To ask you for the things your parents taught you/ did that you just do without thinking??

[Christmastits]

So tonight is like a zoo on the ward im in, people in and out all night. I'm trying to sleep but I can't. My mum came up today to visit me and we were talking about her new dishwasher and I was thinking about that and how when I was a kid the finish powerball things came out and when I 7 I got to put the tablet in the dishwasher

I remember my dad making this massive deal about how you shouldn't touch the tablet- especially the red ball and really drilled it home. So I used to open the tablet and then squeeze it into the tray in the packet never touching the tablet. I still do that today! It was probably because my dad thought I might eat it but I still do the weird dishwasher stuff.

I once heard of a woman who chopped her bacon in half- binned one half and cooked the rest. Her DH asked why bacon was so small and she said that her mum taught her to do it that way, so they asked the Mum and she said that her Mum had taught her that way- they asked the Granny why she chopped the bacon in half and she said that her pan was too small to cook a whole piece of bacon!! 😂 hilarious!

Also my mum took meat out of the freezer and put it on the microwave (because it's out of the way) so I did the same but DH will pick it up and put it on the cooker as that's what his mum does as her microwave is integrated... really annoys me! Although I've started putting it in the fridge because good hygiene..

So please help me get through tonight with your funny things your parents did that you just copied until you thought about it!

Another food-related one: I always used to carefully cut off the top corner of tomatoes after I've cut them into segments (quarters, eighths, whatever). I had no idea why I did this, but one time when I was older than I'm going to admit to, I mentioned this habit to my mum and it turns out that my Dad always did this, because HIS mum told him the top part of the tomato is poisonous.

I think there is a common belief (not sure if founded) that tomato leaves are poisonous due to them being part of the nightshade family of plants, but even if true it doesn't extend into the flesh (or else surely tomatoes would be well recognised as a high-risk food item)!

So for years I'd been faffing about with pieces of tomato, carefully slicing off a minuscule extra piece, for absolutely no reason.

Not me, but I read about a woman who always defrosted her meat in the sink with a dish rack and t-towels over it just. One day her mum asked her why she did that as she didn't have cats!

This was relevant when I was younger , my husband thinks I'm crazy , as during a thunder storm I still want to unplug the tv and warn people to keep away from the windows 😂

Sorry I'm a water first and then the squash person.
Apparently the thinking behind it is to check the water is clear first. Not sure if this came from dm or my gran.

I love this thread! I leave a little bit of tea at the bottom of my mug, so does my mum. But that’s because her mum, my Grandma, did: because back then they only used loose tea and the dregs would have been gritty with stray loose tea.

When I buy eggs in the supermarket, I lift the carton in the air to check they’ve not smashed on the bottom - a step up from opening the lid and looking at the top... I think my mum got caught out once and since then has always done that.

Not quite the same, but my dad got food poisoning when I was 9 from a piece of pork and was ill for a couple of weeks: “That bloody pork”... It terrified me as I’d never seen him ill and consequently I’ve never eaten pork. My dad still does though

Everything with a lid I have to open, like jam, mustard, milk, chutney etc, I always sniff it before I use it. Purely because my mother did & now I do it out of habit.

Another mushroom peeler here! I also group my shopping together on the supermarket conveyerbelt ie: meat, dairy, cooked meat, freezer, tins etc. because it’s how my dad did it.

If we ever buy a newspaper, my DH fucking irons the paper before he reads. Like he is in Downton abbey or something. His DF used to do this and he does the same.

Newspapers used to be ironed, to set the ink so it doesn't rub off onto your hands. Modern newspapers use ink that doesn't need ironing......

I am also a mushroom peeler, I think this is from my mum. I used to remove the stalks and eat them raw, now I keep them on and cook them.
I peel vegetables with a knife and struggle with a normal peeler.
When I peel potatoes they go straight into a pan of water (no idea why!)
I have a drawer in the kitchen specifically for utensils and one specifically for clean tea towels (not sure if this is normal)
I always shake the milk before using it
I always squeeze bread in the shop before buying it (although I don't really know the reasoning behind it)
Ketchup goes in the cupboard and mayo in the fridge. Eggs are also kept in the fridge!

