Ok - we have a winner. Via Random.org, #40 is the lucky number. Congrats, Beth. I will send you an e-mail shortly. And thanks to everyone for entering - lots of good childhood eats and nice memories, thanks for sharing.

My grandmother had quite the farm. I remember as a kid helping her harvest potatoes and doing it gladly knowing that when it was all done, we would be enjoying her famous potato pancakes. They were so good with cinnamon and homemade sour cream. Man I miss her.

There were two, decidedly non-foodie dishes. One was bone-in pork chops coated in Oven Fry and baked. I loved pork chop night and make it the same way once in awhile. The other is what we called "oven burgers" and as an adult I now see it was a cheap, cheap dinner to get us through to the next paycheck but as a kid I loved it. My mom would take cheap ground beef and mix in onion soup mix and mustard. Then she'd press the beef mixture onto halved hot dog buns and bake it. Finally, she'd each one with 1/2 a slice of american cheese and broil it until bubbly. I'm guessing it took about $5 to feed all 5 of us with this meal, but us kids loved it!

My favorite meal growing up was easily mom's City Chicken. She had some kind of spicy mix over top that I still can't recreate, and is still the only way I enjoy pork (very confused and disappointed in this bacon renaissance of the 2000's).

My favorite meal growing-up was my moms "Candy"
Kielbasa with buttered (no-egg yolk) noodles and delicious homemade apple sauce. Her "candied" recipe consisted of a delicious mixture of sweet n' sour dressing and ketch-up...trust me.. it's good and worth trying

It's almost sad but my favorite meal as a kid was either pizza, *any* kind of pizza, or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (and it HAD to be Kraft)
While I can say I have completely broadened my tastes now and have many other favorite meals (my husbands pesto chicken, my stir fry peppers and zucchini), I'll still eat a perfect pizza over almost anything.

My favorite meal was 'Cheeseburger Pie' - my mom, as well as my Gram (mom's mom) both made it. A homemade pie crust was filled with ground beef, green peppers, onion, good red sauce, spices, and topped with gooey mozzarella cheese. Served with salad and some good bread, it is such a comfy meal. Now I make it for my family and friends - a hit every time...and it reminds me of the 2 ladies I love the most!

Every year for our birthday my sister and I could pick anything we wanted for dinner and my mom would make it. And every year we would both pick noodles and mashed potatos. People thinks it's weird to serve a starch over another starch, but it was sooo good. Makes me wish it was my birthday right now.

I also have two: one is grandma's and one is mom's .
At my grandmother's we would have salty, crispy pan-fried chicken with buttery mashed potatoes and green beans with bacon and hot rolls with more butter. It was probably the richest meal I would eat all year and I so looked forward to it. Oh, and it was usually followed up by a big slice of pie. :-)
At my house it was my mom's pot roast with potatoes and carrots. The house would always smell amazing as it cooked for the whole day. To this day, whenever I come home to visit I can smell that my mom is making it for me the minute I walk into the house.

Spaghetti made with prego and ground beef. It was a staple in our house and I loved it, lol:) Also, my grandma made roast beef, homemade strawberry jam and a sweet corn casserole with corn from her garden that we'd argue over!

Slow cooked steak in a mushroom sauce with mashed potatoes made by my dad. Nothing compared!

My favorite meal was and still is my mother's lasagna. She uses homemade meatballs as one of the layers and it is so delicious!

My favorite childhood food was my grandma's cherry turnovers. And, I loved to "help"; I helped my grandpa pick the cherries, and then helped my grandma make the turnovers...I think I ate at least half the cherries I picked, though!

Ugh. definately a tie. Mom's chicken paprikash and grandma's beef and noodles. Although, come to think of it, grandma made a mean pancake that spanned across an entire dinner plate. Needless to say, i was very blessed to have a home cooked meals. Thanks for the chance.

My favorite childhood meal was my mom's version of mac and cheese, which she learned from my Greek grandma. Unable to get feta in her tiny town here in America, she learned to substitute cottage cheese and parmesan for a cheap, tasty substitute. Add egg, mix all together, pour into a buttered casserole dish, top with additional parm and bake til it gets a crispy crust, it's the best comfort food ever.

I've got two:
My Ukranian grandmother's potato pierogies with onions simmered in butter.

Every morning while I was in kindergarten, my other grandmother would make me pancakes, which she topped with butter, homemade raspberry jam from her garden and maple syrup. I would drink a big glass of Lipton sweetened iced tea to go with that.

I'm not sure how I survived my childhood!!!

my mom makes a mean fried rice...the secret ingredient was ketchup! loved it as a kid

My favorite meal growing up was my dad's meatloaf and mashed potatoes. He always made it with a bbq sauce glaze that was a special blend he made, and said the secret ingredient was love.

My favorite childhood meal was any time I got to have breakfast for dinner (brinner!) Who wouldn't get excited for eggs, bacon/sausage, toast, and potatoes on your plate for the evening meal????

As a kiddo, my favorite meal was my mom's tacos. Although my mom made dinners that surpassed them, tacos were one of only two meals in our house when my brother and I were allowed to have a glass of Coke with dinner instead of milk, thereby catapulting it to the top of the list for both of us (the other was pizza--my mom claimed the thought of either one with milk was disgusting).

My favorite food as a kid was my mom's pork and dumplings with sauerkraut. Still ask for it today. Love it!

I am a vegetarian now but my favorite meal as a kid used to be my mums hot dogs. She would put the hot dog in a huge roll, saute some onions, grate up sharp cheddar cheese, cook up some bacon, then add it all to the hot dog and toast it up! mmmmmm..........

