Your first cooking experience

"Dimitri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
: Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what
was the first
: thing you cooked, and about how old were you?
:
: I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at
about 11 (
: after they cooked I needed to drain off the extra liquid from
the tomatoes I
: put in).
:
: I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old
cast iron pan
: swerved with whipped cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned
out very
: well. ;-)
:
: Dimitri
:
: =============

Hmmm. Let's see...

Ages 3-5 I helped Mama make cookies, lots of brownies, and Jell-O. She always poured the hot water
but I can remember being nervous stirring it because I was afraid of splashing the hot water...

At age 8 or 9 I made a loaf of French Bread.

I've only had 2 things turn out... ummm... bad (!). Age 12 - brownies - forgot to add the sugar.
Ewwwwwwwww. Nasty.

Age 14 - Oatmeal Cookies - no butter - so I used oil. The cookies tasted okay but were very, very
thin and were spread out. A 6 inch cookie that was 1/8 th of an inch thick.

Maybe after this thread is over - we should try a "What has been your favorite success?".

--
Cyndi <Remove a "b" to reply

x-no-archive: yes

I cooked along with my parents. They weren't too crazy about my using the stove alone, so I didn't
do that many things start to finish. One time, someone sent me a kids' cookbook; I don't recall
which one. I must have been 7 or 8. I tried making chocolate fudge but ended up with fudge sauce.
IIRC, the recipe said nothing about what temperature to bring the mix to.

Naomi D.

Dimitri said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

(snippage)

Quoted message said:

Dimitri

Rice, when I lived in Bangkok, at age 9. Used to make it for breakfast. A little butter, salt &
pepper. No sugar like they tend to do here in the Southern U.S. Sometimes I still like rice for
breakfast.

Jill

Dimitri said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after they cooked I
needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes I put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan swerved with whipped
cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very well. ;-)

Dimitri

When I was about 8 I cooked Saturday lunch for my Dad. I had a children's cookbook that had recipes
for things like oatmeal and cinnamon toast and lots of other fairly simple things. I wanted to make
egg salad sandwiches. They turned out great except for the fact that I mistook teaspoon for
tablespoon and added a tablespoon of salt. Ewww! As I recall my dad bravely swallowed every bite.

Now, from a very young age my sister and I had been allowed to "assist" my mother with cooking and
she taught us stuff as we went along. But the egg salad sandwiches were my first solo, unsupervised
cooking experience.

My second was when I was about 12. I made spaghetti for the family for dinner. It turned out great.
Other than those two experiences going solo I can't recall any others. But I helped my mom cook all
the times. I suppose I must have occasionally made my own lunch or something during the intervening
years but I just don't recall.

Kate
--
Kate Connally “If I were as old as I feel, I’d be dead already.” Goldfish: “The wholesome snack that
smiles back, Until you bite their heads off.” What if the hokey pokey really *is* what it's all
about? "][email hidden]

Dimitri <[email hidden]> asked in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[..] what was the first thing you cooked, and about how old were you?

[snip]

Hmmm. Viewing back in time through Rosy-Glass Syndrome but... I always seemed to be hanging out in
the kitchen -- either in the way or doing the whole Toddler "I wanna help!" -- so by the time I was
6 I felt cocky enough to attempt eggs and bacon. Boy was that a bad morning. None of the eggs didn't
crack as easily as my dad made it seem, I was picking shell out of the bowl on every one. I also hit
them so hard against the bowl that more whites ended up on the side and counter than inside the
bowl. Bacon, no matter how thick, /can/ become cinder-like if you don't watch it. And "darkened"
toast (the way both my parent-units preferred to eat it) can smoke up the entire house within
seconds. (Got both parents and Little Brother out of bed, though.)

The Ranger

On Fri, 05 Mar 2004 16:37:52 GMT, "Dimitri" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I must have 'helped' with cookies because I knew how to crack and separate an egg by the time I
began cooking breakfast for my parents. 10 or 11? I hated *eating* eggs of any sort, but I loved
cooking them. My specialty was something to do with yolks on toast, then covered with the whipped
whites and baked or broiled. On one festive occasion (opening day of the State Fair, as I recall), I
thoughfully used food coloring to produce blue milk, pink sugar, and green something else. This was
*not* as appreciated as I'd hoped. :-)

"Dimitri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after they cooked I
needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes

I

Quoted message said:

put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan swerved with whipped
cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very well. ;-)

Dimitri

That would be peanut butter cookies, way back a million years in for home ec. Would have been fine,
but I thought it would be easier to use vegetable oil, in the same amount as shortening. Can you say
'oil slick'?? They were the most horrid things in the world. My two brothers ate them anyways. My
mother wasn't much on teaching us to cook, I picked it up as I got older. Learned how to read a
recipe and then how to put things together w/out a recipe.

