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Do you still cook/eat the way your mother did? Or did you develop your own style when first on your own? Or has it been a slow, gradual process of acquisition? Or was there a spouse or an experience that made you have an abrupt shift?
For me, it's hard to nail down. My mom was from an immigrant family, and was a young mom during the depression, and I still retain her frugality and minimalism and self-reliance when it comes to food. Then I went to college in the deep south, exposed to a whole new cuisine. Then I married a midwestern meat-and-potatoes girl. Then I traveled the world and exposed myself to that amazing variety of unknown things eaten with chopsticks or right-hand-only fingers or uncooked right out of the ocean.
I'd say that, after all that, I still aim for well-balanced simple minimalist meals, but with any ingredient that's readily and cheaply available.
I hate cooking. I like healthy. I feel best on a Paleo-ish diet. So, that's the extent of my chefdom. :-) Its easy, no mess, no fuss. I eat real food. I hate processed junk.
I surely use to eat processed junk. Grew up on it. Oh, thank you dumb parents and society for that mess. I had no idea why I would get so sleepy by 10 am. I didn't have a clue that the sugar was making me sleepy. After much learning, I get it now. Drop the manufactured foods. Awful stuff for me. If you feel ok on that stuff, cool. But, for me? No.
For me, it is a combination: I was taught to always have a green veggie, carb and protien for dinner. We do this 99% of the time, but on occassions, like last night we opt out of the carb, having 2 veggies or veggies and something else instead. I do cook my meat rare like daddy always did and use some of the same sauses he did. But, the difference, we use more herbs. I think most of us do. We don't always drink coffee with dinner, we usually have wine instead and we don't have bread with every meal. I also cook a lot more ethnic foods than my parents did. We also have much smaller portions of meat than when I was growning.
Now, as for using the same recipes, no, I don't. Mom made lousy potato salad I though, cause she used Miracle Whip and sweet pickles. I also did not like her cold slaw. I guess there are a lot of foods I cook differently than my parents, I still got most of my skills from dad.
I started cooking around 15 after my dad passed and mom's cooking went downhill. I'd just make omelets out of leftovers and whatever else was lying around and that was much better than what was normally for dinner. Simply went from there to exploring flavors and learning some techniques and became a pretty good amateur cook. I can pretty much get flavor profiles for most popular cuisines, although other than a handful I'm not going to get the techniques correct. I try to have a few flavors and textures in every dinner. After I learned how to cook, eating a slab of meat and a pile of potatoes got very boring. As I've been mostly self-employed, I can make the time to do it and find it worthwhile. Probably wouldn't do it if I was commuting or had to feed a bunch of kids - but I'd likely eat out more in that case.
Do you still cook/eat the way your mother did? Or did you develop your own style when first on your own? Or has it been a slow, gradual process of acquisition? Or was there a spouse or an experience that made you have an abrupt shift?
For me, it's hard to nail down. My mom was from an immigrant family, and was a young mom during the depression, and I still retain her frugality and minimalism and self-reliance when it comes to food. Then I went to college in the deep south, exposed to a whole new cuisine. Then I married a midwestern meat-and-potatoes girl. Then I traveled the world and exposed myself to that amazing variety of unknown things eaten with chopsticks or right-hand-only fingers or uncooked right out of the ocean.
I'd say that, after all that, I still aim for well-balanced simple minimalist meals, but with any ingredient that's readily and cheaply available.
When my kids were still kids, I basically had the same meals styles as I grew up with.
The only actual difference is I didn't consider dessert to be a part of everyday meals.
I hate cooking. I like healthy. I feel best on a Paleo-ish diet. So, that's the extent of my chefdom. :-) Its easy, no mess, no fuss. I eat real food. I hate processed junk.
I surely use to eat processed junk. Grew up on it. Oh, thank you dumb parents and society for that mess. I had no idea why I would get so sleepy by 10 am. I didn't have a clue that the sugar was making me sleepy. After much learning, I get it now. Drop the manufactured foods. Awful stuff for me. If you feel ok on that stuff, cool. But, for me? No.
I think you have chosen the best for you but food is more than just a source of energy and something we do for health, it is a social event for many of us. One can cook, healthy foods, they do not have to depend on manufactured food. Yes, some people do enjoy food with preservatives or fast food . A little won't hurt anyone, a lot might. Cooking and eating is a very personal thing. None of us should judge others by the way they cook or eat and none of us should think we have the best way. I don't understand vegans for instance, but I don't think they are wrong for their choices.
I don't eat hardly the same things that my mother did. She cooked a lot of casseroles, creamy-mushroom chicken this and that.. It was pretty bland most of the time. I recall when I was 16 or so I went to the market and bought some cheap beef, carrots, onions, garlic some instant rice and some spices, took out the cast iron skillet and made my first beef stir-fry. My mother loved it and soon thereafter I started cooking regularly. I moved out when I was 17 and me and my room mate really enjoyed cooking (and eating). We became pretty frugal shoppers and watched a lot of cooking shows.
I also take after my Dad with regards to cooking. Very much a southern man, I cook a lot of greens like kale, collards, mustards and eat a lot of beans like butter beans, field snaps etc.. I also use pork- pork shoulder roasts, collards and shredded pork, lot's of variations of chicken and now of course wild game. My son is very allergic to all fish and seafood, if he wasn't I would prepare fish more often as well.
I don't eat hardly the same things that my mother did. She cooked a lot of casseroles, creamy-mushroom chicken this and that.. It was pretty bland most of the time. I recall when I was 16 or so I went to the market and bought some cheap beef, carrots, onions, garlic some instant rice and some spices, took out the cast iron skillet and made my first beef stir-fry. My mother loved it and soon thereafter I started cooking regularly. I moved out when I was 17 and me and my room mate really enjoyed cooking (and eating). We became pretty frugal shoppers and watched a lot of cooking shows.
I also take after my Dad with regards to cooking. Very much a southern man, I cook a lot of greens like kale, collards, mustards and eat a lot of beans like butter beans, field snaps etc.. I also use pork- pork shoulder roasts, collards and shredded pork, lot's of variations of chicken and now of course wild game. My son is very allergic to all fish and seafood, if he wasn't I would prepare fish more often as well.
We do like our greens, but I am still not a huge fan of Kale, I have tried, we do get it from time to time, but I can't say it is at the top of our list. As for beans, except for black eyed peas we love all beans.
The cast iron skillet? That was probably my first good friend when I started cooking. I knew how to use it when I wasn't probably older than about 10.
Kale can be a crap shoot and certainly can turn out bitter (same with mustard greens). Our old garden variety was pretty consistent, but some of the store bought stuff can be iffy.
I was in the grocery store a while back and there was a HEAP of fresh collard greens in the produce aisle. This was the first time I had seen it fresh in Montana, so I loaded up 3-4 bags and put it my cart along with some ham hocks from the meat section. While at the checkout, a lady behind me said "You have turtles?". The cashier (who was originally from NC) looked at me and me at him then said "What??!"
The lady said- "that's what we feed our pet turtles!" The cashier said "No ma'am, this boys from the south, he knows what to do with 'em!"
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