I was talking to my mum the other day and she was laughing about how much I'd changed over the years and could never see me in the role I'm in now!
She said she could remember one day when I stated that cooking was easy. I was in my late teens at the time and hadn't cooked anything greater than beans on toast since being a small boy helping mum bake cakes, so I had no grounds to say it!
"Right that's it, you can both [my brother and I] cook once a week!"
She was determined not to have her sons leave home without being able to cook. So we took it in turns to cook tea, picking a different recipe each time and normally having to have our little sister show us what to do. I moaned like hell, it was the last thing I wanted to do in the evening, but I'm glad she did it!
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| Roast wild duck |
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| Homemade tomato soup |
Now we're both good cooks, each of us making everything we cook from scratch (my sister has been able to do this since the age of about 9) and we all have a core repertoire of recipes that we can cook from memory. We're also pretty adventurous and share new recipes between the three of us. I don't think any of us would ever consider buying a ready meal.
Now I use these skills every night when I cook tea (or dinner depending where you're from) for my wife and kids and I bake two or three times a week, I really enjoy it as well - once I've decided what to cook! My wife is also a good cook (an essential part of picking a wife I think) and food features pretty highly in our day to day lives, it's one thing we try not to skimp on and one reason we spend so much time trying to grow our own and finding ways to use it.
How did you learn to cook? What's the first recipe that you could cook from memory?
I cant remember Kev, my mum was a terrible cook so if we girls didnt cook there would be nothing for dinner, with my own kids like your mum they all took turn cooking dinner with my help and they can all cook from scratch when I met Martin and the kids left home he also had to take turn at cooking and he couldnt cook anything, he has improved greatly and enjoys a turn at cooking dinner.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky, mum was always such a good cook. We always had different cakes every week and home cooked meals every night. Mum was great at cooking frugal meals as well so I think that's one of the reasons I can do it (and I'm tight)!
DeleteMy worst is having to come up with something different to cook for dinner every night. And, conversely, after 34 years of marriage it's no easier either... lol
ReplyDeleteThat's easily the worst bit! I struggle everyday. Once I know what I'm cooking I'm fine!
DeleteI agree with you Dani. It sometimes does my head in trying to think of what to make next for dinner.
ReplyDeleteI left home being able to cook cakes and biscuits etc, but no idea about meals. My mum never allowed me in the kitchen at meal time, so I didn't learn. I learned cake cooking from mum to enter into local shows.
I had to teach myself from scratch and I am so thankful for the internet these days for the range of meals etc available. I am always learning everyday. I have been practicing bread making lately, and I hope to add it into our lifestyle. It does take time but very much worth every last crumb :)
Wish hubby was taught to cook...only thing he cooks is a barbeque occasionally. That is just the meat, the rest is up to me to prepare lol!
I cant remember my first meal but it would probably have been lamb chops and vegetables :)
The internet is great for coming up with new recipes. Quite often if I've got two or three good ingredients growing in the garden then I'll punch them into google and see what it suggests. One thing I do now though is to write it down if it's any good as I can never find them again!
DeleteI learnt to cook at school and then taught myself the rest. I don't get fed up trying to decide what to cook since beginning menu planning, though we do change what is planned if we don't feel like it.
ReplyDeleteMenu planning sounds like a good thing. Sometimes I think I should write all my usual meals down and then pull them out of a hat when I'm struggling for ideas.
DeleteI taught myself through observation and trial & error. Many years ago I bought what turned out to be the best cookery book for beginners wishing to improve, 'Leith's Cookery School' by Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave. Battered and torn, it is has been with me all over the world.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm surprised at you - I thought you'd be classically trained somewhere as your cooking always looks amazing.
DeleteDidn't have a clue about cooking until I got married and then had to learn basic cookery because of working shifts...its only now, divorced and many years later, that I'm enjoying cooking and learning to cook much more from scratch.
ReplyDeleteI think that when you enjoy it it becomes something more. I'm constantly messing around with meals (and wrecking a few) and growing my own really helps even more as you want to make features of all the veg!
DeleteWe were 'latch key kids' so me and my brother learned to cook very young.....(think I was 7 or 8 when I turned out my first spag bol for three).
ReplyDeleteMind you, it was the seventies. Breville toasters were new and exciting and we got our first freezer. The junk we were in awe of ....findus crispy pancakes and frozen fake orange juice spring to mind.... I wouldn't let my kids eat most of that stuff now!
There was no school bus near to our house so we were always picked up and dropped off. We all had to sit together for meals as well which looking back was a really good thing but I'm sure at the time I made a fuss wanting to watch a TV show or something!
DeleteI've never had a crispy pancake but I want to try one!
When my wife developed spondylitis and became confined to a wheelchair I had to take over all the usual mundane household tasks including cooking.
