Who were the good cooks in your family?

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RCJoe

Senior Cook
Joined
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283
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Huntington
Except for my mom's father almost all of mine were. But grandad was our gardener, and the brewer of our wine, beer, and vinegars.
 
My Grandma first off and foremost. Born around 1900, married Grandpa of course who had a farm in Ohio.

She had 18 kids, one passed at infancy. They slaughtered pigs and cattle for themselves as well as plenty of wild game. The only thing she wouldn't cook was raccoon, tried it once and said she couldn't handle cutting off the little hands.

Canned, preserved, everything that comes with that lifestyle from the early 1920s.

By the time I was around 8, they were retired and about 80.

My Grandma would still be up and in the kitchen at 5am when I was that age. Making bread and anything else. Grandma's house always had mollases cookies, 2 different kinds of pies, apple butter, fresh made bread and she was in the kitchen cooking lunch or dinner.

All this from a 5'6", 100lb woman. She hardly spoke. For about the 10 years I knew her, I maybe heard her speak 6-12 sentences over a holiday weekend I would spend there. Mostly she just listened, smiled and laughed a little at my Dad and Grandpa argue over stuff.

From there, my Mom passed early and my Dad cooked. He cooked well, even if it were usually a bit dry.

Of his three boys, I am the cook. My brothers picked it up as they started families, but it's me of the three.

I miss those mollases cookies. I asked around the family but couldn't find the recipe. I also miss the homemade apple butter. Grandparents made that in a huge kettle over a fire and canned it.
 
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I never knew my grandparents as they didn't make it across the Atlantic.

My Mom was a fantastic cook. We ate mostly dishes that were Armenian in origin. Everything she made was delicious. Dad was a chef by profession but rarely cooked at home unless it was on the charcoal grill or if it was steak.

I had little interest in cooking as a child but would watch my mom prepare meals. It always seemed so effortless.

Then my sister married and started cooking on her own. She got the cooking gene and is also a very good cook. I learned a lot of Mom's recipes from her. Now at 84 YO, she's not that interested in cooking.

I didn't cook during my marriage except for weekend pancakes for the kids. My interest in cooking really started to develop in my 30s but I wasn't "allowed" to cook meals as my Ex believed it was HER kitchen.

With my divorce, I could cook all I wanted or starve so I learned fast. Only one of my two daughters has an interest in cooking beyond survival. We share recipes and techniques.

My grandson, the next generation, has shown no interest yet.
 
Never knew much of my family beyond my parents, largely because many of them were deceased or lived waaay to far to interact.

My maternal grandmother was a good average cook. Papa, my grandfather, always raised a nice garden, of which I so enjoyed his beautiful leaf lettuce and raspberries.

Having said this, I still make the raspberry pie that grandma taught me how to make while I lived with them during my first year of college.

My mother was, again, a good average cook and did as little as she could to cook for her husband and 5 children. However, when she discovered that I had a serious interest in cooking, it was handed over to me. I was 8-years-old and from that time until I left for college I cooked for my mother, father and siblings.

At 12, I joined a cookbook-of-the-month club and never looked back. That was 58 years ago and I still have all of those books I purchased from the club. Many of them with very, very yellowed pages from age and use.

Of my 4 siblings, only my youngest brother had any interest cooking and could cook the daylights over anyone. Sadly he died on December 1st of this year and I hope to receive his cookbooks. He has willed his recipe box to a special person, but I have review rights and can, and will, copy what I wish.

Interestingly, his recipe file is our mother's original recipe file - forest green metal, flip-top - that held 3x5 cards. She NEVER shared her recipes with ANYONE, even her family so, perhaps, I'll be able to get some of our family recipes.

Even at 70, I still love to cook and aquire cookbooks at, to me, an alarming rate at places like Goodwill other thrift outlets, which leaves me with an accumulation of nearly 4,000 food-filled tomes, all of which I love and read like novels.

Bring on the recipes!
 
I remember both of my grandmothers cooking extraordinarily well. They would both come to my Mom's house during the weekends and decide who was cooking what for Sunday lunch. My maternal grandmother made the best chicken pot pie (or chicken and dumplings), and taught my Mom and I how to make it before she passed. Bigmamma (my grandmother on my dad's side) made a cornbread that was to die for. They could both fix an excellent boiled dinner and taught me how to do it as I got older (except for the cornmeal dumplings). My aunt that lived with my maternal grandmother made the best cakes and pies, and her daughter is still alive and cooking as well.
 
