How old were you when you began to cook? What was your first dish?

[McheleM]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

A curry thread would be awesome!

A curry thread?

Or a Curri thread??

[capt_noonie]

We didn't have Home Ec at our school. Sucks bc when I watched TV there was always a Home Ec episode. I esp remember the Married with Children one. Crowned rack of lamb LOL. But when I was about 11 or 12, my parents were going through a separation, and my aunts on my dad's side thought they needed to teach me and my bro how to cook bc we needed to fend for ourselves now. so they taught us how to cook spaghetti, Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes from a box, crap like that. Recipes you get off the back of Campbell's cans. LOL They wanted us kids to make Thanksgiving dinner one year, told us to get the ham in the can, put it in the oven with pineapple again from the can, OMG can you see where this is going? Needless to say, me and my bro grew up on frozen dinners, ramen noodles, frozen dumplings (that was actual real food though) and eggs.

Wasn't until senior year of HS, my bf at the time whho was in college was really into cooking. Taught me how to make a roux (still not good at it), hollandaise sauce/double boiler stuff, poaching in oil, cooking a steak to a perfect med rare by how much the meat "gives", going to farmers m arkets etc. I had "upscale" food for the first time. Ate at Spago when Wolfgang was still the head chef, and at Matsuhisa which is still a highly rated place in LA (overrated I think), and was watching Food Network back before Emeril had his Live! show and Ming Tsai doing East meets West fusion was a new thing.

Dont' remember what was my official first dish though.

ETA I think my first "everything from scratch" recipe may very well be bc of Lisa. I've never really cooked anything other than easy stuff like omlettes or grilled meats from scratch. BC of her I made pan roast from 100% scratch startng from the stock cooking in the slow cooker and everything! my Lisa

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by McheleM

A curry thread?

Or a Curri thread??

LOL both would be pretty interesting!

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by McheleM

A curry thread?

Or a Curri thread??

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

LOL both would be pretty interesting!

I venture to say that most on here would love Curri more than curry

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by capt_noonie

We didn't have Home Ec at our school. Sucks bc when I watched TV there was always a Home Ec episode. I esp remember the Married with Children one. Crowned rack of lamb LOL. But when I was about 11 or 12, my parents were going through a separation, and my aunts on my dad's side thought they needed to teach me and my bro how to cook bc we needed to fend for ourselves now. so they taught us how to cook spaghetti, Mac and cheese, mashed potatoes from a box, crap like that. Recipes you get off the back of Campbell's cans. LOL They wanted us kids to make Thanksgiving dinner one year, told us to get the ham in the can, put it in the oven with pineapple again from the can, OMG can you see where this is going? Needless to say, me and my bro grew up on frozen dinners, ramen noodles, frozen dumplings (that was actual real food though) and eggs.

Wasn't until senior year of HS, my bf at the time whho was in college was really into cooking. Taught me how to make a roux (still not good at it), hollandaise sauce/double boiler stuff, poaching in oil, cooking a steak to a perfect med rare by how much the meat "gives", going to farmers m arkets etc. I had "upscale" food for the first time. Ate at Spago when Wolfgang was still the head chef, and at Matsuhisa which is still a highly rated place in LA (overrated I think), and was watching Food Network back before Emeril had his Live! show and Ming Tsai doing East meets West fusion was a new thing.

Dont' remember what was my official first dish though.

ETA I think my first "everything from scratch" recipe may very well be bc of Lisa. I've never really cooked anything other than easy stuff like omlettes or grilled meats from scratch. BC of her I made pan roast from 100% scratch startng from the stock cooking in the slow cooker and everything! my Lisa

I remember how great that was too! Have you made it since? I remember you making a fish stock or a crab or lobster stock or something too...MIL kept turning the crockpot off

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by sugarmamma

I remember how great that was too! Have you made it since? I remember you making a fish stock or a crab or lobster stock or something too...MIL kept turning the crockpot off

Yeah I've made it afew times. I still keep a stock pile of crab and lobster shells in the freezer. It's still not as good as the restaurant version though by I use labne instead of heavy cream and i dont put butter. but going back for the real version next month!

