My husband was a little picky when we first got married; I think from too many years of canned mushy peas "like mom used to make." My MIL was a darling but she could not cook. He's much less picky now and eats almost anything I make. I'll have to buy a can of potatoes just to see what they're like. I buy very few canned vegetables except for tomatoes and a few types of beans that I use in soups, etc. I prefer frozen or fresh vegetables for the most part.
My grandma loved raw onion, especially the sweet Vidalias. I like a bit of raw onion chopped on things like a chili dog or Mexican food.
I think school lunches ruined vegetables for many people. I learned to eat asparagus straight out of the can in Japan with mayo and beer. We now lightly steam asparagus and eat it like that, not always with beer though. Vegetables were always overcooked in school cafeterias, then left in the steam tables too long. Using frozen veggies and just cooking until done works great.
Oxtail, I'd count that a weird. If I remember the next time I am in a good meat department I wanna see what these oxtails look like.
They are pre-cut into 1.5"-2" cross-sections, so you won't see an intact tail. There's lots of gelatin in it from the bones, connective tissue and maybe even some skin. I've also had tongue (cow's) a few times, although I've never made it. It makes a good sandwich...very tender, almost like liverwurst. My British mother used to make it, and I discovered it on the buffet at a Bolivian restaurant I frequented. My first visit, the waitress was nice enough to walk me though the various items on the buffet. When she got to the tongue, she said "You might not like that." She was shocked to hear an Anglo say he had eaten it since he was a kid. I wonder if my local ethnic population might not have snagged all that discounted oxtail.
I have only had oxtail soup once as part of an extravagant 7 course meal at a restaurant in lima, Peru. I found it to be absolutely awful (sorry @John Brunner) but tongue is great when done properly. I have had beef tongue once or twice as sandwich meat and found it to be good. We almost always cooked the moose tongue when we hunted. It takes a long time to prepare, but is worth it if you like sandwich meat. I hate liver in almost any form, although I have tried it in many forms--still tasted like liver and was awful.
Back in northern Virginia, my neighbor's wife was Peruvian. I've eaten at her parent's home a number of times, and there were a couple of Peruvian restaurants we'd frequent. I never had Peruvian oxtail stew. I have had ceviche. The only thing I'd not eat (or gnaw on) again is chicken feet. What a waste of time. And I thought crab was tedious... What takes so long to prepare tongue? Regarding liver...I like calf's liver and chicken liver. I've not had deer liver or any other game liver, and don't ever recall any of the hunters I've known mention it.
This recipe calls for cooking it for 3 hours. When we did moose tongue especially, we marinated it overnight in the fridge, the cooked it for 3+ hours. By the time it was peeled, etc., it was a long time of prep to me. I don't remember how long we did beef tongue. We ate moose liver and heart in the field--it is an Alaska tradition since we were often days away from the nearest refrigerator and the fragile meat has to be used. The muscle tissue keeps just fine in the cool temps of an Alaska hunting season. Sometimes during the Alaska resident only seasons in mid-winter, the carcasses will freeze solid before they get fully processed, but those are mostly for homesteaders and Natives who are near starvation by then. The carcasses are butchered with an axe or sometimes a designated chain saw with vegetable oil lubrication. https://commonsensehome.com/how-to-cook-beef-tongue/
It's gone the same way as flank steak, London Broil and chicken wings. There should be priority given to those of us who grew up eating that stuff because it was all we could afford, and the hip latecomers can get in line behind us...dammit.
A can of stewed tomatoes mixed with finely chopped celery with a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of pepper. Mix and let sit over night in the fridge. Stewed tomatoes sliced up to bite size pieces heated over a low heat. Tear up some white bread slices (throw away the crust) and toss in the hot tomatoes and add a sprinkle of sugar.
My grandmother used to eat stewed tomatoes with bread and sugar, too. It never looked good to me, but she enjoyed it.