Community Chat

[chrystaltree]

My mom was not a great cook but she did make a few dishes that were excellent and that I still miss.  She made the best liver and onions.  I have never liked anyone else's liver and onions. Her spaghetti and meatballs was amazing.   She also made delicious fried chicken, she fried it in a huge cast iron pan and she would spend hours to get each piece perfect.  She was a better baker than she was a cook.  My grandmother and my great aunt were the cooks in the family, everything they made was amazing and they were often cooking on a budget. I have their cookbooks and recipe cards now but honestly, cooking isn't my thing.    My Aunt Bea even made food for the dog and cat.  She would send us to the butcher to get a fowl which she would boil and then chop up the meat and add veggies for the cat. She get real cheap cuts of beef for the dog and par boil and add some veggies. Sometimes she put in their dishes as is, sometimes she mixed it with their can food.   She lightly seasoned the pet food and one day my grandfather kidded her about seasoning the food for the animals because they wouldn't know the difference.  She got furious and and said  "I season our food They aren't wild animals, they have taste buds!"   

[tansy]

We ate out probably more than we ate at home.  Her dinners were not memorable, neither are mine.  

[Desert Lily]

My mom made banana cake from scratch and mocha frosting to ice it when I was young.

In her later years, she made Sunday brunch for my father, my child, and me. She make chocolate chip crepes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and great coffee.

[songbird]

She was not a good cook.  She was an excellent baker.  I've notice that people that are good cooks and not so great bakers and vice verse.  Even chefs.  Pastry chefs have their own discipline.  Bobby Flay, while a great cook/chef is not so good in baking and usually employs a pastry chef.  But my mom's baking was excellent.  It's what your comfortable with.  Cooking meals was tedious and sometimes nerve wracking when you have to stop and correct it.  But baking for her was very relaxing.  I'm a terrible baker.  But I'm a decent cook.