Do you do food requests.?

rascal said:
My wife hates seafood, when she smells it she starts gagging. I love it. I try to cook it when she's not here.

Russ
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That's how I am, like your wife.

My father-in-law was a great guy, and I loved him dearly, still think about him and miss him every day, just about. He loved anything. He'd eat anything, didn't matter what it was, where it came from, he'd eat it and he'd love it.

He also loved to tease and make jokes, but he knew the one thing he could never tease me about was cooking any kind of fish or seafood in my house. He made a joke one time, and my pudgy 5'9" self looked right at his 6'7" ex-pro-athlete still-muscular self and said, "You do that and one of us will be sleeping in a hotel room...and it won't be me." He never brought it up again, because he could tell by the tone of my voice that he might have been joking, but I wasn't. :)
 
TastyReuben said:
That's how I am, like your wife.

My father-in-law was a great guy, and I loved him dearly, still think about him and miss him every day, just about. He loved anything. He'd eat anything, didn't matter what it was, where it came from, he'd eat it and he'd love it.

He also loved to tease and make jokes, but he knew the one thing he could never tease me about was cooking any kind of fish or seafood in my house. He made a joke one time, and my pudgy 5'9" self looked right at his 6'7" ex-pro-athlete still-muscular self and said, "You do that and one of us will be sleeping in a hotel room...and it won't be me." He never brought it up again, because he could tell by the tone of my voice that he might have been joking, but I wasn't. :)
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Great story, my mother in law was awesome, she loved me cooking for her, she was a widow and hated cooking. She used to come on holiday at Xmas with us all. We still really miss her.

Russ
 
rascal said:
Great story, my mother in law was awesome, she loved me cooking for her, she was a widow and hated cooking. She used to come on holiday at Xmas with us all. We still really miss her.

Russ
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I loved both my in-laws like my own parents. My FIL, he just embraced life. Good food, good drink, good friends and family. That was him. Always up for anything, always did everything larger than life.

My MIL...I don't think I've ever known anyone who valued herself so little, who gave so much to her family, who couldn't say a bad word about anyone, and just had the kindest, purest heart. She was a real gem.

He'd eat anything, and she was picky as hell, and had to have all her meat extra-extra well-done. His would be barely rare, hers would be black and grey all the way through.
 
You were very lucky, I never knew my dad as he walked out when I was 3 never to be seen again, and my wife's dad died when she was 10 from WWII effects. So I only had 1 in law same as my wife. My wife and my mum got on really well. She was the daughter she never had. I'm one of three boys.

Russ
 
My in-laws were nothing like my parents. I love my parents as well, but very severe people, I guess that's how I would say it. Any kind of enjoyment or pleasure was seen as being frivolous or wasteful.

You ever see pictures of really serious, downtrodden people, like from the Depression or of coal miner families? That's how my parents always looked, even on a good day. Life was all work, no fun.
 
TastyReuben said:
My in-laws were nothing like my parents. I love my parents as well, but very severe people, I guess that's how I would say it. Any kind of enjoyment or pleasure was seen as being frivolous or wasteful.

You ever see pictures of really serious, downtrodden people, like from the Depression or of coal miner families? That's how my parents always looked, even on a good day. Life was all work, no fun.
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I knew people like that growing up. Grey and boring people. I'm glad you are different and enjoy life and cooking. I too enjoy life. My wife's 1 of 9 so things were tough for her growing up, but she always had a sense of humour. She needs it with me around,lol.

Russ
 
My husband rarely requests anything, like @TastyReuben he says everything I make is wonderful. However if I don't cook prawns for a while he'll ask for them because he loves them that much, but that is all. He's really easy going food wise. I think it helps that his ex wife only microwaved meals for him for 10 years, makes him appreciate that I cook everything from scratch a lot.

I do unfortunately have to cook an entire seperate menu for my stepsons, because they have sensory issues and serious mental health problems and basically never developed their palate beyond the toddler stage and as they are 17 and 19 now there is not much we can do about it anymore. I only came into their lives about two years ago, so I definitely was too late to change this part of their lives. The oldest only eats one dinner that is the same every day. The younger one has started trying new foods as long as they are made out of meat, and eats about 4 different dishes for dinner. But it can be a struggle for sure.

Otherwise I only take requests if someone is allergic, or people I love that are serious vegans/vegetarians. But usually I don't go out of my way to suit everyones preferences, I just make sure no one gets something they can't eat.
 
