"kilikini" > wrote in
. com:

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Sat 12 Jul 2008 09:14:35p, hahabogus told us...
>>
>>> Wayne Boatwright > wrote in
>>> 6.120:
>>>
>>>> My dad was master of the great behemoth of a stone barbecue he had
>>>> built back in the 1950s. It was a huge thing that he burned
>>>> hickory logs in. He also made great oatmeal. :-)
>>>>
>>>
>>> My mom was a great cook...so I liked food...Myh ex couldn't cook to
>>> save her soul, I liked food therefore I learned to cook.
>>
>> My mom was a great cook, too, and I learned a lot from her.
>>
>
> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by
> the time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped
> with cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made it
> fun by letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh,
> and she used to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang, the
> memories!
>
> She served typical dinners, though. Meatloaf, chop suey, chicken
> cacciatore, chicken noel, fried cod, and the ever-famous tuna noodle
> casserole. My dad, every Sunday, rain or shine, snow or sleet,
> grilled on Sundays. It could be -36F outside, and my dad would be
> grilling. I dreaded Sundays because I've never been a fan of meat.
> LOL. Our family was of the mind that you will sit at this table until
> you eat everything. I *still* don't eat meat! :~)
>
> kili
>
>
>

I'd never heard of chicken noel....So I looked it up...looks like a
keeper

--

The house of the burning beet-Alan

In article >,
"Kswck" > wrote:

> Parent, other family member, friend?

I'm self-taught. A self-taught jam maker, too.
Pillsbury and Betty Crocker and the butchers at Hackenmueller Meats gave
guidance 42 years ago.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
rec.food.cooking
Preserved Fruit Administrator
"Always in a jam. Never in a stew." - Evergene

hahabogus wrote:
>
> I'd never heard of chicken noel....So I looked it up...looks like a
> keeper

It's so simple and yet so good. Both my mom and her mother-in-law made it
the same way, so it became kind of a favorite family staple on both sides.
My mom always added about 1/4 cup of sherry to the sauce and we always
served it over white rice. It's one of those comfort foods for me. :~)

kili

Giusi wrote:
> "Kswck" > ha scritto nel messaggio
> ...
>> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on
>> your own?
>>
>> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in
>> a fry pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef
>> so rare it would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or
>> Shake-N-Bake.
>
> In culinary terms I was luckier in my choice of mothers. It started
> with her and seeing how much pleasure cooking well gave her. AAMOF,
> I like doing all the things that my parents openly enjoyed, like
> reading, gardening, etc. I did not like everything my mother made,
> but since she was a child of the Depression, some of it was wierd.
> Waste not, you know.

Let's face it, they did what they had to do to feed the family.
In the end, that's what matters.

nancy

In article >, "Kswck" > wrote:
[snip]
>Learned on my own.

So did I. And I suspect it shows!

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID

In article >,
"Kswck" > wrote:

> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.

Your mom sounds a lot like my mom. My mom used to cook vegetables either
barely cooked or burnt and everything was either canned or frozen;
rarely fresh. Main courses ranged from overdone baked chicken to boiled
steak. My mom never liked to cook, and the results showed it. When my
dad wasn't home for dinner, my mom always ordered pizza for delivery or
she took me and my sister out to eat.

When I was a kid, the mother of my best friend was a fantastic cook.
They lived across the street and they invited me over for dinner
frequently. She made everything from scratch. She also baked cakes and
cookies that were to die for. I learned from that family that home
cooking can be so much better than what my mom made, even though my mom
meant well and she did her best.

To preserve my taste buds, I taught myself to cook at an early age. I
was nine when I started to make dinner for my parents and my sister.
Sometimes, I watched my friend's mom, but she was one of those people
who hated people watching her cook, so mostly, I watched TV cooking
shows. I learned a lot of cooking techniques from the Frugal Gourmet.

All through high school, I used to make an elaborate dinner from scratch
once a week, like whole chicken with stuffing, a stir fry, or roast
beef, chicken parmesan, with one or two green vegetables, baked bread,
etc. We are not dessert eaters, so I never got into making desserts.

It didn't take long for my sister to realize that she could learn to
cook from me, so I showed her what I learned. My sister has different
tastes then me. I was never big on salads and green vegetables, which
are and were some of my sister's favorites, so she learned to make them.

