The General Chat Thread

Dizzyblonde

I always cook Christmas dinner, my daughters are usually here with us along with my sisters in law. Then the rest of my extended family who aren't living abroad arrive for the evening and we have a buffet. My daughters usually cook any extras for that.
It's a lot of work but very enjoyable - and I don't cook at all on St. Stephen's Day!

Danii86

I took over coking Christmas dinner when I was still living at home, that is the last 2 Christmasses, I had always helped mum with it but decided I'd like to chance it, cooked for 8 the 1st year and 12 last year, and must say I found it no issue at all at all, have no idea how some people seem to get so stressed over it.
Moved in with my boyfriend during the year but weve both decided to go back to our parents houses for christmas day so mum is delighted that she doesent have to go back to cooking the christmas dinner!!! We'll have 8 again this year. Menu doesnt change too much, Starter is the only varient each year. Havn't decided on this years one yet, anybod do any nice ones? My aunt made a lovely smoked salmon terrine last year, may ask her for the recipie as she wont be there this year.

Gloomtastic!

Merkin wrote: »

I'm going to my husband's family for the first time this year which I have mixed feelings about tbh. I don't mind as long as hubby and I are together but have always gone to my folks for Christmas and it's just one long decadant feast for the duration with lots of delicious food, board games, frivolity and wayyy too much drink. This year it's going to be a fairly staid affair in comparison I think. My other half told me his Mum would be doing a big chicken because they don't like turkey - I thought I was going to weep tbh.:( I normally look forward to Christmas dinner from about mid-January!

The in-laws never do it just right do they? Last time I had the misfortune of spending Christmas with my MIL, I had to ask for a drink mid-afternoon, none was being proffered - miserable f*cks! :eek:

Christmas is now officially at our house so it's our way or no way! In-laws are coming over at the beginning of December because my SIL doesn't like to travel at Christmas. To hell with family, as long as you're ok! :mad:

Merkin

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

The in-laws never do it just right do they? Last time I had the misfortune of spending Christmas with my MIL, I had to ask for a drink mid-afternoon, none was being proffered - miserable f*cks! :eek:

:eek:

and I'm sorry, but...

:eek:

Malari

No, they don't really drink in my in-law's (out-law's? I'm not married :pac:) at xmas either. I'm never offered a drink if I go for dinner at any time, unless my boyfriend's sister is there!

Our house is awash with booze...just the way I like it

Merkin

Malari wrote: »

Our house is awash with booze...just the way I like it

God same here! People normally start looking at their watches surreptitiously on Christmas Day about 11am wondering if it's too early to start on the bucks fizz, proper order!

Malari

Merkin wrote: »

God same here! People normally start looking at their watches surreptitiously on Christmas Day about 11am wondering if it's too early to start on the bucks fizz, proper order!

I'm usually designated driver for the obligatory visitations, but as soon as we are home for the day my dad is very quick to make sure I am thanked with "festive spirit"

Toto Wolfcastle

My in-laws are great for offering a drink. Every time I go there I'm offered a vodka, and a large one at that. I don't really drink any more but if I take it up again I'll definitely get drunk on one of their vodkas. I spent Christmas with them last year and while it wasn't the same as Christmas with my family, and I was sick, I had a lovely time.

TeletextPear

Complete opposite scenario for me - my parents don't drink. They'd usually get in a bottle of wine for me, but having never drank my mother has interesting ideas of what 'too much' is - I'd start to get the evil eye if I thought about going past half a bottle so I usually stick to 7up for the festive season! Christmas is probably the closest I get to a detox all year

MissFlitworth

Just did that thing, at least I think it's a 'thing' it could just be a problem I and I alone have, where you go to an Asian/some form of exotic market and leave with 20+ quids worth of impulse purchase plus the soy sauce you went in for and not a single combination of all the stuff you bought could be a meal. Kaffir limes on Filipino cream crackers anyone? Soup of wasabi pea and the random cartons of mole you found that you're not sure will be even remotely nice?

Then I came home and smashed a litre of soy sauce off the floor. The only thing I'd actually needed!

Faith

TeletextPear wrote: »

Complete opposite scenario for me - my parents don't drink. They'd usually get in a bottle of wine for me, but having never drank my mother has interesting ideas of what 'too much' is - I'd start to get the evil eye if I thought about going past half a bottle so I usually stick to 7up for the festive season! Christmas is probably the closest I get to a detox all year

My parents wouldn't be big drinkers either, but they both prefer red wine, while I like white. We open a bottle of both and I usually just sneak off to watch TV with the rest of the white wine in the evening

Oh YAY I can't wait for Christmas! I mean, I know it'll be a massive anticlimax like every year, but I love the build up!

The Black Oil

So, how did everyone here get started with cooking/baking? I've my mother to thank and probably my 6th class primary school teacher....long time ago.

Minder

I learned by watching Ma cook. I used to cook the dinners after school before my folks came home from work. I figured it was a dodge from doing my homework and I wouldn't get told off for the lack of homework if I was doing something constructive. Later I collected Nigel Slater recipes from the Observer.

