I loved my host mom's cooking in the summer I spent abroad in Spain. She cooks lunch and dinner, with the exception of Friday nights. I always told her that the food was delicious and always cleaned my plate. Fortunately, her food really is very good, but I was not going to say ANYTHING that could be remotely insulting about her food, for fear of being forced to cook all my meals again; I remembered the results of the word "putrid." The flip side of this is that her daughters aren't nearly as wonderful cooks as she is, because they've never needed to be in the kitchen much since their mom does all of the cooking.
I suppose that my points in this post are:
- Don't ever insult your mother's decent cooking: if you do, it will go away, and the alternative (your own cooking) won't be as good.
- I wish I had known this in elementary school.
- Despite Points #1 and #2, it is much better to learn how to cook while still at home, where you can eat your mom's cooking at least some of the time and are not wholly dependent every day of the week on whatever mess you made yourself.
- Finally, and most importantly: Tell your mother you love her cooking on Mother's Day, but don't suggest she cook for the occasion. Take her out to dinner.
2 comments:
I really like your post! It is very creative. I think it is really funny to think back to elementary school lunches. I was a very picky eater when I was younger and the only kind of sandwich that I would eat was just plain peanut butter. I would always complain to my mom that I was getting sick of the same old lunch every single day (though there was nothing that she could do about it since I was so picky). Somewhat like you, my mom said that it was either I eat the lunch she packed me or buy lunch from school (which I never wanted to do because the school lunches were terrible). To this day, other than elementary school, I don't think that I have complained much about my moms cooking because it is a rarity if she does cook. My brother and sister are grown up, living in their own place, and living their own lives. I am in college which leaves only my mom and dad at home. I guess what I am trying to say is that I truly cherish my moms cooking because she is a wonderful cook! She gets it from her dad (my grandpa was the head chef at a restaurant for years and he was a wonderful cook). The only two meals that I do not like are meat loaf and sloppy joe's. Anything else I will eat. I think as young adults, complaining is very common. I am looking forward to going home this weekend because I know my mom is planning on cooking one of my favorite meals, STEW!
I feel like that is probably a good policy in life: do not insult anyone's cooking...ever. Well said. Plus, putrid is such a harsh word. My mom packed my lunch until I was a senior in high school, and I feel lucky that I didn't have to take care of myself. However, once I got to college, things were quite different and I've had to make quite an adjustment to learn to cook for myself, so there is definately value in the lesson you learned early on.
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