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 have trouble imagining how you would even peel a mushroom

Well what my mum always did and therefore what I do (apparently totally unnecessarily) is pull the stalk out and then from the inside you can kind of just peel off the outer layer with your fingers.
I'm making creamy mushroom pasta tonight and will try it with unpeeled mushrooms

That mostly sounds like a waste of mushrooms! You know that you can eat the stalk?

The stalks get chopped and added in anyway. Removing them just gives easier access for peeling

Can't believe I've been wasting my time peeling sodding mushrooms!

The first time I went to DP's parents we had sandwiches for lunch with a bag of crisps. My crisps had a fucking EGG in them. AN EGG.

They all thought (and still think) it's completely normal to have a fucking egg plopped in a bag of crisps.

Weirdos.

In my world mashed potato with salad is normal - apparently I am weird!

I can't eat any cold salad with hot food, it tastes wrong.
But especially so mash - it must make it go all warm and limp < not envy

(cold dessert/hot custard or hot dessert/cold custard/ice cream is the law though!)

Voila

Growing up we always had walkers ready salted crisps with lots of vinegar on them. My son now eats them like it too. OH was a bit when he first saw me have some but now I’d partial to them

Also if my mum has a tin of tomato soup she crunches a bag of crisps up and tips them in.

We had tea at a friends and she asked if pizza was ok - great we all love pizza...

Until she served it with boiled cauliflower/broccoli and roast potatoes

Fab thread OP!
My mum never salted anything from potatoes to pastry - everything was bland. Siblings and I all fondly remember her tasteless cooking haha.

I can't remember names but to the posters that commented......
Mum has juice on cereal that's not so strange really. Muesli was initially invented to be made with fruit juices. It was us that got hold of it and drowned it with milk :) I can not imagine using juice on cornflakes etc...
Didn't bath/shower/wash your hair on a morning because you'd catch cold
There is a tiny bit of actual sense to this gem of an old wives tale :)
That being - having wet hair lowers your body temperature making it easier for viruses to enter the body and make you ill. Years ago not many people actually knew about the lower body temp thing but just repeated what they had been told - my own GM and DM included lol

I don't peel mushrooms. I dampen kitchen roll and give the mushrooms a rub with that to remove the dirt if there's any.

Bovril I drink with a generous amount of black pepper (add lots if I have a sore throat, it relieves it) I'll use oxo too, I'm not fussy.

Hot desert with cold custard (room temperature really, not from a fridge)

Tinned tomatoes on toast yes! I also enjoy tomatoes with boiled rice. Salted and peppered generously. yum!
My husband calls me a minger for.....
celery with peanut butter spread on, has to be the crunchy one.
Adding milk to my baileys mmm!
He however, has no room to call me.....
He eats leftover yorkie puds with jam!
He will eat something sweet before savoury - this is alien to me and I just can not entertain the idea of it.
He is a STANDY UP bum wiper! :0

I can do the shiver thing
I love tinned tomatoes on toast or just in a bowl as a snack if I'm on a diet
Love cold burnt toast
I put mini mars bars in the freezer, don't like them any other way
Will eat weetabix either way, though I haven't had it for years. Don't put sugar on it though

Like these www.amazon.co.uk/mushroom-brush/s?k=mushroom+brush&tag=mumsnetforu03-21

I'm fascinated by the crisps with the egg in them! How does that work then. was it a boiled egg? Peeled or not?
Weird!

@ZeroFucks WTF!!! How random is that.

Many of these favourites are very salty (Bovril, salt on tomatoes etc) I’m trying to eat minimal salt and know it’s in virtually all bought food. I thought it was normal to know that salt is very bad for us.

It was a boiled pickled egg, just plopped in the bag. I thought it was a bit odd when MIL brought my crisps through already open but my tiny mind was blown when she'd taken the liberty of putting a fucking egg inside it.

I reached in and pulled out this egg looking around in silent bewilderment. They were looking at me bewildered as to why I was bewildered. I was looking back at them bewildered wondering why they were bewildered that I was bewildered. We didn't speak for a good couple of minutes, just looked around at each other while I held this egg aloft.

Apparently DP had never had a bag of crisps at home without an egg in it. I have absolutely no fucking clue why it was normal for them. It's just how you eat crisps apparently

@zero I did not know that bewilderment was contagious! 🤣 . But a egg in the bag is bloody odd.

Re milk/juice on cereal when I lived overseas with ex I wasn’t keen on the local milk (not sure why it tasted so —disgusting— different) so I preferred to have apple or pineapple juice on my cereal. Ex thought that disgusting but he’s a fussy bugger all round!

“I thought it was normal to know that salt is very bad for us.”
Everything in moderation really. I have POTS and find if I reduce my sodium intake too much I get more dizzy/fainting spells. A relative has a condition which means they lose salt from their body too fast so have to eat more salt to compensate - they’re not a fan of salt so it’s hard for them.

Egg in crisps definitely weird, I love pickled eggs and can see how they’d go with crisps but having it IN the bag would make the crisps soggy!

I had indoor and outdoor shoes at school too! The regulation outdoor were much stouter than the indoor ones, although they were leather, not slipper-like! We also had gumboots, plimsolls and lacrosse boots for various outdoor activities!

Graphista
You can get slow-release sodium chloride tablets; see if their GP will prescribe them.

I've enjoyed reading this thread, and weirdly a bit if nostalgia creeping in 😁

I love tinned whole plum tomatoes as lunch. I'll fry a chopped onion in a small pan, with maybe a touch of garlic, then add the tinned tomatoes and crush with a potato masher, and then simmered for 5 mins to thicken the juice. I season well, and serve with toast on the side. I like my toast to stay crispy.

And if you want to improve a meaty flavour, use mushroom ketchup. I find it hard to get hold of, but it works a treat.

As for weetabix, I can't stand it so never eat it in any style.

Ribena on hot semolina when i was a kid and yes to hot ribena when its cold. Cold prunes and hot custard was another one

Tinned tomatoes on toast, sometimes i rub a garlic clove over the toast before putting toms on, buttered toast. Salt and pepper yummy

The egg in the crisps made me think of another one!
I LOVE salt and vinegar crisps with pickled cockles chucked in there. It's making my mouth water thinking about it! Yum!

Apparently DP had never had a bag of crisps at home without an egg in it.
Just how many boiled pickled eggs did they have hanging round at any one time, in case of crisp emergency?

Tinned tomatoes on toast, sometimes i rub a garlic clove over the toast before putting toms on
Millions of Spaniards do that every day, so it's not really odd at all! (Pan con tomate)

Tinned tomatoes on toast is an old fashioned dish here. Plenty of older people would see this as a normal tea.