One thing I definitely don't do that my parents did, is leave butter out of the fridge in a butter dish. Butter and margarine should be in the fridge not soft and on the sideboard!

Peeling potatoes and putting them straight into in water: they oxidise if you peel them and don't put them into water. That is, they turn brown and look pretty gross, although apparently it doesn't actually affect their nutritional value.

Discarding mushroom stalks and peeling: my mum used to pick them directly from fields when she was young. Apparently they would grow best in the middle of cow pats, so no wonder the stalk was discarded. Also flies would lay eggs on the cap of the mushroom - if you didn't cook them soon after bringing them home, they would be filled with maggots. So peeling was to remove the part with eggs or maggots!

Squeezing bread in the shop: lets you know if the crust is crusty or soft!

OH used to put the cracked eggshells back into the eggbox, next to their un-used brothers and sisters. For ages, I would remove them and bin them as we went along.

I eventually cracked (sorry!) and asked whether the congealing shells would otherwise stay in the eggbox till the bitter end, if I was not removing them.

The "WTF?" look on my face when he said yes seems to have been enough to stop him doing that any more.

Not kitchen (or indeed parent related) but I always copy my grandfather and verbally salute magpies (at least internally now - got too many strange looks if said out loud) if I see them out side

babybrain123 how to you spread butter if it’s kept in the fridge? We keep ours in a butter dish in a cupboard, only time it goes in the fridge is in very hot weather but we always get it out overnight ready for breakfast in the morning.

Good manners
Compassion
Kindness
Hard work
Giving back to those less fortunate
Going to mass
Committing to what I say I will do
Always wearing jewellery (learned from my DM)

Breaking dried spaghetti in half before the boil.

Banging jar lids with a knife handle to get them loose. DH resents the noise, prefers to struggle stupidly to open the jar.

We were raised so differently, I probably have a dozen things I could mention.

I had no idea you could peel mushrooms. There is nothing to peel?!

Things I do that mum does -

• Prepares potatoes and vegetables in advance and keeps them in a sauce pan full of water
• cooks courgettes by frying them with oil, butter and garlic
• uses old juice cartons as firelighters (l put them by the fire and DH throws them out)
• warms teapots with hot water, and mugs before pouring coffee in

Things I've picked up from DH -

• using a cheese slicer instead of a knife to cut cheese
• not using a basin for washing up and instead letting the hot water run
• using an egg timer that goes into the saucepan, for boiled eggs

Absolutely zero.

I do things normal ways rather than her ways. Don't know how I figured out the proper ways though hahaha

She doesn't even boil the kettle for pasta water. She puts cold water in the pan and waits 15 minutes

I peel mushrooms and remove the stalks. I don’t like the stalks and I peel them as I feel they don’t get clean enough by wiping them. My mum didn’t do this but I felt I had to share as everyone thinks I’m weird because I peel them.

I peel mushrooms. I picked the habit up from my friend at school when we did cookery lessons.

Rinsing the tops on tins before opening them just like my Nan "in case rats/mice had pissed on them in the warehouse".

Rinsing eggs before cracking them too.

I can't leave the house without going to the loo evenifidontneed Not such a bad thing really, but I have taught the DC's the same so now whenever we are going anywhere as a family we have a queue for the flaming toilet before we can leave!

I vacuum every day, and if I don’t do it one day I can’t stop thinking about it! My mum used to vacuum every day (still does!). I also leave the TV on in the background all day because she did (still does!!).

Boiled eggs and soldiers for my child when off school and ill in bed, plus The Beano. Better than penicillin.

Always prick sausages.

When buying eggs I open the box and touch each one to make sure it's whole I also can't leave the house without going to the loo, but it has to be the very last thing I do!