# Can your Mother cook?



## attie (Aug 13, 2008)

My memory was jolted last week when my wife and I paid a visit to my 89 year old Mother in our home town. I left home at 17 years old and returned for a short time to marry but moved away again. I recall the coke/wood stove and having to go down to the railway tracks when Dad tooted the whistle when throwing some coal off for us as he went by our house [He was a steam train fireman]. My brothers and I breaking up the coal and Mum cooking over this dreadfully hot stove and I always getting in trouble for not eating my dinner. Dinner was served at 5pm and if you weren't there you missed out, so I was always late.

After we had our two boys Mum and Dad would come visit occasionally and she would always bring tins of assorted biscuits, jam drops, cornflake biscuits etc. That was OK for awhile until the boys started bringing them home from school uneaten. The last straw came when the dog jacked up on them, so I had to politely tell Mom not to bother anymore.

Mom was back in to her best form for our visit, we took the food, she cooked it. Everything gets well done, really well done, like the sausages burnt black well done, the boiled cabbage dissolving in to the water well done, and dinner ready to eat at 2pm.

Two nights of this was enough I'm afraid, no wonder I was a skinny runt when I was a kid, so I'm afraid my Mum is not much of a cook, but she tries ----- God bless her.


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## expatgirl (Aug 13, 2008)

my mother was a terrible cook, bless her.........she had other great qualities but cooking wasn't one of them........talk about pyrotechnics......... for all the meats that she cooked there was no worry about e. coli or salmonella......if the bacteria were there they burned up in the funeral pyre which was her whole purpose in the first place........vegetables came out of a can.......no seasonings whatsoever.........cheese sandwiches were tasteless cheese slices with mustard.....no mayo whatsoever......but we always passed our blood tests and physicals so we weren't at any health risks.....though how, I don't know.......she did make great homemade fudge, however.........from Pennsylvania............I miss her burnt offerings........


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## miniman (Aug 13, 2008)

My mother was quite good with basic stuff - she didn't learn until she married. However my grandma produced food which was very interesting. Her pasta salads were renowned in the family.


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## pdswife (Aug 13, 2008)

Mine makes one or two things pretty well... but...the rest...not so good


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## Uncle Bob (Aug 13, 2008)

Yes my Mother could cook, and I would give all the Gold in the world to hear her call out the back door..."C'mon in Bob..It's supper time"


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## SizzlininIN (Aug 13, 2008)

My mother was an amazing cook. She was from the south and really knew what she was doing. She wasn't one for measuring though so her recipes she wrote down for me aren't exact but after some trial and error I've mastered quite a few of her dishes. God I miss her!


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## Andy M. (Aug 13, 2008)

My mother was a very good cook.  She didn't like to cook but did it well.  Both my parents came to America from Armenia as young adults.  As a result, I was raised on mostly Armenian dishes.  I am still trying to re-create some of those foods from Mom's kitchen.


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## kitchenelf (Aug 13, 2008)

Attie - we ate at 5:00 sharp too!  

My sister and I were just talking about this.  We remembered about 5 or 6 things - we each called them off - after that, we couldn't remember anything else.  Surely there were other things.  Her macaroni salad I still make today and it is a favorite with anyone who eats it.  She made a "mean" kraut and ribs on the stove and our version of shepherd's pie, Hungarian dishes (paprikash, Goulash, cucumbers/sour cream, Potica).  After all us kids were out of the house she did experiment from a little cookbook put out by, of all people, some cigarette company.  Let me tell you, that woman could follow directions and produced some stuff that made me take notice!   So, while we thought she wasn't adventurous I think she just had her hands full getting a full meal on the table each and every night and couldn't really break out of that box.


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## Bigjim68 (Aug 13, 2008)

Seems like many of us learned to cook in self defense.  My mother believed that everything should be well done.  Meat so dry you could break it, vegetable mush with grease. Ironically, my dad had a friendt that fattened a steer fattened each year and split it, and hunted all fall.  We grew a vegetable garden.  So, she started with the best of ingredients.  I still prefer everything as close to raw as possible


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## jeninga75 (Aug 13, 2008)

Yes, my mom can cook. I learned all my basics from her and developed my own methods. It's just her and my dad now so its more frozen dinners and salads and sandwiches, even when I come home. But when I was a kid, it was a home cooked meal every night with my dad taking leftovers to work the next day. I miss her stuffed cabbage. Also every Christmas because I don't like ham, we would have a pork roast with scalloped potatos from scratch. She also made fetuccini alfredo homemade - would you like a little pasta with your heavy cream and butter?


