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Your food experiences growing up. |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,125
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Your food experiences growing up.
How did your parents feed you when you were growing up?
Did you have a great cook as a parent? Did they just feed you crap because they knew no better? Did your experiences leave you with any problems regarding food? My mother was a terrible cook (she was a terrible mother) who hated it so much she would either do it as quickly as possible, or over cook things badly. A few examples: - One time she cooked some frozen turkey legs, that were charred black on the outside but still frozen solid in the middle. - Her fried eggs always had uncooked white on the top (put me off fried eggs for many years). - Her boiled potatoes would always boil dry, and would develop a horrible skin (again, put me off boiled spuds for many years). - She would 'make' pies using simply a tin of stewing steak, nothing else, and the most disgusting, stodgy and undercooked pastry ever. - She 'adapted' almost every recipe she used, by basically either just completely missing out ingredients or changing them for something completely wrong. - Sprouts so over cooked they tasted like farts ( I do love spouts now though when cooked properly). The list could go on and on. Just about everything she ever cooked was a disaster, and definitely left me with several issues about food, to the point where I actually don't like eating food prepared by anyone but me or a partner (when I have one) - and even then I am afraid to say I have to 'hover' over them to be sure they are cooking properly. Thankfully, it was not ALL bad as my dad was, like myself, fairly handy in the kitchen, and would cook on days when he was not at work. He would make a mean liver and onions, a really nice curry, decent stews and cooked most foods properly. Thanks dad, you probably saved me from being a complete food freak, as opposed to the partial one I am ![]() What about you lot? |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: 51°30'4.56"N 0° 8'31.21"W
Posts: 12,160
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I was a kid in the fifties/sixties and it was all home baking then and fresh cooked food.
My mum would go to the butchers, the greengrocers and the local grocers.No supermarkets in our area until the late sixties!. We had stuff like roast on a Sunday, fish on Friday and an assortment of stews, meat and 2 veg the rest of the week. Saturdays my mum worked part time as a nurse, so dad did the cooking, usually chips , beans and pork luncheon meat .Breakfast was almost always cereal, but Saturdays would be a fry-up. Puddings were home baked fruit pies, pineapple upside down pudding, rice puddings, cakes, that sort of thing. I remember my first spag bol, my Aunt cooked it when she visited, round about the late sixties, I loved it!!!, (still do ).
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#3 |
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Guest
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 13,792
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Lots of delicious freshly prepared north Indian food for me, that was interspersed with more traditional British fayre such as roast dinners, home made cakes and pasties. Both my parents have a passion for cooking fresh delicious things which probably explains why I have happy childhood food memories and love to cook from scratch myself.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: London
Posts: 23,261
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My Mum isn't the greatest cook - she does all the basics well (roasts, chilli, spag bol etc...) but sadly as kids she let us all get away with being fussy eaters.
She would sometimes prepare 3 or 4 different meals in the evenings I rarely ate any veg or salad as a kid and was allowed to get away with that (incidentally I do eat most veg now and love salad!!) There are a few specialities my Mum does that have made it in to my recipe book though - she makes a divine diced pork marinated dish.... She also makes a mean home made curry, fab Enchiladas, homemade meatballs and the best peri peri chicken I have ever had... All of which I now make myself
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#5 |
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,236
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My Mum was a crap cook bless her. All I seem to remember was Vesta Chow Mein and then tinned peaches and Carnation milk for pud.
![]() I guess that's why i'm obsessed with good food now, having had so little of it growing up! |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
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My father couldn't cook which is a shame. If my Mum was away with us, he would go next door for meals.
My mother has improved over the years but my brother still refuses to eat her cooking. I think he is just rude. My mother would cook roasts,spag bog,shepherds pie,pizza,fish fingers and apple crumble. She would make torte with coffee dipped sponged fingers. She hasn't made it in years and I can't eat it now as I became allergic at 14. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Sunny Manchester
Posts: 5,561
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I remember having lots of variations on a similar meat and two veg theme. Roast on Sunday, cold on Monday and casseroled/rissoled on tuesday. Chops thursday and fish friday. Mince Saturday lunch- on toast or maybe with a tin of homepride tomato sauce to make spag bol.
