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Anyone else grew up being given perfectly adequate but utterly plain food?
parthy
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I'm back living with my parents for a while after I had to leave my job for health reasons. Since I got back, I've mostly been buying my own food separately rather than contributing to a big family shop, and doing my own cooking.
Why? Because my parents' cooking is unbelieveably dull. Boiled, floury potatoes every night, and I'm not even exaggerating when I say that (we're Irish). It wouldn't be so bad if they were waxy but my parents won't hear of it. If I suggest having another carb, they enquire whether I'll also be doing potatoes. When my mother used to do beef stew with dumplings, she'd do a big plate of potatoes as well, which always confused me. Surely one carb is enough?
Now, I don't want to seem ungrateful, because we got all the food groups growing up, in the right proportions, but there was just no love. When my mother does bacon and cabbage, it's boiled bacon, cabbage boiled in the same pot to the point of sogginess and boiled potatoes, and THAT'S IT. No flourishes. When she does savoury mince, it just consists of boiling it in water for an hour, no frying and adding flavours, nothing. She also overcooks brussell sprouts to buggery. When they do salads, they don't dress them, it is just like rabbit food.
I have to point out I do love potatoes, but in many different forms. My father won't eat mashed potatoes because they're not "proper potatoes". :rolleyes::)
My sis and I are much more adventurous cooks than our parents ever were, and have learned it all ourselves.
Anyone else grow up in the kind of food environment I did?
Why? Because my parents' cooking is unbelieveably dull. Boiled, floury potatoes every night, and I'm not even exaggerating when I say that (we're Irish). It wouldn't be so bad if they were waxy but my parents won't hear of it. If I suggest having another carb, they enquire whether I'll also be doing potatoes. When my mother used to do beef stew with dumplings, she'd do a big plate of potatoes as well, which always confused me. Surely one carb is enough?
Now, I don't want to seem ungrateful, because we got all the food groups growing up, in the right proportions, but there was just no love. When my mother does bacon and cabbage, it's boiled bacon, cabbage boiled in the same pot to the point of sogginess and boiled potatoes, and THAT'S IT. No flourishes. When she does savoury mince, it just consists of boiling it in water for an hour, no frying and adding flavours, nothing. She also overcooks brussell sprouts to buggery. When they do salads, they don't dress them, it is just like rabbit food.
I have to point out I do love potatoes, but in many different forms. My father won't eat mashed potatoes because they're not "proper potatoes". :rolleyes::)
My sis and I are much more adventurous cooks than our parents ever were, and have learned it all ourselves.
Anyone else grow up in the kind of food environment I did?
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But unlike you I have fond memories of the simple foods, I still smile when I think of Cheese on Toast, with Spaghetti and a few sausages on top. Not that I am saying you are ungrateful you just sound like you didn't enjoy the food much.
I too however enjoy cooking and have enjoyed trying new food when presented with the opportunity. But I don't think it was my mums cooking that pushed me to cook myself but rather a necessity to learn because lots of sauces etc. bought from shops have onions in so I had to make my own.
Edit: I seem to have made a pretty long post myself after all
Well, now, in fairness to my mother, she does a great chicken casserole, and my dad is an expert at cooking eggs properly, so they're not complete lost causes!
But no, for the most part, I don't enjoy their cooking hugely. They're very closed-mined about trying new cuisines as well. They won't go to restaurants that don't serve potatoes with the main course. :rolleyes::)
Oh, and I started to get interested in cooking at university, when I quickly realised it was much cheaper to cook good, homecooked, healthy food than junk. It used to depress me that most students seemed not to give a fig about food and just saw it as fuel rather than something to be savoured.
Hahaha, My dad is fairly open-minded and will try new things but not too much - he will have a curry, but only one type. And for the most part he will just have steak with something.
My mum on the other hand really doesn't eat that much at all, I have seen her go a week with only a pea butty (one slice of bread a spoon or two of peas and then the bread folded in half) for sustenance I really don't understand how she survives.
But when she goes out for meals she will only eat the same things and doesn't like to venture out of the comfort zone - it makes our Christmas Eve meal a pain as we want her to eat something (not just sit while we all eat) but most times there is no starter or dessert that she likes the look of.
As for you not liking their food for the most part - this has done something good for you, and it has pushed you to be more adventurous and try different things and learn to cook food for yourself.
Very true!
I stayed with my parents regularly recently as my Mum has been very ill (she passed away 5 weeks ago after a short illness), i was cooking all sorts of tempting and fattening dishes for her as she found Dad's menu unappetising. When she passed away i bought food and cooked it for myself whilst filling up the freezer for him, he is now eating homemade shepherds pies, stews and soups (plain mind!) that he does enjoy but if myself and my sister in law didn't do them for him he'd just eat what he's always eaten.
I have basic dishes that i do but i like to try out new things, kids don't seem to mind!
I am so jealous. I could eat Indian food all day every day.
Have to say, though, my parents didn't use too much tinned stuff. They used fresh veg but just cooked it to tastelessness.
Sunday roast would be followed by bubble and squeak on Monday, Wednesday was a casserole, Friday fish, and Saturday was egg and chips ( can't remember Tuesday's or Thursdays). Every meal was based around potatoes.
She became more adventurous when my brother became a veggie in his teens -pizza and nut roats etc.
TBH, it was a very economical way of feeding a big family and practically nothing went to waste.
Well, I agree here, we weren't well off, but they could made it a bit more interesting with little cost.
