My mum was a single parent and worked full-time, long hours, so for most of my childhood I ate most of my meals at my grandparents house. My grandma was a wonderful cook - as an adult who's fully responsible for the feeding of everyone in my own home, I wish I could back in time and thank her properly for all the time and effort she put in to providing delicious meals that we, ungrateful lot, would scoff up with barely a thank you!
Her Sunday roasts were things of wonder. She made fantastic steak and kidney pies. Her cakes and puddings were the best I've ever tasted - I'd give a lot of money to taste a lemon meringue pie like she made. But our favourite meal, the one we all loved best of all - was egg and chips. It was always offered apologetically - "it's only egg and chips I'm afraid" - as she clearly regarded it as a "cheat" meal on her part, barely classed it as cooking. God knows why, as it took plenty of effort! Proper chips - she blanched them and double fried them decades before celebrity chefs started telling us to! - cooked in beef dripping she'd saved from Sunday lunch, a perfectly fried over-easy egg, and plenty of white bread with lots of butter (marg wouldn't have been given house room!). A sprinkling of salt over the top and a puddle of ketchup to dip the chips in - heaven on a plate, I can almost taste it!
However, she ruined steak every time she cooked it. Our hearts would sink whenever she announced - with great pleasure, obviously regarding it as a real treat - that it was steak for dinner. Bless her, she would spend a lot of money on the most expensive cuts of the best steak, and then cook it TO DEATH!! She firmly believed undercooked meat would kill you, and would cook them till they were the size of postage stamps and the taste and texture of boot leather. This was not merely well-done, you understand - it was cremated. I was 15 before I had steak in a restaurant and realised I liked it.
How about you all? Any childhood meals remembered particularly fondly or otherwise?