Minder

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Just did that thing, at least I think it's a 'thing' it could just be a problem I and I alone have, where you go to an Asian/some form of exotic market and leave with 20+ quids worth of impulse purchase plus the soy sauce you went in for and not a single combination of all the stuff you bought could be a meal. Kaffir limes on Filipino cream crackers anyone? Soup of wasabi pea and the random cartons of mole you found that you're not sure will be even remotely nice?

Then I came home and smashed a litre of soy sauce off the floor. The only thing I'd actually needed!

I do that all the time (except of smashing the soy). I find jars of random stuff in the cupboards that are very out of date. Things that I have been inspired to buy but never get around to using, eg a jar of kimchi base sauce.

Malari

Baking, it was definitely my momma. We used to make scones and queen cakes with her all the time, and then Granny Dryden's shortbread from a Postman Pat activity book! Shortbread biscuits are still called Granny Dryden's in my house.

Mom was always the traditional cooker at home, dad would try the unusual Chinese or Indian dishes. Either way we were conscripted at an early age to help with chopping veg and other food prep after school, so I've always had an interest in cooking and baking, as have my siblings. We're all pretty decent in the kitchen. It's a skill I'm very grateful to have learned from the folks.

Gloomtastic!

The Black Oil wrote: »

So, how did everyone here get started with cooking/baking? I've my mother to thank and probably my 6th class primary school teacher....long time ago.

I applied and got accepted to chef school in Killybegs, a god forsaken place if ever there was one, but left after a couple of weeks. Used to occasionally dabble with various recipes but nothing remarkable. Then in my 30s, I was given a copy of Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook and never looked back, all the ingredients were obtainable and very easy, clear instructions that resulted in very tasty food.

Faith

The Black Oil wrote: »

So, how did everyone here get started with cooking/baking? I've my mother to thank and probably my 6th class primary school teacher....long time ago.

I can't even remember when I started. I think I was about 5? My mum, our housekeeper, my cousins who'd stay a lot and our next door neighbour used all bake with me from time to time. Started off with things like fairy cakes and sponge cakes, then my mum did a cookery course at Ballymaloe and I started making more complicated things.

I started cooking fairly young too. I suppose I helped in the kitchen and went from there but I don't remember a progression. I think one of the first things I made myself was lasagne.

My mum isn't the best with flavours (more is more in her book, regardless of whether the flavours actually go together) so I started cooking my own meals by about 16, I think, and then moved out at 18 so I've been cooking daily since then.

The Black Oil

Good memories of seeing some of Keith Floyd's work as an inspiration too. Fewer chefs and egos on TV.

Mr Simpson

I started cooking when I was about 3 with my Great-Aunties and my nan, developed from there, then I went to Cathal Brugha Street.

Got some amount of stick for Home Ec in School!!

Loire

I'm really a late developer on the cooking front. Even when I moved away from home and lived in Dublin I was never into it and used to buy things like packet pasta, chicken kievs and sausage rolls :eek:. I started to get into cooking a bit more when I met Mrs. Loire, simply out of necessity she'd be the first to say it that doesn't like cooking and would be pretty poor, yet we used to have friends round for dinner a bit so I had to skill up. She more than makes up for it in desserts by the way which I have no interest in so we dovetail quite well.

When I lived in Dublin I always dreamed of moving back to Cork (I know) and going to the English Market every weekend. A few years ago this became a reality and it started from there really. Sadly, I think it's becoming an obsession. I think about food a lot now and it's close to surpassing golf (and that's saying something). There can't be many more things in life where you get such a return on investment as you get when you get into food. The return really is immediate. I'm starting to ramble, but there you have it....I love the kitchen!

The Hill Billy

My interest really started out as a love of food rather than cooking. I used to spend a lot of my time in the kitchen with my Nan as a nipper & she was a fussy cook. Everything had to be made from scratch, & only with the best of ingredients - not expensive stuff, just good quality.

Every Saturday we would head into Moore St market in Dublin to do the fruit & veg shopping, then stopped off in Geraghty's Poultry Butchers on Marlborough St for a boiling fowl (God forbid that you would make a chicken stew with a tasteless younger bird!).

Meat - quite often offal (I come from generations of cattle farmers, slaughtermen & butchers) was sourced from a local butcher who slaughtered on his premises. No doubt my Nan would have checked him out good & proper before she deigned to give him her custom.

In later years I really got into cooking when I realized that the ladies loved a guy who could cook properly.

Gloomtastic!

Loire wrote: »

There can't be many more things in life where you get such a return on investment as you get when you get into food. The return really is immediate.

Never thought of it like that before but you're not wrong.

Dizzyblonde

I learnt how to cook from my mother, and my daughters learnt from me.

hardCopy

I'm a recovering fussy eater.

After years of living on burgers and pizzas I ended up in a job that involved eating out a lot with colleagues which meant trying to pick the plainest, blandest food on every menu.

