| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/7/2005 10:54:24 AM | I would love for you to start a thread with your stories mixed with some recipes from that region. I am fond of all those styles of cooking. It is no doubt here that I love Indian! I am sure more than a few would love to add to your memories with some of their own, or techniques that apply.
It is far more interesting to me to post a story and then a recipe, rather than a cut and paste version no one has tried. I think when we cook for someone, it is just as interesting to tell them why we selected tonight's menu more than just that it 'looked good'. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/7/2005 2:32:52 PM | I used to belong to a club called "F OFF" (Fans of Foreign Food). Every Month a mamber picked a country at random & had to do a 3 course meal from that country, but it had to be something that none of us had had before. There were some fantastic nights.
Ha ha the POF cook book. Ideal for your Christmas stocking. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/7/2005 9:34:49 PM | I started as a little kid cooking a bit with my mom. She wasn’t the best cook but we didn’t starve. Later, when I was and older kid then a teenager I would watch cooking shows on PBS all Saturday. I’ve always liked cooking and I find it disturbing how there can be a whole generation of people that can’t cook a meal.
How did I learn? Mostly practice and learning from my mistakes. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 3:46:55 AM | I learned how to cook when I was first married over 37 years ago. My husband taught me how to fry his eggs without breaking yolks upon flipping them over. Easy over eggs. I also had a Betty Crocker Cookbook that we had gotten as a wedding picture, and I wore that thing out during the first few years.
The worst thing I ever made looked like vomit, but my husband ate it and he really liked it. He had thirds. Maybe he was just being nice. The kids wouldn't touch it, and I barely got a few spoonfuls down myself.
My mother was a worry wart and over protective. She wouldn't let me go near the stove or iron my own clothes until I was seventeen. Even then, she hovered over me anxiously wringing her hands. I burned a lot of meals before I caught on.
Come to think of it. I just burned my eggs this morning. Back to the cookbook!
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 6:52:23 AM | Elly, I still break half the over easy eggs I make. So I got this pancake making device I saw on an infomercial. Now my success rate is up to about 80%.
Steve, I never cut and paste recipes--that's silly. We all have computers, we could all find recipes that way.
Would you like stories from everyone, or just that gulf war guy?
I developed my love of hot food, and my hatred of currie, when I went away at 18 to a small college called Warren Wilson. The chef there had never heard of any spice other than currie.
I would go hungry for days at a time.
Meanwhile I became friends with a kid from Texas. Every so often he would fix various fiery meals, and being starving, I would gorge myself on them.
I think I also developed taste for food with a fairly high fat content at the same place. When you aren't getting enough to eat, fatty foods seem wonderful. To this day, I use things like sour cream and butter a lot in my cooking.
I remember once while I was at WW I went to the student union where a small grill was set up to sell food during non cafeteria hours to those students who had the money. I didn't often have money, but that night I did. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and told the kid who was working the grill, "Don't spare the grease." He laughed, thinking I was joking. I wasn't--it was the only thing I had to eat that day. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:32:32 AM | I love it.
If you go back and look, the more interesting things I write (in my opinion) have a story attached to them. Either the history of the item (I love food history), an anecdote of some type, or a joke that relates to the item. I see others do this as well. Love it. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:47:47 AM | Come to think of it, maybe that's why I feed my neighbors today.
I can't stand the thought of people not having anything good to eat, 'cause I've been there.
I would skip the cafeteria meals for days because I thought they were inedible. Then, when they had something good like hamburgers, I would eat 5 or 6 at one sitting. All the big guys would stare at me in amazement and respect (I am 5'9, and at the time weighed 145 lbs).
These days, I usually only eat two meals a day. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 2:04:46 PM | My parents are Italian immigrants. They brought me up to believe that a woman will never find a husband unless she knows how to cook and clean.
I was making sauce and doing laundry by the time I was 10...and still no husband. Go figure.
