topic Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With? in Kitchen

How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

ECBG — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 03:21:45 GMT

I grew up with sometimes having rabbit or squirrel for breakfast.
Fresh vegetables were brought in from a huge garden for dinner. There were plates of tomatoes, cucumbers, and spring onions but we didn't eat a lot of salads.
We ate a lot of beef because we raised grain fed beef.

Today, we eat a lot more chicken and fish. I do more roasts and use a crock pot. I serve vegetable, fruit, and pasta salads. I also cook a lot of different vegetables.
Bread was in the form of cornbread usually.

I don't keep a pie or cake on the counter.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Goldengate8361 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 03:26:51 GMT

The biggest difference? My mom really, really cooked well. I’d give anything in the world to eat her food again. Me? I’m a terrible cook. I mean really bad. I never learned to cook and my food is just all around bad.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

GCR18 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 03:51:34 GMT

My mother cooked meat, potato and vegetable every night. Now, I rarely eat meat. I like chicken, seafood and ethnic foods.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Kachina624 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:06:05 GMT

My parents bought halves of beef for the freezer. I rarely eat beef now, preferring chicken. My mom never fried anything and I too, am not a lover of fried food. She did cook seafood which I dislike...sister and I used to slip oysters to the cat.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

blackhole99 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:06:20 GMT

My mother was a very basic cook, she cooked every thing on the stove top, fried chicken, breaded pork chops, spaghetti and meat balls or meat sauce. My Dad said she didn't know how to boil water when they got married, I think she was a decent cook for someone who did not like to cook. I love to cook and will try any recipe at least once and I love to bake. Now that my husband and I are seniors and alone, we really don't eat that much, but I still enjoy making soup and stews and baking fresh bread.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Eileen in Virginia — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:18:05 GMT

I grew up in a blue collar suburb of Philadelphia, so most of our food came from the supermarket, huckster or farm market. My Mom worked full-time, but she was a great cook and made most of our meals and desserts from scratch. Dinners usually consisted of meat, potatoes, a couple of vegetables, sliced tomatoes if in season or other raw sliced veggies. One exception to this was when she made spaghetti and meatballs - no side veggies, but a tossed salad and garlic bread. We didn’t have dessert every night, but, if we did, it was homemade. On Sundays she pulled out all the stops, cooking from the time she got home from 7:00 Mass until we sat down to dinner at 4:00. It wasn’t Sunday dinner if we didn’t have a roast of some sort and a “special” dessert like lemon meringue pie. Of course, we took this for granted.

I’m a pretty good cook and make most of our meals from scratch, but I’ve learned to take advantage of some of the shortcuts available today. I rarely make meatballs from scratch anymore and make cornbread from a mix. Although I’m open to alternative meal suggestions, our meals still tend to include meat, a starch and a fresh veggie. Our Sunday dinners run the full gamut from takeout to a more traditional meal, but I rarely produce anything to rival Mom’s Sunday dinners. Luckily, my MIL wasn’t a very good cook, so DH thinks he’s got it good! 😉

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

roxxy1 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:29:16 GMT

@Eileen in Virginia Your meals then and now sound like mine.......

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

roxxy1 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 04:31:55 GMT

My mom still cooks traditional Sunday meals. She's an awesome cook, and I'm lucky to still have her~~~ to feed me ! Never take my mama for granted.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

RedTop — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 05:28:27 GMT

My mom was a picky eater and ate like a bird when she and my dad married. She didn’t know squat about cooking, and wasn’t thrilled to learn. They lived with my farm grandparents awhile and my grandma taught her basics, like biscuits, cornbread, gravy, and roasting meat. Mom also learned by watching my dad cook.

Mom was just getting good on the cookstove, when she had to learn to use the electric stove. Overcooked meat was still my dad’s #1 complaint when I was a teenager.

My husband grew up less than 10 miles from me, so we grew up eating the same type of foods, and still eat much the same way as our parents. We love meat, potatoes, dried beans, mainly root vegetables, but do not have bread more than 2x a week, and limit pasta and pizza to once a month. Mom always had a dessert in the house; a cake, pie, cookies, or even a huge bowl of jello with fruit in it. Desserts are few and far between here. I was never introduced to seafood, as my parents didn’t like anything fishy. I would trade my fish sticks at school for mixed vegetables, or anything else on the plate- -even stuffed celery.

Now that my mom is in early stage dementia, I cook a lot with her in mind, and take food over at least 2-3 days a week. Mom doesn’t always know what she’s eating, but she says it tastes good and she enjoyed it. Last week she got meatloaf, bean salad, and beef barbecue. Mom’s meatloaf was always the same, and not a favorite of mine, so I think it is the one thing I have worked hardest to find a recipe I like.

