181 grandpa recipes

Old-fashioned buttermilk biscuits with shortening and tangy buttermilk for a tender, flaky crumb. Six pantry ingredients, ready in 30 minutes, the kind grandma used to make.

Candied dill pickles transformed from store-bought dills into sweet-tart spears with sugar, vinegar, bay, and cloves. The Southern grandma trick that turns ordinary pickles into addictive snacking.

Classic banana bread with three mashed bananas, eggs, and a no-frills batter that bakes into a tender loaf with a crackled top. The simple banana loaf grandma made.

These heirloom sweet pickles are worth the 8-day wait. Crisp cucumber coins bathe in a spiced vinegar-sugar brine for that old-fashioned crunch your grandma swore by.

Country buttermilk biscuits baked tall and golden in a hot oven, with cold butter cut into the flour for flaky layers and tangy buttermilk for tender lift. The flaky biscuit grandma made.

Holiday sugar cookies: a tender, softly leavened cut-out cookie made with sour milk for tang and lift. Great-grandma's recipe that bakes pale and soft, ready for sprinkles and icing.

My grandma used to make this carrot cake for me every year when I was at her place during summer vacation. It was the best carrot cake ever because it was packed with love :)

While growing up, my Polish-Russian grandmother, who lived with our family, made these little meat patties quite often and they were a family favorite. Here is my rendition, from what I remember when cooking with Grandma, as she never wrote the recipe down. The patties were always served with mashed potatoes, green beans, applesauce, and, of course, plenty of ketchup for the patties.

Four-ingredient pineapple cranberry dump cake layered with crushed pineapple, cranberry sauce, white cake mix, and pats of butter. No mixer, no bowl, no fuss. The Thanksgiving cheat code grandmas swear by.

This Pasta Salad with Cucumber, Tomato, and Feta was not something I had planned on blogging about. It merely came about because I had nothing to cook for dinner, save a package of gluten-free pasta I had picked up for emergencies and a variety of veggies from my CSA. Then my husband loved it so much that he had two helpings, and he insisted that I write about it. I’m trying to move my family towards a more grain-free existence, but sometimes I just don’t have it in me to think gourmet. Sometimes, we do the best that we can. All this is my way of saying that the amounts of ingredients here are really just approximations. I have no idea what exactly I put in here to make it taste so yummy. You’ll have to channel your inner Italian grandma, and just mix in ingredients until the food tastes good.

Nothing says comfort food like grandma's cookin'. I have simplified the process with canned beans but feel free to use a comparable amount of fresh. I also replaced the lard in Grandma's recipe with (marginally more healthy) butter.

Grandma's spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) layered between buttered phyllo sheets and filled with feta, cottage cheese, eggs, and spinach. The classic Greek meze cut into diamond squares.

A flavor-full cornbread I adapted from one of my Grandma's recipes. Most importantly it's EASY!

Six-ingredient banana bread built on self-rising flour and ripe bananas. No baking soda to measure, no creaming, no fuss. Served cold with cream cheese the way Southern grandmas always have.

Ground beef, rice, and mushrooms wrapped in tender cabbage leaves, baked in a sweet-tangy tomato sauce. Classic stuffed cabbage rolls that taste like grandma's kitchen.

Make grandma proud with this simple and easy crockpot recipe that is perfect for feeding a hungry group of people.