My mum is a really good cook and I wish she taught me how. But while I was growing up I was only allowed in the kitchen to do the dishes and prepare breakfast (cereal or toast). Somehow my sisters taught themselves (my twin makes tasty stuff) but I've pretty much remained clueless. When I lived on my own I ate mainly frozen meals cooked in the microwave but I did teach myself how to make beef goulash. That's a memory that stands out, I don't know why. Now, Kayleigh cooks.
your Mum wasn't just like mine, was she?
in any case.
I recall that Rob was the envy of his workmates for a couple of years, because his luchbox would be brimful of delicious home-made treats, whereas they had to make do with sandwiches. Then I got bored with the "housewife" kick, ofc , and went back to school
(and turned veggie, though i continued to cook meat for Rob. Seemed only fair. But he mostly had to make do with ready-made quiches from Sainsbury's cos I didn't have time for making my own any more). And then we spilt up (for unrelated reasons). But those cookery skills pretty much set me up for life. And we stayed friends for life (he died, prematurely, of a heart condition about three years ago)
Still, in spite of my success with teaching myself, i don't recall
ever persuading Mum to eat anything i'd cooked . If it wasn't too exotic (and my Mum considered a leek or bell pepper ""ëxotic" FFS) or too fancy, it just wasn't "what she fancied" right now. When she stayed with me, she complained to my sister that I spent ages and ages in the kictchen making unnecessaily fancy meals. The fact was that I
did take ages in the kitchen, but not for the reason stated. It was partly because I'm slow and clumsy, always have been, so cooking (and cleaning up after myself) always takes me much longer than for most people; and partly because (by that time) my food sensitivities meant that i just had to make almost everything from scratch. Often, I was making the direct equivalent of various foods that she would happily eat, if only they were picked up from the chilled counter at Sainsbury's and warmed up in the microwave. I tried really, really hard to cater to her tastes, to no avail whatsoever, not ever.
