Mmm…mmm…mmm…just like Mom used to make
Is (was) your mother a good cook?
I’m unequivocally on the record as a craptasticular cook. I make really good cookies – or at least I did until I moved to a place where “high-altitude directions” apply (and don’t always work). And I make really decadent chocolate mousse. But there are some nights that I can’t even bake a frozen pizza without cleaning the oven afterward.
I love my mother to pieces, but it was fairly obvious that she did not enjoy cooking family dinners. Granted, neither my brother nor I showed much appreciation. But when we had guests, she pulled out all the stops – and they must have liked what she made because they always came back. It couldn’t have been the fabulous performances by the reluctant teen harpist.
What did she make? Chicken Divan (which I learned to like), Beef Burgundy (which I never liked), and Creamed Dried Beef (which my father ate over the top of biscuits that he’d slathered with blackberry jam). It was all edible, but I knew it was a chore for her.
I don’t know if Kyle’s mother enjoyed cooking family dinners, but he sure does enjoy joking about mushy canned vegetables and incinerated round steak. Dinners out were even worse – he was one of three boys, and they would attack a pizza like a pack of wild dogs.
Time to share your own stories of Mom’s cooking. Was it good? Was it bad? Do you swap recipes? Or do you invite her to dinner at your place so that you can exact revenge?
May 26th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
My mom is a pretty decent cook. She didn’t make anything too nasty…I mean, my brother and I did gag over the chicken divan (big at our house too!) and meatloaf. Now that I think of it, we had a lot of casseroles, which just aren’t that exciting for kids. Anyway, I must have learned to like all of it because I find myself making the same meals for my family (minus the meatloaf) and calling her whenever I need a good recipe.
May 27th, 2007 at 1:42 am
like alison, i’d say my mom was decent. i’ve used some of her recipes, but i’ve also developed some “specialties” of my own, particularly my avocado chicken.
but sometimes – especially when i’m feeling down – i miss mom’s cooking.
May 27th, 2007 at 3:14 am
My mom was a wonderful cook when I was growing up, but now, not so much. The unfortunate part is that she thinks she’s still a good cook. I am now known by my friends and family as a good cook, though I don’t know how true that is.
May 27th, 2007 at 5:11 am
Bland and boring! I remember having the same things over and over.
Lucky for me, my husband’s a great cook.
May 27th, 2007 at 5:41 am
My mom was a good cook and a great baker, although I didn’t really appreciate that until I went away to college.
Since she’s been gone, the little sister and I have had to be in charge of 2 Thanksgiving dinners and let me tell you, hilarious is a vast understatement.
The little sister got all the cooking/baking genes. I’m good at it but don’t do it (cook that is) too often. heh.
May 27th, 2007 at 6:14 am
My mother was an adequate cook. I thought she was a good cook until I moved in with my future husband. His mother had taken a bunch of classes in classic cooking when he was young. Sine he was always interested in food, he was at her elbow every night during dinner preparations. He is a wonderful cook, and once I realized that, my mom’s cooking didn’t seem so great anymore.
On the plus side, my mom doesn’t seem to mind, because when we come to visit she gets to order pizza from our favorite local joint instead of making a big dinner. Also, he’s taught me so much over the years. I don’t have the passion for it like he does, but if my back is up against the wall, I can whip something up pretty easily.
May 27th, 2007 at 6:48 am
When I was younger, I used to complain about what a bad cook my mom was. Plates of food that were uniformly beige; everything covered in mayo or cream of mushroom soup…but now that I am old and wise, I realize that someone who turned out 3 homemade meals a day for 0-5 kids over 61 years of marriage…well, the woman deserves applause, not criticism.
May 27th, 2007 at 7:23 am
My mother, despite all her evilness, is a GREAT cook. I mean, this woman can cook anything, and she’s got a real talent for making party-type foods. She catered all of our bar and bat mitzvahs herself, she’s had huge parties with hundreds of people and done all the cooking. My grandmothers were both good cooks, too, but my mother is just amazing. I’m a very good cook and there is just no comparison between my and my moms cooking. She’s just way way better.
May 27th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Cooking was a chore for my mom too. Although she was good at it, it was never her passion. Once the microwave was created, all our meals were cooked in the microwave or not at all.
Now I’m trying to cook for my family, and (slowly) beginning to enjoy it!
For this reason I decided to start a recipe exchange on my blog! Come on by and check it out!
May 27th, 2007 at 9:41 am
My mom cooks for a living and she is the most amazing cook. Ever.
