What was the first thing you ever cooked?

[SuzySushi]

As a spin-off of Origamicrane's post in "The Basics, Three recipes every cook should know", what was the first thing you ever cooked? (could be a meal or otherwise)

I remember as a little girl "helping" my grandmother make pie crust at Thanksgiving... each year she'd make these beautiful lattice-crust apple pies, never measured anything. Hers were always flaky and meltingly tender, while my "play-dough" always turned out tough and bitter.

But the first thing I ever "cooked" was cinnamon toast in Home Ec class, where we learned to cream butter and sugar together. In high school, I once invited a friend over for dinner, made with cut-up leftover chicken, a package of frozen mixed vegetables, and a can of cream soup. Thank goodness I learned better after I left home!

[Edited for horrible spelling. TWICE!]

Edited June 14, 2005 by SuzySushi (log)

[matttx76]

scrambled eggs

[Gifted Gourmet]

My parents were having a fight but it was dinnertime and I was 14 and was exceedingly hungry so I made hot dogs for the family (to calm them down, I now assume) ...

[annanstee]

cinnamon toast, and "garlic toast with french bread buttered, sprinkled with garlic salt and then toasted. Ther first actual meal I remember preparing for others was spaghetti with meat sauce.

[origamicrane]

does instant noodles count?

or boiled egg?

I think the first thing i made by "recipe" would be in primary school

those pink colour peppermint sugar sweets you get a school fairs.

They are just mostly icing sugar and pink dye rolled out and then using cookie cutter to make diamond and heart shapes out of them.

or maybe it was rice krispies cakes hmmm....

[tejon]

Scrambled eggs here as well.

[Syrah]

Scones! and pikelets.

[TPO]

The first thing I made without any help was porcupine meatballs -- beef, rice, and tomato sauce molded into balls and baked. It was the day I told my mother I hated cleaning the kitchen after dinner. She told me she hated cooking, and anytime I wanted to cook, she would clean up.

[jilli42]

A cake of my own creation. I added all kinds of extras. I am sure it didn't taste very good, but my grandfather (god bless him) ate every bite of his piece and proclaimed it was the best cake ever. I think I was about 6 or 7 at the time. So I had help with the oven, but I did all the measuring and mixing myself.

The first thing I remember making sucessfully was chili.

[BarbaraY]

I was about ten and used to make what I called Johnny cakes. Don't remember the exact ingredients but I know they had corn meal.

We had a wood range and I would cook them on top of the range without a pan so they must have had some fat in them because I don't remember them sticking. Mom would have killed me if they had stuck and left a mess.

I think I read too many pioneer novels.:D

[foodiehall]

The first edible thing I cooked was Velvet Crumb Cake from a recipe on the back of a Bisquick box...I must have been 8 or 9. Prior to that, my grandmother allowed me to cook on her stove, had knobs on the front which I could easily reach. I'd collect some berries and leaves from outside, put them in a small pot, and "season" them with whatever I could find in the cabinets. She encouraged creativity and was always there to supervise.

[C_Ruark]

Boxty !!! ... a fantastic sort of trad-Irish shortcake served frequently in our family. It was the first of many Saturdays and Sundays in my Gramma's kitchen.

- CSR

[Becca Porter]

The first thing I made without any help was porcupine meatballs -- beef, rice, and tomato sauce molded into balls and baked. It was the day I told my mother I hated cleaning the kitchen after dinner. She told me she hated cooking, and anytime I wanted to cook, she would clean up. 

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I have never heard of these outside my family! My mother always used beef rice-a-roni. They actually are not bad either.

The first thing I ever baked were chocolate chip cookies when I was about twelve. The first thing I ever cooked was Pot Roast. Yum!

[jglazer75]

While I'm sure I cooked stuff prior to this moment, the first one I remember distinctly is actually very humorous.

I was 11 or 12 years old and I was staying overnight at my friend's house. We, of course, were staying up all night and round about 2 or 3am we decided to make french toast. I had helped my mom make french toast before and I "knew" how to coat the toast with the egg/milk and fry the toast and flip it. Really a very easy process. Well, I can only guess that we had the temp on the burners set too high because in under 3 minutes every fire alarm in the house was going off. My friend's parents were NOT thrilled.

