GreenWannabe
Member
Like everybody else, the ol' tum-tum sure got my attention very early. My Mother let me help out in the kitchen after I was maybe 8 or 9; I expecially liked turning the hand crank meat grinder, and measuring the ingredients. Didn't really learn too much, though. I remember that when she used a cookbook it was Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking (the original). Forgot about cooking during college and later, until I got married.
My wife had very little experience, and bless her heart, my MIL was no teacher - if you ever asked, it was like "Oh, a little of this, and a dab of that, and a pinch of the other." My wife even asked her to measure her pinches and little bits and dabs so she could get some idea, but to no avail. And what she wanted most in this world was to be able to cook as well as her Mom. So, we started working on it together. I would help her to interpret what the cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens) was trying to tell her, after she misinterpreted it several times - like a low flame meant just barely lit to her, and she wondered why her strawberry pie topping didn't turn out as expected.
She became a very good cook in fairly short order, but never did think that her cornbread was as good as her Mother's (it was better). And she started a collection of cookbooks and recipies, and was no longer afraid to try anything. Cooking became one of the activities we shared, especially on the weekends. After we moved to Florida, we had her Mother, one or another of her fours sisters and their families, and variou other folks stay with us a lot - her Mother stayed with us for at least half the year every year for 10 years. The sisters generally didn't help much, so Barbara was quite happy to have me helping her.
When Barbara had cancer surgery in 1998, I started taking over more and more of the cooking. The next day after she came home from the hospital, I went all out - I had bought a beef brisket on sale, and found a recipie in BH&G for that with an onion sauce, and fixed a frosted cauliflower and some other vegetable to go with it. She loved it. The Thanksgiving before she died, I did a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner, as she always had before. We were in an RV by this time, with only a combination microwave/convection oven. Kinda hard making giblet gravy when the only way you can get giblets any more is to buy a whole turkey, and it wouldn't fit so I had breast and drumsticks, but I got it made anyway, with cornbread dressing from scratch biscuits and cornbread, and about 8 or 9 veggies, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, mince meat pie, etc. Memorable!!
Since she died five years ago, I haven't had the heart to cook much - just when my daughter wanted home cooking and came over. Lately, I've been cooking more again, but there is no way that it is the same. But I'm working on it. I'm trying some Greek, some Mexican, some old standbys, and I'm doing OK - just not as ofter as I should.
Fred
My wife had very little experience, and bless her heart, my MIL was no teacher - if you ever asked, it was like "Oh, a little of this, and a dab of that, and a pinch of the other." My wife even asked her to measure her pinches and little bits and dabs so she could get some idea, but to no avail. And what she wanted most in this world was to be able to cook as well as her Mom. So, we started working on it together. I would help her to interpret what the cookbook (Better Homes & Gardens) was trying to tell her, after she misinterpreted it several times - like a low flame meant just barely lit to her, and she wondered why her strawberry pie topping didn't turn out as expected.
She became a very good cook in fairly short order, but never did think that her cornbread was as good as her Mother's (it was better). And she started a collection of cookbooks and recipies, and was no longer afraid to try anything. Cooking became one of the activities we shared, especially on the weekends. After we moved to Florida, we had her Mother, one or another of her fours sisters and their families, and variou other folks stay with us a lot - her Mother stayed with us for at least half the year every year for 10 years. The sisters generally didn't help much, so Barbara was quite happy to have me helping her.
When Barbara had cancer surgery in 1998, I started taking over more and more of the cooking. The next day after she came home from the hospital, I went all out - I had bought a beef brisket on sale, and found a recipie in BH&G for that with an onion sauce, and fixed a frosted cauliflower and some other vegetable to go with it. She loved it. The Thanksgiving before she died, I did a full traditional Thanksgiving dinner, as she always had before. We were in an RV by this time, with only a combination microwave/convection oven. Kinda hard making giblet gravy when the only way you can get giblets any more is to buy a whole turkey, and it wouldn't fit so I had breast and drumsticks, but I got it made anyway, with cornbread dressing from scratch biscuits and cornbread, and about 8 or 9 veggies, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, mince meat pie, etc. Memorable!!
Since she died five years ago, I haven't had the heart to cook much - just when my daughter wanted home cooking and came over. Lately, I've been cooking more again, but there is no way that it is the same. But I'm working on it. I'm trying some Greek, some Mexican, some old standbys, and I'm doing OK - just not as ofter as I should.
Fred
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I was wondering because we have a lot of little, german-settled towns around here.
