WineLovers Discussion Group

Jon Peterson wrote:My Mom did most of the cooking for Dad and my sister and brother. She did many things that, at the time, we're perfectly understandable - she was Mom, after all.
But now, as I look back, there were things that were unexplained; things I'd never do.
For example, after washing fresh mushrooms, Mom peeled them. I can't believe she had the patience to do this let alone a good reason. Maybe her Mom did it.
Did your Mom (or anyone else) do anything like this?

I can't recall if my mother ever peeled mushrooms, but my older sister definitely did it, and in my teens, so did I. It was a combination of removing the material still covering the gills and also removing the surface skin of the cap, which if overwashed took on a slimy texture. Now, we wash mushrooms more gently and do not peel the caps.

Is this legit for the question at hand: Mom would make and eat certain foods that I would not (and still will not) touch... fried calves liver and onions, and stuffed cabbage come to mind. In both cases, if I could have left the house, I would have.

Ooh, I just remembered another thing Mom used... Accent. Pure, shake-on MSG.

My Mom used a pressure cooker for almost everything. She liked how quickly it cooked. The thing gave me anxiety...jiggidy, jiggidy, jiggidy, so noisy and scary--all the steam coming out the little hole at the top. Yeesh. She gave me one at my bridal shower of my first marriage. I tried it once and go figure, the top blew off and I had corned beef all over my first kitchen. To this day, I love braised foods, cooked for hours on end in the oven.

She also used, and still uses Lipton Onion Soup on and in almost everything she makes, be it salmon, pork, beef, stir fry, you name it. I don't mind the flavor of it so much, but to have all those little onion pieces in everything. Ugh.

Carrie, we have a pressure cooker too and never use it. I should get it out, inspect the seal and give it a try.

Jon Peterson wrote: I should get it out, inspect the seal and give it a try.

Nooooooooo!!!

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:Is this legit for the question at hand: Mom would make and eat certain foods that I would not (and still will not) touch... fried calves liver and onions, and stuffed cabbage come to mind. In both cases, if I could have left the house, I would have.

Thoughts like this ran around in my head, too--things that are more foods I would not eat than shortcuts I'd not use. Mom would buy beef and lamb hearts, slice them thinly and then cover them with vinegar, salt and pepper. I'm not sure if they were cooked first or not, though I'd guess so. Anyway, bowls of this stuff were in the fridge from time to time for snacking. I did not partake.

Carrie L. wrote:My Mom used a pressure cooker for almost everything. She liked how quickly it cooked...Lipton Soup

So everything tasted the same, that would be kind of sad!

We had a lot of fried liver, probably because it was cheap.

It's remarkable that it tastes and smells so bad when overcooked but it's just delicious if you leave a tiny amount of pink inside.

I like chopped chicken livers and foie gras and several other innards but shoe-leather calf's liver is not on the list.

Carrie L. wrote:Lipton Onion Soup

Whee! Hadn't thought about that in ages! Mom only used it for dip but, anyway, what a blast from the past.

My Mom was a very good trained cook (she went to a fancy European finishing school), adventurous maybe to a fault during her prime cooking years. That was a good example for me. But some products that she embraced have become absolute no-no's for me, like "Accent" seasoning (pure MSG). The other thing she liked to use was Lawry's Seasoned salt, which I detest. One of her most adventurous and maybe bizarre dinners featured a Beef Vegetable soup that had large Tapioca pearls in it. I suppose the flavor was good but when my Dad commented that the tapioca looked like fish eggs, that did it for me. Ever since then, I can't stand tapioca in any form.

Ines Nyby wrote:Ever since then, I can't stand tapioca in any form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2AxwllQOHE
Let it run for a minute and you'll see the best tapioca!

While I had a working mom who was very pressed for time, she also had (has) pretty good natural cooking instincts. I really can't recall much that she did that I wouldn't do on principle. She used an electric skillet a lot, which is something I have no use for, but I don't see anything inherently wrong with it. The dishes she made that were her standbys were really not too bad. There was a hamburger and rice casserole (done in the electric skillet) that involved those two ingredients along with canned tomatoes and some spices. Nothing to write home about, but it was good, solid, non-synthetic food. She learned all of her Italian repertoire from my Dad's mom, who was first-generation.

As we kids got older, she had a little more time for cooking and began to get quite adventurous. We had stuff like real beef stroganoff, baked Alaska, a really great stew made with beef and pepperoncinis.

I just can't think of much she did that I wouldn't do.

Ines Nyby wrote: The other thing she liked to use was Lawry's Seasoned salt, which I detest.

Oh, it's actually one of my favorites. Love it sprinkled on hard boiled eggs, and it's actually my favorite seasoning for chicken on the grill.

Jenise wrote:

Carrie L. wrote:My Mom used a pressure cooker for almost everything. She liked how quickly it cooked...Lipton Soup

So everything tasted the same, that would be kind of sad!

Yeah, kind of. She even uses it to season the Thanksgiving turkey. I have to say though, my Mom was probably the best cook of all of my friends Moms and she taught me a lot. The importance of browning meat for flavor and she also made/makes mean sauces and gravys. She never really liked to cook though, and always said cooking must skip a generation because she always said her Mom was an amazing cook who took no shortcuts and says I remind her of her Mom in the kitchen. Unfortunately I didn't get to know that side of my grandmother.

