#TBT – From Baloney Bowls to Egg Sauce, the ‘Poor Foods’ My Mom Made Us Love

Years ago, I described how to make one of my mom's favorite recipes, and it's incredibly simple. However, it doesn't sound terribly appetizing to everyone. The looks I got.

It's called egg sauce, and it's simply a chopped hard-boiled egg stirred into milk gravy and poured over hard toast. I'll admit that it doesn't sound particularly appetizing written out, but my sister and I loved it. I still do.

(NEWS FLASH: I actually found a recipe for egg sauce. The world is catching up.)

Mom's 'Poor Foods'

Mom had a collection of recipes that were unbelievably simple and came from a time when she, her siblings, and my grandmother were struggling in the late 1940s after my grandparents divorced. She used to call these dishes 'poor food' because my grandmother had to skimp and the ingredients were cheap and easy to come by.

"Mothers' Goulash" is another one. I confess, I have no idea how to make authentic goulash, but so what. Mom's recipe was cooked ground beef mixed with peas, diced potatoes, and Worcestershire sauce. Amazing. And cheap.

But my favorite were the iconic (in my home) "baloney bowls". She'd fry baloney which formed a bowl in the skillet. Then she'd fill it with veggies, peas most often, and serve it up. When I was a kid, I thought eating something out of something else that was edible was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Talk a smart and cheap way to get me to eat vegetables.

(We ate a lot of peas.)

My least favorite in this category was called "Sue's salad." (Mom's name was Sue.) You take chopped lettuce and toss it with mayonnaise, vinegar, and sugar. Voila...Sue's salad.

No thank you.

Just pass the "baloney bowl," please.