"Dimitri" > wrote in message
. com...
: 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>

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