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Old 12-28-2014, 07:22 PM
 
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Yes, I know how to cook.

I believe my mom used to know how to cook, a long time ago. However, I have been relatively successful at blocking most of my youth out of my memory. I do hazily remember that my mom's mom was not a good cook either. One of the only things I remember from my tween years is a summer dinner at my grandmas. My older redneck bully of a cousin slammed down his plate of salty, rubbery ham at the "kid's table" out of earshot of the adults and shouted "I ****IN' HATE HAM." My other equally fearsome but laconic cousin immediately came back with "damn straight." I felt so relieved because I thought everyone else liked it. I wasn't into snowmobiles or deer hunting but finally I could bond with my cousins over our shared hatred of ham.
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:27 PM
 
Location: Wonderland
67,652 posts, read 60,351,321 times
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My mother used to be a decent cook. Not a fabulous cook, but a decent one. Her meals were always simple and yet substantial and pretty tasty, though she could turn out the occasional weird casserole, and she never did master pancakes, though she inflicted them on us for years (always raw in the middle).

But she's gotten a lot stranger about cooking as she's gotten older. She is now in her mid seventies, and it's really hit or miss with her, but no one wants to be the one to tell her, so we just avoid having her make main dishes or do much entertaining.

The oddest thing she's started doing is being really chintzy with portions - and before I go any further, let me clarify that my parents have NO money problems and could afford to put on a spread every day of their lives if that's what they wanted to do.

This started a few years ago when we were divvying up the Thanksgiving menu. We didn't want her to have to cook, so her ONLY JOB was to bring the ham. We always have a spiral cut ham. And we also always have at least 10 people and sometimes up to 20 for TG dinner. That particular year we had about 12.

My mother showed up with about ten slices of ham in a baggie. My daughter and I thought she was kidding at first, and we were like, "Oh come on - where's the rest of the ham?" and she said, "It was SO MUCH ham - I didn't figure we needed all that, so I just froze the rest of it."

Very strange. And it was such a small bit of ham that everyone couldn't even have one piece! It really sort of irritated us.

So the next year, my husband said, "Tell her we'll get the ham," and so...you guessed it...we showed up with just a baggie with a few pieces of ham in it. (Everyone else knew we had the rest of the ham with us.) I told my mother, "Now listen - there's just enough for everyone to have a little tiny slice of this, so keep that in mind when you're serving your plate." I watched the expression on her face (she loves ham). She looked so dismayed. I said, "That's not enough ham, is it? Don't worry - I've got the rest of it in the car!"

This TG, she was supposed to bring a chocolate pie. Simple enough - and she had even been bragging about this recipe so we knew she WANTED to bring it.

She didn't bring the whole pie! She brought about half of it! For ten people! What the heck! But to make matters even worse, one of the little grandkids loved that pie, and so I wanted to be sure she could take a little piece home with her with some of the other leftovers, so as we were clearing the table, I started looking for that pie, to see if there was any of it left...and I saw the dish tucked away with my mother's other stuff, already ready to go. Lo and behold, there were two pieces of that pie left - she had nabbed it and stuck it back before any of the other desserts were put away! You know I took that out and put it in the stuff my daughter was taking home! It's not like half that pie wasn't already sitting at my mother's house!

THEN - she wanted to host Christmas dinner at her house this year. Why, I do not know - but OK. We were all game because the last few holidays have been at my house and then Christmas Eve was at my daughter's - so we welcomed the break from hosting. We were having a big bunch of people, including several young, healthy men with huge appetites, home for the holidays.

My daughter and I already had a plan - bring extra food just in case. Good thing we did.

My dad came over to the stove and said, "Honey, this can't be all the beef tips. I bought two pounds of them." She said, "That's all of them - that will do." My dad said, "That's not two pounds of beef tips. That's about one pound. We have a few really big eaters here - this isn't going to be enough!" My mother glared at him and said, "THAT IS ALL THE BEEF TIPS AND THAT'S ENOUGH."

I opened the freezer and moved a few things beside, and found the other pound of beef tips hidden behind a bunch of other stuff!

I cannot figure this out at all. I am honestly wondering if this may be early signs of dementia or something. Just a few months ago, before my daughter moved here, they came for a visit to my parents' house. When supper time came around, they were expecting some sort of meal - even if it was just an order of pizza. They have three kids. Anyway, it became pretty apparent that there was not going to be any supper. My mother came in and said, "Now - I usually just have a handful of almonds or half a peanut butter sandwich for supper and your dad always makes a bag of popcorn and has a Coke or something with that. So...do you guys want a peanut butter sandwich or what?" This was after a pretty meager lunch when they first got there, so they were hungry. My son in law said, "Well, we'll just go out to eat..."

It's just weird. I don't know where this miserly behavior is coming from.
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:35 PM
Status: "Mistress of finance and foods." (set 25 days ago)
 
Location: Coastal Georgia
50,068 posts, read 63,416,388 times
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My mother and grandmothers were all great cooks, so we girls are too. Now, however, my sons and daughter are not so great, and I think it is because they just don't care to spend much time learning, and fast food is readily available.
When you think about it, in the 1940s and 50s, going to a restaurant was a rare thing, but now its a daily thing.
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:50 PM
 
Location: Upper Midwest
1,873 posts, read 4,395,324 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rzzzz View Post
This Christmas my sister, brother and I all visited my mom and dad.