ReplyDeleteStrangely I find I'm quite good at it, and enjoy making meals from scratch. It's the washing up bit I don't like so much.
That's what the dishwasher is for! I still hate filling and emptying it.
DeleteIt must have been tough to take on all the jobs like that, anyone that becomes a carer (part or full time) has my utmost respect.
I learned to bake quite young but from about 12 i started helping with sunday lunch I think if you can crack the timings on that you can do anything. Both my boys can cook the older one has just left home and does all the cooking and he is teaching his girlfriend . we even got invited for a meal last week of curry rice naan bread and kulfi all homemade from scratch . I also put together a family recipe book to give him when he left of all our favourites. The youngest is 13 and keen to do more , i really must learn to delegate better . I think cooking is one of the best skills you can give kids as it affects their diet and well being in the future
ReplyDeleteSunday lunch is quite a good one because like you said it's all about timing. Well done on teaching both your sons, it's a skill that will give them pleasure through out their lives. My sister did me a family recipe book a few years ago, it's great and I keep adding to it.
DeleteI think spaghetti was my first thing to cook other than opening up a can of this and that as a young bachelor. I learned from TV cooks and a little from watching my mom when a kid. After cooking for years I can get the various dishes to usually finish up at the same time for a big meal. I have friends who don't cook and eat out constantly, I can't imagine spending all of that money and I really like to know where the food comes from and how long it has been laying around.
ReplyDeleteWe had spaghetti for tea last night because of this comment! TV cooks are pretty good as well. I have to admit to owning pretty much every Jamie Oliver book and his recipes never disappoint. I can never see how people can afford to eat out all the time.
Deletemy mom died when i was little and there was a family to feed. i was cooking for the family when i was 9.
ReplyDeleteThat must have been tough. I'm sometimes surprised when I find things out like that and you still enjoy cooking.
DeleteKev - yer killing me with the roast wild duck - haven't had any in years! yours looks delicious! i think the first thing i remember cooking with my mom is cabbage rolls - still love them to this day! the secret to awesome cabbage rolls - sauerkraut!!!! i love cooking and food is central to our life too. we take it very seriously and enjoy it immensely! we treat food as medicine and a preventive measure for our health! and, like you, we love growing our own food!
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber
That was a couple of years ago but it was good! I'm not sure I've ever had sauerkraut other than in Germany. Food is so important to me now and I think it always has been.
DeleteI hadn't got much idea until I got married. We had DS ( Domestic Science ) at school for just 2 years and I can't remember a thing about it. My mum was a Very Plain cook and she didn't do much except meat and 2 veg!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness for cookery books and trial and error
We had domestic science and I think I cooked cheese scones once then moved on to woodwork and electronics which I much preferred.
DeleteI am a good cook now, but that was not always the case. :O) Honeyman says for someone who couldn't boil water when we first met... I can make a mean meal now ROFL.
ReplyDeleteSee I imagined you've always been a good cook as well! Your preserves are something else thats for sure!
DeleteI did 'Housecraft' at school for two years which encompassed some cooking, I learnt to make Apple Turnovers, and made them virtually every week so I could skip school in the afternoon and go to the park for a picnic :-)
ReplyDeleteI didn't cook much at home, Mum and Dad both worked full time, I mastered the art of the Vesta Beef and Chicken Currys and lived off them for far too long. Then it was just read the packets and learn as I went along when I got married at 18.
Necessity made it vital for me to learn to grow and cook from scratch, if I hadn't my boys would have had to live off cheap junk and I soon saw the benefit of homemade rather than ready meals.
Oh Sue, your experience sounds just like mine, I did 'Housecraft' at school as well. It encompassed all types of cooking as well as laundry, cleaning etc.We had a very strict teacher who made us tremble as she walked into the room, but my goodness she was good. We got taught right from scratch, how to butter a slice of bread properly, how to boil an egg and then working up from there, right up to a pressure cooked roasted and stuffed neck of lamb. We had to make a timeplan, and write the recipe down in our books, and we all had to bring a tin to take our cooked food home in on the school bus. If it was a loaf of bread or a cake then sometimes it didn't even make it as far as home! I too mastered the Vesta curry, but the Paella was my favourite, and the sweet and sour beef and crispy noodles, and then I too was plunged in at the deep end on marriage. I remember my chicken taking hours and hours to roast because I kept opening the oven door to check on it! Happy days. (I don't do ready meals either, everything is cooked from scratch).
DeleteSue - I think we all learn every time we cook, one of the reasons I like blogging so much is because we all learn from this little community of bloggers that we have around us, but I am surprised by how many are self taught!
DeleteSue G - I remember my mother telling the story of her brother making a cake (or something simular) in school. Everyone was teasing him on the bus on the way home saying how horrible it looked. When they got off the bus the farm dog came up to see them. He put the cake on the ground for the dog to eat, apparently the dog just sniffed it and walked away - the bus erupted in laughter!
