since when do we need to prepare "dishes" for dinner?

So tonight I made a scratch meal - onion, mince, tinned tomatoes, worchestshire sauce, beef cube, water, mixed veg and served with potato mash. Yummy as.

Yet somehow I feel guilty, as dinner didn't have a name. It's just food. Like my grandma / nanna made. No fancy ingredients, no fancy name. Took around 20 mins from conception to table. No recipe base, recipe book.

Since when did we need to do fancy meals for weekdays? Apricot chicken with mushroom souffle?

Just a ramble I guess - what simple meals are a staple in your household?

you cooked mince and tatties! At least that's what we call it in our house. Sounds delish

I rarely make anything 'fancy', or only when I'm getting sick of having the same old stuff and struggle to think of something to cook for dinner! We all need a little inspiration sometimes...lol.

Meat & three veg are regulars, spag bol, cottage pie. I love mince because it's so cheap and pretty versatile!

That is pretty much savoury mince here!

Oh, if you capitalise it, it is a "dish" :rofl:

Yep, I was thinking 'savoury mince' too :)

We are totally basic and simple here with our dinner choices...

Spaghetti, steak and veg, sausage and veg, baked risotto, cheap Tuesday take-away pizza, sometimes a 'stir-fry' and anything else easy that involves mince!

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That is pretty much savoury mince here!



Oh, if you capitalise it, it is a "dish" :rofl:

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:rofl:

My DH always says 'what is this called?' when I make something random. If I can be bothered I make up a name, if not i just say dinner, then he usually asks 'what genre is it?' My answer, every time, fusion!

mince and noodles was a staple growing up - not done with a tomato sauce like spag bol but almost like a savory mince with noodles in it

We have those arguments regularly when we invent something tasty that doesn't come out of a book. Sometimes we just get her to do a MasterChef and identify all the ingredients but since she's one of those kids that literally cannot tell beef from chicken that kinda thing never gets far. This is more fun:

"What is dinner called?"
"Fred"
"No, what is it caaaaaaaaalled"
"Fred"
"Noooooo what's the NAME of the dinner!!!"
"Told you, its Fred"

hehehehehehehe

I do spaghetti bol every week or so... Risottos are staples, because I can bung it in the micro and it basically cooks itself...

I've just started getting into the slow cooking... Require recipes at the moment! Except for my lamb shanks, mum told me how to do them and I make then without a recipe!

Kaz, that "scratch meal" actually sounds really yummo - I couldn't make that without a recipe, I'm not that good a cook to know what goes with what.

I think masterchef has a lot to answer for!!!!

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"What is dinner called?"
"Fred"
"No, what is it caaaaaaaaalled"
"Fred"
"Noooooo what's the NAME of the dinner!!!"
"Told you, its Fred"

hehehehehehehe

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:rofl:

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We have those arguments regularly when we invent something tasty that doesn't come out of a book. Sometimes we just get her to do a MasterChef and identify all the ingredients but since she's one of those kids that literally cannot tell beef from chicken that kinda thing never gets far. This is more fun:

"What is dinner called?"
"Fred"
"No, what is it caaaaaaaaalled"
"Fred"
"Noooooo what's the NAME of the dinner!!!"
"Told you, its Fred"

hehehehehehehe

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:rofl: I'm going to do that to DH next time

Rissoles, spag bol, chick tonight, steak/fish with veg as a regulars here. I am not a good cook at all. I also like slow cooker meals where I can throw some cheap meat in with some stock. Pasta bake is another goodie and quickie here too.

I make up names. Pasta and bacon with other bits is a carbonara. Or I do "meat a la maison", style is "cuisine de moi". Potatoes in cheese sauce with extras is "extras melt" or "extras bake" - goes down ok so don't think DH has caught me out!

Most of the food I cook doesn't have a name...I just look at the ingredients I have, an idea pops into my head, and off I go. Leftovers are rarely ever called that simply because I usually turn them into something else. FWIW my family never expect be told what their food is, they just eat it. :lol:

My mum called that 'Hotch-Potch'. That's it's name! :) She called that anything that she chucked together.