So for a lot of family dinners such as Thanksgiving, my sister and I
would team up when we were kids and make the dinner. My sister would
make the side dishes and a big green salad. I would make the main course
dishes. As I recall, it was my sister who was the first of us to make
lasagna, and boy was it good! She used to make dishes with lots of fall
vegetables, which I am not big of, but my dad loved that stuff. My dad
makes those kinds of things now that he has to cook for him and my mom,
because my mom doesn't do the cooking any more due to health problems.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:25:07 -0500, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>In article >,
> "Kswck" > wrote:
>
>> Parent, other family member, friend?
>
>I'm self-taught. A self-taught jam maker, too.
>Pillsbury and Betty Crocker and the butchers at Hackenmueller Meats gave
>guidance 42 years ago.


I don't remember learning to cook. My mother was raised on a farm in
NC and cooked like her mother. She may have picked up some things
from her MIL but I don't remember Grandmama cooking much. We seemed
to eat out when we visited.

Mother came home from work whenever the last patient left the office
and fixed our meal. Sometimes the maid may have started something,
but not often. I remember sometime before the fifth grade I made
waffles by myself. I think they turned out ok. By high school I was
cooking. Do not remember Mother having but one cookbook and that was
one put out by the local Junior Woman's Club. I was also doing much
of the grocery shopping. (The grocery stores had such cute bag boys.)

I guess I learned by reading and watching.

"Kswck" > wrote in message
...
> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.

Graham Kerr & Julia Child From TV and Mike Roy on the radio. These people
made it it look like an idiot could do it.

My mother could easily burn water however she could instruct the servants on
how to serve properly at a dinner party.


--
Old Scoundrel

(AKA Dimitri)

"The Cook" > wrote

> I don't remember learning to cook. My mother was raised on a farm in
> NC and cooked like her mother. She may have picked up some things
> from her MIL but I don't remember Grandmama cooking much. We seemed
> to eat out when we visited.
>

Your post made me remember something I have not thought about for years. My
mother's grandmother had a farm nearby, and her mother had chickens. This
was during the Great Depression and WWII, so that may be another reason she
was
weird about food--shortages of money and certain foods, rationing and such.

She would not eat many things, often due to texture issues. This included
onions,
garlic, celery, and mushrooms. She could only eat eggs over easy, and then
just
by dipping toast in the yolk, she did not actually eat the eggs except for
the yolk.
No mayonnaise or any other type of dressing. These are all things I really
love,
so I found her cooking bland most of the time, but her baking was amazing.

She did make things like potato salad and other salads, but we had to taste
them
for her because she could not stand mayo.

Her roast beef was the worst, I think because she rarely had it growing up,
so
she had no idea how to cook it. It was always eye of round, that nicely
shaped but awfully tough cut. I never had tender beef at home at all, so it
is
about the last kind of muscle meatI learned to cook.

I think another thing that kept me from getting interested in cooking until
pretty
late was just the style of dishes she and many other 1960s moms cooked.
Either
casseroles in which everything was a sodden lump, or bland tasting, often
overcooked meat with lumps of overcooked vegetables on the side. NO
al dente pasta. All rice was white.

On Sun 13 Jul 2008 05:19:21a, hahabogus told us...

> "kilikini" > wrote in
> . com:
>
>> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>>> On Sat 12 Jul 2008 09:14:35p, hahabogus told us...
>>>
>>>> Wayne Boatwright > wrote in
>>>> 6.120:
>>>>
>>>>> My dad was master of the great behemoth of a stone barbecue he had
>>>>> built back in the 1950s. It was a huge thing that he burned
>>>>> hickory logs in. He also made great oatmeal. :-)
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My mom was a great cook...so I liked food...Myh ex couldn't cook to
>>>> save her soul, I liked food therefore I learned to cook.
>>>
>>> My mom was a great cook, too, and I learned a lot from her.
>>>
>>
>> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by
>> the time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped
>> with cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made it
>> fun by letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh,
>> and she used to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang, the
>> memories!
>>
>> She served typical dinners, though. Meatloaf, chop suey, chicken
>> cacciatore, chicken noel, fried cod, and the ever-famous tuna noodle
>> casserole. My dad, every Sunday, rain or shine, snow or sleet,
>> grilled on Sundays. It could be -36F outside, and my dad would be
>> grilling. I dreaded Sundays because I've never been a fan of meat.
>> LOL. Our family was of the mind that you will sit at this table until
>> you eat everything. I *still* don't eat meat! :~)
>>
>> kili
>>
>>
>>
>
> I'd never heard of chicken noel....So I looked it up...looks like a
> keeper
>