When I was in my early 20s I got a job cooking in a La Jolla restaurant. Didn't have any experience,
in fact I was applying for a waitress position. The owner asked me if I could follow a recipe, I
said yes, and she hired me to cook, hire and fire staff, plan the menu and keep the place stocked.
12 hour days, 6 days a week, very hard work. I totally enjoyed it! Learned alot from the chef that
was leaving and did okay. Then, I got fired for quiches that were burnt on my day off. That was
enough of restaurant work for me!

I still love to cook though there's not much time.

Suzan

Dimitri said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after they cooked I
needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes I put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan swerved with whipped
cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very well. ;-)

I don't know if this counts but I remember making cakes in my sister's EasyBake(tm) oven when I was
7. If you want stove top cooking then I'd go with fried Cheerios in butter; I was 8. Don't know why
but thought it would be a good thing at the time. Tasted like popcorn. I was a latch-key kid. By the
time I was 10 I could make soups and sandwiches. My favourite was tomato soup.

I burnt a lot of things between the ages of 8 and 12. 8^)

--
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu Don't send e-mail to [email hidden]

"Dimitri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

Hmmm... I guess my Christmas morning flambeed PopTarts are too close to the cinnamon toast family to
count as cooking...

As far as *real* cooking goes, I can remember helping my mom a lot in the kitchen, but the first
thing I made independently was meatloaf. My mom wanted to try a new recipe, and she let me mix it up
and put it into the pan. The meatloaf had Campbell's tomato soup in it, and it came out really
tasty...or at least, I thought it was wonderful, and Mom praised it up and down. Now I realize that
it was probably just ok, but not a culinary masterpiece,.... but if one of my kids wanted to get
their hands goopy in my place, I'd be pretty effusive, too! I was probably about 11 or 12.

Then there were the "diet" brownies I made as a teenager. I figured if I decreased the amount of
chocolate, sugar and butter, the brownies would have fewer calories and I could eat the whole pan.
But I slashed these ingredients in half without replacing them, so the brownies were simply horrid.
Wishful thinking!

Chris

Naomi Darvell said:

x-no-archive: yes

I cooked along with my parents. They weren't too crazy about my using the stove alone, so I didn't
do that many things start to finish. One time, someone sent me a kids' cookbook; I don't recall
which one. I must have been 7 or 8. I tried making chocolate fudge but ended up with fudge sauce.
IIRC, the recipe said nothing about what temperature to bring the mix to.

My parents were pretty cool with letting me try stuff on the stove. I'd seen my three sister make
pretty much every mistake you can think of. Learning from their mistakes made it easy for me to get
my parent's trust; the time I stopped my third sister from throwing water on a grease fire because I
saw what happened when my first sister did that pretty much showed my dad I knew how to cook with
gas. Always keep a full jar of flour or baking soda around. 8^)

--
Send e-mail to: darrell at cs dot toronto dot edu Don't send e-mail to [email hidden]

My parents put adequate plain meals on the table, usually broiled meats, salads, good bread from the
bakery, frozen vegetables. The food wasn't bad, and I grew up well-fed considering how fussy I was,
but no one ever took joy in the cooking. The one recipe my mother made that could be considered from
scratch was a tomato- meat sauce for pasta, and that's the first thing I remember making myself. I
might have been in junior high.

I also remember making cookies. This would have been high school. I had no one to teach me but also
no standards to uphold. No one in my immediate family made cookies. (One grandmother visited once a
year and made hamantaschen with me and my brother.) I must have liked the idea of exploring new
territory on my own. I used recipes from Joy of Cooking which was one of 2 cookbooks in the house, a
wedding gift to my parents. I got fancy with decorating the rolled cookies making each into a little
work of art by cutting out different shapes and using colored sugars and twisting the dough
different ways.

I did this only when my parents weren't home. It was my own time to experiment without comment or
criticism. I remember one night in particular when one of my brother's friends came over before
going out with the guys. He would have been 3 years older and therefore someone for an
impressionable girl to have a crush on. He admired the cookies. I was proud. Only later did I
discover that I'd forgotten to grease the cookie sheet thus making each masterpiece inedibly stuck
to the pan. They had to be soaked off.

