I'm pretty sure that my mother thought that the smoke detector sounding off meant that dinner was ready for the table . . . I once was misbehaving at a restaurant and my mother actually threatened me with home cooked meals, as a punishment.
My mom would buy a package of dinner rolls at the grocery store, then buy the 5 for $5 Arby's special, take them all home, and split the meat from each sandwich into two more rolls, making 15 for $5.
That was for thanksgiving. Usually it was mayonnaise sandwiches without bread.
Another fave: remember when Wendy's had a salad bar? She'd get maybe a cup of chili, then fill the bag with ketchup, saltines, whatever. If you add 20 ketchups and a dozen saltines to a cup of chili, you can almost feed five kids.
My mother was pretty damned good. Everyone always wanted seconds, and she mostly cooked from scratch.
My grandmother as a child lived on a farm, and grew up in a household where the norm was to consume what the family grew or raised.
She also cooked from scratch. But for her, from scratch meant growing your own herbs and veggies, no measuring, and rarely bothering with recipes after she made that dish the first time. After she married and lived in town, she borrowed cookbooks from the library and taught herself pasta, souffles, pastries, and sauces. She was legendary.
Mama used to cook at Mather AFB. Her cooking was so good the officers would come to the main mess hall target than easy at the officers club. Damn I miss her.
I thought her cooking was great. But then after tasting others' shitty food and good food and starting to cook on my own, I realized her cooking is decent but not tops.
@heartbleed Same here, I loved my mom's cooking growing up but I didn't have much to compare it to.
The main thing with my mom is she never repeats a dish exactly the same way, so sometimes it will be perfect and other times it would be... let's say, less than perfect. She's a free spirit like that.
@heartbleed my mom was like this Also we ate what we were fed without complaint. One time i came home from college and Mom said "I'm cooking one of your favorites: Swiss Steak!" I said "hate to say this but that was (my older sister's) favorite. I hate that dish." She was shocked, had no idea each of us had dishes we hated but didn't say it to her ( but to each other) because she or someone else liked it. Plus the "this isn't a restaurant, eat what you are given or don't eat" philosophy my Dad's Mom instilled in us.
@heartbleed Mom had a few recipes that were her specialties (Pot Roast, Split Pea Soup, a few others); those were/are outstanding. Other meals were good, but Dad wasn't a very adventurous eater in those days so we didn't try much outside of her wheelhouse. My mother-in-law cooks everything from scratch - a master baker. Her only flops are when she tries unconventional substitutions to 'make them healthier': reduce calories, gluten, etc
When Mom wasn't working and she could cook, it was great and healthy. When Dad would cook, the few times I remember were pretty basic, and pretty burnt. He tended to instant stuff, or letting us kids try when we were old enough. He would look over our shoulder to make sure the house wouldn't burn down, but he knew we couldn't make anything worse than him.
Mom did a great job. Fried chicken, ground beef and gravy, spaghetti, all with a side salad and sometimes some fresh-baked bread. And don't get me started about the King's feast which was Thanksgiving supper! She taught her four kids to cook, too, which is an important life skill.
My grandmother (Dad's side) was the great cook. She would cook for all the extended family get-togethers and holidays. My Mom learned some of her recipes and passed them on.
Mom cooked from scratch. We grew up poor (dad was a minister and there were 4 of us) but I never realized it from our meals. My dad, on the other hand... well here is a story of breakfast... I was under 4 with younger siblings. Mom told dad to give us breakfast. She then yelled from upstairs: "(dad's name - which is also when I first realized his name wasn't daddy) why are the kids so quiet?". Dad, "They are busy eating". Mom, "What did you feed them?" Long pause, Dad (sounding hesitant and guilty), "Ice cream." At that point I ran behind the living room chair with my bowl of ice cream afraid mom would come downstairs and take it away. Eating it as fast as I could I got my first ice cream headache which is likely why I remember this.
Mother tried, but was not a good cook. Veggies were always overdone, for example.
I took after my father with cooking; I do most of it while wife does well but is fine with me doing it. Not a master chef by any means but know my way around.