I think everyone being taught everything from scratch like that is good, it puts everyone on a level playing field. It's a shame that education has moved away from these more useful skills and into academic subjects where grades are all that matters. I know it's the parents responsibility but some don't know how to do things themselves so there is no chance of teaching their own children!
The really old Betty Crocker cookbook is wonderful. I don't know if Betty Crocker is an international thing but the company made instant cake mixes and backing products in the USA. Quite popular in the 1950's-1970's I think.
ReplyDeleteThey put out a cookbook that gave simple instructions for good basic meals. Has a great dessert section, tells how to make mixed drinks. I suppose it is out of fashion in todays world but I got a dog-eared copy that was left over from my grandmother.
It has everything.
I've heard of her but I think she is before my time! I have a few books that are great for basics - 1000 recipes is great for stocks, sauces, dumplings and basic puddings and it's a book both my wife and I turn to again and again just to refresh something before we start cooking it. It's an old book but a good one!
DeleteI am always told that I use every pot and pan in the kitchen when I do any cooking. We recently bought our first dishwasher. It's good, but it won't empty itself. Your food looks good Kev.
ReplyDeleteI love our dishwasher and I have a habit of using a lot of pots and pans as well. If I bake in the same day it's ridiculous how much washing up I create!
DeleteLucky you, I married an Italian who can't dance and can't cook. Cereal, peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches, or macaroni and cheese would be the choices if I left it to her. Its not so much I like to cook but I like to eat well. So I had no choice in the matter. I did take dance lessons just to increase my odds when I was single. Foxtrot, salsa, swing, rumba, waltz and tango are now long out of practice skills.
ReplyDeleteWell I've got Italian decent and grew up on pasta (even though my mother isn't the Italian side) but it is nice that we can both cook, although I must confess to messing around with flavours too much and wrecking far more meals than she does!
DeleteI can't dance though. Neither can she!
My Dad doesn't cook AT ALL. He refuses to, and would rather starve. So my Mom decided that all her children would know how to cook, not just us girls, so my Brother had to learn also. We also had to cook dinner once a week.
ReplyDeleteMy Brother turned out to be a very good cook and shares the responsibility with his Wife.
I mostly cook Mexican food, that's probably what I am best at.
I would say the first recipe that I could cook from memory would be spaghetti. It so easy to make.
So what in the world is beans on toast?? Your tomato soup looks delicious.
Kimberly
My dad can cook if he has to. In fact if we ever have steak when we're at theirs he always cooks it and does it just how we all like it.
DeleteI do like mexican food and love spicy wraps but I can't believe you don't know what beans on toast is! It's an absolute British staple. You cook a tin of beans in tomato sauce and pour it all over about three slices of toast and enjoy it, it's much nicer than it sounds! I would say that there isn't a home in Britain without a tin of beans in their store cupboard! Even in the WWII they rationed everything but didn't ration beans as they thought the common man wouldn't survive without them!
I've met other people from other countries who have never heard of them before and it makes me smile as I know how many we eat over here - I'd say we have at least a tin a week in our house!
My father was a chef many years ago, so he showed us lots. And now my children have always cooked from small children.
ReplyDeleteRosezeeta.
that must have been great to have someone who was trained to do it show you. My kids are going to grow up cooking, they already seem obsessed by food and if you ask my eldest where you get cake from she says "you make it"!
DeleteAccording to my wife I can't even cook today either. Mt son and I lived as bachelors for years together though and he swears I am a great cook. If I am it is all self taught and by accident though :)
ReplyDeleteI should imagine a frying pan would be used a fair bit! Everything tastes good when it's fried!
DeleteI can't cook. Not much more than heating something out of a can, anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat's cooking! So long as it's warm when you eat it! I bet you add stuff to what you're cooking and then you're not far off inventing a recipe.
DeleteI was very fortunate. My mother was always interested in good food, and discovered Elizabeth David when I was very small. As a result we ate extremely well at home. Later at school we had a Belgian chef who was almost Michelin star material. Having been so lucky I wasn't prepared to eat any old rubbish, so began to teach myself how it was all done. I now do ALL the cooking.
ReplyDeleteYour cooking always looks so good as well, I would have guessed that you had some great food influences in your life. I grew up loving my mums cooking, I've always loved my food and I guess that's why I go so crazy for it now!
DeleteLearning to cook was an uphill battle for me. My parents would sometimes let me assist them in cooking meals but that was about it. I came into my marriage unable to cook but determined to learn. I asked older women to show me how any time I was around them cooking. I perused cookbook like they were novels. Most importantly, I just got in there and did it and made mistakes and learned from them.
ReplyDelete