Rabbit, squirrel, pheasant, turkey, and deer appeared on our table very often when I was a child. Venison is the only wild game we still have on occasion.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Desertdi — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 08:14:38 GMT

My ma believed that sugar and fat were the most important foods, since they were at the top of the (old) food pyramid..... Everything had gravy or a sauce, and we always had dessert.

I broil or steam..........only eat meat once in a blue moon, and dessert must have a food value.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

spud188 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 09:19:17 GMT

ECGB

Will you tell your friend Annabelle the Cat I said Happy Holidays??

Miss her around the boards.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Harpa — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 12:29:46 GMT

Very different from what I grew up with in most ways. One thing we did have was salad, which was always served last. Now it is my main meal, except on Sundays. We always had pasta & sauce on Sundays, (DH also)

and this is what we have now.

@ECBG

Since my Dad was a hunter, we had an assortment of game in the Sunday sauce! Pheasant, rabbit, squirrel.... (Can't believe I ate that!) But now meatballs or poultry sausage.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

AuntG — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 12:33:32 GMT

We didn't have things like tacos or pizza. More meat and potato dishes.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Vivian — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 12:38:00 GMT

My mother was a meat-potato-vegetable cook. There was very little variety and very little bread or pasta. It was a thrill to go out to dinner and have something different than the usual bland stuff. I eat far less meat and far more ethnic foods, vegetables, pasta and grains.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

kaydee50 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 13:51:13 GMT

My father was strictly a "meat and potatoes" man. We had fish on Fridays, frequently flounder which I never see anymore. He disliked Italian food so I didn't have a pizza until I was in high school. Growing up there wasn't a microwave without which I would now starve--LOL!! And dinners with my parents always included meat, potato AND vegetable. Seldom do that now.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

house_cat — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 13:58:47 GMT

My mom was a wonderful homemaker, but she was a very picky eater and she hated cooking and the preparation that comes along with it. My dad used to joke that she was a "wizard with a can opener". She cooked every night and we never went hungry, but there was no joy in it for her.

When my dad retired at age 60 he took over the kitchen. I was no longer living with them, but his enthusiasm for shopping, prepping, cooking and feeding people was contagious and I have become very much like him.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Eileen in Virginia — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 14:11:46 GMT

@kaydee50 wrote:
My father was strictly a "meat and potatoes" man. We had fish on Fridays, frequently flounder which I never see anymore. He disliked Italian food so I didn't have a pizza until I was in high school. Growing up there wasn't a microwave without which I would now starve--LOL!! And dinners with my parents always included meat, potato AND vegetable. Seldom do that now.

I forgot fish on Friday! My Dad got food poisoning from fish when he was in the Army, so her refused to eat fish. He got scrambled eggs or pierogies on Fridays. If I never see baked flounder with stewed tomatoes again, it will be too soon.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Bluffbaker — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 14:40:43 GMT

My mom was a wonderful cook, but she didn't try many new recipes. She had her tried and true recipes and rotated them all year long. I'm more adventurous and am always trying new recipes. My mom fried chicken, potatoes and salmon patties, but I don't fry anything. My mom also made the best homemade rolls I've ever eaten. Unfortunately, I didn't inherit that skill. I kill yeast even when I use a thermometer to check the temperature of the liquid! My mom had a crock-pot, but she rarely used it. I use my crock-pot several times a month. My dad had a sweet tooth so my mom fixed dessert a couple of times a week. I only fix dessert if we have company or it's a special occasion. Sometimes I'll fix something for us, but it's rare for us to have sweets around the house.

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

Liverbird1 — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 14:51:27 GMT

I grew up in UK and have never heard anybody eating squirrel ,

We had the usual meat[chicken , beef , sausage , pork ,lamb , ]also fish and 2 veg most days . Mum home cooked from scratch and we had a pudding every day . Rice pudding made with lots of cream , jam tarts , apple pies .

There was lots of fat used too .

Now we eat mostly chicken , fish , curries , mexican .Puddings once or twice a wk , yoghurts too .

Also we eat more salads ,

Re: How Does Your Cooking Differ From What You Grew Up With?

shoptilyadropagain — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 14:53:43 GMT

Growing up we were a meat & potatoes family as well as having fried meats w/ gravy. There was also far too many carbs....bread at every meal, corn was our main vegetable and we had mashed potatoes & noodles A LOT. Now, I'm still a meat & potatoes girl but I limit the potatoes as well as my overall carb intake. I eat a salad with my meal almost every night which is mainly a bowl of soup, a sandwich or a small portion of a casserole. I "occasionally" over indulge in carbs by eating pasta or my mashed potatoes & noodles (I am a Hoosier, afterall)..