Things you assumed were normal

[meredithgrey1]

DH bought some weetabix to have for breakfast a few days ago and I was amazed to see him preparing it by just pouring cold milk on and then eating it like that! I can't eat weetabix now but when I was little my mum would pour the milk on, then microwave it, then mash the biscuits in to create something similar to porridge. I assumed at the time that this was the only way to eat weetabix but my husband was appalled at the very idea and after a quick google it does seem like I'm very much in the minority. So it got me thinking, what are some things that you thought were normal, but then you realised that you/your family were the only one(s) doing it like that?

I never thought it strange that my parents took all pets (cat, Guinea pigs- cage and run, hamster in cage) caravanning with us. As an adult looking back I am baffled at this behaviour.

DH & I always took our pet hamsters on caravan holidays with us. Change of scenery .

I thought that it was entirely normal to eat breakfast cereals without milk/yoghurt. I would only ever add hot water to Weetabix and that would be it.

Now, I can't eat them together as it doesn't taste right

I don’t see why the rodents cannot come in such a trip, unless there is a risk of over heating they are happier and safer with you, they are also far more portable than a cat or a dog!

@misspiggy100

A coke float!

Those are normal, they totally are. We used to go to Brucianni's which had the same menu from the 1940s to when it closed last year. Went with grandma in the school holidays for a treat and always had a Coke with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in. Then on the was home, when we got off the bus we'd stop in the corner shop and get a paper bag of rainbow kali. Me and my brothers would be given a teaspoon each and would sit and eat the Kali by the spoonful till we were sugared up little demons.

For anyone who doesn't know what Kali is, its coloured sugar with sour flavour added www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112818725007

I've never had a sweet/jam omelette, but if you've not read Dorothy L Sayers Strong Poison, in which one features, do so immediately

@amazedmummy I love cold buttered toast too! Best thing about staying at a hotel. I'm too impatient to wait for it at home!

As a child I hated bread & butter. Just as some people don't like sprouts, and some people don't like bananas, I didn't like bread & butter. It was, simply, not nice to eat. But I could never understand why we never had fruit cake because my dad didn't like it, yet we still had to have bread & butter (at every meal) even though I didn't like it. It wasn't until I was about 11 or 12 that I discovered why I found it so awful: the bread was always at least two or three days old. The system at home was First In, First Out, so a fresh loaf always had to go to the back of the queue and wait until the older bread had been eaten - thus becoming old itself. When I eventually challenged this, the excuse I was given was that fresh bread was indigestible!

Oh carnation jelly! Yes!

Just remembered another of my interesting sandwiches - mushed (of course!) banana and nutella/chocolate spread. SO good.

And cheese and jam - well, my favourite of those is Brie with blackcurrant jam, mayonnaise and black pepper. Still have that quite regularly. Actually, I tell a small fib - my ABSOLUTE favourite is Brie with turkey and cranberry sauce/jam, with mayonnaise and black pepper (and even lettuce). But it has to be real turkey, not deli slices.

I recently read a novel in which some body saved all her apple cores and dried out the pips to make poison! No idea whether that's possible or not

Just remembered of another one.

Our breakfast on school days was a a shake of milk, Quick strawberry/chocolate powder and a raw egg. You could only drink it when you were half asleep. If my mum ran out of Quick she would use Kool-Aid powder instead 🤮

It took us years to work out it wasn’t normal because my cousins were having the same.

My Australian grandmother used to make 'mocked duck' sandwiches. I've never seen/heard anyone else having it. Its kraft, long life cheese grated, then cooked in a saucepan with fresh tomato, herbs, egg and butter to make a savoury sandwich filler.

Anyone else know this recipe?

Erm no. But seems worth trying...

“Also, lollipops at the dentist and Lucozade as a health drink?”

Yes we only got lucozade when we were ill, so now the smell just instantly makes me feel sick!

I have a shocking/funny story about lucozade. As a trainee nurse we had a patient with diabetes who’s sugars were all over the place, and nobody could figure out why, he was being strict with his diet, resting regularly etc. Then I noticed his mum put a bottle of lucozade on his bedside table while I was changing the bed - Yep! He and his mother weren’t “counting” the lucozade (which is basically liquid sugar!) he was drinking - a litre a day! His mum said something like “but it’s a health drink I get it from the chemists that won’t be making him ill” it was the most extreme example of this but we frequently had diabetic patients supposedly keeping detailed food diaries who “didn’t count” drinks or snacks!