Really recommend a good book like anything from Cook's Illustrated. Their Simple Weekday or Best Skillet Recipes books are good.
@mcanavino A crockpot/slow cooker can reduce the skill level needed to turn out some kind of food and Test Kitchen has a cookbook aimed at them which I can highly recommend.
My father worked shifts, so we ranged from TV dinners to real home-made spaghetti sauce over noodles. Also great pea soup, even though we all new it gave my father epic gas.
I voted "spectacular". Both my mom and my paternal grandmother (who lived just a few miles away, so spent a lot of time around) were fantastic cooks. However, the "I've never eaten that well since" doesn't apply, since my wife is even a more spectacular cook.
I grew up on a farm/ranch. We rarely went out to eat, and food was always fresh or at least frozen/canned from what we put up ourselves. I remember actually uttering the phrase "we're having steak AGAIN?"
I think this is where all the young, cool kids would put "#blessed".
Mom cooked basic fare and did it well. She was not terribly creative but it was always good. My father didn't feed us, ever, so when she was at work (and as a nurse she was often gone, especially when she worked the ER) we had to figure it out for ourselves. My husband grew up with the same cooking as @Pavlov. If food wasn't black, it wasn't done.
@jaremelz I know what you mean, but we actually enjoy our barbeque 'blackened' on the outside as long as it isn't charcoal on the inside (which has happened on a couple occasions)
@compunaut Oh, on the bbq front, I'm with you. On the every single other food front, including toast, eggs, every other way to prepare meat, I'm out. He has realized though that most foods just taste better when cooked just to done. He sets timers like crazy now. What really drives him crazy though is when he tries to recreate a dish I make and he asks how much _ I add. Hell if I know. However much feels right. I never use a timer and never measure any of my own dishes.
Mom would make spaghetti or Hamburger Helper, that was the extent of her cooking. Dad would do the majority of the cooking, he was born and raised in Holland and studied cooking in Japan for a few years. I was the only kid i knew that loved sushi, soy sauce and tofu, but hated ketchup and mustard.
My mom worked and raised 6 kids. The food was whatever she could get on the table fast and if you didn't appear to like it, a sibling would look over with bright eyes and say "You gonna eat that?" which made it suddenly seem much more appealing, psychology being what it is. When I had my first kid, she came to my house and made, a wonderful meal (I especially enjoyed the potatoes Lyonnaise) from scratch. I said "Mom! I didn't know you could cook like this!" She replied "Oh yes, your grandmother made sure that I could cook and cook WELL, but your father has forgotten and you're NOT going to remind him."
My mom has a sign up in the kitchen that Dad got her decades ago. It reads, "Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm goes off." It held true, for so long, that my siblings and I would head towards the kitchen whenever we heard a smoke alarm. It took a while to break this habit as adults.
Growing up Mom cooked nearly all the time, except when Dad barbecued or decided to try an experiment. She was a good cook, and had several signature dishes that I still crave to this day (simple: meat and noodles, turkey and noodles, and seafood newburg, but her own recipes). And milanesa... which she learned from her mom... OMG its been years since I had it and the thought has me starving. Sopa de Paraguay also... I need to try making that soon.
She was also ok with buying the 6 pound cans of Chef Boyardee raviolis and lemon pudding from Smart and Final Iris and getting two or three meals out of that (Dad wasn't so happy but the three kids were in heaven)
Dad's experiments were 50/50. He didn't burn things but some of the combinations just didn't really work out. But there was one time... he and Mom had done some canning for a few years and they canned some beef. A couple of years later he used that canned beef to make the best, most unbelievably wonderful chili we ever had. We could never duplicate that recipe and he had given up canning by then and refused to try it again.
I'm pretty sure that my mother thought that the smoke detector sounding off meant that dinner was ready for the table . . . I once was misbehaving at a restaurant and my mother actually threatened me with home cooked meals, as a punishment.
@Pavlov
How would you rate @MrsPavlov's cooking?
:P
@FroodyFrog She's really great at making reservations . . . I do most all the cooking.