My mom "made" a rice dish out of Uncle Ben's microwavable rice. She added some dried cranberries and sliced almonds. It didn't come out right (?) so she added some tap water to the whole thing and let it soak for a while, then re-microwaved it. It's hard to describe what it tasted like, but it wasn't good. Sort of like eating AirSoft pellets with a metallic "heavy water" sauce. Nobody ate it, except my 300 pound brother. Today she served the exact same thing, now 4 days old, for lunch! AFAIK you're supposed to throw away rice as it doesn't keep well at all. I avoided it again, this time for my own safety. My brother will eat anything. Hopefully he does not end up in the ER.

Her cooking "style" is mostly to combine various prepackaged things then add more stuff to them. For example her "holiday meatball" recipe is putting some hormel meatballs into a crock pot with grape jelly and BBQ sauce. Admittedly those are pretty tasty and that was the best thing she made. Everyone scarfed on those, health be damned.

My dad can't stand it and therefore they eat out about 5 times a week. Their blood pressure is through the roof!

Unfortunately, with the toxic rice and high-sodium microwaved stuff I fear that her cooking isn't just bad tasting, but dangerous.

Does anyone else have a terrible cook for a mother? Any holiday cooking horror stories?
No, just a horrible person.
It's genetic.
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:50 PM
 
Location: Niagara Region
1,376 posts, read 2,151,559 times
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My mother was an amazing cook and I remember as a child, the horrors when I was invited to eat at a friend's house. It was always a challenge to politely eat what was in front of me - all those mothers were like yours lol.

Kathryn, I feel for you. As my mother ages (now 84), her cooking is deteriorating and she no longer enjoys it. She buys very suspect meat cuts (on sale) and apple pies that cost 1.99. She picks cheap generic stuff which is way out of character for her - she no longer seems to have an idea of what tastes good. Meal times are quite bizarre there if left all to mum, so we bring stuff and cook it for her, which she very much enjoys. My mother in law, also a wonderful cook, went through the same thing in her late 70s.
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:54 PM
 
9,694 posts, read 7,340,519 times
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my mom was british, she would boil hamburger meat, every meal we had gravy. it takes a lot of gravy to get that to slide down. one time she made a mushroom casserole, dad told me i couldn't leave the table till i finish, three days later i was still there. the dog would not eat it, kinda like that joke, i fed the dog and all he want to do is lick his butt, maybe he trying to get the taste out of his mouth
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Old 12-28-2014, 07:55 PM
 
894 posts, read 1,045,515 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gentlearts View Post
My mother and grandmothers were all great cooks, so we girls are too. Now, however, my sons and daughter are not so great, and I think it is because they just don't care to spend much time learning, and fast food is readily available.
When you think about it, in the 1940s and 50s, going to a restaurant was a rare thing, but now its a daily thing.
It's funny you mention that because my mother grew up in the 1950's and I remember her telling me that eating out was a "special occasion" type of thing, not a twice or three times weekly occurrence the way it is now. Her father was a doctor, so it's not like they couldn't afford it, it just wasn't done in those days.
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Old 12-28-2014, 08:07 PM
 
Location: Brentwood, Tennessee
49,932 posts, read 59,632,754 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KathrynAragon View Post

It's just weird. I don't know where this miserly behavior is coming from.
KA, this kind of thing can be an early sign of dementia.

Sometimes it shows itself in weird ways, with compulsive behavior (like hoarding food when they really have plenty) and sudden strange eating habits, like eating food that is spoiled etc.

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Old 12-28-2014, 08:19 PM
 
Location: San Antonio, TX
11,495 posts, read 26,752,369 times
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My mom was an all right cook when my dad was in town. The meals were predictable...a chicken leg or 2" cube of steak, 1/3 cup peas and carrots, 1/4 cup mashed potatoes. When my dad was out of town, dinner was usually one box of mac and cheese, with a grated carrot, some raisins and cinnamon added to stretch the box to feed four of us. They weren't broke...there was money for private schools and vacations...she just thought it was a waste of money and effort to feed us meat when Dad was out of town. Unfortunately, he would work out of town for months at a time.

By the time I was 12, I was doing all the cooking. When I moved out 6 years later, they switched to tv dinners. When my sisters moved out, they switched to McDonalds twice a day.

It's kind of weird, my mom taught me how to cook but she doesn't know how to do any of the things I learned from her. It's not dementia, she just read enough about things to tell me how to do them and didn't absorb any of the knowledge herself.
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Old 12-28-2014, 08:22 PM
 
Location: here
24,873 posts, read 36,051,772 times
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My mom is an ok cook, not great, not horrible.


FYI, cooked rice can support rapid bacteria growth and needs to be refrigerated. If it is kept at or below 41F and was cooled to that temperature quickly enough, it should be safe to reheat and eat for about a week.
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