Someone gave me a somewhat similar recipe years ago. In addition to the
Chicken Noel ingredients and instructions, this one also calls for a jar of
dried beef and strips of bacon. Before puting the chicken in the baking
dish, the dried beef is coarsely torn into pieces and laid on the bottom of
the dish. Bacon is wrapped around each piece of chicken breast before
placing in the baking dish. The recipe was called "Party Chicken". Very
tasty, and everyone seems to like it.

Oh, it also calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1 teaspoon of ground
coriander to be mixed in with the soup/sour cream mixture.

Note: I always pour boiling water over the dried beef, soak briefly, then
dry with paper towels before adding to the dish.

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Sunday, 07(VII)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
'I get by with a little help from my
friends...' - Beatles
-------------------------------------------

"Nancy Young" > wrote

> Let's face it, they did what they had to do to feed the family.
> In the end, that's what matters.
>

Yep. My mother's mother served some type of potatoes most nights
as a main dish, since meat was scarce. Mom talked about the horrors
of oleo, the big white tub of lard with the yellow coloring to mix in. She
had to have real butter as a result, all her life. And she hoarded and hid
sweets. Of course, that may also be because my oldest sister hoovered
up everything.

"kilikini" > wrote
> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by the
> time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped with
> cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made it fun by
> letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh, and she used
> to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang, the memories!

Exactly the same with me! Wonderful pie crusts, terrific cakes. English
Walnut pound cake--the walnuts had to be English for some reason--and
coconut cake, Jewish Apple cake, scores of batches of home made cookies at
Christmas, including spritz and almond crescents. Wonderful baked custards.
She was really happy when she baked, too. I remember she hummed the whole
time. Off key.

"Kswck" > wrote in message
...
> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.
>
Julia Child: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol I & II"

cybercat said...

> Her roast beef was the worst


cybercat,

LOLOLOL!!!

No sense in NOT being blunt.

Andy

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Sun 13 Jul 2008 05:19:21a, hahabogus told us...
>
>> I'd never heard of chicken noel....So I looked it up...looks like a
>> keeper
>>
>
> Someone gave me a somewhat similar recipe years ago. In addition to
> the Chicken Noel ingredients and instructions, this one also calls
> for a jar of dried beef and strips of bacon. Before puting the
> chicken in the baking dish, the dried beef is coarsely torn into
> pieces and laid on the bottom of the dish. Bacon is wrapped around
> each piece of chicken breast before placing in the baking dish. The
> recipe was called "Party Chicken". Very tasty, and everyone seems to
> like it.
>
> Oh, it also calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1 teaspoon of
> ground coriander to be mixed in with the soup/sour cream mixture.
>
> Note: I always pour boiling water over the dried beef, soak briefly,
> then dry with paper towels before adding to the dish.

Now that's an interesting twist! I may give that a try next time. Thanks,
Wayne!

kili

cybercat wrote:
> "kilikini" > wrote
>> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by
>> the time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped
>> with cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made
>> it fun by letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh, and
>> she used to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang,
>> the memories!
>
> Exactly the same with me! Wonderful pie crusts, terrific cakes.
> English Walnut pound cake--the walnuts had to be English for some
> reason--and coconut cake, Jewish Apple cake, scores of batches of
> home made cookies at Christmas, including spritz and almond
> crescents. Wonderful baked custards. She was really happy when she
> baked, too. I remember she hummed the whole time. Off key.

Yep, it sounds like you grew up like I did. It was nice, back then, wasn't
it?

kili

On Sun 13 Jul 2008 09:46:11a, kilikini told us...

