>Their Mom used to be a great cook from what they say...<

My mom was a great cook. Nothing particularly gourmet. But what she did she did very well. Just basic home cooking.

And then she started listening to her doctors. And pretty soon she was the freeist person on earth: salt free, fat free, spice free, juiciness free----and, in general, flavor free. I remember on one visit going out with Friend Wife for a sandwich just so we could taste the food.

Thankfully she grew out of that phase, and went back to cooking for real. But that was a rough period for anyone who ate at her house.

Sounds like my MIL.
Atleast your Mom grew out of it. Been 10 years and this one is still going strong.
Why bother cooking at all when you cook like that?

RE: "The other end, as Chubby can tell you, is when people don't invite you unless they're doing "gourmet," because they don't realize that, like everyone else, we go to dinner parties because of the people, not because of the food. And that fried chicken and cole slaw, served at the right gathering, is as fine as it gets. The problem with being a passionate foodie is that friends often think you're not satisfied with anything excpt top shelf. And that's far from the truth.[/QUOTE]

...and I definitely have to agree with KYH. Folks get this idea that those who cook for a living, those who enjoy the best of the best, or those who identify as "foodies" have no appreciation for plain, ordinary home-cooking. Not so. Not so , at all.

I worked with a knowledgable restaurant manager once who was older than dirt and second-only-to-Moses in experience. Harry used to remark that when a restaurant was losing money, a sharp manager really needed to keep his eye on waiters and waitresses... 'cause given their druthers, servers always would opt for lobster over a chicken leg- even if they had to swipe it!- ...and that cooks were happy with a buttered dinner roll after a long hard shift of slinging surf n' turf and cherries jubilee!

Me? Hell... I'm as happy w/ a baloney sandwich or a plate of mama's elbow-macaroni goulash as I am anything!

>I'm as happy w/ a baloney sandwich or .....<

Don't do that to me, Chubby.

Fried baloney on light bread; a hunk of rat cheese; and a bottle of RC cola. Lunch doesn't get any better than that.

You want gourmet? Toss a handful of batter-fried pickles on the plate.

Absolutely, Brook!

And I've said it before- the best meal I've ever had in my whole life was blue-boxed Kraft mac & cheese and boiled hot dogs made by my young niece & nephew!