First Steps: When Children Begin to Cook

[ckamom]

My oldest child, 12 years old, is a very high achiever. She has a black belt in tae kwon do, holds the state championship in weapons and form. She has been ranked fourth in the world in the weapon category. Academically, in all AP courses and holding a straight A average in a very competitive school district. She has played softball in an all star level, ran track in the uppper middle, ran charity marathons.. etc. Also first year wind ensemble.

Yesterday we ran out of vanilla ice cream, so instead of making it myself I decided to show her how easy it is to make it. She made the BEST ice cream our family has ever had.

Every one of her previous victories have been so-so for her, but the only time I have ever seen her BEAM, is after watching the yum faces of the other four of us eating her ice cream.

Moral of the story...FOOOD RULES.

[ckamom]

FOOD.. not FOOOd

[pastameshugana]

FOOD.. not FOOOd

No. Food is just...food. But Foood is something special.

[heidih]

I will never forget leaving my young son home alone and asking him to make the "pear bunny" salad in the Betty Crocker Boys and Girls cookbook. He walked to the store and bought the ingredients, prepped the salad and then invited his grandparents over to eat it. It is essentially canned pear halves on lettuce with cottage cheese as the fluffy tail and whatever you have to make the eyes, nose and whiskers. He was indeed beaming when I got home. (the fact that the GPs did not take a photo still ticks me off).

A while later I handed him Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 2 and asked him to make a baguette. He does not care for crusty bread but he sure approved of his result. Family members over for a holiday were oohing and aahing as well.

Cooking, its a good thing

[Kouign Aman]

Awesome stories. Great to have accomplishments that bring pleasure to others as well.

We were treated to homemade cherry - orange juice. Same great beam as we all asked for seconds.

[liuzhou]

A friend sent me these pictures yesterday. Her son's first steps into preparing a meal (aided by his grandmother). OK. Not technically "cooking", but we all started somewhere and the concentration as he builds his lunch and the joy on his face as he bites into his creation is inspirational.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[MetsFan5]

Adorable! Can you tell us more about what was in his sandwich creation? 

[liuzhou]

1 hour ago, MetsFan5 said:

Adorable! Can you tell us more about what was in his sandwich creation? 

 

It is sliced, spam-like, mechanically recovered, industrial pork sausage, cucumber, lettuce, and tomato. The bread will be sweet and cake-like.  Masterfully seasoned with some KFC tomato ketchup from purloined sachets. No salt, no pepper and no butter on the bread.

 

Very Chinese!

 

I'm told he wanted to make a hamburger, but Gran has no idea what a hamburger is and supplied the wrong ingredients. Didn't seem to bother him.

Edited April 15, 2018 by liuzhou (log)

[Darienne]

That is what Grandmothers are for I guess.

[liuzhou]

12 minutes ago, Darienne said:

That is what Grandmothers are for I guess.

 

Indeed. My earliest food memory is of my grandmother (maternal) in the kitchen, cooking.  I think I thought that was where she lived, just like I thought teachers lived in the school.

[kayb]

First thing I can remember learning to cook was biscuits. And yes, from my grandmother.

[liuzhou]

I vividly remember the first thing I cooked, even after almost 60 years. I will tell later, but a bit busy now getting ready for a trip in the morning. And I'd love to hear any other memories first.

[lindag]

I was a teen in Upper Michigan and the heady aroma of Mom's fresh baked bread hit me as I came home from school.

It was so intoxicating!  She didn't make it often so it was a very special treat when she did.

It was the first thing I really ever wanted to learn to make.

I wasn't able to start learning until I married and got my first 4-½ qt. KA mixer.

I tried and tried but couldn't get the knack of kneading properly and for the right length of time; I had no one to teach me.

Only when I got my bigger KA mixer with a dough hook was I able to finally produce a loaf to be proud of.

I still get a rush when I have bread baking in my oven; it is just about the most satisfying thing I make.  And I still have that mixer.

[Darienne]

I've spoken on this one before...my Mother hated cooking.  And so she did as little as possible.  I recall the early TV dinners with distaste.  My poor Father never got to leave them behind.

 

My grandmothers were early gone.  But I do remember lighting the candles at my Mother's Mother's home once, although I had no idea what it  was about.  

 

One of my first cooking memories when married (far too young, alas):  I knew only Bisquik biscuits.  How would I know otherwise?  I had run out of Bisquik and it occurred to me that maybe you could just 'make' them.  I found a recipe in my one cookbook and was astonished at how wonderful my biscuits were (compared to my Mother's pucks).  I still love to whip up fresh biscuits and remember that day more than 58 years ago.  My husband taught me how to cook.  (Which, of course, means that he still interferes in my culinary processes.  Mixed blessing.)