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Sun 13 Jul 2008 05:19:21a, hahabogus told us...
>>
>>> I'd never heard of chicken noel....So I looked it up...looks like a
>>> keeper
>>>
>>
>> Someone gave me a somewhat similar recipe years ago. In addition to
>> the Chicken Noel ingredients and instructions, this one also calls
>> for a jar of dried beef and strips of bacon. Before puting the
>> chicken in the baking dish, the dried beef is coarsely torn into
>> pieces and laid on the bottom of the dish. Bacon is wrapped around
>> each piece of chicken breast before placing in the baking dish. The
>> recipe was called "Party Chicken". Very tasty, and everyone seems to
>> like it.
>>
>> Oh, it also calls for 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1 teaspoon of
>> ground coriander to be mixed in with the soup/sour cream mixture.
>>
>> Note: I always pour boiling water over the dried beef, soak briefly,
>> then dry with paper towels before adding to the dish.
>
> Now that's an interesting twist! I may give that a try next time.
> Thanks, Wayne!
>
> kili
>
>

You're welcome. Hope you like it!

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Sunday, 07(VII)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
Bungee Jumper? Catch you on the rebound.
-------------------------------------------

On Sun 13 Jul 2008 09:47:01a, kilikini told us...

> cybercat wrote:
>> "kilikini" > wrote
>>> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by
>>> the time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped
>>> with cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made
>>> it fun by letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh,
>>> and she used to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang, the
>>> memories!
>>
>> Exactly the same with me! Wonderful pie crusts, terrific cakes.
>> English Walnut pound cake--the walnuts had to be English for some
>> reason--and coconut cake, Jewish Apple cake, scores of batches of
>> home made cookies at Christmas, including spritz and almond
>> crescents. Wonderful baked custards. She was really happy when she
>> baked, too. I remember she hummed the whole time. Off key.
>
> Yep, it sounds like you grew up like I did. It was nice, back then,
> wasn't it?
>
> kili
>
>

There are a lot of things "back then" that seem nicer than now.

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Sunday, 07(VII)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
Bungee Jumper? Catch you on the rebound.
-------------------------------------------

"Lynn from Fargo" > wrote in message
...
> When I was five I begged my mother to let me cook. She said anyone who
> wants to be a good cook must know how to read. So I taught myself to
> read. When I could sort of stumble through stuff she made me read the
> directions on the Jello box. When I could do that (albeit) with
> coaching, I made , , , Jello. It was all smooth sailing from there
> (well, mostly).
>
> My mother was a good and adventuresome cook. I remember Chinese food
> from a cookbook by some nuns from Peking/Beijing borrowed from the
> library. She spent years trying to recapture the English foods my dad
> grew up on - lemon curd tarts, Yorkshire Pudding, Boiled dinner with
> suet pudding, beef and potatoes . . .
>
> I made my first entire meal at between eight and nine years old.
> Venison Swiss Steak, baked potatoes, green beans and butterscotch
> pudding. Then I used to wait until the grown ups were gone and go
> into the kitchen and experiment. No wonder they would never give me a
> chemistry set for my birthday.
>
> Later on she turned me on to Julia (I bought the books!) and the
> Frugal Gourmet, but my strongest skill is walking into somebody else's
> kitchen and improvising a meal from whatever I can scrounge up -
> occasionally a disaster, but almost always edible.
>
> Now I am retired due to disability, I live alone and HATE to cook for
> one. If you're ever in North Dakota . . .
>
> Lynn from Fargo

I HAVE that cookbook (the nuns in China one). Let me know if you need me
to look anything up.
-ginny

"kilikini" > wrote in message
. com...
> cybercat wrote:
>> "kilikini" > wrote
>>> My mom wasn't a great cook, but she got us interested in cooking by
>>> the time we were about 3. She could bake, though. We always helped
>>> with cookies or cakes (she always cooked from scratch) and she made
>>> it fun by letting us lick the bowl or the mixers after we helped. Oh,
>>> and she used to make all kinds of puddings and custards - dang,
>>> the memories!
>>
>> Exactly the same with me! Wonderful pie crusts, terrific cakes.
>> English Walnut pound cake--the walnuts had to be English for some
>> reason--and coconut cake, Jewish Apple cake, scores of batches of
>> home made cookies at Christmas, including spritz and almond
>> crescents. Wonderful baked custards. She was really happy when she
>> baked, too. I remember she hummed the whole time. Off key.
>
> Yep, it sounds like you grew up like I did. It was nice, back then,
> wasn't it?
>

In some ways.

