Hmmm - I'll have to give that some thought but right off of the top of my head it would involve Jello. I'm a child of the 50's, from the Midwest...

raisin and nut sandwiches

Grind pecans/walnuts with raisins. Stir in mayo. Spread between two slices bread removing the crust. And enjoy! This is from the 40's. Haven't had one in many a year, but so loved that sandwich. Especially if Mrs Sledge made it.

We have two cookbooks that have family recipes contributed by our large extended family members. It took a bit of effort to codify some of the recipes because many dishes were made without measuring. I love that future generations can learn how to make family favorites.

My mother was a good cook, but nothing fancy. Most of the things she cooked had no recipe. I cook a lot like her. Her potato salad, for example. I added a few things but it was her basic way of making it. I don't really have any of her recipes....some of the things she liked to make, I didn't like to eat anyway. Persimmon pudding, for example. I was the youngest by almost 16 years, so my brothers and sister growing up had a very different way of life than I did. My dad had a good job by the time I was born, but before that they didn't have very much money, and also my siblings knew our older relatives, who were all dead and gone by the time I was born.

Egg, rice, cheese and cabbage. Comfort food. I changed it a little by leaving out the bacon so it'd be a little healthier.

Once a year, I make southern fried corn but it never tastes quite like I remember it when my mom made it. I use the same recipe.

I still make my grandmother 's angel food cake recipe. It's always been our family's traditional birthday cake recipe. I'll be making it again in May for DD's BDay. I also make my mother's recipe for cheese grits. I no longer bake Christmas cookies but both my children always at least bake her recipe for the world's best cut-out cookies. DD also makes her recipe for lemon squares and about every 5 years makes her Gooey Rolls, very, very tiny rolled up yeast rolls, dripping with butter, sugar and cinnamon. Ambrosia!

Anglophilia -- I want that recipe for Gooey Rolls!

The Gooey Rolls sounds like what we always called Monkey Bread. This is how I make it, except I use dark brown sugar.

https://www.marthastewart.com/1146080/monkey-bread

How about chipped beef gravy? Does anybody still eat that? We had it for dinner a few nights ago and everybody here loves it. Great when we're long on bread in the freezer and milk. I make it with jarred dried beef, like mom always did- not all stores carry this, so I have to buy it when I see it.

DH said his mom always made it with ground beef that she fried up before making it into gravy.

Yep, We call it cream dried beef in our family. Just a white sauce with the jarred dried beef in it. We serve over bread, noodles or biscuits depending on what we have and my mood.

My mother, and in fact all the women in my family, were great cooks. My mother in particular was very adventurous with recipes and unusual food, cooked from ‘scratch’, and was especially good at baking. She always cooked with fresh ingredients, nothing canned (except homemade canned or frozen vegetables). My Dad would never eat a casserole because he tired of anything like that from his Navy days. My favorites are her homemade Chili, spaghetti sauce, Banana Nut Bread (my grandmother’s recipe), pound cake, bbq sauce (it is still a family secret), and a few other things one of us siblings makes on occasion.

That slice of white bread spread with butter and sprinkle with white sugar put under the broiler to caramelize the sugar is really good, too. Haven't had one of those in many, many years.

I never tried broiling them! Sounds good!

I do what walnut does, but I add cinnamon to it.

To make "Gooey Rolls", use any favorite recipe for a yeast roll - my mother had so many in her hand-written cookbook I have no idea which one she actually used.

When one is to the "rolling out the dough" stage, roll it out not too thick, and then cut the dough into a "worm" that is about 6-8 inches long or so - not too long, not too short. They must truly bee the not much thicker than a pencil.

Take each "worm" and dip it first into melted butter - no margarine - you want the real stuff. Then roll it in a mix of sugar and cinnamon - get proportion to your personal preference,

Then roll up the "worm" into a very small, very tight ball, tucking under the end. Follow typical rising/baking instructions, and when the rolls are done, drizzle a mixture of confectioners sugar/vanilla/milk over them.

They will be a gooey mess and a paper napkin will stick to you. The "goo" does wash out nicely from a cloth napkin! If reheated, put in foil at about 300°.

They are the best things ever. No, one cannot just make a long roll and cut slice them off. This is the ONLY way they end up gooey enough - believe me, over the years, my mother and I tried everything.

One time, my mother made over 300 of these for a special hospital auxiliary luncheon; she ended up in the hospital herself a few days later. They are exhausting to make but worth it (if one is not the one doing the making!).

DD makes them for me for my birthday every 5 years. She's so busy with work right now, I doubt I'll get any in the fall when I turn 75. Don't need the calories anyway, but I'd like them at least one more time before I die.

Thanks, Anglophilia! Not that I ought to eat such things, but they do sound irresistable and I shall probably succumb to temptation, lol.

When I was little, my grandmother made plum dumplings. Dripped melted butter and sugar on them. The whole family came once a year to eat them. I never got the recipe, but they were so good. One of them always had a button instead of the pit. This person had to clean the dishes.

Bettye, my mother also made fried corn. It was so good. She always made it with white corn. I have never made it, but I'd like to. I think she fried bacon and sauteed it in the bacon grease and added a little water to it. She used fresh corn, cut off the cob. Is that how you remember your mother making it? She also added fresh white corn to her green beans and if not that, she always added potatoes to it. "Irish potatoes"...as she called them.

Marilyn, my mom used bacon grease for the fried corn, also. She used yellow corn most of the time as that is what our family preferred. It was so good! I haven't had fresh green beans and "Irish potatoes" in years! My mom cooked them together, also.

Fried corn is fabulous...and not very healthy which is probably why it tastes so good!

Mmmmmm, my mother's pressure cooker whole chicken cooked with lots of lemon halves, salt and pepper. Thicken the gravy at the end with flour and water. Nothing fancy. She'd make dumplings to go on top at the end. OMG. So good and so not fancy.

WalnutCreek and rob, how could I forget cinnamon toast!? Thanks for the reminder of that. My mother used to make that for us and I followed suit, making it for my kids and grandstands. I kept a shaker with cinnamon and sugar mix in it

Marilyn, that’s how my mother made fried corn too. She used Silver Queen, and everyone I know around here uses that I’ve made it a few times but it’s a lot of trouble cutting all that corn off the cob!

It is a lot of trouble but fresh corn is so good compared to canned, or even frozen. I make cream style corn with fresh corn, which is basically a cream sauce...similar to a white sauce, and it is so good. I also use fresh corn in soups and also in corn sticks. I love Silver Queen. As soon as I see some in the market, I am going to make some fried corn. It really is more like sauteed corn....when the word "fried" is used, I always think crispy, but it isn't fried like that.

The one retro Jello recipe I loved that Mother made was the one with lime green Jello, shredded cucumber, and cream cheese. She did it in a circular mold that I declined to keep when they were downsizing circa 1999/2000. I'd still like to make that, though. Specific mold or not.

I make cinnamon toast all the time - huge favorite. Yes, it was a treat as a child as it had yo be made in the broiler and if one sneezed, it was burned. Toaster ovens solved that and made it an everyday treat!