Well, there's me. I started experimenting with cooking at about age ten. My paternal grandparents were both good cooks, though Gradpa did most of the cooking. My Dad was much more limited in his cooking, that is, he didn't make deserts. But he made exceptional boiled dinner, fried trout, steaks, good veggie sides, etc. He doctored pork and beans into fabulous meals, with only the best hot dogs to accompany tham. My mother was a great cook, from homemade breads (remember the breads dyed pink., or green and made into 3 inch square sandwiches for searving to freinds?), beef, roasts, seafood, pie, cakes, & cookies, almond bark, peanut brittle, cinamon bread, great mashed potatoes, and scalloped potatoes, really good soups and stews, chili, dumplings, etc. Yet again, she was constrained by what
was available. The only thing she couldm,t seem to be able to make well was beefsteak. That was always cooked as a masseter exersizer.

Even my eldest sister is a good cook. My youngest sister cooks very well, but doesn't enjoy it.

This was great for me, as I love all kinds of food, which is why I developed a love of cooking. Unlike most of my family, I traveled to many parts of the U.S., and all over the Pacific. I got to try flavors and foods that many people never get to esperience. I have a talent for figuring things out, be it food related., mechanical, electrical, mathematical, biological, litterary, etc. I've also been doing things for myself from about 4 years of age. My parents were always available to answer questions, and teach me. I just always took it upon myself to figure things out on my own. All of my children are exemplary cooks as well. This is all true, and is not an attempt to be bragadocious. And I believe that my childre are better than me at cooking. Then again, I taught them what I knew, and am still teaching them, and they expanded their skills beyond that. No one taught me any cooking skills. I just figured them out on my own, too stupid to ask for help.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
My mum was the good cook in our family. My dad was good with the charcoal grill, usually on Sundays in summer: chicken on the electric spit that he built or steak. Other than that, he didn't really cook. Between me and my sister, I'm the one who has an interest in cooking. My sister lives alone and just cooks for herself. My grandmothers were pretty good cooks. But, I didn't get to see them much, because my dad's mum lived in Stockholm, Sweden and my mum's mum lived in Copenhagen, Denmark.
 
My maternal grandma, my aunt. Oh my gosh, could they cook. I like to think I got a smidgen of their abilities. My cousin's daughter sent me a message Friday--her kids caught a burbot (eel pout) up at LOW. The cousin who cooks eel pout is in Florida. She asked me if I knew how to cook it. "You took the loins" "Yup." "Okay...grandma used to poach it in butter and milk." "Okay."But I have heard of people poaching it in Mtn Dew." Her Dad doesn't drink coffee--he has always drank Mtn Dew. I am waiting to hear back from her how she cooked it and what she thought of it (besides that is was really slimy when they caught it and her hubby cleaned it).
 
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My maternal grandma, my aunt. Oh my gosh, could they cook. I like to think I got a smidgen of their abilities. My cousin's daughter sent me a message Friday--her kids caught a burbot (eel pout) up at LOW. The cousin who cooks eel pout is in Florida. She asked me if I knew how to cook it. "You took the loins" "Yup." "Okay...grandma used to poach it in butter and milk." "Okay."But I have heard of people poaching it in Mtn Dew." Her Dad doesn't drink coffee--he has always drank Mtn Dew. I am waiting to hear back from her how she cooked it and what she thought of it (besides that is was really slimy when they caught it and her hubby cleaned it).
Love burbot/eel-pout.

I too poach it, but in salted water.It's also very good when cubed, and sauteed in butter, with a bit of garlic. Burbot is the only freshwater member of the cod family, and has a mild flavor, coupled with firm, white flesh. Assuch, it can also be cut in little rectangles, breaded, and made into fish sticks, or into scuare patties for fish sandwiches.

In winter, they are often caught in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Surperior, and Lake Huron, in fairly shallow water, at night. In the summer months, you have to fish very deep to catch them, and I'm talking a hundred foot deep. They like to hang out where lake trout hang out, where the water is cold and dark.