[jgarner53]

It must have been something in my EZ-Bake oven. I can't remember cooking anything before that (about age 7). I liked to "help" my mom make pie crust and probably could make toast, but I don't think I did anything like scrambled eggs until later. If the EZ-Bake doesn't count, it would have to have been a cake.

I do remember being exceptionally good at licking bowls and beaters, though!

[winesonoma]

Fried Bologna and Stinky cheese sandwiches for me and dad.

[Trishiad]

Grammy was a home ec teacher. She started me early with Applesauce made with Gravensteins from her backyard, Bisquick pancakes, and oatmeal cookies. The earlier you start cooking the sooner you'll progress through the kraft mac n cheese phase, right? My three year old claims he can cook cake, and catfish.

[peppyre]

The first thing I ever made on my own was Shortbread. I can't remember exactly how old I was but I was really young, probably 4 or 5.

[goldie]

My mom was realy sweet about letting me help in the kitchen and I know I baked pretty much on my own in elementary school. The first whole meal I cooked for my family was meatloaf, baked potatoes, canned peas, and salad. It would have been great except the meatlof recipe called for boullion and all my mom had was the cubes. I just stuck the whole cube it- you should have seen my dad's face ! They still tease me about that to this day.

[Bernaise]

I remember helping with everything. Holding the colander to strain stock, kneading brioche, making sausages, stirring onions, or sauce.

But my first meal for guests, made from scratch, for 5 friends from highschool was: lasagne, salad and less from scratch-Jello chocolate pudding mixed with whipped cream and topped with chocolate shavings and loaded into tall flute shaped glasses.

We were 14 and soooooooo sophisticated!!

[redglass]

I remember making dinner for my dad on father's day when I must have been 6 or 7: scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon with coffee. Except I made the eggs first (so that they cooled-even then I knew that something about this was wrong) probably undercooked the bacon (this is pre-microwave times) and terribly underbrewed the coffee. Dad was very very gracious though and took a bite of everything and even drank the coffee!

I also checked out a "Betty Crocker cookbook for kids" or something like it at the library as a kid (this wasn't long after the cold egg incident) and do remeber this salad that I made for the whole family. I'm surprised it didn't put my parents in fits: It was called Rocket Salad:

for Each person:

1/2 banana, peeled, placed, vertically on a salad plate

2 maraschino cherries at the base

whipped cream as a border

How that made it into a children's cookbook is beyond me. Or am I just of a dirty mind?

[bavila]

The first thing I attempted to make completely on my own was sugar cookies. I must have been around 8 or so, and was basically unsupervised at the time. I completely blew off the directions and dumped all the ingredients in a bowl -- resulting in the soupiest cookie dough you've ever seen, and completely inedible "cookies". I suppose this was a good lesson for me to learn as someone who generally doesn't read the directions for anything -- sometimes you really need to!

I also had some Betty Crocker for kids book handed down to me from my sisters (who aquired it about 10 years before me), and I remember thinking how lame the recipes sounded. Maybe that was the first indication of my foodie-tendencies...

[Pookie]

I remember helping my mom to make noodles when I was about 4. They were soft noodles and we had to roll them, and then cut and unroll.

The first thing I made by my self was probably Hawaiian melts. Ham pineapple and cheese on and english muffin and melted in the oven. I was probably about 6. Mom did the oven part.

I could back a mean chocolate chip cookie by the time I was 10 though!

[jo-mel]

By myself? Packaged chocolate pudding. I was about 8 or 9, and as it thickened on the stove I yelled for my mother. I didn't expect it, and can remember to this day how it felt.

My first meal was at 16. My Mother had remarried and was on her honeymoom. She bought 1/2 a turkey, and told me what to do. I roasted it over stuffing and had all the fixin's. My 2 brothers and sister ate it, so I guess I did OK. As with big meals now, I couldn't taste my own cooking.

[jhlurie]

Perhaps we could perk this topic up, and make it into something with more weight, by breaking it into several parts:

a.) first thing ever cooked with parental (or teacher) assistance

b.) first thing ever cooked independantly

c.) first serious full meal ever cooked, describing all of the parts

d.) first "gourmet" meal ever cooked

Answering, of course, only the ones you are sure about.

I'm gonna have to think about this one myself though. I'm actually not entirely sure of any of them.