Domestic Arts: How you learned to cook

[SoCalLocal]

I helped Mom in the kitchen when I was little. Had to help if I wanted to get to lick the beater when she was done.

Then I was in Boy Scouts. Some of the dehydrated crap they sold as backpacking food was pretty awful back in the 70s - nothing at all like the freeze dried goodies they sell today. So we had to learn how to ignore their directions and make it so it actually came out edible. We also learned a lot of one-pot meals from the Scoutmaster; essentially hamburger helper or some imitator with vegetables added.

Then I moved out on my own. I could barely make rent. It was cook or starve. I couldn't afford to eat out. So I started with what I knew and improved on it. Spaghetti sauce Mom's way, but with spicy italian sausage meatballs instead of ground beef. Used to watch the grocery ads and buy whatever was on sale. Then I'd have to figure out new ways to cook chicken, for example, because I now had a huge family pack of chicken breasts, a 1950s Barbie-sized refrigerator with a poor imitation of a freezer, and only one mouth to eat it all. Break out granny's 1958 Betty Crocker cookbook which I inherited!

I tend to mix cooking from scratch with prepared stuff. Especially sauces. I'll buy a turkey breast or drumsticks after Thanksgiving when it's cheap, roast it, strip the meat off, and then mix it with canned turkey gravy. I use spaghetti sauce from a jar, but make the meatballs myself, and add my own vegetables. I've also been known to make hamburger helper stroganoff without the hamburger; I'll buy some thin steak (fajitas) and slice strips of instead.

Cookies are pretty easy. I use recipes from that same vintage cookbook.

Breads are also from that cookbook, or from Fr Dominic. Too bad his show ended on PBS. 

[TheQueenMother]

I was up at the counter watching my mother cook as soon as I could stand. She was always very creative, so I learned to improvise and grew to really love cooking through watching her. When my husband and I were first married and lived in student housing at U.W., we received cable television as part of the package deal. I enjoyed watching some of the shows on Food Network  and learned many valuable techniques. I also love to bake. I've had my share of disasters due to being a bit too creative, or just plain absent minded (like the time I forgot to put the FLOUR in a batch of cookies I was making.......yes, I'll never live that one down! There's also the times I forgot the baking soda........or the sugar...........or that time I was making beans and dumped in a few tablespoons of cinnamon instead of chili powder. -Luckily I caught that one before serving it up..). For the most part though, my husband and kids seem to be pretty satisfied. I do really love to try new things. My latest is homemade flour tortillas, and I have to say they are really delicious. Anyway, gotta go, as my little guy is crying....

[Joamy]

I was up at the counter watching my mother cook as soon as I could stand. She was always very creative, so I learned to improvise and grew to really love cooking through watching her. When my husband and I were first married and lived in student housing at U.W., we received cable television as part of the package deal. I enjoyed watching some of the shows on Food Network  and learned many valuable techniques. I also love to bake. I've had my share of disasters due to being a bit too creative, or just plain absent minded (like the time I forgot to put the FLOUR in a batch of cookies I was making.......yes, I'll never live that one down! There's also the times I forgot the baking soda........or the sugar...........or that time I was making beans and dumped in a few tablespoons of cinnamon instead of chili powder. -Luckily I caught that one before serving it up..). For the most part though, my husband and kids seem to be pretty satisfied. I do really love to try new things. My latest is homemade flour tortillas, and I have to say they are really delicious. Anyway, gotta go, as my little guy is crying....

Oh...man that reminds me of me.    My best bad was when I was in 7th grade home ec - we had to cook a meal for our family.  I made meatloaf. Forgot that on those little packs of hamburger  there is a wax paper type thing that ended up in the meat as I was mixing it - thankfully got it all out with my moms help.  My family is a bit leary of my meat loaf to this day for some odd reason.   (I've actually got the hang of it and it's better than my moms.)

My favorite Paula Deen episode is when she made deep fried macaroni and cheese.  take home made mac and cheese - let it sit in the fridge till it gets cold.  Cut the mac and cheese in squares, dredge in flour and a beaten egg (Maybe - not quite sure if it was flour).  Wrap a piece of bacon around it and deep fry. 

[kimbaichan]

For the basics I can't recommend any cookbooks more than Fannie Farmer's and Better Homes and Gardens, get the oldest editions you reasonably can. For home cooking it's pretty much what mom and grandma make. I won't even eat in a "home-style" resturant because the food is just not right.  Except mom's spaghetti, which is terrible.

[HappyWife]

[quote author=Joamy

 take home made mac and cheese - let it sit in the fridge till it gets cold.  Cut the mac and cheese in squares, dredge in flour and a beaten egg (Maybe - not quite sure if it was flour).  Wrap a piece of bacon around it and deep fry. 
[/quote]

Oh man, is that ever a heart attack waiting to happen...LOL

  It does sounds yummy though!

[Joamy]

[quote author=Joamy

 take home made mac and cheese - let it sit in the fridge till it gets cold.  Cut the mac and cheese in squares, dredge in flour and a beaten egg (Maybe - not quite sure if it was flour).  Wrap a piece of bacon around it and deep fry. 
Oh man, is that ever a heart attack waiting to happen...LOL

  It does sounds yummy though!

  When I was watching the episode, I kept wondering how much aspirin one would have to consume to prevent said heart attack.  My cholesterol level goes up 10 points every time I watch Ms. Deen.  She is fun to watch, though.

[serviam]

I used to always want to help out in the kitchen when I was little. A little before graduating high school I decided I wanted to be a chef. I studied under various chefs and learned the trade pretty well. I have since then wised up a little and left chefhood. Working as a chef can be very demanding of one's time and life. Especially if you have a family. It can also be a pretty crude atmosphere. I'm now managing at a restaurant while working on my degree in IT. My wife loves it that I like to cokk My specialties would probably be Italian and making desserts.

[Masha]

I just assumed the position of family cook. When my grandmother was alive, she was the family cook - and she guarded the position jealously. We never knew her recipes, she had them in her head, never wrote them down, and lied when we asked for them. We she died, we thought we'd loose them all, because she died unexpectedly and never allowed us to cook the whole recipe through with her - without sending us off on some errand at key moments. But after she died I just started making her recipes - I actually  have managed to make my mama cry after she's tasted a few of the meals. It's kind of funny - no one else can make them right - even though I'm a lot less protective of the recipes   I've heard the family say that it's because my grandmother held me first, and now her traits are in me, waiting for a chance to come out again.  Crazy, eh.

[kingdaughter]

I started out helping my mother in the kitchen where I learned basics like meat, potatoes, and making said leftovers into soups and hashes.
When I was in preschool I invented my first recipe: "Baloney salad" which was a basic garden salad, with apple, cheese and baloney added.
Then I experimented based on trying things other places: friends homes, resturants.
My dad was a pretty good sport about trying anything. Some of my made up recipes have become favourites. Some have been scrapped due to being terrible ideas.