My mother is vehemently against cooking meals. They're "Too complicated" for her if it's not frozen or out of a box. I learned how to cook when I was 13-14 years old because of this. I love cooking, even if I'm not great at it to this day. Wanted to be a chef professionally, but my health issues put the kibosh in that dream.
Now, I cook for myself, my mother, my grandmother and my father. Only my father appreciates my cooking. My mom has a bitch fit if it's "Complicated" and I don't use "Shortcuts" by which she means wholesale replacement of home cooked meals with frozen or boxed or take out. My grandmother has a fit if I make anything if it's not bland because flavor is "Too fancy for her," or if I don't have potatoes with every meal and beef as the only meat we eat.
Even if I hate 2/3rds of the people I cook for, I enjoy cooking. As long as I'm not being rushed, I find it relaxing and I enjoy looking up new twists on old favorites, on top of the interesting new things I rarely get to try because I'll never hear the end of it.
good on you for taking care of your family despite their quarks, sounds like they really need you more than they know and i think its cool you tough it out :)
How do you decide what you would like to cook that evening? I just buy a bunch of ingredients i know i can use in most meals and look up a recipe.
If you're interested i could share with you an interesting old fasioned cinnimon roll frosting recipe that changed how i made sauces forever
Thanks for the praise, don't get that at all from my family besides my dad. I usually have a hard time deciding what to cook due to the constant bitch fits or not so subtle jabs that "It's not what they want." It's a constant chore to actually figure out what to make, and I'm always triple guessing myself. Making things is the fun and easy part. Especially since I get tired of the same 15-20 dishes on repeat and I can't eat beef more than 3-4 times a week due to stomach issues.
Mom and grandma are so picky I have to plan around them entirely, especially my grandmother. Her palate and mentality both grate on me the most regarding cooking, since I have to cater to her and she demands that we stick to the diet she had when she was a child with no deviations or mix ups. Which means beef and potatoes, occasionally canned corn or green beans, no herbs or spices but salt and pepper, for almost every dinner. Hamburger and fried potatoes, shoe leather steak and bland mashed potatoes, shoe leather steak and baked potatoes, dry and stringy roasts that she insists are the best thing ever cooked from frozen and slathered in canola or vegetable oil that literally no one in the house eats but her, unseasoned hamburger in an overly flour-flavored gravy over bland mashed potatoes, chicken fried steak only coated in breadcrumbs and salt, etc.
Thankfully, I don't adhere strictly to her desires in that regard, but I have to weigh my options on how much I want to listen to her complain that night and tell people I "starve her because I don't ever feed her what she wants." I usually have to figure out what we have and then figure out from there, usually defaulting to old recipes that I'm frankly sick of.
She'll occasionally eat chicken, reluctantly, and the only pork she'll touch are dry spiral hams and bacon. She won't touch mushrooms, bell peppers, onions or any of that. The only time she eats a salad is when it's slathered in ceaser salad sauce or thousand island. The only time she'll eat turkey is when you have all the fixin's of a turkey dinner with cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls and just tons of carbs. She can't even eat a turkey sandwich without all of that extra junk, no matter the time of year.
What makes it worse is that we're not far above poor (Not helped by the fact that she's literally $26k deep in credit card debt) and she demands everyone cater to her all the time. She's one of those people who thinks they deserve to live like a rich man no matter what.
Sorry for venting, but Lord knows I needed that and you kinda asked. It irks me constantly and I get told to just deal with it because she's old.
I am curious, however, about this frosting recipe that changed how you make sauces. I do bake, occasionally, though I mostly stick to making home made bread. I did, however, have a baking frenzy of banana baked goods a month ago, due to dad finding 40 lbs of Banana's for $4. No, that's not a typo. 40 lbs for 4$. Made so many banana muffins and banana bread we had to freeze most of it.
naw its cool vent, she sounds like a piece of work. I'm not sure what advice to give because these guys i cook for surely would starve if they didnt eat all the random off the menu stuff i cook. Perhaps you could buy a special (cheap) plate that looks like a reusable frozen dinner trey and prep a meal on it for her and stick it in the freezer to trick her brain. Now you can pull out a homecooked meal and throw it in the microwave while you make whatever you want for dinner! Food prep like that takes a long time so IDK how good of an idea that really is.
i cant remember the exact recipe i used but heres a frosting recipe that needs cooked. you can find similar ones online https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/ermine-icing-cooked-flour-frosting-recipe
what was so cool about the frosting is that you take milk and warm it up in the pan and keep adding flour. it thickens up and makes the base for just about any sauce. I've used the concept in the frosting recipe to further my understanding of cheesy sauces, and i've made some killer mac and cheeses this way. My biggest mistake when making a cheesy sauce this way is not adding enough milk and adding too much flour. It's a fun concept to tinker with
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