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## LadyCook61 (Aug 13, 2008)

Mom was a good cook.. I remember her cream puffs and potato salad .  I miss my mom.


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## jabbur (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom grew up on a farm.  HER mom often helped with the field work leaving my mom to do the cooking and cleaning.  Both women though were good cooks but kept to simple country dishes.  My dad's mom was a great baker!  Her meals were okay, nothing special but man, could she bake pies, cakes, cookies, candies!  It was always awesome going to her house for the homemade sweets.  My mom taught me how to cook and when I was in 6th grade I planned and cooked dinner for the whole family.  I made lasagne, salads, garlic bread, and baked alaska for dessert.  Mom only helped by making sure I had all the utensils and ingredients.  She left us many great recipes.  My sisters and I are still going through her cards.  Some are so old and faded they are hard to read.  I guess I have my mom to thank for my cooking skills what little ones I have.  
So far, my sisters and I have each tackled a different dish that was Mom's signature.  I make her dressing for thanksgiving as well as her gravy and her potato salad and ham salad.  One sister makes her doughnuts, the other makes her apple salad.  These are the dishes that we have made that taste just like mom made.  We have others but these are what we eat when we want to taste her cooking without her.  I miss her alot.


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## Barbara L (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom was such a good cook!  Nothing fancy (usually--but not always the case), but good hearty meals.  All of our friends wanted to eat at our house.  Whenever I make something that turns out as good as hers, I am so proud of myself!  She made the best chop suey, lasagna, meatloaf, and so much more.  She was also a great baker and made wonderful breads, lemon meringue and chocolate meringue pies (actually all her pies were fantastic), and you name it, it was all great.  I miss her for so many other reasons, but I also miss her cooking.

Barbara


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## sattie (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom and dad both could cook.


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## Robo410 (Aug 13, 2008)

Mom was the daughter of a Swedish Lutheran pastor from BC. After college and grad school in Wash and Calif, she came east to go to Med school in Philly. As an intern she met dad and married. She learned northern European cuisine from her mom and how to be creative on a tight budget as well. (she grew up with a coal fired stove too, and swore till her dying day it made the best breads and pie crusts because of its intense heat.)

Anyway, mom loved all the cooking shows on PBS (public tv) especially Julia Child the French Chef. Cooking was her hobby, her therapy , her relaxation. And we cooked together as a family. As teens, my sis and I were perfectly capable of finishing off cooking a meal if mom was on call at the hospital. 

When she retired she really got into the farm markets and finding old world butchers who really knew their craft and although she mostly cooked from fresh, now it became the total concept.

So mom was always a good cook who became an awesome cook. And she is with us today through her recipes and our memories of learning from her all the techniques we use.


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## Constance (Aug 13, 2008)

Like Andy's mom, my mother could cook, and provided us with healthy, nutritious meals, but she didn't enjoy it. She did enjoy baking sweets for special occasions, though. Her cakes, pies and cookies were amazing!


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## marigeorge (Aug 13, 2008)

My mother was a good cook but didn't like to, she would rather be outside working in the garden.


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## homecook (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom was a good cook. Mostly the basics as she worked most of my school years, so that meant I cooked.
Her specialties were spaghetti sauce, lasagna,cream puffs and the best rolled beef roast. Everyone wanted her to make it for the different family doings. Her gravy was to die for. I wish she remembered how she made it. Her turkey stuffing is something my DH just can't get enough of. Fortunately I have really mastered that as simple as it is.
My grandmother was the one that cooked all the ethnic foods I've learned to make, stuffed cabbage, borscht, chicken paprikash, etc. She was also the one that did all the baking, potica, krushiki(sp?), punchki etc. 
My grandmother is gone now and my mom has dementia and I'm glad for all they've taught me!

