Anonymous wrote:Oh, the Midwest garage food really brings me back. This is one of my mother’s tried and true practices. (No, we don’t visit for holidays anymore.) These garage food people need to change their ways given how the climate has changed in the past 30-40 years.

Anonymous wrote:My ILs don’t make enough food and my SIL and BIL don’t notice so they eat a ton and I’lm left saying “one pancake is plenty.”

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Anonymous wrote:My MIL will precook broccoli in the morning because it “takes too long to cook” at a mealtime. She will then reheat it when it’s time to eat. Also food safety means nothing. Meat left on the counter for hours is a common occurrence. I won’t eat what she makes. Luckily we are at our house this year so no issues.

One of my favorite things here is the never ending bottle of salad dressing. Some years ago they bought a bottle of strawberry vinaigrette. They just keep adding vinegar, oil, whatever to the bottle and shaking it. That bottle is at least three years old and to my knowledge it has never been washed. Pretty much if it was cooked in or sourced from this house, and you didn’t witness it being opened in a reasonable timeframe you are taking your life into your hands if you eat it.

Anonymous wrote:Y'all do realize that all of these hilarious stories are going to be us one day, right?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, the Midwest garage food really brings me back. This is one of my mother’s tried and true practices. (No, we don’t visit for holidays anymore.) These garage food people need to change their ways given how the climate has changed in the past 30-40 years.

Yeah in Cleveland growing up we could definitely do the “food on the patio” thing at Christmas - hell there was probably a snowbank on the patio by that point! It was see your breath freezing cold most years. Nowadays no way. That isn’t food safe. Even the garage beers and sodas are merely just “cool” now if stored outside, not outright cold.

Anonymous wrote:Oh, the Midwest garage food really brings me back. This is one of my mother’s tried and true practices. (No, we don’t visit for holidays anymore.) These garage food people need to change their ways given how the climate has changed in the past 30-40 years.

Anonymous wrote:Arrived at MIL's yesterday, and am here for the whole week. Need a distraction from her fretting over cooking (which I am doing all of) and financial planning (which she only trusts DH around).

I'll start:

- House is freezing. MIL considers setting temp to 65 high, and says it's because kids are from south (California). I grew up in Midwest, BTW. I've been wrapped up in blanket since getting here...MIL nearly fainted when I suggested setting temp to 67.
- MIL insists on hosting dinner. Will no longer let me host, which involves travel, nor SIL who is 15 minutes away. But MIL hates cooking and does not have a full size oven...so getting meal together is lots of coordination and drama.

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Anonymous wrote:My mom proudly told me on Monday that she just finished cooking the turkey so she can re-heat it for us Thursday.

This right here is the kind of wacky I love finding buried in these threads among the house too cold/too hot, garbage police, and nobody is allowed to eat posts!

I’ve been haunted by wondering where the cooked turkey is stored.

On the patio! It's cool enough. I mean people are whining and wearing sweaters INDOORS so it's definitely cool enough for a turkey outdoors. Logic.

Are you in the Midwest? When we used to go to my parents’ house for Thanksgiving, my mom would cook all this food a week or so in advance and then leave it in the garage if there wasn’t room in the fridge (and they had two huge refrigerators and a deep freeze….). I don’t think the garage was ever under 40 degrees. When the kids were little, we’d buy our own groceries and cook for them under the guise that they were too picky and needed their own food. We stopped going there for holidays around 7-8 years ago because the old food, cold house, uncomfortable beds, weird rules, etc got to be too much.

My dad has now passed away and my mom is in a small apartment. I was feeling sad that we didn’t have big family travel plans this year and wouldn’t all be together in their big house, but this thread is reminding me of how much we hated going to my parents’ for Thanksgiving! It was never the cozy Hallmark Thanksgiving that I’m picturing in my head—it was the Griswolds.

"We stopped going there for holidays around 7-8 years ago because the old food, cold house, uncomfortable beds, weird rules, etc got to be too much."

Hey you guys maybe this is it?! Maybe this is the plan? They don't WANT company so this is how they prevent it with all these "rules."

Anonymous wrote:There’s a chipmunk in the house. A cousin is trying to catch it with a shop vac. Just a note: I am NOT blood related to these people

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Anonymous wrote:Paging Burger King Lady... please come out to play!

Who's that?

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Anonymous wrote:We left my MIL alone in our house for a few hours yesterday while we were running errands. Later that evening, in front of the whole family, she asked what was "in the red container in the basement freezer."

The lady obviously snooped the whole house while we were gone AND THEN told on herself. (The basement is creepy and down a steep flight of stairs and she had absolutely no reason to go down there.) Lesson learned about who to leave alone, I guess.

Well, what's in it?

My money is still on placenta.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We left my MIL alone in our house for a few hours yesterday while we were running errands. Later that evening, in front of the whole family, she asked what was "in the red container in the basement freezer."

The lady obviously snooped the whole house while we were gone AND THEN told on herself. (The basement is creepy and down a steep flight of stairs and she had absolutely no reason to go down there.) Lesson learned about who to leave alone, I guess.

Well, what's in it?