Food you had at your Granny's house

[bibbityisaporker]

My Nana was a wonderful woman who brought up three children during the war (well, actually, two of them were evacuated as she lived in London) and she had some weird and wonderful ways with food. She grew all her own vegetables, well into her 80s, and could be quite eccentrically creative with her recipes. Some of her staples that I have never eaten anywhere other than at her house were:

watercress sandwiches (always on brown bread).

tinned mackerel sandwiches (always on white).

stuffed marrow - it was stuffed with minced beef and vegetables and roasted.

sausagemeat and tomato tart - like a sort of working class quiche

strawberry jelly made with evaporated milk instead of water for a proper treat!

They are all standard granny fare ime

Mashed banana with hundreds and thousands. Only ever had it at Nana's. It wouldn't taste the same anywhere else.

I had jelly made with milk as a child

Nan used to make brilliant pastry and then put some "chicken in white sauce" (from a tin) in to make a pie. Can't find said tins in the shops now though :(

nothing wrong with watercress sandwiches

my granny used to make plate pies and it was the only time I ever had battenburg (I know it's not unusual but always seemed like a massive treat)

Fuzzpig - M & S for the chicken in white sauce (I think they call it chunky chicken).

Chopped onions in lime jelly.

The most divine cream horns.

And there was something special about the marmite on toast she did.

Meat spread sandwiches
Bread pudding
Rice pudding with skin
Cocoa
Tinned salmon

For a treat tinned salmon and chips doused in vinegar.

Amazing, I bought a chip pan and re created it a while back - still good

Also bread dipped in the fat and meat juices mmmmmmm

Also white sliced bread and half a pack of butter on each slice.

Come to think of it, its a wonder I'm alive with all that saturated fat.

Thanks bibbity! Will go to M&S tomorrow :o

Cream horns!

Soggy tomato sandwiches.
Very peppery soup. (no idea what was in it, as all you could taste was pepper)
Home made ice cream that was as hard as a brick.
On one memorable occasion she made chocolate biscuit cake (her speciality) and accidentally put chicken giblets in. Yum.

Bloody Marys and Devilled Eggs. She was an interesting woman :o.

cold toast in a toast rack.

Oh yes, Grannies are the only people who use white pepper. For some reason my Nana's everyday salt and pepper set was tupperware like this.

Vegetable soup with a boiled potato in it, and loads of unhealthy stuff in an electric frying pan- can still smell it and it's been 15 years!

Crumpets toasted on a toasting fork in front of the fire

A stick of raw rhubarb and a bowl of sugar for dipping

like this

We didn't have a 'Granny' because only posh people have them.
At my grandma's house we had fantastic things that have been prepared in northern households for generations. Plate pies, pea and ham soup, hot pot. I come from a mining and cotton mill family so the food we ate was the kind of stuff that sustained working men and women after their twelve hour shift.
My cooking is not that different today. Apart from the fact I cook curries and Italian food, we eat loads of the stuff my grandmas and mum cooked.

I used to get a drink of water served to me in a cleaned out miniatures bottle. Bloody luck that I didn't end up an alcoholic really.

I've a tin of the chunky chicken from M&S that's waiting to be out into a pie.

my Great Grandma was Granny -less of a mouthful, not posh (and an endless source of malteesers but always out of a box, never out of a bag!)

Gran's - corned beef. And her cutlery tasted really odd.

Mamgu's - cawl, rhubarb tart, sponge squares. And she used to spread butter onto white bread before cutting such a thin slice you could practically see through it - and then flip it onto your plate with a flick of her thumb!

(She once ladled hot rice pudding onto my Dad's hands when he covered his bowl saying he didn't want seconds)

My Grandad used to put all the leftovers from Sunday lunch in a pan and fry it up. Sounds horrid but was bloody lovely!

did she wash the cutlery in bleach?