I can tell you that it wasn't always very nice the Mowl, that's for sure. And she was very forceful about it, unreasonably so.
My own Mam felt the same about turnips, parsnips, green cabbage, and garden peas.
I hated them all, they made me gag so I usually fed them to Toby, my Jack Russell terrier, a very loyal little guy who never strayed too far away from me.
Training and caring for him was my chore: I did it with happiness and joy because Toby returned even a little love with a tsunami of affection and excitement.
In time I learned that Mam was right: these vegetables, while not very attractive to me, were really good for growing kids with very active lives.
Nowadays I eat them and enjoy them very much, which is quite a turnaround from my childhood attitudes to certain vegetables
Mam always made sure we had meat and veg every day, and there were of course routines and treats that were scheduled in advance.
Twice a month on Friday evenings we let the Caffola family cook for us: fish and chips, usually cod and ray, both of which I loved.
But she took most of her recipes with her when she passed and I'll never no how she made a steak and kidney pie so delicious.
Her curry was another blinder, along with her spaghetti Bolognese, the Sunday roast, her bread, cakes, pies, all homemade and thoroughly delicious.
I guess we all go through this stage of missing the same things that were a pain in the ass during our childhood.
When I'm cooking myself these days, I think of her and often play the music she liked to have in the background in those days.
I cook often, I rarely eat out, and I never use take-away or delivered food.
My latest concoction which I cook at least twice a week is a meatball pie with mushrooms, red peppers, leek, red onions in a cream/Korean hot sauce.
I use the smallest new season potatoes (my fridge is stuffed with them) in everything, they're selling at €28 per kilo (dearer than steak) but delicious.
Back at the turn of the century, a Finnish lady friend brought me a box of them to Dublin, which was a strange but fabulous gift idea.
A knob of butter and a little salt, black pepper, and a chilled young white wine.
Nam-nam.
In hindsight though, her strict nutritious diet for me when I was child, probably just added to my adult immeasurable 200+ IQ
Perhaps she used sheep and piggie brains in her meat pies?
Ever eaten brain, Jambo?
PS: if you have a 200+ iq, then Toby the terrier was actually a small horse and I was The Lone Ranger.
Cop your tiny head on, you stupid fuck: I've never known any man to waste more time than you do.