[chileheadmike]

I'm not sure who looks happier, the kid or grandma. 

[kayb]

I had always, from the time I was big enough, "helped" in the kitchen. It might have been turning the crank on the sausage grinder, or fetching and carrying things, or stirring. I remember being convinced I was "making" teacakes when my grandmother would make the dough, roll it out, then put me on a stepstool and let me cut them out and put them on the cookie sheet.

 

As there were two adult women in the home (my mother and my grandmother), and they both cooked, I came a little late to the cook-by-myself process. I wanted to enter the biscuit making contest in 4-H Club when I was in 5th grade, and that's the first time I remember cooking biscuits start to finish by myself.

 

I learned a great deal about cooking from those two, but I didn't really cook a lot on my own until I lived on my own. There wasn't room in the kitchen!

[heidih]

I always helped. Great grandma was the chief cook. Made her own soup noodles every week. Definately helped washing dishes while standing on a chair by the sink. But my first "solo" was making my way through the Betty Crocker Boys and Girls Cookbook. The passion has only intensified over the years.  This one: Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook

[Jacksoup]

@heidih  my first cookbook was also the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls.  My next door neighbor and best friend also cooked our way through it.  Once we made lunch and dinner for both of our families.  I only remember the tuna melt on hot dog buns wrapped in wax paper and heated in the oven.  We also made the hot fudge pudding.  I still have the book and the friend some 50 years later.

[heidih]

Oh and I handed the book (my old copy) to my son one summer. He needed to prove responsibility to a demanding father... He chose the bunny salad (the one with the canned pear halves). He walkd the mile to the grocery store, and learned to use a manual can opener. Many phone calls later he proudly presented it to his grandparents. I was at work, they took no pictures - grrrr.  Then I handed him Julia Child's Mastering the art of French Cooking Volume 2 and asked him to make baguettes. He did, they were good. We had family visiting so he got to share his success. Happy memories. He was maybe 10 or 11 at that time.

Edited April 15, 2018 by heidih (log)

[Shelby]

I don't remember the first thing I ever cooked   

[blue_dolphin]

That Betty Crocker Boys & Girls Cookbook that @heidih mentioned was my first cookbook, too.  I remember making those bunny salads! 

[Lisa Shock]

Mom would let me help prepare the salad for dinner. I was a tall child, and pretty well coordinated, so, just after I turned 4 she let me peel and slice carrots and cut up other salad items with a paring knife while standing on a chair. She also let me make my own toast for breakfast in exchange for teaching me how to set up the percolator so she could sleep in a little bit. Sometime in that year (I could read) I read some of her cookbooks and decided that I wanted to make potato leek soup, and she let me. That became my 'signature dish' for a couple of years. Of course, I had to clean up, too. I swept and mopped the kitchen, and did dishes more often than I was allowed to cook -at first. Then, both my mom and younger brother got really sick with strep and dad was out of town. So, I was left to my on devices in the kitchen for more than a week. I just started checking recipes against what was in the fridge and trying to make it. I made two complete dinners during that time, even though I was the only one able to eat them I tried serving mom and my brother on trays in bed. My father taught me to cook eggs later that year, and he made me a little bench to stand on in the kitchen.

 

Of course, my dad already had me pushing a manual lawnmower around the backyard and digging up dandelions at an early age, too. We weren't allowed to watch much TV, and all of my neighbors were adult empty-nesters so I didn't have any playmates outside of pre-school.

[chefmd]

My grandmother was cooking for us (Mom, Dad, me).  I remember very sketchy things from my childhood (like applying mustard to pork chops prior to frying) but those may be false memories.  I can not imagine buying proper pork chops in Soviet stores.  As a teenager, I did not value home cooking.  It was only after I had my son, that I became interested in making meals for him and for the rest of the family.  Thank god, my grandmother was still alive.   Her palate was amazing.  She would simply add a little bit of this or that to my dish and it would be perfect.   Hopefully my son will remember my meals fondly when I am no longer cooking (or worse).

[BeeZee]

I was one of the kids with that Betty Crocker cookbook, and I do remember that "bunny salad"! I have a feeling the first thing I cooked was grilled cheese, since I can remember watching my Dad make them and studying his method. I think the first thing I may have made for the family (from that BC cookbook, I believe) was "cube steaks" which were tenderized (chuck maybe?) dredged in flour/S+P and pan fried.

[Shelby]

My mom was reading this topic and told me that my first cooking was spaghetti (my favorite food) at 8ish

 

I love my mom so much