Barb


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## attie (Aug 13, 2008)

Bigjim68 said:


> Seems like many of us learned to cook in self defense.  My mother believed that everything should be well done.  Meat so dry you could break it, vegetable mush with grease. Ironically, my dad had a friend that fattened a steer fattened each year and split it, and hunted all fall.  We grew a vegetable garden.  So, she started with the best of ingredients.  I still prefer everything as close to raw as possible


More memories Jim, we brought our kids up on a small property and raised our own cattle for meat. A friend who had more experience than I would plan the kill the night before over many drinks then attack at daylight so you can imagine we would not be at our best when the time came. He would shoot the beast [which I couldn't watch] and I recall him missing once at point blank range. I would then hold the beast up with my Bobcat while he split it with the chain saw, I soon learnt to wear a raincoat for that job. Another time, after much swearing and cursing, we discovered that we had put the chain in back to front.
Then we discovered that one could tenderise meat by marinating it with green Pawpaw, so we fed the beast a diet of Pawpaw for a week before the kill. We almost killed it with diarrhea so had to postpone the kill. --- all good times


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## expatgirl (Aug 13, 2008)

oh, my goodness..........details, details,......


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## SizzlininIN (Aug 13, 2008)

sattie said:


> My mom and dad both could cook.


 
My dads attempts were always disasters growing up. The good thing was we knew we'd end up getting McDonalds if he was cooking because eventually he'd decide whatever he was cooking needed some beer added to it. God rest his soul!


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## suziquzie (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom does the baking, Dad does most of the cooking. Works out very well for them, and we managed to get dessert out of it ALOT!!!


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## carolelaine (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom was the most wonderful cook but she really only enjoyed making desserts and all of them were great.  She's gotten older now and doesn't cook very often, which is bad for us.  My Daddy liked the cooking shows and he was the one who made the adventurous food.  Most of his was really good also, and when he had a bad experiment we just laughed and never made that again. I mss him.


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## Loprraine (Aug 13, 2008)

Attie, I remember our coal/wood stove well!  One sister still has one, but it also has propane gas burners.

My Mother was a great cook.  Nothing fancy, just plain and simple.  She managed to get 3 meals on the table every day for 9 people on a very limited budget.  Almost everything was homemade (I don't think tv dinners were invented them). We always had homemade bread, cakes, cookies, pies.  Unfortunately I did not inherit her baking abilities.  

When I was there 2 weeks ago, I made a bunch of her dishes that I loved as a  kid and froze them for her.  It was really sad, not only can she not cook anymore, often, she can't remember what she likes to eat.


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## Jeekinz (Aug 13, 2008)

Mine can cook!


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## pot clanger (Aug 13, 2008)

My knee-jerk response is to scream, "NO!"  But then I remember she taught me how to make pork chops and gravy....  still a big favorite in my house...  

I will NOT go to dinner at her house, but she comes over here and I let her mess around (and I do mean MESS) without interfering too much...  when she leaves food out for too long I will throw it away - a mess I can tolerate - but I draw the line at food safety and cleanliness.


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## roadfix (Aug 13, 2008)

Mine can cook too, but mostly Japanese food.


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## Mama (Aug 13, 2008)

My Mama was a great cook.  I remember as a child I loved being in the kitchen with her "helping" her cook.  Several of the recipes on my website were hers.  I miss her.


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## luvs (Aug 13, 2008)

my Mom can cook a few dishes, sorta.  she says she cannot cook & we don't generally disagree.
my Dad can cook, though!


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## Anau (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom didn't cook much when we were growing up.  I remember a lot of Chef Boyardee and frozen pizzas, haha.  But with the advent of better cooking shows and with us being older, she starting cooking a lot more.  That was at the same time I started cooking so I guess we learned together.  Nowadays, I'm a little better at technique than her but she has a knack for finding great recipes, so we tend to eat well when I visit!