My mom's chicken fried rice....also, "her" pierogies, which were really Mrs. T's pierogies - but my mom sure knew how to dress them up :-)

any seafood dish my dad cooked up on the weekends. he cooks seafood better than any restaurant i've ever been to.

My grandma makes a number of Hungarian-based dishes one of which she calls "chicken and fulfa." I loved this as a kid and still think it's fantastic, but aside from her reference/recipe I can't find any history of fulfa. The way she prepares it is by making a dough similar to pasta and then she rolls it out into long ropes almost like a tiny gnocchi. She cuts it the same way and then the little nuggets get dried in the oven. When she's ready to prepare the meal, the chicken is cooked in a skillet and finished in the oven then the fulfa is reconstituted in the left over chicken drippings/browned bits that have been mixed with stock. The fulfa absorbs most of the liquid and you have a really tasty side to go with the chicken. Anyone out there heard of this or know of another name it might go by?

My Mom made the best broccoli, cheese, and chicken casserole. It was incredibly simple and delicious.

On special occasions, nothing beat my Mom's chicken vesuvio. The house would smell amazing for about 3 days....

My favorite childhood meal was Chinese Food. My mom always invited a bunch of friends over and taught them how to make homemade Chinese. I always thought my mom was the coolest since she taught others how to make something so delicious. I still enjoy following in her footsteps by doing the same thing.

broccoli cheese chicken

I've been debating this one for days but I guess I'd have to say my favorite was my Mom's lasagna. Delicious, gooey mess of noodles, cheese, and homemade meat sauce. It's what I always asked for for my birthday dinner.

My grandmothers chicken soup

My favorite meal was my father's "dutch baby" pancakes, which was one of the very few meals he ever cooked at our house.

my favorite meals included a simple hot ham and cheese sandwich. plain, rolled up in foil, toasted in the oven and then served toasty and oozy. oh my. my other favorite: my great grandmother's scrambled eggs. its often the simple foods that can never be replicated. nearly decades later and i still have never tasted anything close to hers!

I have two favorite "dishes" from childhood, one made by my mother and one by my father.

My mother made the most delicious meatloaf, with lamb and beef, shredded onion and carrot.....The absolute best comfort food w/her homemade "BBQ" sauce, made from ketchup, brown sugar and dried mustard. SImple and amazing.

My father would make us dinner when my mom was out, it was almost always "breakfast for dinner" or peanut butter, banana and marshmallow fluff sandwiches. MMMMMMM...I dare a local chef to make a dessert based on this unsophisticated combo!!

My mom made veal Parmesan. I don't know what made it so amazingly good... it was veal patties, jar from a can, the cheese wasn't especially great on its own. But put them together and WOW... I could eat it any day. My mouth is watering right now....

In the summer my favorite meal from childhood was shish kabobs and fried rice. In fact, I've put in a request for them while I'm visiting my family over the 4th of July weekend.

After my Dad picked us up from Sunday school,when my Mom was sleeping in, he would make us shells with butter. It was probably the only thing he knew how to make, but it sure tasted good. Mom is great cook and baker so I have many childhood memories that involve pie.

We were just talking about our favorite childhood meals the other day. My mom made a fried chicken that I can still taste after all these years. I can't be sure, but I would bet she fried it in a combination of oil and bacon grease. It was always served with smashed potatoes and white gravy made from the pan drippings. Cholesterol Heaven!

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese. I made it tonight for my kids!

My favorite meal was and still is my moms stuffed peppers with homemade mashed potatoes! I am foaming at the mouth just thinking about it right now!!

boston coolers (root beer floats) on hot summer nights only after we picked the elderberries

My mom's fried chicken!! I brought several male friends home from college with me one year and there was nothing left but bones!

My favorite meal was my Grandma Jean's homemade spaghetti sauce with pork. To me, it was by far the best spaghetti sauce in the world. Oh how I wish I had the recipe.

My dad's chili on top of mashed potatoes.

My favorite childhood meal has to be my mom's chicken meatballs over angel hair pasta and veggies. It's a tip top secret family recipe that she created. I have the recipe, but I've never tried it because I don't want to mess it up!

Although it is quite simple, one of my favorite meals (and one that I actually remember having frequently!) from my childhood is spaghetti with meatballs. My family is not Italian, but I remember that my mother made simple yet tasty meatballs and sauce, over spaghetti, which was also served with garlic bread. Not homemade, but the frozen kind, where you smear the garlic butter halfway through baking. It was so good though and very flavorful!

Cottage Cheese Pancakes! anyone else love them or even know what they are?

My Mom's pierogies come in a close second.

My favorite meal from childhood was my mom's lasagna. She was never a great cook, but there were a few things that she made that were simply fabulous, and this was one of them. She said that she learned about Italian cooking growing up in the tenements of the Bronx, where her friends and her all lived and took turns playing in one anothers' apartments while their mothers were cooking.

I've never been able to exactly duplicate mom's lasagna. Lasagna noodles cooked al dante, layered with ground sirloin from the butcher shop, tomato sauce from a jar, ricotta and mozzarella cheeses - I'm getting hungry writing this!

My Grandmother made excellent soups, but my favorite would have to be her chili. She also made the best sugar cookies I've ever had. I've tried to replicate, but just can't seem to get them right.

For supper as a child, my mother would make a home made white cake recipe and we would eat the batter. She called it home made ice cream and we used to beg her to make it. Is it any wonder I have such a sweet tooth?

Every year for my birthday, my Mom would let us pick the menu. Every year, without fail, it would be Mom's lasagna. Piles of pasta, sausage, ground beef, ricotta, and mozzerella baked to perfection into hot, melty, perfection. An odd choice for a late-summer birthday, but I didn't care.