Now...how about salads? What was "salad" in your house growing up? Or was there one? Ours was a hunk of iceburg lettuce in a bowl and a bottle of Catalina dressing on the table.

Carrie L. wrote:

Ines Nyby wrote: The other thing she liked to use was Lawry's Seasoned salt, which I detest.

Oh, it's actually one of my favorites. Love it sprinkled on hard boiled eggs, and it's actually my favorite seasoning for chicken on the grill.

I seem to love it on potatoes--oven fries and potato salads, both, also milk-based pan gravies. I don't do that much of either but the Lawry's is always around just in case. And no other brand will do.

Salad! We had salad with dinner every night and I remain a devotee of that lifestyle--something raw with every meal. Mom wasn't very diverse about it like I am, but there were three and all had homemade dressings (no bottled stuff allowed at our house): romaine with an oil/vinegar/garlic dressing; iceberg with some combination of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions, celery, and endive or parsley tossed with oil, vinegar, salt, black pepper and a few pinches of sugar; and a large-chunky marinated vegetable salad of tomato crescents, bell pepper strips, cucumbers and white onions with just salt, oil and vinegar. Aunt Thelma's sweet-sour-tomato dressing (known as Dorothy Lynch dressing in the midwest) was often on hand, too, but I don't remember it gracing our dinner salads. Perhaps my dad didn't like it? It was something we could put on our own salads if we made ourselves a lunch salad or something. (Dinner was the only family meal, we were on our own for the rest.)

Carrie L. wrote:Now...how about salads? What was "salad" in your house growing up? Or was there one? Ours was a hunk of iceburg lettuce in a bowl and a bottle of Catalina dressing on the table.

When did you visit my house?

Carrie L. wrote:

Jon Peterson wrote: I should get it out, inspect the seal and give it a try.

Nooooooooo!!!

Carrie, suck it up and give it another shot. We have used pressure cookers as regularly as skillets for the past fifty years with nary a mishap. Some examples: perfect cabbage in four minutes; whole corned beef and cabbage dinner cooked in three batches (meat, root veggies, and cabbage) all in the same marinating fluid from the corned beef.

And I have almost zilch exposure to pressure-cooker cookery. The only time I have ever seen one used was the time a friend made dulce de leche by "processing" a can of sweetened condensed milk!

Carl Eppig wrote:

Carrie L. wrote:

Jon Peterson wrote: I should get it out, inspect the seal and give it a try.

Nooooooooo!!!

Carrie, suck it up and give it another shot. We have used pressure cookers as regularly as skillets for the past fifty years with nary a mishap. Some examples: perfect cabbage in four minutes; whole corned beef and cabbage dinner cooked in three batches (meat, root veggies, and cabbage) all in the same marinating fluid from the corned beef.

Carl you sound like my Mom!
I'm just never in that much of a hurry. If I'm going to cook, I take my time. Otherwise we go out or get take out. Seriously, all that jiggling and steaming makes me nervous.

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:

Carrie L. wrote:Now...how about salads? What was "salad" in your house growing up? Or was there one? Ours was a hunk of iceburg lettuce in a bowl and a bottle of Catalina dressing on the table.

When did you visit my house?

Did you grow up in NYC or somewhere else? Just wondering if Catalina and iceburg was a nation-wide phenomenon in a certain era. (60s and 70s?)

Jenise wrote:Salad! We had salad with dinner every night and I remain a devotee of that lifestyle--something raw with every meal. Mom wasn't very diverse about it like I am, but there were three and all had homemade dressings (no bottled stuff allowed at our house): romaine with an oil/vinegar/garlic dressing; iceberg with some combination of tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, green onions, celery, and endive or parsley tossed with oil, vinegar, salt, black pepper and a few pinches of sugar; and a large-chunky marinated vegetable salad of tomato crescents, bell pepper strips, cucumbers and white onions with just salt, oil and vinegar. Aunt Thelma's sweet-sour-tomato dressing (known as Dorothy Lynch dressing in the midwest) was often on hand, too, but I don't remember it gracing our dinner salads. Perhaps my dad didn't like it? It was something we could put on our own salads if we made ourselves a lunch salad or something. (Dinner was the only family meal, we were on our own for the rest.)

Wow, what a nice variety! We only had dinners together too and of course breakfast on weekend mornings. Dad was in charge for those meals and one day it would be silver dollar pancakes and the next it would be fresh bakery from the market. We loved the elephant ears toasted utnil carmelized and slathered with butter. (Shoot, now I have a craving.)

I'm just never in that much of a hurry. If I'm going to cook, I take my time. Otherwise we go out or get take out. Seriously, all that jiggling and steaming makes me nervous.

Exactly the way I have felt all my adult like about cooking...what's the hurry. Anyway, there are great meals one can put together in less time than going for take out if you keep a well stocked pantry and lots of good produce, plus some essentials in the freezer. I do it all the time. Oh, and the noise coming form those pressure cookers is so scary. I saw one once at someones house and ran out the door. I thought the thing was going to explode. I was a kid and it stuck with me. Long and slow is my cup of tea for lots of things!