@FroodyFrog
My mom would buy a package of dinner rolls at the grocery store, then buy the 5 for $5 Arby's special, take them all home, and split the meat from each sandwich into two more rolls, making 15 for $5.
That was for thanksgiving. Usually it was mayonnaise sandwiches without bread.
Wish sandwiches were also big at our house.
Another fave: remember when Wendy's had a salad bar? She'd get maybe a cup of chili, then fill the bag with ketchup, saltines, whatever. If you add 20 ketchups and a dozen saltines to a cup of chili, you can almost feed five kids.
My parents are both great cooks! Nothing really fancy, just classics done well.
My mother was pretty damned good. Everyone always wanted seconds, and she mostly cooked from scratch.
My grandmother as a child lived on a farm, and grew up in a household where the norm was to consume what the family grew or raised.
She also cooked from scratch. But for her, from scratch meant growing your own herbs and veggies, no measuring, and rarely bothering with recipes after she made that dish the first time. After she married and lived in town, she borrowed cookbooks from the library and taught herself pasta, souffles, pastries, and sauces. She was legendary.
My mother was and still is a great cook. She is my inspiration professionally.
Mama used to cook at Mather AFB. Her cooking was so good the officers would come to the main mess hall target than easy at the officers club. Damn I miss her.
My mom's cooking was okay.
I thought her cooking was great. But then after tasting others' shitty food and good food and starting to cook on my own, I realized her cooking is decent but not tops.
And that's okay.
@heartbleed Same here, I loved my mom's cooking growing up but I didn't have much to compare it to.
The main thing with my mom is she never repeats a dish exactly the same way, so sometimes it will be perfect and other times it would be... let's say, less than perfect. She's a free spirit like that.
@heartbleed my mom was like this
Also we ate what we were fed without complaint. One time i came home from college and Mom said "I'm cooking one of your favorites: Swiss Steak!" I said "hate to say this but that was (my older sister's) favorite. I hate that dish." She was shocked, had no idea each of us had dishes we hated but didn't say it to her ( but to each other) because she or someone else liked it. Plus the "this isn't a restaurant, eat what you are given or don't eat" philosophy my Dad's Mom instilled in us.
@heartbleed Mom had a few recipes that were her specialties (Pot Roast, Split Pea Soup, a few others); those were/are outstanding. Other meals were good, but Dad wasn't a very adventurous eater in those days so we didn't try much outside of her wheelhouse. My mother-in-law cooks everything from scratch - a master baker. Her only flops are when she tries unconventional substitutions to 'make them healthier': reduce calories, gluten, etc
When Mom wasn't working and she could cook, it was great and healthy. When Dad would cook, the few times I remember were pretty basic, and pretty burnt. He tended to instant stuff, or letting us kids try when we were old enough. He would look over our shoulder to make sure the house wouldn't burn down, but he knew we couldn't make anything worse than him.
Mom did a great job. Fried chicken, ground beef and gravy, spaghetti, all with a side salad and sometimes some fresh-baked bread. And don't get me started about the King's feast which was Thanksgiving supper! She taught her four kids to cook, too, which is an important life skill.
My grandmother (Dad's side) was the great cook. She would cook for all the extended family get-togethers and holidays. My Mom learned some of her recipes and passed them on.
Mom cooked from scratch. We grew up poor (dad was a minister and there were 4 of us) but I never realized it from our meals. My dad, on the other hand... well here is a story of breakfast... I was under 4 with younger siblings. Mom told dad to give us breakfast. She then yelled from upstairs: "(dad's name - which is also when I first realized his name wasn't daddy) why are the kids so quiet?".
Dad, "They are busy eating".
Mom, "What did you feed them?"
Long pause, Dad (sounding hesitant and guilty), "Ice cream."
At that point I ran behind the living room chair with my bowl of ice cream afraid mom would come downstairs and take it away. Eating it as fast as I could I got my first ice cream headache which is likely why I remember this.
Mother tried, but was not a good cook. Veggies were always overdone, for example.
