When I was about 13 years old, my mother thought it was time for me to learn how to cook. She would ask me if I wanted to help her cook dinner. I remember thinking, “why do I have to help cook?” and I would hurry outside as fast as I could. Whenever she would ask, I’d say “nope, I’m going outside”. I had two brothers with lots of stuff to do, any type of ball to play, bikes to ride, ropes to jump, or mud puddles to try and throw each other in. And a really great train went by our house every day and the caboose guy would wave at us.
She got clever and said, “I’ll teach you how to make pie crusts and I’ll make the filling”. Pie, yes I’ll make the crusts anytime to get a pie out of it.
Along came my first husband. We got married a week before my 19th birthday. His mother was a gourmet cook and even packed him a thermos of mashed potatoes to take in his lunch for work. After cooking for a week, I was given a Betty Crocker Cookbook for my 19th birthday gift. It looked like greek to me.
I got all “gung ho” and was going to make all the bread for my family. My first and final loaf (for many years) came out of the oven looking exactly like a brown brick. The upside of that was if I would make enough bread, I could build us a house. Plus, I got really good at blowing out oven fires.
I tried a soup recipe and saw where it said to brown the meat. I thought it was brown and I would save some time by skipping that step. It came out tasting like what I think stone soup would have tasted like. How could so many things be in that pot and it tastes a little like lightly flavored water?
I was going to cook us some pork chops. Since you put a roast in some water to cook it, I put the chops under water to cook them. They came out tasting like cardboard. The cookbook wasn’t helping much. And in the first month of being married, he lost 10 pounds.
I ended up asking my mom to come show me some tips and I started learning to cook after I got married. She said she knew I’d eventually want to know how.
And that is how my love of cookbooks started. I have too many to count at this point in my life, and I have become quite a good cook. My grandchildren always challenge me for their birthday dinners with stuff I’ve never tried before.
My advice on cooking would be, take it slow and simple at first. If you’ve never made a recipe before, do exactly what it says. You can adjust it the next time, if you want to. And have fun, it’s so satisfying knowing you’re feeding your family good home-cooked food. Plus, the joy of sitting around the table and listening to the stories of the day from each other. This grows a family good!