Then I started going out with a girl and had to eat out at weekends as well.

A couple years ago I started trying to small amounts of new ingredients to my own cooking at home. I find that most of my issues with food were to do with not knowing what was in a dish or how much of it. This accelerated once I moved out and started cooking for myself every night.

Once I made stuff myself I could try popular dishes but leave out any ingredients I didn't like. Then I started adding small amounts of other ingredients until I got familiar with them.

I used to avoid tomatoes and onions like the plague now I eat tomatoes every single day and onions and up in nearly everything I cook.

I still avoid fish but I did manage some smoked salmon recently and I actually enjoyed lamb for the first time last month.

Merkin

I think I equate food with love in a lot of ways. My grandmother was an amazing cook and great at baking and I still use her recipes for soda bread and other goodies - she was a very generous host and you never left her house hungry, she was a wonderfully warm and loving woman and her table always plentiful. Both my parents are brilliant cooks as well and both I would consider to be "feeders" . We've lived abroad quite a bit so there are a lot of international elements like Middle Eastern and Asian while my Mum did a course in Ballymaloe when I was little and we used to love sampling all the delights that she took from that too, some of which I use in the kitchen today.

Food has always been a very big focus of our home life and while my Dad worked very unsociable hours in medicine, we sat down as a family every single evening together for dinner without fail and the dinner table was always a place of a lot of food, a lot of laughs and some great conversation that could go on for hours. We still do this religiously when we're home with the folks. This has also passed on to me too and Mr. Merkin and we make sure to sit down every evening too, I love it that he is such a good cook (better than me) and has taught me so much, especially when it comes to growing/catching some of our own food etc.

So for me food equals love and when I love someone I want to feed them.....probably why Mr. Merkin has put on 1.5 stones since we got married! And probably why people love coming around to ours for dinner!

leahyl

I think I just love my food and I love to be able to cook a meal for myself - the satisfaction is immense! It's the same for baking

I'm still living at home but hope to own my own property in the near future and then I plan to do a lot more cooking. I have so many cookbooks and I obviously don't get to make a lot of things from them but I love just flicking through them and thinking ....someday I'll make that :pac:

I love eating out too but I should really become more adventurous with food -I tend to stick to the same kind of dishes when I'm out so should try something different.

I think I associate food with family and love - we love our food in my house! Can't wait for Christmas dinner already!

The Sweeper

Minder wrote: »

I learned by watching Ma cook. I used to cook the dinners after school before my folks came home from work. I figured it was a dodge from doing my homework and I wouldn't get told off for the lack of homework if I was doing something constructive. Later I collected Nigel Slater recipes from the Observer.

First: I remember griddle cakes. Whatever happened to the recipe for those?

To answer the question - I learned by watching Minder cook.

The funny thing is I was in my mid teens, still at home, trying to replicate things he introduced when he'd come back to the parental home on a visit. I laugh heartily when I remember the unholy dog's bollix I made out of quite a number of things he introduced. Crunchy couscous, how I recall thee...

Loire

Merkin wrote: »

I think I equate food with love in a lot of ways. My grandmother was an amazing cook and great at baking and I still use her recipes for soda bread and other goodies - she was a very generous host and you never left her house hungry, she was a wonderfully warm and loving woman and her table always plentiful. Both my parents are brilliant cooks as well and both I would consider to be "feeders" . We've lived abroad quite a bit so there are a lot of international elements like Middle Eastern and Asian while my Mum did a course in Ballymaloe when I was little and we used to love sampling all the delights that she took from that too, some of which I use in the kitchen today.

Food has always been a very big focus of our home life and while my Dad worked very unsociable hours in medicine, we sat down as a family every single evening together for dinner without fail and the dinner table was always a place of a lot of food, a lot of laughs and some great conversation that could go on for hours. We still do this religiously when we're home with the folks. This has also passed on to me too and Mr. Merkin and we make sure to sit down every evening too, I love it that he is such a good cook (better than me) and has taught me so much, especially when it comes to growing/catching some of our own food etc.

So for me food equals love and when I love someone I want to feed them.....probably why Mr. Merkin has put on 1.5 stones since we got married! And probably why people love coming around to ours for dinner!

That's a lovely post and is making me all warm inside (what time is dinner? :P)

Faith

Merkin wrote: »

So for me food equals love and when I love someone I want to feed them.....probably why Mr. Merkin has put on 1.5 stones since we got married! And probably why people love coming around to ours for dinner!

I'm not too dissimilar to you. I bake to show my love. It's why Mr. Faith and I now have to do the 5:2 diet

RasTa

Heh, my mother was such a bad cook I turned veggie for 4 years when I was 18. It all started after Christmas dinner when there was some turkey that was cooked for 6 hours and ham boiled for 5.

I was a pretty awful eater at the time as well. It was chips and chicken nuggets etc, only bit of veg would be some broccoli or carrots with Sunday dinner.

Anyway eating vegetables forces you to learn how to cook quickly.

I always say it but everyone should go veggie for 12 months