Fun thread (I hope)--where did y'all learn to cook?

[cab54]

Like---from your mom, your grandma, by trial and error, taking cooking classes, from your dh/so, or from cook books?

Tell any stories you have about learning to cook--funny ones, or total flops you made (we all have! )

[baxjul]

My mom gave me a Kitchen Companion cookbook when I moved out. I used that and pretty much trial and error. My mom wasn't really the best cook, nor was my dad. Everything was cooked to death! So I pretty much taught myself.

[CampCrazyMom]

As a child I was glued to my Grandma's side whenever she would cook. Baked with my Mom. My Dad was in the kitchen quite often as well. Loved cooking with him. I'm most like him now in the kitchen. Adapting my recipes as I see fit. A little of this, a bit of that.... he is always experimenting. Good thing my family likes to try new things.

My Grandma's favorite holiday was Thanksgiving. My job was to make the gravy. She would mix the corn starch for me and I would pour it in to thicken the gravy. Well, it wasn't getting thick. It was time for dinner and she just put it in the gravy boat and we all sat down to dinner. My brother was the first to speak up "Grandma! The gravy is sweet!"

She had been using the box of powdered sugar instead of the corn starch! Same size box.

We still laugh about it to this day.

[LexTysMommy]

Im not much of a cook. The things I do know I just picked up. Trial and error I guess too.

I was boiling water for pasta one day. I was 18 or so. And somehow it caught fire and the wall above stove in apartment was burnt black. I have no idea how this happened, but now Im always careful boiling noodles! That sounds funny to type! LOL

[justpeachy92]

I started out the trial and error method, mostly errors, quite a few dishes our dog wouldn't eat. Then I started checking out cookbooks from the library.

[thriftstorequeen]

I learned by watching my Mom. She was a wonderful cook and made do! I cooked a little when I was growing up. My mom loved to cook and so do I! I find it relaxing. I used cookbooks and trial and error too. Mealtime was a very special time at my house when I was growing up. It is where we all caught up on the days events. We did the same with our family. All five of my kids like to cook even the 3 boys!

[PrairieRose]

My mom taught me a lot but I've mostly taught myself by trial and error and practice. Here's my funny story. We have this recipe in our family called chocolate gravy (some call it syrup). We make it and serve it over toast with bacon and milk for breakfast. It's yummy. Anyway when I decided to make it for the first time when my kids were small I asked my mom for the recipe. She didn't have measurements so she just said well take some of this and add some of that with a pinch of this, etc... . The first 20 times I made it the stuff was so gooey that you could barely pry the toast up off the plate! It was like tar. It tasted good but the consistency was just off. Anyway I FINALLY learned to make it the right way and not long ago our youngest said, Mom do you remember when your chocolate gravy was so thick you could have used it to roof with? We all laughed and I said, yes, yes I do..... . Now they beg me to make it

[jamie79]

Trial and error. My mom was not a good cook. The first thing I learned to cook besides scrambled eggs was spaghetti and I followed the recipe of the box of Muellers spaghetti.

[monkeywrangler71]

The internet.

My mother never liked to cook, although my father was pretty good at it (he does all their cooking now). When I left home I knew how to make one dish, and how to bake cookies (Mom made awesome cookies).

I'm still not much of a cook, but am gradually improving. I really don't enjoy it much, but I do like to bake.

[mom2bobsarah]

Oddly enough, I am not sure how I learned to cook. My mother was not much of a cook, she did what she had to but no baking or anything. I on the other hand, love to cook and bake and to entertain friends. I believe it just comes naturally to me same way that some people are a whiz on the piano, it is my gift from God. I find it relaxing and comforting to bake a loaf of bread or a cake. I only wish I had a little Fairy to clean up after me!

Oh, and my biggest oops was one time I was going to make a coffee cake for a co-workers birthday (that was his favorite kind of cake) so I made one and I wanted to broil the streusel topping under the broiler. Well, the butter exploded and there were flames jumping out of my stove, it is a wonder I did not set the house on fire. No more streusel under the broiler for me, lol.

[carlitasway]

I never helped my mom cook but I did watch her sometimes. I basicly self taught myself. My first cookbook was Campbell's Easy Recipes or something like that. Now I have a cookbook collection and get stuff off the internet.

[Missy]

Trial and error with my mom. She was a fun cook to learn from. Her mom is a professional cook, has done it all her adult life for all kinds of kitchens.

I once made a batch of cookies that required 1 tsp of baking soda. I thought it said 1 cup!! The cookies came out all fluffed up and pretty looking, but they were so hard and so.....YUCKY tasting. it was awful. my brother tried to choke one down to abate my tears, but it was very bad. could have used them to play hockey or prop open a door. The dog woulda burried em.

My brother is a wonderful cook. I should take lessons from him.

[cab54]

I am an oldest child of a big family, so my mom had me helping her at about age 9. She is a good cook, as were both of my grandmas. One grandma lived next door, so I would go over and see what she was making --southern country style food(and how she made it), and I spent a week in the summer with the other grandma---German food, and found out her recipes and style.

As I became an adult, I loved to cook and try new things. I have about 20 recipe books, including French food --yummy, but NOT frugal.

Now at 53, after cooking for my family and doing ALL of the holidays for about 20+ people at each sit-down, I am V-E-R-Y sick of cooking as a rule, but I still get a creative kitchen thing going once in awhile.

[foxxyroxie]

Both grandmas were farm wives and both my parents grew up on a farm so both mom and dad were cooking down-home food at a young age (my dad's mom worked both on the farm and at a food canning factory). Mom was baking bread and cooking the majority of the meals at age nine because grandma was working all day in the field and doing farm work with grandpa.

Dad cooked, but some of his stuff was questionable as to whether you wanted to eat it or not. Mom was a wonderful cook and everyone appreciated her good food and great desserts and awesome pies -- she was "the pie lady". If she was invited to dinner or potluck, she was in charge of pies. I wished I had her talent there.

I'm an ok cook. I've had my fair share of flops. I hated it when I was a kid and had no interest in learning to cook. Home Ec was a chore and a grade (got an A though), but was not a fun class as it should have been. Luckily we did a lot more book learning (nutrition, terminology, etc) in the class rather than actually cooking. I guess I was destined to cook because my first real job after college was an office position with a food service/food managment company. That's where I got a lot of my 'recipes' and food ideas. I also spent three summers cooking at a kids' and families camp that that food management company operated. I also worked at Target and worked (more like filled-in) at their cafe.

Now I'm the resident foodie. I've gotten roomies to actually watch foodnetwork... our favs are Paula Deen and Rachel Ray. I am always looking in magazines, newspapers and books, and on the internet looking for new and fun recipes. Most of the time I never try them, but if I ever need them, I at least have them to refer to. I never realized how many I really had until I started downsizing for the move to Alabama. I had notebook after notebook of handwritten recipes. I was caught in a 'dumping mood' and threw most of them away -- 100s of recipes -- of which about 99% of the recipes I never used. Oh, well, I'll find them again on the internet I suppose. I did keep a notebook and recipe card box my mom kept when she was alive (will never part with those) and a few select cookbooks and a couple of notebooks. The rest are in the stuff for the moving sale (I did sell a few last week and hopefully the rest will go this weekend). Otherwise, off to someone on freecycle.

[Ceashels]

I was designated helper in the kitchen. So when I moved out on my own it was trial and error. Now that I have a bunch of cook books. It is still trial and error..... at least now the errors are still edible.