My Mom was the main cook, although my Dad was a short order cook in his youth so was OK at breakfast. His specialties were bread and lemon meringue pie.
Papa was a master at making beans and soups . A little bit of dis and a little bit of dat he would say . Miss ya .
Before my parents divorced (1970s), the only cooking my Dad did was occasional weekend pancakes and bacon on the griddle. I lived with him a few years after the divorce, and he was generally pretty inquisitive with food, but not skilled. I recall some disasters, but he and I were well intentioned. No real specialities.
My father actually went on to become a good cook. His chicken paprikash and his corned beef were especially memorable. In addition, my parentsâ divorce was what got me started on my love of cooking. My brother and I realized that, if we wanted to eat, somebody was going to have to learn to cook, and I volunteered. He was an excellent sous chef however and became a good cook himself.
None of my parents were particularly great cooks, but they made decent home-cooked meals. My dad spent his days in the US working as a cook in the restaurant, and so he almost never cooked when he got home. On occasion he would make us something different like like muxu rou - a more traditional take - not the Americanized moo shu / mushu pork or chicken.
After he retired he took over cooking for him and my mom. His favorite was always some sort of steamed fish with a bit of soy sauce and hot oil, or steamed with preserved greens and Chinese greens. He would always make the steamed egg dishes and loaded it with minced pork, so that itâs more pork than egg (not my favorite). What he probably became more known for though was he loved making soup with jicama. He would come over almost monthly with soup for me or my sisters, and we would always ask âIs that the jicama soup?â Yep, it always was.
My mother was a mediocre cook and my father was worse. The only âcookingâ he did was to put pepperoni on the Chef Boyardee pizza-in-a-box kit that my mother assembled.
I learned to cook from public television.
My experience echoes yours in many ways. Dad did make pancakes and bacon on weekends sometimes, and he could fry up a couple delicious rainbow trout over the campfire, accompanied of course by cowboy coffee. When he still hunted, his venison was just the best, due to not running the deer and proper field dressing. He gave up hunting in early middle age, explained he didnât have the heart for it anymore. I wish I had a hunter in my life, as I really like the taste of game. But I will only eat it procured from certain states due to that terrible disease that has spread and can infect humans. Similar to mad cow disease or JKD, all caused by prions. Scary thought.
Fireworks are legal up here if you buy them on the reservation, so theyâve been going off in our hood since about noon. ( Not talking sparklers here, these are the real deal.) Now I have a splitting headache. Hopefully the Xanax has not interfered with my typing. The cat didnât like it either.
Auspicious, my mom was a big fan of those boxed dinners too; the spaghetti, pizza, Mac n cheese and of course the canned chicken chow mien with the crunchy noodles separate. These boxed dinners could be looked at as the antique versions of all the meal kits on the market now.
I marveled at the exotic Julia Child food & others that were on then. But I wasnât allowed in the kitchen!! How effed up is that??
Iâm also of that era. Dad never cooked except maybe to toast a bagel. Now that my mom is gone, and heâs 98, he âcooksâ a bit. He has lots of frozen stuff - potato pancakes, chicken cutlets, that he makes for himself. Of course, I supply lots of my own food for him to warm up.
My parents both worked, even in the 50âs.
First thing I learned to make was scrambled eggs at 3.
This was my motherâs 2nd marriage and my father married her late in life after having been a bachelor managing my Uncle âs Plants
and then in the Navy in the South Pacific during WW2. We had a Texas set of recipes courtesy of him along with things heâd learned over the course of life.
This combined with a sort of Southern Country cooking via Missouri so I thought that was pretty normal.
Considering more than half the shows my dad watched on TV were cooking/food-related and he certainly knew enough, he did not cook anything other than the occasional sauteed spinach. My mom did 90% of the cooking, while I contributed from time to time. Then when my father passed and my mom lost her passion (she has since slowly regained it), I would say the 90-10 did a complete reversal. I never cooked so much in my life. He loved to eat but a cook he was not! (He did however do most of the carving when called for!)
I only remember my father boiling water for a cup of instant coffee an making scrambled eggs super soft and runny. My mom went back to college in the early 60âs and on her late nights, dad would take the three of us out, which we loved. I do not recall him even warming up left overs, (which he despised).
After Dad retired at about 75 , he would make a sandwich for himself or my step mother. And as he got older on a holiday , if the turkey or roast had to be carved, he took it to the butcher had it cut up and then re-warmed at meal time.
The reason I believe he never learned to cook, was that he was surrounded by decent cooks his whole life, from his grandmother, mom, my mom, his mother-in-law and his 2nd wife.
My father and his best friend made a lobster specialty once every summer. They split the lobsters and stuffed with their âsecret stuffing. It consisted of Introvigne 5 in 1 breadcrumbs, tomalley, butter and iâm not sure what else. The stuffing was greenish black but turned golden brown after grilling in foil over hot coals.
Served with my mothers Delmonico potatoes which was a fancy name for cubed/boiled potatoes topped with cream of mushroom soup and Parmesan, baked til crusty golden brown. Tossed salad and fresh Italian bread completed the outside on the patio meal. And melted butter of course.
Absolutely delicious. Besides that he was a good cook,