Fluff post- what kind of cook raised you?

My mom was a good, basic cook. A lot of deep fried or simmered all day kinds of meals. From scratch with the exception of cakes, like a lot of peas' moms. She did make an exceptional Angel Food cake from scratch though, yummy! I miss that.

She couldn't be adventurous because my dad is/was extremely picky. We would go to a Mexican restaurant where he would order nachos which to him meant a single layer of chips with melted cheese on top. Nothing else.

Would she adopt me?

My mum worked pretty much full time from when I went to school (she still does and she's 80 this year!) so although ready meals weren't available she did make the most of tinned foods! I didn't think of her as a bad cook at the time, but now I cook every meal pretty much from scratch and my palate has changed, I've realised that she wasn't a very good cook and still isn't!

Egg and chips, mince, rice and onions, beef burgers and beans, she often used tinned veg although she did cook a full Sunday roast every week with fresh veg. Dessert would be tinned mandarins with condensed milk, angel delight or something like Mr Kiplings French Fancies!

I turned vegetarian at 17 so cooked my own food from then on.

I didn't learn any cooking skills from her and apart from a Christmas cake every year she didn't really bake. But she grew up in a city in Britain during the war, food was rationed, there were no eggs for baking. Both my parents say that one of their favourite treats was to spread beef dripping on bread My dad's favourite was a bowl of custard made from powdered eggs!

ETA I had to mention the tinned kidney soup she made us eat 

I'm old enough that there weren't any convenience things like microwaves or toaster ovens or even coffee makers back then. (coffee was made on top of the stove). My mom was raised in a very "meat and potatoes" way -- meat, vegetable, starch. So that's how she cooked for us. Or we had things like spaghetti. She cooked from scratch every day, and we had a regular rotation -- if it was Sunday there was a beef roast or leg of lamb, Monday was chicken, etc. My dad worked late a lot (university art professor) but she still cooked and would heat up his plate in the oven when he got home. 

I don't think she ever liked to cook, and I know she hated it in later years, so she never transferred any cooking love to me. On the other hand, I never transferred it to my dd but she likes to cook. But for her it's still an adventure -- she had her first apartment this past school year and she and her roommates loved to shop and cook as a "family". I predict some of that love will wear off as the years go by. 

Mom was a pretty average cook. I grew up in rural Minnesota--meat, potatoes, a vegetable that you canned or froze yourself. We had a garden and I remember a lot of weeding. We had spaghetti with meat sauce every other week and that was one of the exotic foods we ate. And tacos. She thought she was really stepping it up with tacos!

Mom went back to work when I was 8 and I took over most of the cooking by the time I was in middle school. I duplicated her recipes (a lot of creamed soup), but by high school was trying recipes from the Betty Crocker cookbook. She didn't get home until 5 and Dad was a "have the meal on the table at 6" kind of guy. When I started getting involved in high school activities and staying after school, Dad stepped in and started making meals. He kept it pretty simple and did a lot of grilling. I remember a lot of stress about making sure the food was hot when Dad got to the table. No wonder she was happy to let me do it all.

A plain cook and she catered to my father and brother (picky)
She canned a lot.
But she could bake bread.

My folks cooked from scratch every day and never used packets of anything. I don't recall my mother ever making jam though.

My mom was, and still is, an amazing cook and baker.
She learned a lot from her own mother, and everything was made from scratch. Still is. But she was a housewife, and had the time to make everything from scratch.
Sometimes she will try out a gravymix or something similar, the 'just add water' kind. Just to try it out. And the back to making it from scratch.

I have fortunately received a lot of recipes from her already, and she is good to call when I need cooking or baking advice.

She was also pretty frugal when we were growing up. She was a housewife and my parents raised three kids on one income. So my mother made sure to use every single bit of leftovers for something. She never threw out any food. Last resort was giving it to my dad who will eat anything to not waste it.
She has aquired a more expensive taste now that us kids are out of the house, and my parents are still both working full time. She opts for more expensive cuts of meat, and more expensive side dishes.

My mom was a basic cook.  She was a picky eater and not adventurous.  She made a few things good such as meatloaf, roast beef, turkey on Thanksgiving.  I still make her meatloaf recipe.  Vegetables were canned.  I didn't know vegetables could actually taste good!
My dad made a good chili and was great on the grill.

I love to cook and grill and try new and foreign! recipes.  Dh is appreciative, having lost his mother at a young age, he often had fast food and easy to make stuff like sandwiches. 

My mother was raised in a cash-strapped home where she was responsible for pretty much all of the housework and cooking from a young age. She thought that convenience foods were pretty much gifts from the gods, and I grew up on TV dinners and spaghetti sauce from packets.

My mother did cook some plain food (oven-fried chicken, pot roast). It was terrible. She basically cooked everything meat-wise until it was mush or charred, and served it with canned vegetables.

My mom is awesome. I don't miss her cooking.

My mom wasn't a great cook. She did learn to make a great chicken noodle soup and cabbage rolls from my Slovak grandma who was an incredible cook. My mother cooked things from a box. All of our meats were vastly overcooked. She like meat "hard" and crispy. Pork chops were curled up. Grill cheese was burned on the outside and the cheese wasn't melted. Pancakes from a box were cooked on the outside and liquid on the inside LOL. Obviously, she like using high heat on the stove.

A lot of the time, my father cooked because he came home from work at 3:30 and my mother after 5. He made simple dishes but he did it fairly well.

I love to cook and try new things.

My mom didn't cook much when we were young, we are out a lot.

She's a good cook now, when she feels like cooking.

LOL, it was pork chops and rice that were cooked with chicken broth and a little orange juice and, um, other stuff - I don't know exactly since I never asked for the recipe! But for whatever reason, I hated the orange part of it! She and my dad both really liked it, so she compromised with me and only made it once in a very blue moon.

My mom was a really good baker and everything was from scratch. Her cooking was basic and, often times, quite bland. My mom ran the kitchen at our town's nursing home. She couldn't use salt and certain other seasonings there due to the residents' health conditions, so she wouldn't use them at home, either. My brothers and I are all big fans of big, bold flavors now. My paternal grandma was a good cook, but she didn't like to do it. However, if we told her we wanted to try something new, she'd help us figure out the recipe. Until she passed, she was always sending care packages with fresh spices and recipe clippings. I learned to bake from my mom, her mom and her mom's mom. All three of them could bake up a storm. The Christmas cookie and candy spread was amazing every year. The pie table at the annual family picnic was great.