Grandma's Cooking

     Growing up I always wondered why people wanted to go eat at their grandmother's house. To put it nicely, my grandmother was a poor cook. To be truthful, eating at grandma's house was an exercise in food poisoning. The reason her food was so bad is that the woman was cheep and used the cheapest ingredients, few spices, and incorrect amounts of electricity. Let me explain by telling how she would cook rice. She would put the rice and water in a pot on the stove, then bring the water to a boil, cover, and turn off the stove. The rice would be done 3-4hrs later. You don't need to be a pro chef or even a good cook to know that eating such a preparation would make you very sick. Quite often the evening would end in the emergency room. Now if you add into that equation a complete lack of understanding of spices and you have a recipe for disaster. Peppermint hamburgers and heavily oregano seasoned salmon were just the tip of the iceberg. Most of the time the spoiled food was served. One time she pored a huge glass of sour milk for me and when I didn't drink it I was spanked till I finally finished it.
     This all brings me to another thought. Why if I didn't put the food on my plate would I have to clear it? She would put food on my plate that she and I both know I was allergic to. Yet she made me sit there at the table till I finished the food. I finally got fed up with her and ate some of the food in question. About an hour later I threw up all over the table. This really upset her but usually stopped her from trying to force feed me again. Except for those times in which she forgot.