what was your mums SNAZZIEST recipe when you were little

[FluffyMummy123]

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Boxing Day always brought the delight of turkey in white sauce baked in the oven with a couple of packet of plain crisps on top. For dinner parties my mum always made her fanous lasagne. I think it was considered quite adventurous in NE England in the 1970s.

I'm from Manchester but I had never heard of Manchester tart til I was in halls at university in Cardiff (much hilarity - Manchester Tart, ho ho).

It's very weird - I was talking about the Cookery Year book today, my M&D still have it - I used to peruse it as a child.

My Mum used to make corned beef mummy - bought puff pastry, rolled out into a rectangle, corned beef and fried onions put in the middle third, then the pastry cut in strips on the diagonal and folded over alternately - hence like an Egyptian mummy's bandages. The fat content must have been astronomical - and we had it with home made, chip pan, chips, cooked in lard.

I remember her making her own puff pasrty too - for a dinner party - and choux pastry for profiteroles.

We always had baked beans in chilli too, and never rice with it, garlic bread.

And I forgot about the Fray Bentos, how that went between 5 of us I'll never know. We tried to eke out our sliver of ranko pastry like it was fillet steak. Have you seen those things before they go in the oven? Like a solidified toast topper, another joy of the time.

oh, I loved corned beef pie, that was a treat. Usually we had corned beef mash which was just that, mixed into mash, with beans.

My poor mother did try. I remember her deciding we were to have a health kick and she started buying Mighty White.

Oh and in dh's family lore is the time his high falutin' Auntie (everyone has one - mine made jugged hare once) made them all goulash when they went to stay. She made a big deal about it being "goulash - it's Hungarian" and when she was out of the room dh's Dad whispered to all the kids "it's made of goolies, you know..." Not one of them would touch it and she was very offended.

I used to go crazy for fray bentos steak and kidney pie and paella that came in a box with little dried prawns.

Am total food snob now and wouldn't even entertain the idea!
Can anyone remember who made the paella?

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Was it one of the Vista range hairtwiddler? Did it come with a little packe of noddles which you deep fried!!

scroll down for uncooked fray bentos

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I think we did have vista curries but not sure if they did the paella. Remember distinctly they changed the box and the recipe and I wouldn't eat it after that! I use to love the little dried prawns (yuk)

She did once manage to roast a chicken but couldn't quite cope with doing vegetables and gravy at the same time.

I remember quite a lot of pizzas. The other thing I remember was beans on toast.

Corned beef hash (corned beef, baked beans, mash on top)

Grilled spam

Dodgy beefburgers from Bejam

Sodastream

The best thing was her goulash which probably bore no resemblance to the real thing but was actually really tasty tomatoey beef casserole with caraway dumplings and always served with garlic bread

Thta was her staple for Rotary Club "Progressive Suppers" - the kind where you move from one house to another having a different course - presumably in the days when it was still acceptable to drink (a bit) and drive

And a dessert made by sandwiching ginger biscuits and cream into a kind of log thing.

arf at cod 'broek'.

I have a Marguerite Patten book too. Her views on forrin food are hilarious endearing.

lol at goolies. i still make my mum's 70s goulash, it's brilliant.

so. anyone remember the F-Plan Diet? we ate a lot of All-Bran, oh yes. even All-bran cake, with sultanas. (actually rather nice).

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I have this Marguertite Patten

It has Olivia's melon boats on page 9

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I think my mum had that one too - I love listening to Marguerite Patten..so reassuring.

i love those. my mum bulk bought them in a cash and carry in 1976 and i think she still has a couple. no worries, the sell-by date is 2018.