I took after my father with cooking; I do most of it while wife does well but is fine with me doing it. Not a master chef by any means but know my way around.
Really recommend a good book like anything from Cook's Illustrated. Their Simple Weekday or Best Skillet Recipes books are good.
@mcanavino We love us some Cooks Illustrated
@mcanavino A crockpot/slow cooker can reduce the skill level needed to turn out some kind of food and Test Kitchen has a cookbook aimed at them which I can highly recommend.
My father worked shifts, so we ranged from TV dinners to real home-made spaghetti sauce over noodles. Also great pea soup, even though we all new it gave my father epic gas.
I voted "spectacular". Both my mom and my paternal grandmother (who lived just a few miles away, so spent a lot of time around) were fantastic cooks. However, the "I've never eaten that well since" doesn't apply, since my wife is even a more spectacular cook.
I grew up on a farm/ranch. We rarely went out to eat, and food was always fresh or at least frozen/canned from what we put up ourselves. I remember actually uttering the phrase "we're having steak AGAIN?"
I think this is where all the young, cool kids would put "#blessed".
Mom cooked basic fare and did it well. She was not terribly creative but it was always good. My father didn't feed us, ever, so when she was at work (and as a nurse she was often gone, especially when she worked the ER) we had to figure it out for ourselves.
My husband grew up with the same cooking as @Pavlov. If food wasn't black, it wasn't done.
@jaremelz I know what you mean, but we actually enjoy our barbeque 'blackened' on the outside as long as it isn't charcoal on the inside (which has happened on a couple occasions)
@compunaut Oh, on the bbq front, I'm with you. On the every single other food front, including toast, eggs, every other way to prepare meat, I'm out. He has realized though that most foods just taste better when cooked just to done. He sets timers like crazy now.
What really drives him crazy though is when he tries to recreate a dish I make and he asks how much _ I add. Hell if I know. However much feels right. I never use a timer and never measure any of my own dishes.
Mom would make spaghetti or Hamburger Helper, that was the extent of her cooking. Dad would do the majority of the cooking, he was born and raised in Holland and studied cooking in Japan for a few years. I was the only kid i knew that loved sushi, soy sauce and tofu, but hated ketchup and mustard.
Grandma cooked everything.
My mother is a great cook, except for always burning bread.
@jaremelz What do your kids think of your cooking?
@dashcloud Hehe, they love it!
@dashcloud I should add, they especially love it after having a meal at their paternal grandma's
My mom worked and raised 6 kids. The food was whatever she could get on the table fast and if you didn't appear to like it, a sibling would look over with bright eyes and say "You gonna eat that?" which made it suddenly seem much more appealing, psychology being what it is.
When I had my first kid, she came to my house and made, a wonderful meal (I especially enjoyed the potatoes Lyonnaise) from scratch. I said "Mom! I didn't know you could cook like this!" She replied "Oh yes, your grandmother made sure that I could cook and cook WELL, but your father has forgotten and you're NOT going to remind him."
My mom has a sign up in the kitchen that Dad got her decades ago. It reads, "Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm goes off." It held true, for so long, that my siblings and I would head towards the kitchen whenever we heard a smoke alarm. It took a while to break this habit as adults.
Growing up Mom cooked nearly all the time, except when Dad barbecued or decided to try an experiment. She was a good cook, and had several signature dishes that I still crave to this day (simple: meat and noodles, turkey and noodles, and seafood newburg, but her own recipes). And milanesa... which she learned from her mom... OMG its been years since I had it and the thought has me starving. Sopa de Paraguay also... I need to try making that soon.
She was also ok with buying the 6 pound cans of Chef Boyardee raviolis and lemon pudding from Smart and Final Iris and getting two or three meals out of that (Dad wasn't so happy but the three kids were in heaven)
Dad's experiments were 50/50. He didn't burn things but some of the combinations just didn't really work out. But there was one time... he and Mom had done some canning for a few years and they canned some beef. A couple of years later he used that canned beef to make the best, most unbelievably wonderful chili we ever had. We could never duplicate that recipe and he had given up canning by then and refused to try it again.