What dishes did you really dislike ("hate" in kidspeak) that you now enjoy. Post the recipe.

[Stinky The Clown]

One of mine (there are quite a few) is my Mom's lentil soup. It was a typical Italian-American, Depression era dish that filled lots of bellies for little money. Mom made it because she and my Dad actually liked it ..... and also because we weren't all that wealthy.

Start with about a cup of dried lentils, picked over for stones (do stones still show up in modern bags of dried legumes?). Put them in a pot and cover with water. Bring them to a boil, cover, turn off the heat, and let them sit for an hour.

Turn the heat back on and add chopped parsley, basil, garlic, onion, carrots, celery, salt and pepper, and about a 1/4 c of olive oil. all to taste/as you see fit. Cook slowly until the veggies are all cooked and the lentils done, maybe 15, 20 minutes.

When all is done, add water back to make the soup the consistency you want.

Now add about a quarter pound of spaghetti, broken into one inch pieces. Cook until done. Adjust the water again, and serve.

I really hated this as a kid. I really love it now. Sparkly made it tonight and that inspired this post.

[Denninmi]

1. Not a dish per se ...

I absolutely detested olives as a child. Thought they were the most vile thing ever (well, with the possible exception of limburger cheese and pickled pigs feet, two of my father's favorites).

Of course, I love olives now.

And yes, you still find stones, bits of stick, pod pieces, etc., in bags of dry beans and other legumes.

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Welcome to C&B!

:hi:

[Warpy]

3. I loathed a lot of things when I was a kid

because my mother hated cooking and it showed. I often say I learned how to cook in self defense. She always told people I grew up eating nothing but Campbell's chicken noodle soup and peanut butter sandwiches. It was pretty close to the truth.

I learned to love everything I hated because she insisted on using canned instead of fresh. I learned how to combine things in a pan to make things taste fresh and clean instead of overcooked and unseasoned. I learned techniques to take fresh, raw food and turn them into dinner in 15 minutes after work. I also learned that cooking it meant it was a lot cheaper than processed food.

However, to this day, I can't get liver down.

I've never really blamed my mother for being a bad cook as much as I've always felt sorry for her. She knew she had little talent for it, she hated doing it, but being female in the 50s meant she was stuck with the job and there was no way out of it.

At least when my dad was out of town, there was Campbell's and peanut butter.

[hippywife]

4. No recipe but I hated

Mexican food with a passion. I remember one night the neighbor sent over some tamales and the smell was making what we kinds were having for dinner taste like tamales. I didn't like chili, either.

[Callalily]

5. My mom made the most

gawd awful pea soup. My siblings liked it though, and I can still remember my brother lining the whole peas on the rim of his bowl to eat them last. ;)

I didn't start liking pea soup until I made it myself. No recipe to post, but I'm sure everyone here has their favorite.

[pengillian101]

6. Tomatoes.

Now I love them.

John Denver sings about them in his "home grown tomatoes" song.

http://www.lala.com/#song/937030206111417489

Edit to add: Another version with pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0C4FOL1qIw

[Tesha]

7. yes.. tomatoes!

especially the (pardon me) snot eeeeuuuuu gross!


I still hate that stuff, but tomato flesh with cucumbers,
capers, and thinly sliced fresh garlic in an italian dressing -
along with a hunk of fresh bread are all I need for a late summer dinner.


remember summer?

[pengillian101]

12. I'm starting my own indoor summer. LOL!

In northern MN where we have a very short summer. This is an Aerogarden experiment in growing indoor cherry tomatoes over the winter! Let's see how it goes, eh?

First pic:

[Tesha]

16. wow...

real tomatoes in the winter. Now that might be worth the work and worry.
http://www.aerogardenreviews.org/

Thanks for the idea! :hi:
we're in NH and tho' the season is OK, last summer we had a blight in the whole region and we never got our fill.

[pengillian101]

13. especially the (pardon me) snot eeeeuuuuu gross!

Yes, I think that part was the killer.

My Dad even said he would bet me $5 real money to eat one, as a kid. No way - and I passed on that bet.

Then again he bet me $50 to sleep overnight (in our family's cemetery) with my sister and cousin. Well - he lied, LOL! He drove all of us home. (We girls had a secret though - we were going to sleep in the church, lol).

But we never got any money out of the bet. Not long after, some pyromaniac burned that very historic church.

[Vinca]

8. I wouldn't go near a tomato, mushroom or onion.

That's probably why I was a little fat kid.

[Phentex]

9. I cannot think of a single thing...

too many mouths to feed so you ate what you were given. Not a single picky eater in the group. And for the most part, my mom was a good cook. In the plentiful times, we didn't know how good we had it. I look back and wonder how she did it! When things were really bad and there was no "real" food, I learned to love a bowl of rice for dinner.

[kfred]

10. Lima beans

Still cannot handle them to this day. But here is a giggle. My older sister is known for how she hated peas and would slather ketchup all over them to get them down her gullet.

