Cooking

[mummymels]

Did your mum cook and do you cook? Is cooking really a dying art?

My mum used to do a mixture of home cooked food and bought. I'm the same but have to admit that I probably do less home cooked them my mum did. I would love to cook more but I find it hard finding the time to cook from scratch.

my nan was a cook by profession and i was given larvelly meals, lots of jersey royal new potatoes and cabbage and roast beef i remeber.

lots of pastry with plate meat pie or tater ash.

however she didn't teach me. she lived with us til i was 12

she taught my cousin though as the minded her a lot.

my mum was inane and so i can't remember her cooking, she made a mean stew though, and i make a mean stew too.

i can follow a recipe - i mean who can't its the same as putting an ikea wardrobe together.

i think you hit the nail on the head with time.

who has the time to come in from work sit down and help with three seperate lots of homework, sort out uniforms for the next day, put a wash on, wash the pots, fold some clothes, tidy up....then bake a fucking cake.

lifes too short.

inane and insane - but she could spell

Exactly Custardo. Maybe one day we will have more time to be a domestic goddess!

I know what you mean, where did your grannies find the time? I mean they had the same chores, minus all the gadgets we now have. Or maybe the supermarkets weren't stacked with ready meals so they just didn't have any choice.

I highly recommend a slow cooker, can bung everything in raw, can even buy frozen casserole beef now, and just add your dumplings (not for me though as a L Carber!) 20 mins before you want to eat. Unfortunately I don't know any other recipies for it other than beef or chicken casserole. Sausages don't go so well unless you cook them first as makes the meal very salty.

My mum cuts up all her fresh veg, whereas I buy the frozen bags to save on time and just pop in the microwave. Try to cook from scratch when I can, more so when we have family over as want to try to impress them!

I cook every day. Single mum, full time job, social life, all the normal things etc., but I object to paying out money for overpriced junk when I can put something simple & healthy together myself. I don't bake cakes or spend hours over lavish dishes unless it's a special occasion. Things that need long cooking time - casseroles, for example - get made at the weekend and spare portions frozen for another day. During the week we eat simple, quick things like pasta dishes, omelettes or something grilled/baked with a salad or vegetables. I'd say I don't spend more than 20 minutes typically in the evening.... and it's a good wind-down activity, chopping a few vegetables. Packed lunches take a few minutes in the evening.

I've just started teaching my 9 year-old how to cook because I think it's a vital life-skill. Life may be short but I don't want it to be made shorter due to ill-health because I've ended up with a poor diet.

My 3 year old loves to help prepare meals and cook. Unfortunately he is at the cake and biscuit making stage, and has a big aversion to salad! However he loves veg, we had none in the other day and I felt so guilty because he wanted it for dinner!

I agree it is a life skill, I don't want my kids to be unable to look after themselves as they get older. I want them to be healthy and active and that includes what they eat too.

My 3 year old loves to help prepare meals and cook. Unfortunately he is at the cake and biscuit making stage, and has a big aversion to salad! However he loves veg, we had none in the other day and I felt so guilty because he wanted it for dinner!

I agree it is a life skill, I don't want my kids to be unable to look after themselves as they get older. I want them to be healthy and active and that includes what they eat too.

When i was growing up i thought packet soup and toast was brilliant cooking and we would all coo over da roasted chick and roast pots, boiled carrots & pkt gravy for sun dinner i didnt know my mum wasnt a gud cook til i was a grown up meself & found out openin a jar nd pourin ant really "home cookin" at da top of its game im not a gr8 cook myself but i try nd am very jealous of those with a gift for it my mil & sil r sensational am very but il give my mum one thing she makes mouth wateringly good brown soda bread, mine cut b classed as a lethel weapon! such a pity she never passed on da skill to her dc's... o & my gran made a white soda wit currents n it & a trecel cake/bread that iv had many a dream about but not 1 n our whole family has da recipe for either such a shame to not pass these things to our kids

I can see where you're coming from Mummymels.

We used to come home for lunch every day (this was the 1970s) and mum would have lunch on the table - a steak and kidney pie prepared from scratch, potatoes and vegetables, followed by apple crumble and custard, she's now nearly 80 and says she doesn't know how she did it! She did start buying Smash for instant mash, but we never had vesta curries, they were unappetizing.

Nowadays, I make some things from scratch like pizza bases, cheese sauce and always peel potatoes (wouldn't do ready roast spuds and mash), but use gravy granules and ready pasta sauces.