I can’t boil water.
I set my oven on fire the first time I used it. Apparently they leave the instructions inside of it. We’d been in our new house for a year and I’d never even looked inside.
Poor hailey.
May 27th, 2007 at 10:58 am
My Mom is a pretty good cook, she’s best at comfort food or homestyle cooking type meals…and she can cook for a large crowd without stressing. Also, she can bake really well.
I don’t want to brag, but I’m a good cook and I would even say that I’m better than my Mom…but I do stress at cooking for a large crowd (but have proven I can do it). I can’t bake and I don’t like baking…not even from a box…but I do it for/with my kids.
May 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
Kinda funny you mention this. My mom used to make spaghetti ahead of time. And the day we ate it, she would add rice “to bulk it up” and some extra ketchup. It would be hot yet crunchy. Also she’d only use half a pack of the dry mix cheese from no-name mac and cheese. Then after she had 6 or 7 of these half packs, she’d buy noodles in bulk. It was gross.
To this day my mom still is a crappy cook. But she’s gotten better in that at least now her stuff just is horribly bland. But she does this because she doesn’t want her and my dad to eat too much… She’s scared they’ll put on weight. I guess its worked. They are both skinny. heehee.
May 27th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Even though I remember eating a LOT of hamburger, my mom was a good cook then and is an excellent one now–even though she very rarely has time to cook. Me, not so much–don’t enjoy it, not good at it, just manage to get by. However, Mom is here now and she’s copying the recipe for a dish I made tonight. That’s a first!
May 28th, 2007 at 9:31 am
My mom was a phenomenal cook. I, on the other hand, am, as you put it, a CRAPTACULAR cook. I can make soup and pasta and sometimes I even wreck the pasta.
Thankfully HBF is an awesoem and enthusiastic cook. Otherwise we’d starve.
May 29th, 2007 at 7:22 am
My mom is a very good cook. She taught my sister & I how to cook and was my inspiration to take culinary arts in Vo-Tech during high school.
We LOVE to bake, but we *do* make an awesome pork chops Diane (if I do say so myself) and stuffed chicken breast…mmmmm now I’m hungry.
All of my B.W.T. (basic wife training) has gone to waste since Joe only likes things made from ground beef & all chicken products must be of the fried persuasion. No veggies other than corn on the cob. He says, “If it’s green, that means it’s gone bad.”
I wander through the grocery stores lusting after pork loins and “exotic” foods like tacos.
May 29th, 2007 at 11:56 am
My mother was a pretty good cook, and adventurous, but it’s the disasters that we all remember – the casserole with raw potatoes, the meatloaf that fell apart, the lasagne that spent five hours in the oven. Now she just makes soup (winter) and salad (summer).
May 30th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
My mum was a great cook. I remember having kids over to stay and one said to my mum “Don’t you ever make anything NORMAL? like SAUSAGES?” We always had fabulous meals that were fresh, no packaged stuff like some of my friends mums made.
May 31st, 2007 at 2:08 am
I always thought my mom was a good cook. Until I finally realized that she cooked everything way too long. She was scared of poisoning us, but always ended up making everything into jerky. I think I’m a pretty good cook, but then again, I am easily fooled.
May 31st, 2007 at 1:11 pm
My Dad’s a decent cook. Mom too. (At different points in my life, they’ve taken the lead role in cooking, so I don’t tend to think of “what Mom cooked.”)
Thinking back on it, they weren’t into anything fancy, and I suppose the repertoire was limited, but they had several signature dishes (fabulous spaghetti and beef stroganoff, for example) and a range of basic foods they cooked well. Hm, I suppose that describes me as well.
My boyfriend was scarred by his mom’s attempts to stretch the food (and by her belief that ketchup could be used interchangeably with tomato sauce…he’s definitely not used to good spaghetti) without much regard for taste.
I do wish I knew more about how to cook a roast and use it 5 different (interesting! ways), or how to cook a whole chicken and then use it for soup and salads and main courses and etc. But I suspect any attempt to do this for Boyfriend will trigger childhood food trauma….
May 31st, 2007 at 3:36 pm
My mom was REALLY good at all the German dishes from the homeland. But she was equally good at slacking off and serving us frozen dinners.
June 25th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I don’t follow recipes hence canned veggies, burnt round steak ( I was always on the phone).
Now days, I love to cook ( I still don’t follow recipes but I consider the ingredients). The veggies are fresh, the meat is juicier when not burnt but I enjoy most making pies.