My mom was good at that. She loved to doctor recipes and ready to eat stuff to her own liking.
It just cracks me up that all I do is open a couple cans, chop a few veggies and my husband is going, "OMG this is the most amazing spaghetti sauce in the world." And it's just freaking Great Value generic plain sauce.
My mom was the kind of cook that did just about everything from memory. The recipes she used a lot would get edited each time as she tried a different little thing with them and she kept it all up in her head.
When I went off to college I called her about so many of them wanting to know how she made them and she'd be like, "oh, some of this, pinch of that, a little of blah, blah, blah." Nothing was measured or written down. She figured some of the measurements out for me and I learned to make them myself.
But when she died me and my dad realized just how many of those recipes she took to the grave. There's a few we've never been able to duplicate.
I tend to cook like her. I don't measure much (although I've started to recently with watching my weight since I can't really eyeball healthy amounts, lol). My recipes usually have lines that say, "add some rosemary, some sage, some onion." No measurements. I always add way more than a written recipe calls for anyway.
The only difference is I write my recipes down when I decide on some kind of standard for them (a version that was a hit) so the family doesn't have to go through what I did when my mom died trying to copy stuff from memories that are years old.
Man, I miss my mom. Friday marks 11 years since she died. Can't believe it's been that long.
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Date: 14 Aug 2011 11:03 pm (UTC)It just cracks me up that all I do is open a couple cans, chop a few veggies and my husband is going, "OMG this is the most amazing spaghetti sauce in the world." And it's just freaking Great Value generic plain sauce.
My mom was the kind of cook that did just about everything from memory. The recipes she used a lot would get edited each time as she tried a different little thing with them and she kept it all up in her head.
When I went off to college I called her about so many of them wanting to know how she made them and she'd be like, "oh, some of this, pinch of that, a little of blah, blah, blah." Nothing was measured or written down. She figured some of the measurements out for me and I learned to make them myself.
But when she died me and my dad realized just how many of those recipes she took to the grave. There's a few we've never been able to duplicate.
I tend to cook like her. I don't measure much (although I've started to recently with watching my weight since I can't really eyeball healthy amounts, lol). My recipes usually have lines that say, "add some rosemary, some sage, some onion." No measurements. I always add way more than a written recipe calls for anyway.
The only difference is I write my recipes down when I decide on some kind of standard for them (a version that was a hit) so the family doesn't have to go through what I did when my mom died trying to copy stuff from memories that are years old.
Man, I miss my mom. Friday marks 11 years since she died. Can't believe it's been that long.