My mom’s cooking is a family joke.  She did most of the cooking until I was in my early teens or so, when my dad finally took over in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, my mom’s cooking pretty much scarred me for life.  Some of my food dislikes I think were created by the dry, overcooked food she often served.  My mom definitely could have benefitted from some culinary training, that’s for sure!

Here are some of the more memorable things I remember being served:

• "Teri-yucky" — My mom went through a teriyaki cooking phase when I was a kid — at least, she thought it was teriyaki.  To my sister and I, it was just "teri-yucky."
• Over-microwaved vegetables — My mom relied heavily on the microwave when she cooked.  Unfortunately, she was even good at that, so everything came out rather overcooked.  With almost every meal, we had frozen veggies that had been cooked in the microwave, usually to the point that they were shriveled up like raisins.
• Over-cooked chicken, beef, pork, you name it! — My mom pretty much always overcooked meat.  My dad says my grandfather always did the same thing, so maybe that’s where she got it.  In any case, our meat was almost always dried out and tasteless.  Chicken was the most common meat of choice, and to this day I don’t like chicken very much.

When my dad took over, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief — including, I suppose, my mom, as I don’t think she enjoyed cooking very much.  My dad, on the other hand, loved putting together meals.  He cooks like he has a culinary arts degree, although we all know he doesn’t — he just excels at cooking because he likes it so much.

Luckily, in today’s day and age there is no reason why any parent has to feed their kids disgusting, poorly-cooked food.  If you don’t know how to cook tastefully seasoned meat or put together nutritious meals for your kids, there are plenty of culinary cooking schools that can give you the training you need, even if you have no intention of pursuing a career in the culinary arts.