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My MIL would attempt a to make a meal that should take 2 hour to bring to the table but would do it in 20 minutes. Sand and raw wine in the mushrooms and steak or chicken that was killed in the broiler, She would say " well it is edible isn't it" No Mom!

I am going to say something that might get me in trouble should friends and family read this because they are Mormon. Most cannot cook, if they can they are converts to the church. lol. I am so serious. My parents are converts to the church, so I've eaten at many a Mormon household.

A friend made me a chicken dinner that was a par-nuked cutlet that was then sauteed in a chicken boullion (sp?) cube. Salt, salt, salt. Another thought carrot juice was a meal.

That said, eat before hand. For Christmas buy her a easy-to-follow, simple cookbook put it in a basket with some dressings, sauces, cookies and cocoa. Maybe include a cooking lesson or two at a local place.

Hopefully, she will take the suble hint before the need for a culinary intervention! =)

Ahh so. Then all is well. The wedding is soon? Be happy, healthy & wise. ;)

@lo82070 ~ oh sweetie, I sure hope he's worth it, and you'll answer that question the same way in 10-20-30 years (while she's still around). If he doesn't support you 100% and stand up to her in your defense, dump him, don't get married. Your heart will heal. You truly are marrying his family. Speaking as one who has been there, but waited 30 agonizing years.

@teslaca, some people are fine with the way they cook, and have no interest in changing. My MIL is a fine example. Her criteria is that the food isn't going to make you sick and, um....I really think that's about it. She has zero interest in learning more about cooking, and in fact has pared down her cooking from what it was years ago. She does, however, like to entertain, and that usually involves her cooking a meal. And she probably believes that her guests are fine with her cooking, since the polite thing to say is, "It was all very good. Thank you for inviting us." And when people ask for her recipes, she's probably thinking that they want to recreate the dish. It's much more likely that they're trying to figure out what she served.

And I'm fine with her lack of interest in cooking. We eat there maybe a half-dozen times a year, and although it's mind-numbingly bland, it's usually not horrible. And I know that she's not going to change. If she had any interest whatsoever in cooking, I'd love to spend time with her shopping and cooking. But that's never going to happen. She regards time in the kitchen as torture, and the less time spent there, the better.

Just as she has no interest in cooking, I have no interest in having her come over here and teaching me how to crochet blankets or the proper way to fold sheets and towels. We're all old enough to realize we don't have the same interests.

And I don't see anywhere the OP said he/she was a food professional, not that it matters.

The good thing about having a MIL who doesn't cook well is that there's never a chance DH is ever going to say, "I wish you made this like my mother did." Most of the time he just says that he feels sorry for her husband, since he eats her food every day.

I really am having a good laugh at this thread. In trying to bond with my highschool best friend's folks, my parents were invited over to their house for drinks. My folks brought rum and several cans of frozen orange juice. What came out of the kitchen was a big jug of TANG as the mix!!! Don't know what happened to the real stuff, it just disappeared! They never never really got on, to say the least.

For someone, someday, YOU are going to be that cook (or that host). Food for thought (so to speak) – how to keep that someone from going hungry? Suggestions? This brings back a childhood memory – a long car trip (Yellowstone to San Francisco) with a first-time visitor from Taiwan, in the 70s. Roadside American food was all strange and repellent to him, and my mother was afraid he was going to starve, until he ate his first potato chip. Bingo! He lived on potato chips all the way from Utah to the SF State campus.

I must admit I'm guilty of loving jell-o. The low calorie variety too... I sometimes make my own agar-agar bites, trying to replicate the ones I buy at a Japanese candy store... I just never try to serve it to anyone. Feels wrong.

As for bad experiences, my mother is a decent cook, and although she makes the worst eggplant and okra ever (took me years living out of the house to discover how delicious such things are) and my fathers barbecue is awful (he's American. Sorry, but it will never compare to the Brazilian stuff), holidays hold memories of great eating. My ex's family were great cooks, and she would take over the barbecue when she visited mine and my SO's mother, albeit disliking me and not allowing me near her house, sometimes sends over some great cakes.

Wait... my mother is guilty of my teen years birthday cakes. They were ok and I remember them dearly, but also were very very lazy. Ok, she had four kids, worked and finished high school when i was 14. But still... Store bought sponge cake, layered with boxed pudding and canned figs. Gotta hand it to her for making the best mango ice cream in the world, though.

The worst experience I've had was not connected to flavor. I stopped eating red meat and pork between 13 and 23. To this day, anything pork that has not been processed (like sausages or cold-cuts) makes me sick. Very sick. So when I went to visit my ex's cousins on a Sunday for a barbecue, I expected to find at least a salad to nibble on. Nothing. Just pork and beer. The smell was great, and I was hungry. It tasted good too... It almost killed me. Way to lose 14 kg in 10 days.

I feel fortunate that my future MIL is a great cook, and her holiday meals are really special, using fresh ingredients harvested from her own garden and locally raised meats. My fiancee is perhaps an even better cook yet.

I wish I could say the same for my blood relatives, who don't seem to care much about food. When my fiancee and I visit, we politely gag down some dry pot roast, bland overcooked vegetables, and iceberg lettuce-based salad served with tasteless bottled salad dressings. Still, I am grateful their dinners aren't quite as scary as the original poster's.

Why don't you invite her to your house for dinner? Although you do run the risk of her thinking you "uppity" which was my experience (although sadly it was my mom having that judgment not my mother-in-law who was a sweetheart.)

Both my MIL and SIL are poor cooks. We eat at my parents' house instead. What baffles me the most about some of the dishes described here is that someone thinks they are good. The cooks in questions must tolerate eating them themselves or they would not cook them, right? I find the taste of canned soup and bottled salad dressing revolting, so I have a hard time understanding why someone would think these things are good. I can taste the copious amounts of salt and corn syrup, why can't everyone?