re: Were any of your parents lousy cooks?

Mom was a great cook, and she still does well, just not often. Dad taught Mom the basics and then retired. I always knew when Mom was too sick to cook because Dad would be dishing up a well done omlete most of the time.

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My mom was a terrible cook - she is from Texas and for some reason thinks gravy is just not an option - she also had a habit of over cooking everything to the point of the meat being dried out and chewy.

Starting at around 9 years old, I used to make cheese sandwhiches for dinner at least 3 times a week so I didn't have to eat her food. As time went on, I made my own dinner every night, usually mac and cheese, frozen pizza, and more cheese sandwhiches.

Dad wasn't much help, when he was in charge he would just ask if we wanted to eat cereal for dinner or corn bread with milk, yuck. Dad was in charge of breakfast daily, that was usually a coke and a ding dong. Then he would feel guilty and give us some vitamins to take because he said he was worried about our health.

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That's fricked up bad. Hope you're eatin' better now.

My parents both worked a lot. Breakfast was usually Pop Tarts as we were running out the door for school.
I grew up on Sonic, pizza, mac & cheese, and whatever the Schwan man brought. I could call Sonic and tell them my name and they'd say, "you want the usual?" and I was ordering for all four of us. Sad, really. I wonder if you can still call in orders at Sonic.

Those eating habits followed me to college and I got fat. I've changed my ways and I'm working on getting my parents to do the same. Let's just say old habits die hard...

If mom did cook, it was typically something in the crock pot (some sort of bean and usually not very good - bless her sweet heart) or something charred beyond recognition on the grill. She does make really great chili (the recipe on the back of the Mexene jar). She would make chicken rotel and it was freaking awful. In all fairness, she didn't have the best culinary examples growing up. Her parents also worked and my grandmother hates cooking and it shows in her food (it's typically terrible). Mom cooks a bit more now that she doesn't work the same crazy hours she used to (she's a nurse). Dad NEVER cooked. I seriously can't remember one time that he ever cooked anything. He cooks a little now - casseroles and wraps, but still leaves most of the cooking and/or ordering out to my mom.

I try to cook every night - even if it's something simple. My fiance never, ever cooks. He can throw frozen things in the oven for himself, but that's the extent of it. He warmed soup for me once when I was too sick to get out of bed. So, he's "cooked" for me one time in 5.5 years...wow.

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Hope you're eatin' better now.

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Much better - married a guy from New Orleans - his mom CAN COOK - and so can he - he taught me how to cook and how to eat - I love food now - and love to cook.

My mom is now blown away when I bring dishes for holidays - roast & gravy, eggplant dressing, seafood stuffing - I bring lots so me and my husband can eat.

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pics?

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No pics, horndog. But it's pretty much what you might have in mind.

My parents both were and still are great cooks. They just don't cook as often anymore. My mother swears when she dies she'll go to heaven and God will have her making sandwiches since she's made about a million of them for all of the family over the years.

Mom was a single mother--I think she cooked at one point but I don't really remember it. Usually if she did cook, it was either frozen or boxed. Or hot dogs/sandwiches.

Our dinners rotated through Wendy's, McDonald's, Taco Bell, Popeye's, and Burger King, and Dominoes/Little Ceasar's. We always got the same thing.

I despise all fast food to this day.

My father only tried to cook breakfast occasionaly, it was pretty bad, I grew up hating eggs.

My mother was a skinny little Italian woman and an incredible cook in a family of incredible cooks. I'll forgive her for always sleeping late and leaving us to my father's mis-nutrition. She made the cheap formica table in our kitchen the center of the gastronomic world for many people who craved her pastas, daubes (a lost art) and pastries. I remember sitting in grade school dreaming of the delights waiting for me at dinner.

My mother died when I was only 20, so I didn't have a chance to learn her cooking as an adult, but I have lot's of older brothers & sisters and we recreate her dishes from memory frequently. Right now we are discussing her eggplant fritters, trying to replicate.

BTW, great thread Zack, interesting to read posters food roots, good and bad.

As long as we're reminiscing, here's one I haven't thought about for decades. When my dad was home for the weekend, Bro and I looked forward to getting decent meals. If he planned on BBQ and it rained he simply drove the car out of our old wooden garage and set up the pit in the garage.

There was no door on the single car garage and he would take 3 folding chairs and set them up facing the opening to "watch the rain". The pit was just behind us cooking chicken slow.

We would discuss sports and have a beer. I'll never forget the smell of BBQ in a garage during a rain, mixed with the oil smell from his wooden work bench. We didn't have TV so watching the rain was great entertainment.