Moms are the best

[Tortuga]

8 hours ago, SoCal4me2 said:

I know that I am really too new to comment, but I also know that even in many of the world's topical forums, off thread topic comments are neither wanted nor appreciated, 

 

Yeah, stuff happens.

I always appreciate it when someone contributes to the topic to bring it back on track. We lead by example.

 

My mom use to feed a houseful so she was creative at times. Most of her dishes were very simple but filling. One of my favorites was a chicken casserole with biscuits on top...

[Miss Bea]

Someone’s lost their kid! 

[bobby]

and they know every thing to

 

[Pabo]

Sadly, my mother wasn't that much of a good cook. In fact, when she had gotten married, she didn't know how to cook at all and my father had to teach her. Her mother wouldn't allow any of her children near the kitchen, thus they were not shown how to care after the household. We often say that my mother can burn water, as we often find ashes (mineral residue that is in the water from the tap - hard water) at the bottom of the boiling pot. She also admits that she wasn't that good cook either. I think that is why us 7 kids had titanium plated cast stainless steel guts, as we couldn't be poisoned. But she made a  reasonable beef goulash, also stuffed capsicums filled with beef mince and rice.

 

Now, my mother's mother knew how to cook, like Vienna schnitzel (well they were from there and my mother was born there), kipferl biscuits, various versions of goulash, various potato salads and some other traditional Austrian dishes. But it eventually settled on what my austistic uncle felt like to eat that day, as he was still living with them until my grandparents had passed away. But I didn't mind having hot dogs with sauerkraut, or crumbed pork cutlets every time I stayed at my grandparents, it was much better than my mother's attempt. Also the mash potatoes were much more nicer and creamier than my mother's.

 

In fact, the better cook was my mother's father, but it was rare for me to be there when he did the cooking (as he worked multiple shifts at the steel mill). But he made the nicest pork cutlet bakes (usually with sauerkraut), and his cabbage and noodles were much better then his wife's. As he was from a Catholic sect where they didn't eat lamb, he mostly ate pork, veal or seafood and at times beef (usually the goulash).

 

Now my father when cooking on a BBQ, we kids referred to him as the High Priest, as he would have burnt sacrifices on the hot plate where the sausages resemble charcoal sticks, meat patties resembled lumps of coal. Once he taught my mother to cook, he rarely cooked inside the house, unless my mother wasn't about or sick. However his mother was a fantastic cook, as was his father, especially when it came to the BBQ. I don't know how it hadn't passed onto my father, as that gene for cooking had skipped him.

 

My grandmother (father's mother) owned her own delicatessen (before I was born), but later ran a major supermarket deli after she had sold her deli which the new owner closed shop after about 6 months. The supermarket wanted to have their own deli, and instead of her reopening one, asked her to set up theirs instead. She finally left when they started using computerised labelling (she was around late 60's when retired from them). After that, she and my grandfather owned a takeaway place in the same shopping centre, but had to sell that after my grandfather had a massive heart attack. Whilst owning that takeaway (and later on after selling the takeaway shop), my grandfather was the general manager of a large German club in our area, where my grandmother also worked in the kitchen. After when my grandfather eventually died, my grandmother still worked in that kitchen winding down herself down from full-time to part-time and eventually as a casual filling when they had functions or staff had to be relieved, and eventually left there and was about 80 years old (some 15 years after my grandfather's passing).

 

I think out of the 7 kids that my parents had, there are only 2 of us that can actually cook really well and a broad range of things.

Edited January 27, 2023 by Pabo