Seriously, it just so happens that I do love to cook. I probably love it so much because I love to eat! And i figured, unless I want to make myself a boring sandwich, I better learn how to cook!
And, experimenting is my specialty. I just need to learn how to duplicate a good experiment! | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 2:41:09 PM | My nephew is always wanting to cook with me maybe he will think of me one day when he is a chef he is 13 now loves to cook I think it is great | |
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Joined: 11/3/2005
Msg: 61 | |
| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 4:55:24 PM | Well it was my grannie and she loved to cook,and half the time she did not use a cook book.we had alot of people over the holidays and after church when growing up being a french canadian family.it was fun and nice to have all the family and friends over.  | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 5:00:11 PM | | I experiment too, mspicky. I started a thread for failed experiments, but hardly anybody had the guts to post on it. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 6:49:14 PM | Oh but smith, I would have nothing to post!! All my experiments turn out great!
As I said before, it's just the reproduction of them that gives me problems. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 6:54:21 PM | | ^^^when experimenting with new recipes, keep a journal on the kitchen counter and write down the ingredients and quantity ... that gives you the basic recipe to follow later or see where you want to make changes. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:00:01 PM | | Smith ... be nice ... and check out the homemade dressing thread you posted .. I sent you a slew of recipes | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:00:06 PM | LOL smith. Sorry!
classic, The problem with me experimenting is that I don't use measurements...I just throw stuff in. So, when duplicating, it will never be quite the same. And, I don't have an eye for that sort of stuff. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:05:23 PM | | "Pfft" is an expression of disbelief. Get a dictionary if you don't believe me. :) | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 7:11:05 PM |
The problem with me experimenting is that I don't use measurements...I just throw stuff in
ok, so it's a dash or this, a pinch or that ... if you measure using your palm you can jot down sizes ... i.e. use coins as a measurement ... penny, nickle, dime, loonie, toonie ... that should give you some idea for the next time | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 9:56:46 PM | I love this thread. People cook different ways and it is all on the way they learned. I am not a good cook and basically only use recipes and use the regular measurements. I am getting used to seeing the size of the different measurements so am now trying to not use the measuring devices as much. Asked a chef once if I could get his recipe for his mushroom soup and he said he just threw in what he had. Pretty much what mspicky said she does. I would love to get to the point where I could just throw something together without looking at a recipe, except maybe a grilled cheese. lol. Keep the thread going. It is very interesting and intertaining at times also.
jr | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 9:59:07 PM | | mspicky, please write some of your experiments down like classic suggests. I would love to be able to throw together one of your experiments. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 10:01:39 PM | | Anyone who says their experiments all turn out great isn't really experimenting, they're just doing what they know ahead of time will work. | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 10:15:24 PM | I disagree, smith.
One method I use: I use my sense of smell to guide me. I allow my nose to fill up with the arome of the cooking, then I grab ingredients in my kitchen that I think might go well. I take a whiff of these ingredients, and then smell the arome that's going on already.
If I think they complement each other, I throw some in, if not, I move to the next ingredient.
Don't be jealous because I'm a good experimenter. If it makes you feel any better, I can't bake to save my life! I've even burnt boxed brownies! (And, yes, I DO admit to baking from a box. That's as close to scratch as you're getting from me when it comes to baking.)
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/20/2005 10:39:28 PM | Mom! Mom! Mom! And Julia Child, which Mom always watched. LOL
Edit: Men who can cook are sooooooooo sexy. Hubba! hubba! | |
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| How did you learn to cook?
Posted: 12/21/2005 1:02:03 AM | I don't like to cook, but when someone comes to visit, I'm in the kitchen whipping up a meal fit for a king!
My standard requirement for a man is that he can and loves to cook. Ha, ha!
Actually, my dream job would be to critique restaurants and get free meals. Is that for a different forum?
I made a double batch of brownies tonight, and I slaughtered them when I tried to cut them into pieces. Well, I didn't burn them this time! | |
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