Lots of fruit and cheese and cornflakes for snacks- no sweets or crisps but a biscuit with a cup of tea when we got in from school- blue ribband or a breakaway. Breakfast- eggs or porridge in the winter, cornflakes and toast in the summer. Deserts were a treat- flan or fruit pie, angel dleight, swiss roll and cornish ice cream out of cardboard. Lots of full fat milk- fighting for the cream. Unlimited squash to dilute but no ice. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Boing Boing! Boing Boing!
Posts: 2,865
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My mum is a very plain but competent cook - no spice or chilli - and no tomatoes because she's allergic to them.
Her worst meal ever is what she calls 'Scrumble' - imagine a cottage pie base topped with a savoury crumble. The gravy used to soak into the topping and gave it the consistency of wallpaper paste. ![]() Once my brother and I were old enough we'd chuck the scrumble in the bin and go to the chippy instead! However her sage and onion stuffing and her apple crumble are delicious. She also does a good Victoria sandwich (or Nanny Cake as my kids call it!)My dad is the polar opposite. There are only 2 foods he doesn't like (jelly and cheese triangles) and he cooks the best chicken in sesame seeds in the world (official). He also knocks up a mean curry. He used to make something for the two of us on a Saturday evening before I went to work - a Chinese meal, curry or roasted breast of lamb with potatoes and peas.
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: around
Posts: 2,627
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my mum was/is a brilliant cook. I always ask her for advice on what to do with things. She can put together anything and make it taste brilliant. Wish I could do it like that.
As kids we always had homemade main and pudding everyday, I now have this imprinted in my brain and want sweet after savoury all the time. I just wish I could make Jam Roly Poly and all the yummy foods she makes
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#10 |
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 843
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My mum is a great cook, and I remember lots of dinners of home made spag bol (still in my eyes the best i've ever tasted!) toad in the hole, fish in parsley sauce, cottage pies, chicken pies and always a roast dinner on a sunday.
Although I remember eating a fair bit of junk - chips, potato waffles, nuggets, burgers, crisps, sugary cereals, chocolate.. etc and not much veg and salad (this is probably why i've dieted for 2 years and lost 14 stone!) I'm the complete opposite now. I eat pretty much all veg and salad and eat hardly anything to 'junky' I'll only really eat anything that i've cooked myself so I know what ingredients have gone into it, and I do the majority of cooking at home now. She's also amazing at baking things like cakes and we always had a homemade cake for birthday and christmas. My dad isn't the best cook, I can't recall anything he's made that I actually liked.. |
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#11 |
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: cheshire
Posts: 414
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I remember the pressure cooker being on a lot. The food that came out of it was always grey. There would be ham joints and bean stews ( I hate stew now), but my mum worked on a saturday and dad would make fried eggy cheese sandwiches, they were good.
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#12 |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: DTG Bunker
Posts: 5,044
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Mum always made good cakes and desserts, but when my brother and I were children, her cooking was quite unadventurous and bland, and often seemed to consist of some kind of pork product, egg and baked beans. I eat none of those things now.
As she has got older, she has started to get more adventurous and is actually a really good cook. Her lasagne and moussaka are lovely. I think that having to live with my dad, who is a horribly fussy/borderline disordered eater took the fun out of cooking for her for years. Dad is incapable of cooking anything much. Despite this, both my brother and I are keen cooks ourselves. |
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 15,890
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Oh yes, food issues galore here. Having been a type one diabetic since the age of four, food and I have had a love/hate relationship for as long as I can remember. I can totally relate when you say you don't like other people preparing food for you. For most of my life my diet was extremely regimented and knowing exactly what was going into my mouth was vital. I do have fond memories of my gran baking me sugar-free apple pie for Christmas and Thanksgiving and overdosing in the summertime on sugar-free frozen lollies.
Fortunately these days the insulin is better and the therapies more intense, so I can indulge in the odd chocolate brownie... and oh, how I have indulged!
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,125
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Dang glitch
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,125
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Quote:
Oh yes, food issues galore here. Having been a type one diabetic since the age of four, food and I have had a love/hate relationship for as long as I can remember. I can totally relate when you say you don't like other people preparing food for you. For most of my life my diet was extremely regimented and knowing exactly what was going into my mouth was vital. I do have fond memories of my gran baking me sugar-free apple pie for Christmas and Thanksgiving and overdosing in the summertime on sugar-free frozen lollies.
