Apple pie was a practically mandatory part of breakfast in Shaker communities. Members rose very early and worked hard on farming and other chores for several hours before taking time for large breakfast meals. Apple pie, served in a bowl, with cream poured over it, was a favorite component. I think I have heard that it is still a morning food on family farms.
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There’s a never-ending debate over the presence of capers and raisins in picadillo.
DH loves pie for breakfast.
re the proportion of fruit, I’m reminded of a young neighbor child came over when my mother was cutting into an apple pie. She served him a piece, more apples than crust. With tears he lamented, “Mrs. X, I don’t want applesauce! I want PIE!”
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And I later found out many things I thought grandma invented were standard Jewish fare - they were in Arthur Schwartz’s cookbook. Like sweet and sour meatballs, and the rub she put on everything that consisted of salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika bound with water and rubbed on chicken and brisket.
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An elderly friend told of having a nurse come in for the days immediately after she had her second child. She queried the woman what an older child had eaten for breakfast, since he was a very picky eater. The answer, oatmeal cookies and strawberry ice cream. My friend blew sky high. The woman countered by asking what SHE usually gave him. “Oatmeal, milk and fruit.” “Exactly what I gave him!”
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My Dad loved to experiment. As kids, he made “lasagna.” It was lasagna noodles, velveeta cheese, mozzarella cheese, ground beef, pepperoni, and a smattering of tomato paste in between the layers. We always loved it. We thought it was what lasagna was supposed to be.
Then we went on a ski trip with other family members. Everone cooked a meal for each night we were there. He made his “lasagna.” And everyone was horrified. They were expecting a more traditional lasagna.
But we still loved it. I guess if he had called it something else, it would have been more appreciated. It was the talk of the family for years after that!
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My grandfather told me that he invented Puree of Mongole Soup (can of split pea soup, can of tomato soup, two cans of milk - all mixed together). I loved it - what did I know?! Imagine my surprise when I saw it on a menu from the early 1900s…
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That must have made for a wicked color!
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He might have been ahead of his time and served it like this:
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On Chowhound back when, I started a thread asking who used used ketchup on Mac & Cheese. Brought people out fighting on both sides. Was normal in my family.
My conclusion was that ketchup is the Rodney Dangerfield of condiments: gets no respect.
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It was actually kind of a washed out olive green, as I recall…
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Nope - sorry - too artsy!
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Heinz forever - but not on macaroni and cheese - yuck!
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Mmmmmm ketchup. Yes, definitely polarizing.
YES on “regular” mac and cheese (not on “gourmet” stuff that already has too much going on).
Let’s completely skeeve out the haters - we added sliced-up hot dogs in there too. I still have to have ketchup with hot dogs. Yum.
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A double red card!
I commend your ability to PO two different
groups of Food lovers in one post.
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Well, might as well go all in 
Meanwhile, anyone who knows me now would probably be shocked. But hey, if it tastes good it tastes good. I like it with eggs too - plain or cheese omelette, or hard scrambled / “cafeteria eggs” (with other types I’m a purist - soft scrambled are sacred, fried too, don’t even bring pepper near those).
A family friend was known to put ketchup on everything… and I mean everything. My family had to collectively resist the urge to hurl when she poured ketchup over an everyday Indian meal - dal, rice, veg. My adult mind’s explanation is that she hated the cooking at her house, so she made everything taste like ketchup.
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Hot dogs in mac and cheese - yes, but hold the ketchup!
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I think I may have shared a few of these here and there, so my apologies if this is repeating something you’ve read before:
My parents generally cook traditional Chinese home-cooked meals and anything “Western” had an interesting spin on it. Some of it picked up during their early days in Hong Kong, and some they picked up while here.
My mom somehow decided to try pita bread when it was still new and unusual in the US and she had a favorite way of consuming this: steamed until soft (like you would do with Chinese baos…) and either wrapped with ham, which was her favorite deli meat, or sprinkled with a bit of sugar because she was used to the slightly sweet dough of a bao. I ate these (I never cared for the strange steamed pita with sugar) assuming it was meant to be a precursor of wraps. And then 20 years later, lo and behold, I try actual Middle-eastern food and it was a revelation.
Watery and watered down creamed corn. Again, not sure how my parents came upon canned creamed corn, but they somehow got it in their head that this was a condensed soup, much like a can of Campbell’s. So they used to make creamed corn for us as a “soup” with a can of water added to it. My mom or dad would throw in an egg to give it that egg-drop like bit. It was and is as bland as it tastes, yet my parents and we kids ate it like that for years until I went to college and realized it’s not meant to be a soup or chowder. To this day, my mom still calls this stuff “corn soup”.
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Campbell’s does make condensed cream of corn soup. I bought a can out of curiosity, but haven’t opened it. I want to try it as an ingredient in my copycat of a Shaker recipe for bread pudding.made with cornbread.
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Oh yeah. I grew up with this. Love it.
“Sweet corn chicken/crab/veg soup” it’s called at indian chinese restaurants.
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