[jp4m2]

I made my first dish in H.E. class. I was probably about 13. The dish was tuna noodle casserole. Many decades later and I will still make this on occasion.

[sugarmamma]

Originally Posted by jp4m2

I made my first dish in H.E. class. I was probably about 13. The dish was tuna noodle casserole. Many decades later and I will still make this on occasion.

I wonder if I would like tuna noodle casserole if I made a "grown up" version....

Fresh tuna instead of canned, homemade noodles and topped with fresh made croutons....or something similar. Maybe using greek yogurt or labne and some fresh mushrooms......

[sugarmamma]

Here is a grown up style that looks promising.....


Diannes Dishes: Grown Up Tuna Casserole

[capt_noonie]

Ive never had tuna noodle casserole before.

[jencar98]

I took Home Ec, but don't really count that because it wasn't by myself, with teacher's instructions and within a group.

18...trying to impress my now dh and my sister gave me a Mexican cornbread recipe that you made with ground beef in the cornbread. Also attempted a Mulberry pie. It's a wonder dh ever married me after that....neither dish was fit for human consumption The cornbread was just nasty tasting. The pie filling was okay (I guess) but the crust was so hard, it couldn't be chewed by anyone that wanted to keep their teeth. Dh even tried feeding the "leftovers" to his bird dog....she buried both You know it's bad when the dog food critic won't even eat it. Dh is grateful I've learned much more and today am a wonderful cook.

[msyorktown]

I took Home Ec as well...I wont even go there...
My first dish was curried chicken...I was 11. My grandmother just up from Jamaica grabbed me and said 'bout time yu learn fi (to) cook' ..'and you betta no bun it up'!(You had better not burn it!)
Needless to say I was terrified! I knew if I screwed up I was in deep doo doo!
It was to be seasoned the night before, and cooked the following day..Sunday dinner. For the WHOLE family...holy crap! Sooo she watched every move I made, from the seasoning, right down to washing the rice and cooking it just so!
I had put too much water in the rice so it came out kind of mushy, but the chicken was pretty dang good!
Grammy was like 'good...a man don like a woman weh can't cook'...geez gram, you forget I'm 11?! God Bless her, she passed at 94years old, I never forgot those words though!
My youngest son can cook, but the one girl child I have cant boil water...*sigh*....The middle boy is learning though.

[My Sophia]

Oh goodness I don't remember not cooking or at least helping Mom or Granny cook. As soon as we were big enough to stand on a chair and stir a pot my sister, cousins and I were helping out in the kitchen. We went from stirring as an adult added ingredients to adding the ingredients ourselves as we were told what to do to being turned loose on our own and just being told what we needed to make, up to us to remember how. To this day, most of the meals I make for holidays are dishes that I've never seen a written recipe for, just have made them over and over from the time I was small. And I must say that growing up in the kitchen has really given me a love of cooking. I enjoy finding new recipes and making improvements on old ones. Makes me really sad to see my nieces and my cousins' kids not know how to cook beyond throwing something in the microwave.

[Micah my love]

The very first thing i ever cooked was the chocolate cake recipe on back of the Hershey cocoa can...I was about twelve at the time and it landed me the official cake baker job every saturday afterwards...still love to cook

[Lil Sis]

this is a funny thread... I teach Home Economics! It is now called Family and Consumer Science -but it is Home Ec. I have teugh child development, family dynamics, ran an in school child care center where the students were the teachers for the pre-school children, fashion design and construction, decoration, and of course food production...nutrition..culinary arts. The class I am teaching this year is Culinary Art Careers and Planning (just means they put career onto a food production class)

I hope I am one of the teachers that leads students to the love of cooking and good food choices.... we have about 20 to maybe 24 labs each year. My class if very popular.

I really don't remember when I started cooking. I do remember a cake I made and did not have frosting so colored sugar green. I hid it under the sink to suprise my mom and my older brother found it and said it was something for bugs!! I was very hurt. I think I was about 10 or 11.. so I made a cake from scratch.

I decided to be a Home Economics teacher when I was in middle school... about 12 or 13. I didn't start teaching until I was in my 30.. and have been teaching for about 26 years now. It is a hard job, but it keeps me on my toes!