I think mother and I have different views in that she sees it as a necessary chore, whereas I enjoy cooking even when I'm tired. I love turning my ingredients into a lovely meal.
I remember getting all excited when I stayed with a friend and her mum served up fish fingers, frozen chips and tinned spagette (someone correct my spelling please) in tomato sauce.
I'm a keen cook and love trying out new food and my daughters are the same. When I cook for my mum she gets stuck in to whatever I make.
Oh and my daughters have always turned their noses up at "junk" or convieniece food(spelling please) and asked for real dinners.
Oh this post makes me laugh. I really do feel your pain.
My father is Irish and there are many foods he simply won't touch due to the foods he was brought up on.
For instance, he won't touch a soup/stew or broth (not even try it) as he complains that when he was a kid his mother used to continually serve them "shacklepot" - which from what I can gather is simply a load of stuff boiled forever without any seasoning and thrown into a bowl - fatty bits and all.
His version of a salad is a bit of dry lettuce and tomato. When we offered to dress it for him he was appalled that anyone would put oil and vinegar on a salad.
The only way he knew how to cook mince was to boil it for an hour, and it's the same with vegetables (the few that he will eat).
Recently, after being diagnosed with high cholesterol, I thought my chance had arrived to improve his diet. I supplied him with oven-roasted vegetables dressed in rosemary and thyme, roasted chicken with lemon and tarragon, home made granary bread and all sorts of other stuff.
He hated it all (that which he tried anyway).
He's now back on white bread, albeit he has changed his butter to "Lurpak lighter". :rolleyes: He's still boiling his vegetables (diced swede from Farmfoods once per month) and frying his potatoes so often that you need to clean the crockery of grease BEFORE you use it.
We had a breakthrough last week when he told me, "I found this great sauce in Asda on offer for a pound. It's by that Lloyd Grossman chap and it's called 'bol-og-nay-see'."
I was REALLY surprised, and I replied, "Wow Dad. Did you have it with spaghetti?"
"Oh no," he said. "It's very runny. If you put it with spaghetti it would be like one big mess. I just put a table spoon of it on top of my pork chop and chips and it was lovely. Do you really mix a tin of spaghetti with a jar of bol-og-nay-see sauce? I think that sounds awful whether young people do it that way or not!"
:rolleyes:
Can you see what I'm up against here? LOL
i meant more like tinned beans, ravioli that sort of stuff. i still like heinz ravioli and devon custard.....:o:D
The bol-og-nay-see bit made me
And yeah, my mother's mince cooking method is to cook in water for an hour. It wouldn't be so bad if she would even cook it in stock!
Everything was cooked from scratch and nothing was wasted. I had no interest in cooking as a teenager and we didn't do it at school and I think my Mother despaired of me. But I got to love cooking after I married and can almost make a meal from nothing and, like my Mum, not a crumb is ever wasted.
What has surprised me is people of my age who say they can't cook and their families live on convenience food! I have heard many stories from people who say they wouldn't have a clue how to cook yorkshire puds and the only "proper" meal they can do is a roast. I've also been told about living on things like beans on toast, Angel Delight, tinned meat and even tinned potatoes.
Lasagne or roast dinner. Thats it. In 3 years.
My mum was a good cook but I suppose our food was fairly plain - but still really nice. Her best things she made were meat pies like steak and kidney - and my fave thing was her stew made with mince - it usually had chunks of potato in it and occasionally dumplings.
I enjoyed them then but don't eat meat now.
I don't think it's all down to bad or bland cooking though. It's just the changing times. Even I remember meals accompanied with plainly boiled potatoes with a bit of butter on top - although we did have mash and also home made chips too.
Also things were flavoured then with onions and copious stock cubes! None of the paraphenalia (can't spell that ) that we have today!
Even pasta was looked at differently. Italian is my favourite cuisine now - but my first experience of pasta was having macaroni at home added to milk and sugar as a sort of dessert - I KID YOU NOT!! :eek::o:p
Heh heh, why?
Well, boiled spuds with butter and salt are a joy - so long as they're waxy.
Your opening post of course!
You ungrateful bugger!
Am sure a lot of peeps will identify with your gripes - but I really think it's just down to (probably) your parent's age group. People get stuck in their ways, cooking wise - and tend to stick with 'what they know' for years.
Maybe one answer is to eat out more often - that way they get to experience new foods and dishes that they end up wanting to try making at home.
Yep - I s'pose my mum was never afraid of salt!
No, I pointed out that they did feed me well but that it was boring!
My Dad decided that no butter, wholemeal bread, no dressing and no fried foods was the way to go to lose weight, the only problem was this made his already plain diet even plainer!
Growing up, all I can remember is frozen cod in parsley sauce, Findus pancakes, Birdseye cod balls in batter (we were from Grimsby in case you hadn't guessed!:D), whatever my gran managed to nick from the chip shop she worked in, tinned peaches, Carnation milk and an occasional Vienetta (a real treat!). I will credit my Mum with the most amazing chocolate cake though, and still legendary amongst family members! She couldn't cook anything else for shit though...:D
Resign yourself to it and cook for yourself, they ain't gonna change. And actually why should they? They like the stuff they've always eaten and if they are happy with that then who are we to change them? The older generation don't like change in my experience, i've been cooking for my 76 year old MIL for about 5-6 years now, and although i've managed to alter her opinion marginally, i'm never going to change her tastes completely so i'm not going to try.
Boiling mince in water for an hour? My God, you have my utmost sympathy!:(:D