We still might have cottage cheese with ketchup. We used it to disguise alot of ickies.

But liver? I really, really loved it and still do. Gimme some onions and crisp bacon with it and I'm in love. I've been known to order it at restaurants because I love it so much.

[GoCubsGo]

20. I hated lima beans until I had fresh ones

I grew up with dried or frozen lima beans and butter beans. I didn't like either of them. I think part of that was due to the fact that my mom always made in dishes with lots of ham in it. I really disliked ham as a kid. About 15 years ago, I lived next door to an elderly woman who used to cook dinner for her son when he came over to cut the grass. My neighbor would cook enough to feed an army, so she would bring over plates of food to me every so often. Her son had a garden, and he grew all sorts of beans and peas. On time, she the plate she brought me had fresh butter beans. I didn't want let them go to waste, so I decided to just go ahead and eat them. I am glad I did! They were yummy!

[EFerrari]

11. I never had homemade soup until I learned to make it myself.

So, split pea soup was just the worst, it tasted just like the can it came from. My recipe doesn't do anything special but the ham hock works much better if you get the butcher to crack it for you (or if you have a sledgehammer :) ). We usually have it with lots of horseradish, toasted French bread and a couple of cheeses + a green salad. It bears no resemblance to that nasty stuff from Campbells.

[pengillian101]

14. Split Pea Soup

I don't think I ever even tasted it until an adult. I use a real bone-in ham.
I dug out this recipe for ya. Trust me, this is really good. My neighbors will donate the ham for soup. My variations are within the * *

1969 Betty Crocker's cookbook Split Pea Soup

(*my variations in parenthesis.) Easily doubled recipe - it freezes well.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups dried split peas (*one plastic bag is 2 cups).
2 quarts water (*that is 8 cups and I add chicken bouillon
to that 8 cups of water so it is chicken broth. Or just
start out with 8 cups of chicken broth)

1 lb smoked ham shank or ham hocks or 1 ham bone (*I start
with a real bone-in ham. There will be more than enough
ham for your soup, and the leftover extremely tender ham is
wonderful for sandwiches, etc.)

1 medium onion, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup) (*I use a
lot more onion and you don't need to chop anything so
fine.)

1 cup finely chopped celery (*my celery usually is beyond
usable before I use it, so I normally skip it)

1 sprig parsley (*I use dried parsley)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 medium carrots, thinly sliced (*my very original Betty
Crocker recipe didn't call for carrots - but my notes say I
always added 1-1/2 cup of sliced carrots). They will cook
down.

(* IMPORTANT * my little additions - a bit of chopped garlic in a jar, 1/4 tsp thyme, a bay leaf or two, and a generous pinch of
cayenne pepper.)

DIRECTIONS

In large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat peas and water (*bouillon) to
boiling; boil 2 minutes.

Remove from heat; cover and let stand 1 hour.

Add bone-in ham, onion, celery, parsley and pepper; heat to
boiling. (*add carrots and my additions - chopped garlic in a jar, 1/4 tsp thyme, a bay leaf or two, and a generous pinch of
cayenne pepper.)

Reduce heat; cover and simmer (*at least) 1-1/2 hours.

Remove ham and bone.

(*If you want a really creamy variation, use a hand blender in the pot before adding the ham back in. Or if you don't have a hand blender, put the soup through a regular food processor or blender Personally, I like the un-creamy version best.)

Trim meat from bone and add to soup (*if you use a whole ham with bone, save out about 1/2 the ham for other uses.

[EFerrari]

15. That's very similar to what I do but I try to use stock when I have it.

A friend always makes a big pot with her turkey carcass after TG Day but with so many little bones, I'd rather cook down the stock and start with that. :hi:

[GoCubsGo]

19. I used to hate it BECAUSE OF the ham.

I'm not a huge ham fan, although I don't hate it as much now as I did when I was younger. I never cared for split pea soup, either. However, someone once served me a vegetarian split pea soup, where he sauteed some minced garlic along with the onions in some butter. It was delicious! Now, I always add garlic to my pea soup. No ham, however.

[Gregorian]

17. I loved everything. I even made myself a CARROT HOLSTER as a kid.

Talk about nuts!

[Stinky The Clown]

18. You kept nuts in your carrot holster????

:)

[EFerrari]

21. I think that's cool! I never had the brains to pack snacks.

lol

[tango-tee]

22. Mushrooms. I hated mushrooms with a purple passion.

But then, my mom at that time used the canned kind. Slippery, slimy, disgusting.

Love them now. Portobello, chanterelles, just plain mushrooms, you name it.

What I like to make as a side dish for chicken breasts or steak is this:

Melt a nice chunk of butter and a bit of olive oil. Sautée finely chopped shallots or onions and garlic until translucent. Add sliced mushrooms, turn up the heat, and let brown. Stir every so often. Then add salt, pepper, paprika and a touch of thyme. Let it bubble and add a splash of white wine. When it is done, add finely chopped flat-leaf parsley.

Enjoy!