Toasted mashed banana sandwiches even better, try with peanut butter too.

@mollysilknose - my mum buggered her first microwave that way, shorted it out. I’ve blown up a couple by accidentally using plates with metal decoration. One I actually set alight as a tiny bit of foil got stuck to bottom of a ready meal.

French toast to me is neither savour nor sweet, egg mix is usually 2 eggs splash of milk dip the bread in and fry, can then be eaten either savoury with fry up or sweet with sugar/syrups/jam etc

“I grew up not knowing fish came without batter..... apparently mum didn't like the look of a 'real' fish” opposite here, mum would only buy fresh fish and was quite fussy about it. Catholic family so fridays was fish and chips night BUT usually home made. Many non-Scots, non-catholic friends who stayed or came to tea on a Friday were astounded to discover it was actually quite easy (the most amusing was the friend who until then didn’t know chips were made from potatoes!) - and fun - to make homemade fish and chips and it tasted far better than from the chippy too. 3 of us kids so usually it worked out well as one would flour the fish, one would egg dip and one dip in (bright orange bought paxo in a HUGE box that seemed to last ages) breadcrumbs.

Fish and chips fried in a chip pan for many years until we did indeed have a fire then we got a “safety fryer”

Homemade mushy peas too.

Lashings of salt and vinegar on the lot, pickles galore to choose from to go with. But if there was only one pickled egg left dad got it.

I'm with him. i love weetabix although it is a snack food not a breakfast food.

Avocado for dessert.

I used to work with a young woman from Brazil. She said she found it odd that we eat avocado as a savoury food. She was used to mashing it up with sugar.

We also had ‘Ribena milk’ and something called ‘vappy milk pudding’ which was jelly made with whisked-up evaporated milk as well as hot water. It sort of separated as it set so there was a layer of milky jelly at the bottom and a mousse-like layer on top. Never come across that anywhere else.
We made this in school cookery lessons. They called it "honeycomb mould"
And yes to bananas and chocolate. We used to go to a creperie, and one filled with banana and chocolate was my favourite dessert.

Yes to bananas & chocolate. We'd melt chocolate over a pan then dip peeled bananas in to coat. Pop them in the fridge to set then have them after tea.

@TokenGinger oh god mine too, I still haven’t figured out if it’s actually a ‘thing’ or not?! They still feed my children corned beef hash and they love it, it was one of my favourite meals as a kid.

My Grandmother used to make “Savoury Duck”.

It didn’t contain any duck, but was made from liver and pork simmered together, then made into sausage shapes and baked. Usually served with pease pudding.
Although it was quite tasty, nevertheless, I was so thrilled to discover actual real delicious duck as a teenager!

I used to have Weetabix buttered as a kid. Bovril is lovely on toast or in sandwiches. My mum used to love toast and dripping 🤢 and condensed milk sandwiches 🤢🤢. I always thought that steak was always served well done and cooked in gravy because that's how my mum cooked it (much prefer it blue!). And we could never have omelette because someone might die! (Apparently, historically, a couple of relatives had died around the same time that omelette had been served by my grandparents 🤷). No wonder I'm a bit odd 😂

My mum makes a pudding called jelly fluff.
You make a jelly and wait until it's almost set. Then you whip up a can of evaporated milk until fluffy. Then you fold in the slightly runny jelly. Leave to set.
It's lovely. I've never met anyone else who has anything like it. She got the recipe from someone at a church she went to as a teenager. My favourite flavour is orange jelly with mandarin slices. Use the syrup from the fruit can in the jelly and you bash up the mandarin slices with the evaporated milk.

I think most Aussie kids would have had dry weetbix with butter or honey or bananas as a snack at some point. They were so dry!

Toast dipped into tea. My mum used to do this actually tastes quite nice

We had this very ‘thing’ this morning. 3yo twins have always eaten weetabix with cold milk (and had the delight of smashing them accordingly). This morning DH said ‘would you like it hot?’ Because that’s how he was brought up. Safe to say it was a disaster. The three of us (me and the twins) were like ‘where’s the milk gone? Where’s the fun?’ 😆

@CigarsofthePharoahs that sounds very American! A wide variety of similar recipes are extremely popular in the US under the name of 'jello salad.'