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## CharlieD (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom is truly a great cook. She can cook and she can bake. She can feel the foods. As I've learning to cook some more ethnic foods she was there right alone side of me learning it too. She is way ahead of me of course. It's like as if she has always been cooking Mexican food or Chinese. And when it comes to baking oh my, she is absolutely awesome. Russian baking is very involved, some times it takes hours just to bake, what we called tort, but it is more like a heavy cakes. Most of them are very complicated multi layered, multi frosted (if I can say that). I learned to love cooking from her. I can’t say though that I learned cooking from her that I did on my own, when I had to cook, living on my own. At home I did spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but never for cooking; mostly talking to her while she was cooking. She’d never let me do anything. I’m too slow for her. She is incredibly fast with everything she does. But lately she started to slow down; years are talking tall on her. There is much to learn from her and I really must do it now, before it is too late (G-d forbid). I need to venture into baking, that is my weak side. I can bake couple of things here and there, and can force my self to read the recipe and try to fallow it, but it is hard.

P.S. I have to ad though, my grandma, was truly phenomenal cook. She had a lot of time on her hands, she never worked, even when my grand father was thrown in to jail by Stalin’s tugs, she did not work. So she’d spend her entire day in the kitchen (cooking and cooking and cooking that included baking too). Perfecting one dish after another. She made these blintzes, I can still taste them in my mouse, nobody could make them that great, and I seriously mean nobody. She could seriously cook and my grand father could seriously eat. He was about 6 feet tall and incredibly strong. There is a picture of him, during WWII; he is lifting a horse on his back, no props, no digital photography, real stuff. My mom likes to tell story how grandma made like 100 or so pirogies; we still call them vareniki, for the guests for the next day. Grandpa came home late from work, when everybody were already asleep, pool out the bowl out refrigerator, and ate them called. By the time grandma woke up wand went into the kitchen to see who was making the noise he was almost done with them. Well, she had to start over, but he loved it. He really appreciated everything she cooked. Even though I think he’d eat anything you’d put in front of him. He always made sure to tell her how wonderful everything was and how much he loved it. She in turn would cook more. That was an ideal situation. G-d I miss them.


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## Claire (Aug 13, 2008)

Mom and Dad both came from families whose idea of a great dinner was throwing it all in a pot and boiling it until everything was in shades of gray.  So Mom learned to cook from the military wives we knew growing up.  Japanese, French, Italian and German were strongly featured.  In those days Dad was an adventurous eater.  Now he's more a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy, except when I make my periodic forays to Florida.  Then he wants sushi and other cuisines that he wants a "guide" to.  So, yes, Mom was a good cook, seemed to enjoy it, and taught me young.


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## babetoo (Aug 13, 2008)

mine was an ok cook, very plain. she liked to eat out as she got older.my dad did some cooking, very basic things, chili etc.

i am completely self taught plus 50 or so years of experience. i consider myself a good cook, not at all a chef. i do experiment with different foods and dishes. and have a fairly good imagination when doing it. i like it, she didn't

babe


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## expatgirl (Aug 13, 2008)

ah, Charlie, what great memories and also from the rest of you......obviously, I grew up  in a deprived hands on cooking environment.  Your mom sounds like she was fantastic in the kitchen.......I've tasted the cakes over here (tortes) and believe me they do look involved but really good and I don't eat desserts per se.  But there is a custom here, that maybe you're familiar with, Charlie, people bring their own cakes to celebrate their birthdays and any celebration and share it with people........I think that it's a nice one........so I've toasted with several of these delicious tortes........and pirogies are to die for......I really need to have one of the girls at the office show me how to make those before I leave.........you were certainly lucky!!!


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## larry_stewart (Aug 13, 2008)

My mom was an OK recipe follower, but had and has no common cooking sense. She can not deviate from a recipe at all, or else it will spell disaster.  When we were really young, my mother did all the cooking.  She made the basics, mac and cheese, hamburgers, hot dogs, spaghetti...  She learned from her mother who was kosher, diabetic, ulcers, hypertension, history or heart disease .... and therefore had an extremely restricted diet. So her food was bland, no salt, no sugar.....

