Delicious Memories Rooted in Family Tradition
When I first started laying out the idea for Mamo’s Kitchen I asked family members to share recipes, pictures, stories and treasured memories from their childhood. When the feedback started coming in from my husband’s family, there seemed to be a recurring theme which made choosing a recipe (or recipes in this case) a simple decision.
Mike is one of six siblings, and when they get together it is Katy bar the door! Laughter abounds and the stories from their childhoods are non-stop…when you have six kids in your family there is plenty of material to go around. If you hear the phrase “Do you remember…” at a Vadnais gathering, put your keys and your purse down, grab a beverage, and be prepared to stay awhile! And for some reason, many of those stories seem to revolve around food, which of course works out well for me!
Where It All Began
Mike’s parents, Henry and Pauline, were second-generation Americans whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from Canada. Both grew up speaking mostly French in their households until they started school. Even as adults they often spoke French to each other at home (Mike said it was their secret language since none of the kids learned much French). Henry served in the Korean War, then remained in the reserves until retirement. He also taught English for a while until he took a job as the Curator of the Navy Museum in Washington, D.C. As was common for her generation, Pauline was a stay-at-home-mom, which was definitely a full-time job with her crew!
“The kitchen is the heart of every home, for the most part. It evokes memories of your family history.” – Debi Mazar
Mike so vividly remembers their kitchen/dining room…the way it was laid out, the colors, the smells…it is the place he envisions when he talks about childhood. Dad sitting at the table with the store ads (Henry did the grocery shopping), Mom at the stove with a pot of homemade sauce simmering for hours. To this day the siblings will tell food stories of strange sandwich concoctions like bread, butter and ketchup for Elaine (mustard for Jackie) or deviled ham and potato sticks (apparently the trick here was to poke the potato sticks into the bread so they stood straight up in the sandwich and try to eat it without damaging the roof of your mouth), and of adventures to Tastee Freeze for a sweet treat and counting train cars. Occasionally, after the kids had gone to bed, mom would cook a special dinner for “date night”, which would often include heating up French fried onions. Smelling the onions, the kids would take turns coming down the stairs with an “I can’t sleep”, to be rewarded with a piece of warm, crispy fried onion they would savor like a rare delicacy.
Birthday Traditions
Of course, one of the most anticipated meals for the kids came on their birthdays, which brings me back to that recurring theme. On their birthday, each kid got to pick what they wanted to have for their birthday dinner. And while each of the siblings had their favorite, for some reason the one that was mentioned to me repeatedly was Spirelle, Mike’s go-to choice for birthday dinner. I’ve heard him talk about Spirelle many times over the years, but it wasn’t until his sister Jackie sent me the recipe for the blog that I discovered it wasn’t actually named Spirelle…that was just what the family called it because mom usually served it over spiral shaped pasta!
The other common birthday denominator was the cake the kids almost always asked for…Tomato Soup Cake. I had never heard of a cake made with tomato soup, but it became apparent it was really a thing after I heard from three of the siblings within two days with the same wonderful memory. Jackie remembers choosing it “not only because it is a moist, delicious spice cake with raisins and a funny name, but in my case, it was so I could watch her stir the baking soda into the can of tomato soup and it would foam up and bubble over the can…” It’s so funny how such small things create such a full panorama of memories to pass on.
“Some memories are unforgettable, remaining ever vivid and heartwarming! “ -Joseph B. Wirthlin
As you will see in the recipe below, the dish formerly known as Spirelle is actually called Sauce Pot Meatballs, and they were delicious! The onion soup mix gave the sauce a beefier flavor profile than a traditional tomato sauce has, and the meatballs themselves were very tender. While we had ours over spiral pasta for the sake of family tradition, you can serve it over any kind of pasta or rice.
As for the Tomato Soup Cake, I have to confess there was a debate/dilemma when I made it in my own kitchen. The original recipe does not include what size pan to cook the cake in. Mike swears it was a 9”x13” pan (which is what I used), but the baking time on the recipe is one hour, and mine was done in about 25-30 minutes. So, I believe Pauline either made hers in a smaller pan (maybe 8×8), or possibly doubled the batch to make a bigger cake. Either way it was still moist and delicious, full of those spicy flavors and soft raisins, but if you go with the single batch and the 9×13 pan your cook time will be shorter (and so will the cake!).
I hope you will give these family favorites a try and let me know how you loved them! And always remember to add A Slice of Spice to your every day!
Michele
Sauce Pot Meatballs
Tender meatballs simmered in a beefy tomato sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 pkg dry onion soup mix
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1/2 tsp garlic salt or more to taste
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1 box cooked pasta can use rice instead
Instructions
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In a deep, thick saucepan bring to a boil quickly the onion soup mix, water, and 1 1/2 cans of tomato sauce. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.
