Delicious!

My mother also a very good cook, her mothering skills not so great, managed to stay out of the way most of the time, sorry I digress, her cooking skills second to none, she was in service in very large house in London from quite a young age, fourteen I think, firstly just scrubbing the kitchen floor, then upgraded to washing up the pans, eventually on to prep of vegetables and on to just about everything else, it was obviously a very hard life for her, she was there for five years, only one afternoon off a week, but she could cook absolutely everything, I learnt a lot from her, but from a distance ?

I must say my mum was a brilliant cook - she made pastry that melted in the mouth but the only problem was that she did seem to have a routine menu !
Sunday was always roast - even in the middle of summer and right up to the day before she died ( she reckoned she did it because dad expected it!) The type of meat we had varied, but we had a lot of chicken when my dad worked on a chicken farm (though the smell of them being gutted the day before still lives with me!!)
Monday was either cold meat left over from the roast, or it was minced and in gravy with mashed spuds and seasonal veg, followed by rice pudding (Monday being wash day !)
Tuesday was casserole or stew (ironing day)
Wednesday - toad in the hole
Thursday liver and onions/ bacon and onion roll
Friday - chops ( pork or lamb) either slow cooked in the oven or in the middle of a large yorkshire pudding
Saturday - either steak & kidney pudding or steak and kidney pie, followed by instant whip or Angel Delight!
Later on when she got an automatic washing machine, if we'd had chicken on the Sunday, she used to make an amazing chicken and mushroom pie! The only things that used to vary was the puddings - baked apples, apple dumplings, rice pudding, treacle or jam tart, jelly with tinned fruit and on a Sunday, icecream that I used to get from the off licence of the pub at the end of the road on the way back from Sunday school !!

MY DM was what was described as a 'good, plain cook'. All food was bought daily from local shops and stalls (no fridge of course) and we had a stunning variety of fresh vegetables each day, but very little meat. I have never managed to roast potatoes as my mother did - they were delicious, and her Yorkshire puddings had to be flattened slightly to get them out of the oven.
The meals at school were much the same - fresh, tasty and cooked on the premises. I'm not sure how many people actually 'cook' nowadays; heating things up and serving with salad seems to be a favourite with most people I know!

Lived not loved.

My mum was a great cook. Despite being very short of money she made 'proper' meals, lovely puds and cakes. There were always children from the local area hanging around our back door in the hope of getting a cake or two. I appreciated the sweet stuff but didn't appreciate the lovely dinners
I loved on sandwiches. Silly me.

I hated dumplings too

I remember loathing dumplings when a child but yesterday we went to a party where they served Dumplings, to my horror ( apparantly all the rage among youngsters),and to my surprise they were delicious, not at all like the stodgy things we used to eat, so things have changed thank goodnes.

So many of these memories involve meat! For our parents, a meal wasn’t a meal unless it included meat of some sort

I can remember being given the treat of skewering the marrow out of the leg of lamb joint. Definitely wouldn't eat it now!

I was 7 in 1954 when rationing finally finished and still have one or two memories of being sent to a couple of the local shops in our street being entrusted with the ration book and a note with the items needed. We seemed to eat a lot of stews back then but always had a home made pudding each day. Home made apple pie and custard, suet puddings with custard, jam sponge and custard, plus different sorts of milk puddings. Because foods had been on rations for so long we were expected to eat everything put in front of us whether we liked it or not, so the puddings became my favourites. I never enjoyed meat much because of any fat or unexpected piece of sinewy stuff you got sometime in liver, so it put me off and never been a big meat lover since then, but do eat it occasionally, and always cooked meat for my own family. Home made apple pie and custard is still one of my favourites now.

My mother was an excellent cook. In fact that had been her job before marriage. But it was standard plain English cooking, which she taught to me. When I was a teenager I used to experiment with more exotic dishes on a Saturday, which everyone liked. I have been a vegetarian for nearly 50 years but I can remember enjoying meat dishes and make them for others.

Gabriella I’m confused too - I thought your young days were spent in Liverpool?

The Sunday joint went a long way then didn't it ? My mother was a good cook but we knew which day of the week it was by the meal we were eating. I remember the pressure cooker being used a lot, in those days there were different weights to put on the lid. I used a more modern one when the family were at home, made a big difference for a working Mum.
I loved the puddings my mother made, jam role poly, steamed fruit puddings, rice pudding made with evaporated milk - yummy

Vesta! Not vests!

My Welsh granny used to make a huge pot of cowl. Soup made from neck of lamb, root vegetables , split peas , pearl barley and lentils. Wonderful after walking home from school on a freezing lunch time before walking back.

We lived in London but she had grown up in a farm I believe it was a good way to feed hungry farmers.

My mother was totally unimaginative, my life changed when those vests meals in boxes arrived on the scene, I was by then doing early evening activities, so I’d persuade her not to put mine in the oven for hours, so that it would be even worse than usual, and I’d make a Vesta meal when I got in, delicious!

Don’t know if they still exist, but I bet they’re pretty revolting !

My mother made a lovely roast dinner, and always the leftover meat on Monday, minced with mashed potato, sometimes with a spoonful of curry powder in it, very daring in those days. She had a pressure cooker and made lovely tender stews with whatever little meat she could afford. Always lovely puddings too. Used to love plain egg and chips too. Sadly her sponge cakes let her down; they were always dry, and we were obliged to chew our way through a slice every Sunday teatime.

My mother was a dreadful cook, but enjoyed eating good food, so although plain meat and vegetables they were good quality.
Puddings were either fruit and cream or bought.
I made it a mission in life to learn to cook well and interestingly!

I remember my first spaghetti bolognese Minimoon, we had it at a friends house, I’d never seen or tasted anything like it!

These friends parents were the very height of sophistication, they danced to music from their record player, and smoked at the same time, so cool!

My mum was a very plain cook though she did become more adventurous when Jimmy Young started broadcasting his Recipe of the Day.

My dad was an instinctive and adventurous cook (his mother was a French trained pastry chef) who threw stuff in a pan and produced lovely meals. Apart from his jugged hare, which I could never face.

I also remember the stuffed hearts with horror, with tubes poking out! and we had to eat the whole thing!

You could tell the day of the week by what was for supper, never any variation.

Sunday teatime was possibly the worst, a bowl of rice pudding and a slice of bread and butter had to be eaten before a slice of cake. I hardly ever got to the cake, and if I did I felt too sick to eat it!

My mother was a very good, but plain cook. British food, but French flavours (from Jersey with French background).
I remember having pasta for the first time as a child in the early 70's...so exotic! Also we had one Chinese restaurant in town so had chow mein for the first time then as well.
We have such a wonderful variety of food to choose from now. And strawberries any time of year!

Maw ?

GG, I thought you said you were brought up in a leafy suburb of Liverpool where your father was a headmaster?
Or was it the council estate near Formby?
Some of us are having trouble keeping up.