On 12 Jan 2005 21:50:26 -0800, "roxmarie" > wrote:

>
>Dimitri wrote:
>> 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 grew up with a mother and grandmother that were great cooks. Even
today, one of the great pleasures of life is to get in the kitchen and
cook something with my mother. She's 72 now and I'm 51.

I first got interested in cooking as an 11 year old Boy Scout. I
figured there had to be something better to eat in the great outdoors
than a burnt hot dog. Like a lot of men, I still think the combination
of meat and coals from a wood fire is hard to beat.

I started cooking "seriously" as an impoverished college student. I
couldn't afford to eat out much, and fixing dinner was a great way to
get women to come back to my apartment!

One of my first attempts involved making a flaming dessert --
pineapple flambee. I didn't have a chafing dish, so I fashioned
something from the burning ring support from an electric stove, coat
hanger wire, and a can of Sterno. About the time I flamed the sauce,
my support collapsed on the table dumping the (flaming) sauce on the
table. Fortunately, the tabletop was fairly flameproof. We just
scooped the sauce off the table top and ate it.

Happily, the occassional failure these days is not quite so dramatic.

Cheers,

Leonard