Windigo said:
The oldest only eats one dinner that is the same every day.
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You spoke about this before - I find it quite fascinating - although I'm sure you probably don't if you have to live with it. What exactly would happen if you didn't make that one same meal? I hope you don't mind me asking.
 
morning glory said:
You spoke about this before - I find it quite fascinating - although I'm sure you probably don't if you have to live with it. What exactly would happen if you didn't make that one same meal? I hope you don't mind me asking.
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He does not eat for weeks. Or he gets aggressive and destroys everything in sight for days. Seriously, his parents have tried everything. In the case of autism, it's not as simple as a dislike for a certain food. His brain is wired differently and rejects certain textures. The only thing possible that I have suggested to his parents is that he goes to an eating disorder specialist, which we might consult in the future but currently he's in treatment for other issues that take priority.
 
When we were kids, we could pick our dinner for parents to make - birthdays ONLY. My brother would choose lobster and hot dogs. I varied up my choices. If it fell on a weekday, we used a convenient weekend date, either before or after, either Saturday or Sunday.

For pot lucks, typically we choose an appetizer, main, side or dessert - and we let the host/hostess know ahead, so that three people aren't bringing the potato salad... But within the theme we get to choose our dish.

When I had housemates, we'd cook together a couple times a week, but beyond that it wasn't practical. They totally lacked any adventure in their taste buds, and I really wanted to cook my favorite things for myself. Or explore new and strange foods - as that was how I grew up. I think they ended up doing fast food often, too. (They were both still in college at the beginning of the time they lived with me, so college schedules and all...) But when we did cook together we had a good time. On weekends we often made breakfast omelets to share with each other, too -- more so when I just had the one housemate.

As an interesting aside, while I lost track of the one, the other one remains one of my best friends ever. He now loves a lot of food he wouldn't even dream of touching back then.... sushi for one. He even ate lambs' tongue when I went down to visit him at a restaurant in New York City about three years ago. (He still shies away from cooked seafood...) And he now lives near so many Asian and Middle Eastern eateries, and relishes this diversity of foods … when back in the day American-style Chinese, and Italian was as close as he'd get to explorations.
 
Windigo said:
Otherwise I only take requests if someone is allergic, or people I love that are serious vegans/vegetarians. But usually I don't go out of my way to suit everyones preferences, I just make sure no one gets something they can't eat.
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If I cook for folks, likewise I need to know if anyone is allergic, has a sensitivity (I have a sensitivity to most tree nuts, and while it is not a true allergy, the result can be horrifically painful...), or if they are vegetarian, vegan or kosher. I do have a few Orthodox Jewish friends, so the latter is also imporant.

I have an annual gathering here where there are a LOT of differing food restrictions. So I provide options, clearly labeled. My best effort was back in 2018, when I made Cinco de Mayo foods - a vegetarian, legume-including chili, a self-serve soft taco bar (with veggie, meat, dairy, tofu options, using gluten-free corn tortillas). I had a legume-allergic person as well as vegetarians (no vegans but they would have had that chili and the taco bar...), and potentially kosher restrictive attendees. And someone with the need to limit nightshades - she could eat a little chili but put together her taco bar foods accordingly.

Just to note sometimes it is impossible to make foods at a meal something that everyone present can eat EVERYTHING of. And also enjoy.

Dessert was a flourless dark chocolate cake.

so... basically... I do make foods not exactly by request, but by "non-request". Omit something, at least for some of this meal... Yes, can do.
 
Mountain Cat said:
When we were kids, we could pick our dinner for parents to make - birthdays ONLY. My brother would choose lobster and hot dogs. I varied up my choices. If it fell on a weekday, we used a convenient weekend date, either before or after, either Saturday or Sunday.
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Yeah same, as a kid I thought that was one of the best things about a birthday. I would usually choose my mother's nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) with several toppings, or when I was still a small child fries with homemade meatballs.

I also let my stepsons choose what they want to eat on their birthday though obviously dinner is the same as always. They usually pick their cake, as they do eat a lot of sweet things.
 
Windigo said:
Yeah same, as a kid I thought that was one of the best things about a birthday. I would usually choose my mother's nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice) with several toppings, or when I was still a small child fries with homemade meatballs.

I also let my stepsons choose what they want to eat on their birthday though obviously dinner is the same as always. They usually pick their cake, as they do eat a lot of sweet things.
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We didn't have choices of what to eat, we ate a lot of iffits as kids.

Russ
 
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