My mom was an old fashioned southern cook, which meant that my brother & sister & I were usually treated very well at the table. Unlike many who've posted here, I grew up loving liver & onions. She also cooked lots of cornbread and greens - kale, collard, turnip greens with ham hocks. She raised us eating things like sweet pickle relish on black-eyed peas and vinegar on spinach, both of which my wife finds weird. She also would save leftovers, no matter how small a portion, and continue to bring them out at every meal until somebody finished them.

However, we lived in Germany for 4 years while I was in elementary school, and during that period she tried to learn to cook the local cuisine - with disastrous results. I remember inedible (shoe leather tough) sourbraten with red cabbage, and some horrendous attempts at making goulash. I recall that when Dad took us to eat in a local restaurant weekly, my sister and I always ordered Italian.