Ok, thats enough of me digressing on burbot.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
My Mom was a heck of a good cook. :heart: Roast chicken (even when picked up from the floor - oops!), soups, simple one-pan meals. And her stew! So very good, and something I finally gave up trying to make, since I could never get it to taste like hers. However, the biggest compliment I ever got was when Mom told me the same thing about my pot roast - she liked mine better and asked me to make it for them once in a while. She could bake good, too. I especially loved her baking powder coffee cake made in a pie plate. :yum:

Nana moved in with us when I was seven Now, "Nana" wasn't my Grandma, she was my great aunt. I never knew any of my grandparents since they all pre-deceased my birth. However, I don't think any grandma could have loved me more or taught me more about food and family than Nana did. Once Nana moved in, she became the main baker. She did a little cooking, too, but not as much after the "fruit flies in the soup" incident. :LOL:
 
Love burbot/eel-pout.

I too poach it, but in salted water.It's also very good when cubed, and sauteed in butter, with a bit of garlic. Burbot is the only freshwater member of the cod family, and has a mild flavor, coupled with firm, white flesh. Assuch, it can also be cut in little rectangles, breaded, and made into fish sticks, or into scuare patties for fish sandwiches.

In winter, they are often caught in the Great Lakes, especially Lake Surperior, and Lake Huron, in fairly shallow water, at night. In the summer months, you have to fish very deep to catch them, and I'm talking a hundred foot deep. They like to hang out where lake trout hang out, where the water is cold and dark.

Ok, thats enough of me digressing on burbot.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Until this year, there was an eelpout festival in Walker, MN. It is not uncommon for ice fishermen to leave eelpout on the ice if they catch them. My cousin poaches it and I have bugging him to catch one for me up at LOW. Sigh. I remember the one time we caught one in the summer...it was so slippery! My grandpa took out the hook and threw it back. I was 4 or 5. He died when I was 7.
 
My maternal grandma, my aunt. Oh my gosh, could they cook. I like to think I got a smidgen of their abilities. My cousin's daughter sent me a message Friday--her kids caught a burbot (eel pout) up at LOW. The cousin who cooks eel pout is in Florida. She asked me if I knew how to cook it. "You took the loins" "Yup." "Okay...grandma used to poach it in butter and milk." "Okay."But I have heard of people poaching it in Mtn Dew." Her Dad doesn't drink coffee--he has always drank Mtn Dew. I am waiting to hear back from her how she cooked it and what she thought of it (besides that is was really slimy when they caught it and her hubby cleaned it).
My Mom was actually a good cook--the problem was she had to temper all she cooked to my father's tastes. His mother was a terrible cook--no seasoning, everything cooked to death (even though it was already dead). She grew up in a family that had a cook, none of the three girls learned to cook. One married well and she and her husband ate out every night, the other remained single and made things like toast and chicken a la king for supper. I remember my Mom opening the fridge when she came home from work and saying, "oh gad, what day is it? What am I supposed to make for supper?" I get it now that I have been cooking to my father's taste (lack thereof) for almost 4 years. He wants the same thing rotated every 7 - 10 days, no surprises, no changes to "how Mom always made it." When he would be out-of-town (rarely) or gone for the day, or Mom and I were at The Lake, we ate the food we wanted to eat--she gobbled it down. She particularly liked when I made Indian or Middle Eastern dishes.
 
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IVe had one problem with cooking, besides my DW's narrow range of foods she will eat. That is, whenever we visited relatives in San Diego area, I have a brother-in-law, who is also my first cousin always wanting to compete with me. He, and my other brother-in-law *DW's youngest brother, thinking that I was always trying to show off, and show everyone else up. My eldest sister always acted as if it was a competition when we would both prepare foods for a family get together.

Except for hones-to-goodness competitions, like the chili cook-off, or other cook-offs we had at our church, I never tried to compete with any of my family, or extended family members. I just wanted to prepare food that was as well made as I cold make it. I wanted to share something good.

Oh, and that Brother-In-Law who thought I was competing with him, well he was a cook in the U.S. Marine Corps. His DW told me they never let him cook anything as he always burns the food:ermm:.

Now I've burned my share of food in this lifetime. But more often than not, it comes out good enough to eat, and then some.

Seeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
 
I was fortunate to be the custodian of my maternal grandma's handwritten cookbook. I recently had it scanned and sent pdf files to my cousins. I just couldn't send the "scent" which was that of my grandma's kitchen. That's mine, all mine.
 
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