"Andy" <q> wrote in message ...
> cybercat said...
>
>> Her roast beef was the worst
>
>
> cybercat,
>
> LOLOLOL!!!
>
> No sense in NOT being blunt.
>
She was wonderful, and I would not trade her for anything or anyone in the
world. But really, that Sunday roast was the worst. She was very big on love
and wisdom, not so much on roast beef. I wouldn't have it the other way
around!

"Wayne Boatwright" > wrote >
> There are a lot of things "back then" that seem nicer than now.
>

We went out to play and ran all around the neighborhood for hours, only
coming in when it got dusky.

"Kswck" > wrote in message
...
> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.
>

Sounds like I wasn't alone with a mother who struck terror in the eyes of
every utensil in her kitchen. Pots were dented when she threw them at my
father when he came home drunk as usual. She never connected with him, just
the walls, but the pans took the brunt of the assault. Her meals either a)
came out of a can or b) came from Banquet or Swanson. In the mid-60's tv
dinners were just becoming all the rage, so that is what she invested in.
Then wondered in the 70's why both she and my father developed diabetes,
high blood pressure and in her case CHF. My aunties clucked their tongues
at her attempts at food and 'showed' me things when I was over. One had 10
kids and 12 fosters, so she cooked to feed an army (we have a newspaper
article written about her in her final days stating she used a 25 lb. bag of
flour a week) it is she I learned how to stretch a recipe from. My other
auntie, who had five kids with multiple friends, also showed me different
things. Friends of the family had massively huge gardens (minimum five
acres each) and always needed extra hands to help pick, shuck, string or
prep veggies to can, and in the cooler months, to help with the
slaughtering. I may have been a mere kidlet, but these kind ladies always
'invited' me to help explaining what they were doing as they did it. They
knew that cooking was never something my mom would consider doing and if
this poor child were going to learn, it would have to be them that taught
me. Couldn't have some poor child leaving the South (NC) for school and not
know how to cook!

When I left for college, I actually lost weight, since cafeteria food was
made in the kitchen not out of a box with all the preservatives. I wanted
to cook, so I invested in the Campus Crusade for Christ cookbook at the
college bookstore and the Woman's Day cookbook collection at the local
grocers (I still only got to N - I guess I never will find out what Woman's
Day says to cook O-Z). I cooked something in the common area of the dorms,
got rave reviews and thus created the monster. I bought more cookbooks,
people gave me cookbooks, I picked cookbooks out of dumpsters..........my
need for cookbooks........it went from one shelf to three, to a whole
bookcase, to boxes, to more boxes, now to a room floor to ceiling with
shelves of them.......Been married 25 years and hubby is twice the size he
was when I married him and kids seem to like what I put in front of them, so
I guess it was a combination of things. My reference ladies were left
behind when I went to college, so I bought books. When I moved from Philly
to outside of Allentown, I fell in with a group of people whose sons were
also in Boy Scouts. One woman was making jelly. I asked her how, and then
came another obsession.......she felt it was beneath her to show off what
she made. Me, on the other hand, wanted to know I made something worth
eating, so I inquired about the Fair. Now a Ribbon Whore was born. We
were late getting the internet and I soon learned to enter 'jam' into Google
and there I found the Queen of All Jellies and Jams, Barb. Soon struck up a
friendship that goes to this day, I ended up on this NG (as well as a few
other we won't mention here). So who taught me to cook.......No one and
everyone. Thanks guys.
-ginny

cybercat said...

>
> "Andy" <q> wrote in message ...
>> cybercat said...
>>
>>> Her roast beef was the worst
>>
>>
>> cybercat,
>>
>> LOLOLOL!!!
>>
>> No sense in NOT being blunt.
>>
> She was wonderful, and I would not trade her for anything or anyone in
> the world. But really, that Sunday roast was the worst. She was very big
> on love and wisdom, not so much on roast beef. I wouldn't have it the
> other way around!


I still can't hold back the laughter!

See ya!

Andy

Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Sat 12 Jul 2008 09:24:47p, Janet Wilder told us...
>
>> Kswck wrote:
>>> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>> Primary teacher was my mother. Others were aunts and an Italian landlady
>> who taught me how to make "gravy" (tomato sauce) Cooking is one of the
>> things I truly enjoy, so I am still learning new techniques and recipes
>> all the time.
>>
>
> One never stops learning how to cook things.
>

....and one never stops finding new things to cook.