--Lia

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after they cooked I
needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes I put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan swerved with whipped
cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very well. ;-)

Dimitri

I remember helping Mom in the kitchen about 8 or 9. At 10 and 11, my sister and I were allowed to
try baking and other stuff by ourselves. My poor Father was the real guinea pig. He never complained
about the overseasoned or other mistakes. Every day I thank my Mother for letting us try anything we
wanted at a very young age. We were making yeast rolls, cakes, pies and lots of other goodies. The
Joy of Cooking was one only a few cookbooks my Mother had.

I started teaching my kids as soon as they showed an interest. If either one was too slow to show an
interest, I insisted they learned the basics so they would never starve to death. They all survived.

Florence

"Dimitri" <[email hidden]> deliciously posted in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after they cooked I
needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes I put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan swerved with whipped
cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very well. ;-)

Dimitri

Chocolate cake in the Easy Bake Oven for me.

Michael
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968

"jmcquown" <[email hidden]> deliciously posted in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Dimitri said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing you cooked, and
about how old were you?

(snippage)

Quoted message said:

Dimitri

Rice, when I lived in Bangkok, at age 9. Used to make it for breakfast. A little butter, salt &
pepper. No sugar like they tend to do here in the Southern U.S. Sometimes I still like rice for
breakfast.

Jill

I did not have the luxury of parents that cooked. We ate out a lot. What was cooked in the home was
usually simple, comfort foods. Back then canned veggies were *the* thing. OTOH my mother's from
scratch noodles can start a war at a family get together and my grandmother's fried chicken is a
winner every time. Other than that, nothing outstanding.

Michael
--
Deathbed statement...

"Codeine . . . bourbon." ~~Tallulah Bankhead, actress, d. December 12, 1968

I clearly remember the appreciative thank-yous, but also the giggles when I was about three and
served my parents breakfast in bed. Being that young, of course I was not allowed to use the stove,
so they each got a fresh picked apricot, a small bowl of Cheerios (with sugar and
milk), and a small Gerkins pickle as their "apee-tiser." Bless my daddy! With first a conspiritorial
whisper to me, he quickly distracted her, then snatched the pickle away from momma's serving so
that just he and I could eat them together.

Picky ~JA~

I honestly can not remember the first thing I ever cooked. I do have an memory of
standing on a chair at the stove stirring a pot of soup while my dad stood next
to me chopping up ingredients and throwing them in. I think I was about 4 or 5? I
know I was able to cook canned soup and macaroni and cheese by the time I was 7.
My mom owned a Dairy Queen and I grew up in the back of the place. I was flipping
hamburgers and making chili dogs when I was 9. I was able to cook entire meals
for my family of seven by the time I was 10. With both my parents working and my
only sister having NO talent or desire to cook, I was the regular cook in the
house all through my teens. Even now, I make all the holiday meals. It's just
always been what I do.

Sandra

"Dimitri" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first
thing you cooked, and about how old were you?

I suppose from the time I was about 1, I was in the kitchen "helping" to some
extent. The first item I ever remember making by myself was potato pancakes, from
a mix, in the microwave on the browning grill. I was in 1st grade, and my parents
were occupied at the moment with other things. I think my dad was out at the barn
getting ready to milk and mom was just outside, doing some yard work. They turned
out ok, as best as I can remember.

My first real meal that I made by myself was spaghetti and green beans
when I was 10.

Dimitri said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first
thing you cooked, and about how old were you?

I remember my first effort as the family ribbed me about it and I was
very antsy 🙁

I made a beef stew with orange dumplings, at about age 12/13 ? I followed the
recipe, and towards the end, it said

1 tbs flour salt pepper

Well, I thought about it a bit, and eventually decided that the recipe must mean
1tbs of each. Apparently the stew was really hot & peppery, but I thought it
tasted fine *harumph*

Stupid, ambiguous recipe 😉

Dimitri wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

Other than cinnamon toast and cold cereal or a sandwich what was the first thing
you cooked, and about how old were you?

I distinctly trying my hand at scrambled eggs Mexican style at about 11 ( after
they cooked I needed to drain off the extra liquid from the tomatoes

I

Quoted message said:

put in).

I second attempt was a pineapple upside-down cake in an old cast iron pan
swerved with whipped cream about 3 yeas later. That one turned out very
well. ;-)

when i was about 9 or so i made peanut butter cookies, mistaking teaspoons of
baking soda for cups. when you bit into them, you foamed at the mouth 🙂 i wasn't
allowed in the kitchen for a while after that.

--
Saerah

TANSTAAFL

"Strange women lying in ponds distributing
swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive
power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some
farcical aquatic ceremony."