Whine & Dine

[gofish]

I'm having too much whine with dinner latly.

I think I'm going to give them a cookbook, a budget and tell them to pick a night.

Lets see what they come up with on their own.

 

Would you do this?

 

[Virginia]

Good luck, but it does seem like a good idea.

[themartianchick]

Tell them to ...Go fish for dinner!

[Mt_Rider]

Been there and done that. While in high school, each DD had a cooking night. A lot of meals were repeats but it sure took the pressure off me. My schedule of work was early morning school bus driving...thru various runs and a second job during the day, and a dinner cruise bus driving late into the night. DH cooks well and took his turn too. DD1 knew how to cook when she arrived at age 13 tho....which was an advantage.

 

And for your type of .....um, educational or appreciation purposes....go for it!!!!

 

MtRider

[mommato3boys]

I'm having too much whine with dinner latly.

I think I'm going to give them a cookbook, a budget and tell them to pick a night.

Lets see what they come up with on their own.

 

Would you do this?

I have done it. They didn't like it and if they failed to plan they suffered with sandwiches or ate what I fixed (I was ugly on those nights they failed to come through I would fix the one thing they complained the most about). Just before everyone started flying the next I got where I was only cooking for me and hubby. If anyone else wanted to eat what I cooked they had to mark the menu that they would be eating so I would know to cook enough for them too.

[HazelStone]

Do they just not cook at all and constantly whine? Or do you already assign them a night and a dish to cook and they don't like the dish? Do they like to cook at all?

 

Starting from seventh grade or so Mom would leave notes for dinner when I got home from school: "Put the chicken in the oven, make salad and pick a side before I get home from work." etc. One sibling cooked, the other did the dishes.

 

Of course there is a learning curve, everyone forgets to remove the giblets bag at first if you're cooking a whole bird. If you delay, or forget, everyone suffers. And I do admit some passive-aggressive "forgetting" when it was a dish I despised! Sandwiches were preferable.

 

With time the notes graduated to "start up a stew from leftovers" orders to finally "eh, just pick something" from current fridge inventory and my having actual input at the grocery shopping- then if I wanted to do something specific, make my case with the weekly sales, etc.

 

Earlier Mom did show me how to evaluate deals at the grocery store- sales gimmicks, per item/unit cost...she's terrible at math but I'm really good at it (until you get to the engineering grade stuff!). If I spring her from math/marketing traps I had a much easier time persuading Mom to get a particular item I wanted that week. That might be the better place to start if time/schedule permits- they see how much stuff generally costs, they see the sales that are on for that week. Then it's not just thinking "Mom's being mean/cheap."

[gofish]

They don't like to cook but I do make them help.

It's more like DD1 and Son love toco salad DD2 hates it. Son and DD2 love lasagna DD1 hates it. The list goes on and on.

I will admit to making too many quick boring meals.

Which bugs me because I love to cook.

 

When I was 16 Mom gave me the grocery money and the car keys. Meals for the week was up to me. My sister was going for a career she hated to cook.

Which is why she called me when she was in collage to ask me how to boil patatoes.

[CrabGrassAcres]

I started cooking when I was 9. Frankly, the family was so happy to have something edible on the table, they'd eat anything I dished up. Mom was the lousiest cook! She just left me to it.

[The WE2's]

From a large family with only two of us girls...we learned real quick how to cook. That's one thing Mountain Man says he loves! Just this morning though, our eggs got "lacy" and he said "was your skillet too hot or something, the eggs are lacy"...my response was "I guess so, hush and eat!" He just grinned and stuffed a piece in his mouth! LOL

[ma & pa steel]

LOL I had week in the barrel for each of the kids. They rotated thru Cooking, cleaning, budget/meal planning every month. I home schooled and the grocery store was math class. I think it was the best thing that help them learn how to take care of themselves. DS does all the cooking as he is so much better at it than his wife.

[lumabean]

I thought of your thread this evening as ds began whining about my putting diced onions in the meatballs ...

[HazelStone]

"Lacy." Is that the brown and crispy edging to sunny-side-up? Or is it the dry, papery stuff if you don't stir scrambled eggs quite often enough or leave them a bit?

 

A while back I did the latter, and Sweetie whined and pouted. I almost smacked him with my largest cast iron skillet. I had mis-timed the eggs with respect to the other things. I don't cook 'proper' breakfast very often, and it is just often enough to see why I don't!

 

From a large family with only two of us girls...we learned real quick how to cook. That's one thing Mountain Man says he loves! Just this morning though, our eggs got "lacy" and he said "was your skillet too hot or something, the eggs are lacy"...my response was "I guess so, hush and eat!" He just grinned and stuffed a piece in his mouth! LOL