--
Janet Wilder
Bad spelling. Bad punctuation
Good Friends. Good Life

On Sun 13 Jul 2008 12:37:40p, Janet Wilder told us...

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Sat 12 Jul 2008 09:24:47p, Janet Wilder told us...
>>
>>> Kswck wrote:
>>>> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your
>>>> own?
>>> Primary teacher was my mother. Others were aunts and an Italian
>>> landlady who taught me how to make "gravy" (tomato sauce) Cooking is
>>> one of the things I truly enjoy, so I am still learning new techniques
>>> and recipes all the time.
>>>
>>
>> One never stops learning how to cook things.
>>
>
> ...and one never stops finding new things to cook.
>

Janet, that should have one big sentence! Thanks!

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Sunday, 07(VII)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
Hard work has a future payoff.
Laziness pays off now.
-------------------------------------------

In article >,
says...
> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.
>
>
>

From my moms side of the family I got the baked goods and candies part.

From dad's I got the Italian pastries, the soups, sauces, fish, etc.

cybercat wrote:
> "Wayne Boatwright" > wrote >
>> There are a lot of things "back then" that seem nicer than now.
>>
>
> We went out to play and ran all around the neighborhood for hours,
> only coming in when it got dusky.

We did that, too! :~)

kili

"kilikini" > wrote in message
. com...
> cybercat wrote:
>> "Wayne Boatwright" > wrote >
>>> There are a lot of things "back then" that seem nicer than now.
>>>
>>
>> We went out to play and ran all around the neighborhood for hours,
>> only coming in when it got dusky.
>
> We did that, too! :~)
>



I sold greeting cards door to door when I was ten, maybe for school, I can't
remember. Everyone thought it was cute and I hauled in a ton of money and
never got scared once.

"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Kswck" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your
>> own?
>>
>> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
>> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
>> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
>> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
>> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>>
>> Learned on my own.
>>
>
> At home, I could fry an egg, make a burger and other simple survival types
> of cooking but had no interest aside from that. It was some years later
> that I really started to get interested. Frugal Gourmet and Romagnoli's
> Table were the two that really got me interested so I took the time to
> learn basic cooking and some of the science behind it.
>
> Out of necessity I've been doing the majority of cooking the last couple
> of years so there definitely was a payoff in time spent learning. Wish I
> had watched my grandmother more though. I certainly miss some of her
> meals.


What did she make that you miss.

My Russian side Grandmother made a KILLER stuffed Cabbage. Crap see what
you started? Now I'm going to have to make some.


--
Old Scoundrel

(AKA Dimitri)

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:25:18 -0700, "Dimitri" >
wrote:

>
>"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
.. .
>>
>> "Kswck" > wrote in message

Wish I
>> had watched my grandmother more though. I certainly miss some of her
>> meals.
>
>
>What did she make that you miss.
>
>My Russian side Grandmother made a KILLER stuffed Cabbage. Crap see what
>you started? Now I'm going to have to make some.

My paternal grandmother and her sister made the BEST sweet potato pies
that I have ever had. I have tried to duplicate them to no avail.
They had a citrusy flavor to them, besides the regular sweet potato
filling.

They also made the best rolls ever. Two incredibly good southern
cooks, that didn't measure, and didn't write down what they did... I
wish I had been old and cognizant enough to copy what they did, while
they were still alive.

Christine

Kswck wrote:

> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>

My brothers and I used to help our mother in the kitchen when she was cooking
or baking. All four of us can cook. After I moved out of the house I learned
most of my basics from watching The Galloping Gourmet.

"Dimitri" > wrote in message
>> Out of necessity I've been doing the majority of cooking the last couple
>> of years so there definitely was a payoff in time spent learning. Wish I
>> had watched my grandmother more though. I certainly miss some of her
>> meals.
>
>
> What did she make that you miss.
>
> My Russian side Grandmother made a KILLER stuffed Cabbage. Crap see what
> you started? Now I'm going to have to make some.
>
>
> --
> Old Scoundrel

Well, stuffed cabbage, of course. My mother made that well too. My
grandmother made a babka that was just incredible. All I know is it had a
dozen eggs and a lot of butter but I've never duplicated it. The crumb
topping was sugar, flour and ???

I do have the pot she used for pot roast and we do come close on that. She
used rump roast and would beat it with a rolling pin before cooking it.
Then there are the pierogis.