Finally, at the age of 40, my mother went back to school to become a nurse, and my dad started to cook.  He cooked prior to this, but only certain things like the grill, clam chowder, onion soup and more exotic things like moo goo gai pan (sp).  He did it because he liked to, my mother did it because she had to. Anyway, my dad ultimately took over ( thank god), so for me, it is extremely normal for the male to do the cooking.  Even my kids feel this way, and seem surprised when my wife actually makes dinner.  Her friend are like " what? your dad is cooking?? "  But once again, my wife is either a terrible cook, or she just pretends to be that way so ill do all the cooking, but i love it


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## expatgirl (Aug 13, 2008)

I actually learned to cook from my mother-in-law, Mary.  Mary had some basic recipes that were wonderful and she believed in using either fresh or frozen veggies and she seasoned them with a bit of sugar, salt and pepper, and a little butter.   They were wonderful..   She was able to entice me to leave the corn only veggies diet........her Thanksgiving dinners were to die for.......the best gravy and she was infamous for her homemade pecan, mincemeat, and pumpkin pies, and dressing with cornbread.......the best gift I've ever received was a collection of her best recipes put together by my father-in-law.......the best praise was when they both said that I had become a good cook myself......I said that it was all due to her........


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## CharlieD (Aug 13, 2008)

Speaking of surprises and prises. My mom the other day told me that I am a better cook than she is, I think it was just a compliment, but what a Compliment that was!


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## middie (Aug 13, 2008)

I was lucky enough to have a mom who's a wonderful cook


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## Dave Hutchins (Aug 14, 2008)

My mother was a fantastic cook For many years she was the head cook at the largest family restaurant in Des Moines Ia late 30Ty's till 1958.  We always had a garden and her cooking skills were great she taught me the basics and a lot more before I went to work in the hotel where I apprentice for 10 years under a master chef I am the richer for her skills and teaching me how to organize and cook under pressure
I miss her very much and wish I could pick up the phone and say how you doing MOM


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## expatgirl (Aug 14, 2008)

yeah, me, too....I think that there all kinds of legacies we inherit one way or the other


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## Mel! (Aug 14, 2008)

My mother thinks she can cook but by most of our standards here she cant. 

She knows how to make a few dishes but that is it. She would not be up to making an Italian pasta sauce, a Thai curry, any type of soup...

Mel


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## expatgirl (Aug 14, 2008)

well, welcome to my generation raised on Chef Boy Ar Dee spaghetti and pizza......soup was from a  Campbell's soup can but it was good unless my mom forced you to eat the tomatoey stuff....yechh.........that only happened onces...same with the liver....only once.....she made us sit there for a long time only once..........I guess she had to make a point....yep, you dumped it on your sister's plate or bowl when she wasn't looking.....I know--wrong lesson learned....anyway .....I really can't think of anything that she made that was especially tasty and that's long before convenience stores, fast food, pizza delivery,  jars of pasta sauce in all different kinds of varieties.  She was brilliant in other areas......she skipped two grades when she was in school and set high standards for us and worked with us on homework.........


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## momerlyn (Aug 14, 2008)

My mom is a great cook, and my sister and brother followed in her footsteps. My brother does all the cooking in his house. My sister is so good, she can go to a restaurant, taste a dish, and come up with all the ingredients. I've seen her amaze waiters.

I'm an ok cook; my kids think I'm terrific, but that's because they don't know any better. (Don't tell them I said that!)

The next generation is good too... my sister's eldest, my brother's eldest, and my eldest are all great cooks. What do you think that means?


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## Katie H (Aug 14, 2008)

My mother was a basic cook and used the original _Betty Crocker Cookbook_ as her guide.  She was extremely particular about what she cooked so that it didn't "mess" up her stove or kitchen.  She nearly shuddered when my daddy asked for fried eggs on Sunday mornings.  That meant she'd have to wipe splatters off the stovetop.  We also rarely had any type of roast that would splatter/spit in the oven.  Her broiled steaks were bovine hockey pucks.

When she realized that, at age 8, I could cook, she quit cooking and left it to me.  I began with her old Betty Crocker book and added others of my own as time went on.  She did have a recipe file, but wouldn't allow anyone to copy any of her recipes.  Although, I do remember in a fit of defiance, one day while she was gone, I thumbed through the file and copied a handful of things I remembered liking.  I have no clue where that recipe file went.

I've been enjoying everyone's fond "mother's cooking" posts.  I'll live vicariously through them, since I don't have warm fuzzy childhood or adult  memories of that.


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