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Gently mix ground beef, seasonings, parsley, and remaining tomato sauce. Shape into 16 meatballs and place in sauce.
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Simmer gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes, turning meatballs occasionally.
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Serve over hot noodles or other pasta, or rice.
Tomato Soup Cake
A moist spice cake with an unexpected twist.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp lard or shortening
- 1 tbsp butter - softened
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 can tomato soup
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup raisins
- 2 cups cream cheese frosting
Instructions
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Mix together the sugar, lard or shortening, and butter until well mixed.
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Stir baking soda into the can of tomato soup until it foams up over the top of the can. Add this mixture to your sugar mixture and mix well.
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Add flour (reserve two tablespoons of flour), baking powder, and spices and mix well.
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Add remaining flour to your raisins and gently mix with your hands to coat the raising with flour (this will keep them from settling to the bottom of the cake). Stir raisins into the cake batter.
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Lightly grease and flour a baking pan (8x8 for a thicker cake, 9x13 for a thinner cake). Spread batter into pan. Cook in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes for 9x13 and 1 hour for 8x8 - or until cake springs back when touched and toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
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Cool cake on a rack, then top with your favorite cream cheese frosting.
Wow… what a fun trip down memory lane! Thanks for sharing, Michele. Hopefully others will try one or both of our Mom’s recipes and maybe start a tradition of their own!
Thanks Jackie! And thank you guys for letting me in on your family secrets! I hope it was fun for you too!
What great traditions and looks like a yummy recipe!
Thanks Kat. It was such fun to hear the stories and try to capture the essence!
This recipe looks amazing!! Saving for later!
Let me know how you love it Kari!
I’m so intrigued by the tomato soup cake, thank you for sharing your family recipes with us!
I hope you try it Katie. It was a very simple recipe and tasted amazing.
Food really does bring family together with traditions and shared memories. As a kid, we got to pick our birthday dinners, too!
Those are the things that they will remember years later!
Love family traditions – especially when it centers around food. The meatballs look delicious and the tomato soup cake looks very interesting. I may have to try that one out on the boys to see what they think.
I hope they enjoy it! If they like spice cake they will probably love this one…especially if you let them do the soup part!
Great memories! Food is definitely a wonderful experience that brings families and friends together and creates lasting memories.
I couldn’t agree more Tina! Thanks for reading.
OMG, these recipes sound amazing! Thanks so much for sharing!
Thank you Kristi Ann. It was a fun story to write.
I have never heard of a soup cake before! I think I’ll have to try it now! It looks really good!
It was delicious Eileen! Let me know if you give it a try!
Tomato soup cake??? Well that is a new one. Must be good if all the kids liked it!
My kids loved it as well! I wasn’t sure about it but I was greatly surprised!
I associate food with family traditions as well. There is nothing more comforting!
I so agree with you! It’s so fun to have a food trigger a story!
Such a nice reminder that food holds so many traditions and memories! Wow! To think! Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you for reading! I love traditions as well!
Fun to see family recipes and the photos that go along with them!
I know! I love that too! Thanks for reading.
I love recipes that evoke well loved memories! These both look delicious!
Thanks Candi! I love the stories also!
YUM! This recipe looks amazing! 🙂 PInning for later.
Thanks Tiffany! Hope you enjoy them!
These look sooo yummy!
Thank you Anitra!
Food absolutely comes with memories. There will be things I cook for my family that we had when I was a child and I will now sit down at the table and talk about some distant memories at things that happened at our family table while eating that meal. My husband loves the stories my daughter just thinks I’m crazy..lol..thanks for the recipes
But your daughter will love the stories later! My grown kids love to hear about the things I remember, and they will pass those memories down too.
Oh yum. I love traditional recipes. Thank you for sharing. ☺️
Thank you for visiting my site Suktara!
It sounds like such a lovely meal and most times the really simple ones also taste the best and even better when you can pair it with the memories from your childhood. Lea, xx
Very true Lea! Something about eating a meal together makes it all the more special!
Definitely going to try out those sauce pot meatballs!
Jas xx
Thank you Jas! Let me know how you enjoy them!
I’m loving all the family tradition stories and recipes. I’m definitely going to try these.
Kim
Thank you Kim. Hope you enjoy them…simple and tasty!
How fun to read our memories and see the photos and recipe cards. Warm family memories! ❤ Thank you for writing it so beautifully and sharing.
Thank you Elwa! I couldn’t have done it without the fun stories you guys shared!
What memories! What great stuff! Thank you for sharing with our friends, sweetheart! Nicely done!
Thank you. I hope I did your story (and Mom’s recipes) justice!