Kswck wrote:

> Learned on my own.
>
>

Jeff Smith. I hung on his every word when I was 22.

I was taught by my farther on how to cook.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:34:50 -0600, Christine Dabney
> wrote:

>On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:25:18 -0700, "Dimitri" >
>wrote:
>
>>
>>"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
. ..
>>>
>>> "Kswck" > wrote in message
>
> Wish I
>>> had watched my grandmother more though. I certainly miss some of her
>>> meals.
>>
>>
>>What did she make that you miss.
>>
>>My Russian side Grandmother made a KILLER stuffed Cabbage. Crap see what
>>you started? Now I'm going to have to make some.
>
>My paternal grandmother and her sister made the BEST sweet potato pies
>that I have ever had. I have tried to duplicate them to no avail.
>They had a citrusy flavor to them, besides the regular sweet potato
>filling.
>
>They also made the best rolls ever. Two incredibly good southern
>cooks, that didn't measure, and didn't write down what they did... I
>wish I had been old and cognizant enough to copy what they did, while
>they were still alive.
>
Yeah. And there were some ingredients that disappeared (from my field
if vision, at least) with that generation. My paternal grandmother
used to serve the tiniest little peas -- she called them field peas --
but nobody I know raises them anymore.

Lordy, I did love them so.
--

modom
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

On Sun 13 Jul 2008 09:24:33p, modom (palindrome guy) told us...

> On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:34:50 -0600, Christine Dabney
> > wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:25:18 -0700, "Dimitri" >
>>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"Edwin Pawlowski" > wrote in message
...
>>>>
>>>> "Kswck" > wrote in message
>>
>> Wish I
>>>> had watched my grandmother more though. I certainly miss some of her
>>>> meals.
>>>
>>>
>>>What did she make that you miss.
>>>
>>>My Russian side Grandmother made a KILLER stuffed Cabbage. Crap see
>>>what you started? Now I'm going to have to make some.
>>
>>My paternal grandmother and her sister made the BEST sweet potato pies
>>that I have ever had. I have tried to duplicate them to no avail.
>>They had a citrusy flavor to them, besides the regular sweet potato
>>filling.
>>
>>They also made the best rolls ever. Two incredibly good southern
>>cooks, that didn't measure, and didn't write down what they did... I
>>wish I had been old and cognizant enough to copy what they did, while
>>they were still alive.
>>
> Yeah. And there were some ingredients that disappeared (from my field
> if vision, at least) with that generation. My paternal grandmother
> used to serve the tiniest little peas -- she called them field peas --
> but nobody I know raises them anymore.
>
> Lordy, I did love them so.
> --
>
> modom

Were these tiny little green peas or more like a very small blackeyed pea?

--
Wayne Boatwright
-------------------------------------------
Sunday, 07(VII)/13(XIII)/08(MMVIII)
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------
TomDOS 4.0- (G)rin, (O)ffer a
jellybaby, (T)rip on scarf
-------------------------------------------

"Christine Dabney" > ha scritto nel messaggio
...
> On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 17:25:18 -0700, "Dimitri" >

>>What did she make that you miss.
>>

> My paternal grandmother and her sister made the BEST sweet potato pies>
> that I have ever had. I have tried to duplicate them to no avail.
> They had a citrusy flavor to them, besides the regular sweet potato
> filling.

What do you want to bet there's some grated citrus peel in there?

In article >,
"Kswck" > wrote:

> Learned on my own.

I learned on my own as well. I graduated in chemistry and made a living
in it for seven years. Then I took a totally different track for the
rest of my contribution to humanity. Cooking is chemistry of a sort. I
still can't make a pie crust, but I haven't tried yet.

leo

cybercat wrote:
> "Nancy Young" > wrote
>
>> Let's face it, they did what they had to do to feed the family.
>> In the end, that's what matters.
>>
>
> Yep. My mother's mother served some type of potatoes most nights
> as a main dish, since meat was scarce. Mom talked about the horrors
> of oleo, the big white tub of lard with the yellow coloring to mix
> in. She had to have real butter as a result, all her life. And she
> hoarded and hid sweets. Of course, that may also be because my
> oldest sister hoovered up everything.

Well I never had Oleo inflicted on me, but I won't touch anything but real
butter You can keep the sweets though)

--
Life sometimes gives you a second chance.