Cooking

When I was little my dad was diagnosed with coeliac disease, this means (very basically!) that his body can't tolerate gluten, and he needs a gluten-free diet. Twenty plus years ago, the availability of gluten-free products was very limited, and those that there were didn't always taste good. That meant that it was better for my parents to get gluten-free flour, and make things from scratch.

I don't really remember what it was like before my dad was diagnosed, but I'm pretty certain my mum did a fair amount of cooking from scratch anyway, but after, they cooked pretty much everything from scratch, and I grew up thinking that was normal.

I am sooooooo thankful that that's the case. I was just looking on facebook and one blog or other was asking people their essential freezer meals, and then attempting to re-create them from scratch. I had a think about that, and realised I don't really even think of buying any freezer meals*, cos I just think that fresh/home cooked would be better.

I'm not saying I don't buy junk. sure, everyone does. But I've never bought a cake mix in my life - it just wouldn't even occur to me to do so!

I think what I'm trying to say is thank you mummy and daddy for the way you raised me, teaching me to cook from scratch. Cos it seems that's a skill a lot of other people are attempting to learn later on in life!

* In the spirit of full disclosure, I do sometimes by ready meals off the reduced shelf for Menard to take to work for lunch. But I wouldn't dream of eating them myself! I'd much rather have homecooked lasagne than the stuff you buy as a ready meal.