:) I still cook Mum's Hotch-Potch today and it's different every time! :lol:

Hotch potch - I like that. Sounds like something my Nan would say :)

"Rissole's Darl" is what we jokingly call stuff. We don't name our food either, it's just sausages/chops/steak/chicken and veg, sometimes with gravy. our staples are meat and veg, so nothing fancy that needs a name LOL. But I will admit to saying to the kids when I've been asked for the millionth time what am I cooking for dinner "its poo" and they usually stop asking ;)

:rofl:

DHs is "S*** on Toast"

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:rofl:

DHs is "S*** on Toast"

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That's what we got told as kids. That or 'bread, sugar and duck under the table' and it took me YEARS to figure out what that meant.

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But I will admit to saying to the kids when I've been asked for the millionth time what am I cooking for dinner "its poo" and they usually stop asking ;)

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Me too!!

DD just rolls her eyes and walks away now

Occasionally I will whip out a 'named' dinner, but I rarely use a recipe.

I guess that it just seems that (having watched) BH&G everything seems swish. Spag bol was special when I was a kid, a real treat. I tried to make what my mum called chow mein the other day, and it's nowhere near as nice or tasty as hers, she doesn't have a recipe and the only ingredient i know other than the mince & cabbage is curry powder. Magazines are full of menu plans and everything taking ages to prepare, but little time to cook. (and it's a "quick meal" - only needs 20 mins of veggie chopping prior!)

I wonder how much is being lost from our kids' future? I do roast lamb/beef every week cause it's dead easy, yet to my husband it's a special high-effort meal. Mum would make what she called "racehorses" which I think are a kind of fritter ...

I want to get to a point where I can grow stuff in the veggie patch, and not stress cause it doesn't fit a recipe, yet still have a filling meal. I'd love to be true "fork to fork" in my efforts. I feel our meals are so "named" and "recipe led" that the simple skill of knowing what goes together is lost - chicken tonight isn't a treat any more, but a staple. (sorry, I'm not trying to offend anyone, just trying to get my thoughts in order)

And it's not just in the kitchen I think these skills are being lost - I had a housemate once who didn't know the basics of fixing a door latch, of household repairs like a hole in plaster. I taught him all these things. We're moving to a society where everyone has a role, and the jack-of-all-trades is being lost.

Mind you, I wish I knew how to throw stuff in the slow cooker and for it to work!

Once you've cooked enough you don't need a recipe, you know what goes in certain dishes. I can make a lot of things just by the eye. And I think that's important. If you cook something with multiple ingredients it's a recipe. Whether you're counting the tablespoons or not it's still a dish and it's Kazbah's recipe :)

I won't lie I love recipe books, but these to me are like small courses. Unless I'm baking I very rarely follow a recipe, but they give me great ideas I can work on. Unless I'm making a classic dish iykwim?

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I wonder how much is being lost from our kids' future? I do roast lamb/beef every week cause it's dead easy, yet to my husband it's a special high-effort meal.

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So true. Though in our house, it is DH who had to tell me that roasts are dead easy. Always seemed special to me too!

I think you're spot on about losing some basic "life skills" like cooking. I'm determined to send my kids out into the world knowing some basic cooking techniques!

Oh and if it helps, I make chow mein with mince, onion, cabbage, carrot, celery, rice, a packet of chicken noodle soup, curry powder and a splash of water :D

I like to go round the shops, look at the luxury meals, then figure out how to bake them myself! It's fun.

I agree we are living in a lazy age. Sis' fiance wanted to call in the decorators... to paint the downstairs loo! She had to teach him how to paint. Everything is "convenient", from decorating to food to basic car maintainance. Pay someone to do it rather than use your own hands. I hate it - but then I cook from scratch 95% of the time, we grow our own veg and DH can not only decorate but do the plumbing etc too.

My mother cooked "ifit" - "if it goes round you'll get a bit". Oh, how I longed for the day I wouldn't get a bit! I hate mince meals.

I tend to follow recipes - but every time I cook I change the recipe a bit depending on what we have in and what I actually fancy eating.

LOL savory mince and mashed potatoes ;) If you'd had baked it with potato and cheese on top, I'd say its a shepards pie!



Just make something up :D Mummy's secret is a good name, I think every family needs a 'Munnys seret' meal!!

