were very, um, adventurous cooks, so I also have my share of funny but not always good food memories (begging for real hot dogs at my birthday party instead of tofu hot dogs, for example).

Rouladen (my mother was German) or Boston Baked Beans (from my father-in-law’s Vermont roots). I love ATK too!

Barbara

My great grandmother’s dumplings, which my mother now makes…yummy! Always a favorite, especially during the holidays.

It wasn’t a homemade dish, but it was the MOST memorable thing we ate at Christmas time. My mother is hungarian and grew up in a hungarian community. They had a bakery that specialized in hungarian and some polish pastry and breads. Every year we would go and purchase a Hungarian Nut Roll. The filling was my favorite! Unfortunately the neighborhood has evolved and the bakery went out of business. I have found some recipes online this year and I plan to try to make a nut roll. I pray that someday I can come close to that flavor I love.

My grandmas ham and bean soup :)

Casseroles….does it matter which? :)

The smell and taste of English Toffee…conjures up women from generations past all preparing gifts for the neighbors! My daughters and I still deliver this to friends and colleagues every year!

Every Sunday, my Grandma made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, & green beans for lunch. No chicken today compares with hers because she believed in “fresh”…we helped her & Grandpa butcher them each Sunday morning!

with 6 kids in our family steak was a rare treat. grilled with homemade french fries…we knew it was a special occasion!

Grandma’s macaroni & cheese. YUM

My mom didn’t cook much because my dad was overseas or deployed elsewhere a lot, but I loved when she made Chicken & Dumplings.

Yummm…meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Funny thing is, I didn’t like it much when I was little, but now…any day of the week!

Childhood memories are always instantly instigated by my mother’s challah bread- every time I go home for the Sabbath on Friday night and take a bite, I’m transported to the world where I was a five year old peering over the edge of the counter trying to help braid a loaf!

Homemade mac n cheese– my favorite comfort food!

Definitely Walsh Rarebit – my mother used to make it (mostly from a box, but still) all the time, and of course we loved it (who doesn’t love cheese and bread!). Thank you for all the giveaways!

My mother made us casseroles every. Friday. night. so she and my dad could go out. So, my childhood memory would have to be chicken noodle casserole. (I didn’t say it was a GOOD memory…)

The dish that brings back memories from my childhood is swiss steak with tomato gravy.

My mom was not much of a cook (she still isn’t) but I do remember Christmas baking. We would make several simple cookies every year. When I do my Christmas Baking I do remember being in our 1970′s green kitchen with my mom and sister.

Baked spaghetti. My grandmother always made way too much so we were able to make a cheesy casserole the next day. It was fab!

Thanksgiving stuffing/dressing. Our family recipe hasn’t changed in over four+ decades. It is made the same each year and everyone loves it!

Something we ate a lot is Cottage ham, with poatoes and green beans. It would cook all day in the crock pot. So good!

My fathers stuffed Manicotti!!!

Roast…with carrots and potatoes. We ate it often, and I still love that meal to this day.

My mom’s roasted turkey and cornbread dressing!

When I make my Grandma’s no cook cheesecake recipe that she made for my Dad. I’m back in her kitchen again just smelling the ingredients mixing together.

My mom used to make popsicles from a combination of Jell-O and Kool-Aid – my sister and I called them “Happiness Popsicles” because we were convinced that that is what happiness tastes like….

Well it’s quite the coincidence, but chicken and dumplings brings back many memories from my childhood! I’ve created my own “healthy” version of it now, but am looking forward to trying this one so I might be able to incorporate some things into my own recipe.

My mom always made great pot roast- our dinners were mostly home cooked with simple ingredients. I remember her cooking fondly!

Jello cream cheesecake, we used to have it every year for our birthday’s

Cinnamon rolls…we have them every christmas (homemade) still to this day. Mmmmm….

A really simple dish – Hungarian Sausage and Potatoes – but it is so good. Just onion sauteed in butter/oil add smoked sausage, peeled and cut potatoes, paprika, salt, and pepper. Cover with wine and cook a long time!

My family is part Spanish and my grandma would always make Gazpacho (cold tomato soup with chopped up peppers and cucumbers)…it’s super good during summer!

Homemade Cornbread…from a cast iron skillet.