My mother was a great cook for some types of foods. When she was asked for the recipe she said " you have to come make it with me". This was because she went by feel. The quantities were not in teaspoons or cups they were in handfuls, pinches, some of this, a little of that. When she made matzoh balls or gefilte fish , they had to feel a certain way. WIth matzoh balls she would add chicken soup to the dry mix instead of water. Gefilte fish, what a mess, she would grind the fish after filleting them, when they float they are done. She always had a cigarette, a Camel, dangling from her lip. the ash would grow, and I'd keep watching it. Eventually it got mixed into dish as a secret ingredient. if she used onions and you were allergic to onions or hatted them, she would lie to you . She'd say "No I didn't use onions". If you see onion peels in her garbage and then challenge her, she would say , "well maybe a little I used."
My mother loved using different peoples recipes, even if her own recipe was better. The craziest was when she wanted to use my mother in law's recipe for some kind of noodle pudding. I warned her and told her she could die from that food my motherinlaw made. She of course refused to believe that it could be that bad. When I explained that my father-in-law died from her food, she didn't believe that either. My mother-in-law made me frozen Tater Tots,,, she served them ice cold,,,I told her , "these aren't fully cooked, they are still frozen." she said " the package said 9 minutes, I cooked them 9 minutes. That's how they are supposed to be." I've seen people choke on her food. Normally , we would go eat some pizza or something before we went to my mother-in-law's for dinner.
One day my mother while doubting me, took a sample of mother-in-law's noodle pudding thing and gagged on it, and spit it in the garbage, and made strange sounds. She said " i can't believe you are right. This food is inedible." My cat Spanky died within 2 months of eating my mother -in-law's food. He had starved himself to death. I'm amazed no other family members died, but some got sick.
Grayish Greenish chopped liver was her specialty. She could have been this country's secret weapon in the big wars of the past.
Thank goodness my kids inherited my mom's cooking talents and not my wife's mom's.
Although, my kids did get to grow up on my special tuna fish. I would put Tuna, vinegar, sunflower seeds, M&M's, chocolate syrup ,tomatoes, celery, and a touch of worcestshire sauce in it. The M&Ms made it attractive to the kids, and they loved it. I always played around with weird ingredients and that's probably why my son, "chef of the future' developed his famous pasta with tomato sauce and apples. He is Mr. Experimenter. I wonder where he got that from . Although he went to Thailand and cooked what looked like amazing dishes. I believe, you experiment, don't be rigid, following recipe books and you get a better dish. Do like my mom, go by feel, by taste.
My daughter makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. It was by trial and error. She discovered the effects on the cookie if you used brown sugar or white sugar. The consistency changed. Her chocolate chip and her rainbow cookies are the best in the world.
So with all that food talk , I think i'm going to this Vietnamese place and getting a coconut shrimp sandwich. Adios for now