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LOL savory mince and mashed potatoes ;) If you'd had baked it with potato and cheese on top, I'd say its a shepards pie!

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I did that the other night for the kids and I and then used the leftovers and made shepherds pie for DH's dinner.

I completely understand what you mean Kazbah and Rouge, I love recipe books too but like you Rouge, I only follow a recipe for baking but everything else I bastardise to suit our tastes LOL. I guess I prepare lots of meals that techincally have names, but I don't sit everyone down for dinner and say tonight we are having xyz. We rarely buy food specific for a meal all the time, it's only if we want to try something new kwim?

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So tonight I made a scratch meal - onion, mince, tinned tomatoes, worchestshire sauce, beef cube, water, mixed veg and served with potato mash. Yummy as.

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Replace the mince with kidney beans and in our house its called 'Bean ****' a reliable, easy and yummy staple. Not an elegant name but a familiar fun one :D

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FWIW my family never expect be told what their food is, they just eat it. :lol:

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:yeahthat: as long as it is food my DH will eat it, no name required. Although the other night I made noodles (with egg, lemon, fish sauce etc) but put egg noodles rather than crunchy ones and it kind of turned into mush, DH did ask what that was called, when I said 'noodles' he looked closer and asked where the noodles were, he still had seconds so it obviously didn't affect the taste.

My mum used to call these meals **** on a stick....hmmm, not too appetising! LOL!

I made a mince meal very similar to what you did the other day Kaz, but with noodles and noone was terribly impressed ('cept me!). I wasn't happy. I literally threw out the whole lot except half of what DH had, my whole meal, and one bite each from the kids. The plain noodles were a hit though! Sometimes my 'whatever' meals aren't very well recieved, lol! But I persist, hehe... alot of our meal are just meat and veg, nothing special. Mostly the only time I make a 'special' meal is if it's a bake (as you said, easy as!) or a slow cooker meal (again, easy as to just throw everything in!). Though I often make 'whatever' meals in the SC too, and they usually turn out sooo yum! But you do need to learn what goes with what when you do meals like that too. Sometimes what I put with what isn't terribly nice, but hey, you gotta learn somehow!

BTW, mum makes chow mein too, but I think it was called something else in our house...can't remember what though- mince, cabbage, french style sliced beans, curry powder, and a packet or two of chicken noodle soup, a bit of woustershire sauce (sp?) and water, yummo.....I might have to make some of that one day!

Just thought I'd share DH's funny story:

When he was a kid his mum used to break bits of stale bread, put it in natural yoghurt and sprinkle sugar all over it. They loved it, and asked her what it's called and she said "lambs brains".

So guess what they started asking for when the guests arrived.. "Mum Mum Mum can you make lambs brains!!" :rofl:

My brothers used to make a dish they called "crud in a bowl". Mmmmmm appetising. Some things are better left unnamed.

I hear you, but I'm not entirely sure I'm with you.....

My kids will ask what we are eating and if it has a name, I'll tell them. Spag bol, shepherds pie, frittata, stir fry.... it doesn't mean I make it the same everytime, but I think for them to recognise tastes and what they are generally known as is a good thing.

I do a savoury mince and put in with mash all the time, I put the potato as a circle flat on a plate and the mince is hair, carrots are the eyes and nose and tomato sauce smile and my kids call it happy face dinner. I don't use a recipe and its a standard for getting rid of vegetables hiding in the mince with some stock.... same way I make shepherds pie.

If my kids ask what is in it, I tell them what I threw in. I rarely use recipes, just look in the cupboard for what we have and try to get my flavours right. I taste as I go too and make sure its okay.... or I use DH as my taster if I'm scared ;)

I add "suprise" onto the name. Sausage suprise, mince surprise whatever when it's just the meat cooked with whatever I chuck in. Always turns out ok!

growing up we'd ask mum what was for dinner and we'd get some interesting replies :lol:

this reminds me of the movie 'The Castle' where everything Sal Kerrigan (Anne Tenney) the wife cooks Darryl Kerrigan (Michael Caton) the husband asks what it's called :lol:

Can't beat 'sliced hippopotamus in suitcase sauce'...or poo soup around here.

I guess where I'm coming from are magazines like Notebook etc which have "weeknight dinners" with an ingredient list longer than my arm.