Fortunately these days the insulin is better and the therapies more intense, so I can indulge in the odd chocolate brownie... and oh, how I have indulged! ![]()
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#16 |
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,146
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My mum had no idea how to cook when she got married in the '50's and taught herself via the Good Housekeeping Cook Book. She was a very plain, but pallatable cook.
She would have nothing to do with processed food in the 1970's when I was a kid and cooked everything herself, cakes , soup etc etc, even though she worked and we had lodgers ( so she cooked for 8 -10 people a night even after work !) As soon as I left home I went mad for Findus fish in batter, pot noodles and anything processed into a bag - I soon learnt why my mum didn't bother with processed food. Of course once I had kids I started cooking from scratch and my chicken soup, shepherds pie and quiche are my son's favourites. Can't beat the old favourites. |
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#17 |
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: South Bedfordshire
Posts: 571
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I was in foster care from 9 -18 and my last foster mum ..
![]() She could burn a salad .. the veg was always very very well cooked .. Stews where like pigs swill and everything was cooked in lard or dripping and was always swimming on your plate .. it scared me to not eat any fruit or veg .. but 18 years on i am slow starting to a lot more veg .. |
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#18 |
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Pimlico, central London, UK
Posts: 14,894
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My mum isn't a bad cook but fairly plain, I think I am a lot better than her! My grandmother is a terrific cook though, always look forward to going round to hers to eat.
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#19 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 15,890
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Quote:
Hehe, back to the brownies again
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#20 |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,125
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Quote:
Did you make some today?? I asked my husband if he fancied me making any but he said he'd rather have lemon cheesecake-- which is probably for the best as there is less chance of me devouring a whole cheesecake as there is an entire tray of brownies.
![]() I only had some last week, so I have to stave off my cravings for another couple of weeks. I have inherited heart disease, so it is not really good for me to allow myself just to eat what I want when I fancy it anymore ![]() Never been a cheesecake fan though. I have only ever enjoyed it once, at a work function where they served up a chocolate cheesecake, and that was nice, but that is the only one ever liked. |
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#21 |
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 15,890
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Quote:
No, I was good. I did not make any.
I only had some last week, so I have to stave off my cravings for another couple of weeks. I have inherited heart disease, so it is not really good for me to allow myself just to eat what I want when I fancy it anymore ![]() Never been a cheesecake fan though. I have only ever enjoyed it once, at a work function where they served up a chocolate cheesecake, and that was nice, but that is the only one ever liked.
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#22 |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Posts: 6,736
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I used to have a boiled or poached egg every morning for breakfast, with soldiers made from homemade bread............thought I was deprived cors I didn`t have breakfast cereal every morning like me school mates. funny how kids reason isn`t it.
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#23 |
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 6,125
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Quote:
I used to have a boiled or poached egg every morning for breakfast, with soldiers made from homemade bread............thought I was deprived cors I didn`t have breakfast cereal every morning like me school mates. funny how kids reason isn`t it.
Cereals are all very well, but egg is great for you (all that protein) and home-made bread eh - I bet most of your schoolmates had cheap white bread from the supermarket (depending what era you are talking about ).For me. breakfast was only ever a couple of slices of toast each morning made by dad. After I left home I completely stopped eating Breakfast until just a couple of year ago. |
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#24 |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 896
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My nana is Pakistani and the best cook ever. I had and still have amazing food when I spend time with her
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#25 |
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Leeds
Posts: 1,462
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I'm fortunate enough to have a mum who's a wonderful cook (so too is my grandma).
She's great at all the basics (fry-up, roasts, you name it) but also is very adventurous. Back in the day she used to make curries and chinese's from scratch. She doesn't do that much now but she''a no less a fantastic cook. My dad on the other hand could burn water. My parents split up when I was 6 and I was one of the odd few who stayed with my dad. Great dad but utterly lousy in the kitchen. This was the era of my childhood, of cheese and pickle sandwiches, pot noodles, beans on toast. Thankfully one of the reasons I stayed with my dad was having both sets of grandparents nearby. Both of us regularly ate at one of their houses. I'm happy to say that I've gone down the route of my maternal side as far as gastronomy is concerned. But eventhough I can cook more than adequately, there's a reason I go to mum's once a week to be fed. |
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She also does a good Victoria sandwich (or Nanny Cake as my kids call it!)