Kitchen

[ECBG]

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.

[Goldengate8361]

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. 

[GCR18]

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

[Kachina624]

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.

[blackhole99]

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.

[Eileen in Virginia]

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! 😉

[roxxy1]

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

[roxxy1]

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.  

[RedTop]

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.   

[Desertdi]

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.