Strange meal traditions

blitz

My nan for supper, use to do things like sugar sarnies,condense milk sarnies & fruit jelly sarnies which i suppose is very similar to jam sarnies but still had the yuk factor from me.

heather38

my mil makes gravy by putting 2 oxo cubes and some cornflour in a pan, add water and boil till thick. it really is nasty and really salty.

LashyLashla

My SIL cooks her turkey on Christmas eve and they have the legs of it for christmas eve dinner. On Christmas day we get 2 slices of cold breast meat along with all the usual christmas food. I cant stand cold turkey on a warm meal... the worst thing is she puts gravy over the top of the turkey so its warm where the gravy is on it but cold where it isnt... BLEURGH!!! :huh:

Lashy

ceridwen

....and then theres the one of not giving people enough to eat at a meal - maybe technically enough calories (if one eats the pudding - which I rarely do) - but, either way, you come out still hungry.

I make sure that never happens in my home when I have guests - dishes full of plenty of food and help yourself to what you want, so people dont have to have more than they want if on a diet - but I expect them to be holding their stomachs saying they couldnt eat another thing otherwise!

.....and the oddest thing....the place where that invariably happens is any time I am having a meal with my parents. I'm resigned by now to not staying long, as I have to head home and have another meal before my rumbling stomach develops a mind of its own! I've thought about mentioning this - as its not as if they are short of money - but dont want the critical comments I know I would get.

(.....and, no I'm not the size of a house, I have a pretty slim figure!):rotfl:

(Yep I am O.S. with all the leftovers when I feed people - does me usually for dinner for the next couple of days or so!)

kunekune

When I saw this thread I thought I didn't have anything to put in it, but actually ....

My grandmother used to serve salad for tea: lettuce sprinkled with sugar, half a tomato, a few slice of cucumber and some grated cheese, with brown bread and butter. Plus compulsory salad cream. I hated it then, and even now could not stand within 5 yards of salad cream (I have a sauce phobia). For breakfast she would give us lumpy porridge and in the winter we were required to drink warm milk. Not always entirely fresh.

Her sisters also made us eat porridge but there's was much worse, as it was made with salt and water, in true scottish style. We used to ask for breakfast in bed, and then when it arrived, pour milk and sugar on it and then grit our teeth to get it down. I shudder at the memory. Their portions were very small. Except for one occasion, when I took BF (now DH) to meet them. I don't think they had had a man in the house for years, and they produced a big fry up.

My step father was a househusband after he retired early. He was legally blind and so occasionally meals were a bit odd. Once he produced a jelly with fruit in it when I had a school friend staying. We ate it but it was obvious that the fruit was actually chutney. Again, small portions: one lamb chop each, for instance, but then followed by puddings. My mum often sent out for a takeaway half way through the evening. As they were miles from anywhere and neither could drive, this involved a taxi and cost a fortune.

Our little family now doesn't have any odd habit. Honest. Surely everyone has anti pasto for lunch on christmas day?

babybug

kunekune - I have a sauce phobia too! Always thought I was the only one!

When babysitting for my brother I used to make him golden syrup sandwiches. Ugh. He loved them though.

MIL is another one for boiling veg to within an inch of its life, unfortunately I only like veg with a bit of crunch (since telling her this, I now get a dish of raw carrots by my plate!)

poodlehorse

kunekune I am with you entirely on the salty porridge thing. DHs mother makes it like that and I ate it not realising it would be salty - I just about spewed on the spot. I always thought I didn't like porridge until I started making it myself and adding what I liked to it because my mum although a nontraditionalist who liked to sprinkle hers with sugar also liked to leave it to set before eating it. Then when she poured over her milk it sort of floated a bit in it and was sort of jellied consistency.

My gran used to like to go to town on a salad, it must have taken her ages as she would do zigzag edges on her tomatoes which would then be stuffed and she did stuffed eggs too. I think salad cream was involved in that too. And then it was just a slice or two of cold meat (usually pork luncheon meat))and a lettuce leaf. And quite often chips - hot chips and cold salad? If she couldn't be bothered with the chips you got a few crisps on the side which got all soggy if it sat too near watery things like tomatoes.

We were also treated to the delights of "potted heid" or potted meat to the rest of the country that used to come in little fluted pots that suggested it might be a mini trifle. Alas no! And also what I now realise was cod's roe and I was supposed to think was a treat. I think that is when I decided I convinced myself I didn't like fish although I am over that now but not the roe thing.

dorry_2

ceridwen wrote: »

....and then theres the one of not giving people enough to eat at a meal - maybe technically enough calories (if one eats the pudding - which I rarely do) - but, either way, you come out still hungry.

I make sure that never happens in my home when I have guests - dishes full of plenty of food and help yourself to what you want, so people dont have to have more than they want if on a diet - but I expect them to be holding their stomachs saying they couldnt eat another thing otherwise!

.....and the oddest thing....the place where that invariably happens is any time I am having a meal with my parents. I'm resigned by now to not staying long, as I have to head home and have another meal before my rumbling stomach develops a mind of its own! I've thought about mentioning this - as its not as if they are short of money - but dont want the critical comments I know I would get.

(.....and, no I'm not the size of a house, I have a pretty slim figure!):rotfl:

(Yep I am O.S. with all the leftovers when I feed people - does me usually for dinner for the next couple of days or so!)

lol :rotfl: You must know the same couple we know, always come home starving, in fact, we always make sure we have plenty of food here to eat when we come home and no none of us are fat as well :eek: I just don't get it, I come from a family who ate well and guests never went home hungry

Quackers

[quote=ceridwen;7406079.....and the oddest thing....the place where that invariably happens is any time I am having a meal with my parents. I'm resigned by now to not staying long, as I have to head home and have another meal before my rumbling stomach develops a mind of its own! I've thought about mentioning this - as its not as if they are short of money - but dont want the critical comments I know I would get.
[/quote]

I also aLWAYS leave my mums hungry.

Poor woman just cannot cook. And also cannot judge how much to cook for lots of people.

I always eat before I go there.

Not that I eat there too often anyway

ceridwen

Quackers wrote: »

I also aLWAYS leave my mums hungry.

Poor woman just cannot cook. And also cannot judge how much to cook for lots of people.

I always eat before I go there.

Not that I eat there too often anyway

Can relate to that. I dont think its that my mother cant judge how much to cook for people - I think it might be something to do with getting the message over that I am not to get fat. I've pointed out to her that I dont intend to be fat and will deal with that for myself anyway. Havent quite got the nerve to explain to her that its basically fat and sugar that make one fat (as in the cakes and puddings they regularly have!) - oh my head hurts thinking of even trying to do so!

Its so nice to "meet" someone in the same boat on this one!....and yes mine cant cook either - but I am a pretty good cook myself.