Question of the Week - How did get started cooking and baking?

[Guest guest]

How did I get started? Well, this may be a long story...

My mom has never been much of a cook. She still browns her ground beef in the

microwave, and as a kid she would make a box of mac and cheese for dinner, and

that was usually it. My grandmother would cook a lot, but it was all bland and

mushy and just not so good (what she consideres too spicy would be normal to

most of us or too bland for others). But I was encouraged to eat a lot, and

love and attention I needed was replaced by food.

By age 8 I was the fat kid, and the summer before I turned 14 I was sick of

it. I was so sick of being teased and crying every day. I was only getting

bigger, and decided to swear off certain foods. Then I did a bad thing. If it

wasn't fat free, I most likely didn't eat it. I lost weight, but was still

called chubby. My mom was no help. At one doctors appointment he gave us a

menu to help me eat healthy, and she said I'd have to cook it if that was what I

was going to eat. The recipes were outdated and full of things I hated like

collards (mushy icky, yuck) and such, so I tossed it. I got older and started

eating " normal " food again, but making smarter choices. I have over the years

asked my grandmother to show me how to make a few things, like her mac and

cheese (used to be my fave) or chicken salad, but she would just tell me it was

too expensive and just not worth me making. She said that she is making a

cookbook of all of her recipes for me, though.

After leaving my ex-fiance I moved in with my dad and then stepmom and my 3

siblings. Without even realizing it I became anorexic. I weighed less than I

did in fifth grade. Not good. But then I started dating a guy and him and I

would go out to eat all the time. He drilled into my head the " waste not want

not " idea and I learned how to clean a plate again, and how fast weight can pile

on.

Then I was finally living on my own. I had learned a bit through trial and

error, and switched to soy milk and gave up red meat for a year. I still love

soy milk, don't get me wrong, but didn't get that I was lactose intolerant until

later. I didn't have a computer, or access to learn about things like organics,

etc, so I was making do with what I could afford (the cheapest healthy food out

there). I have always preffered healthy foods, but sometimes you just gotta

make do with raman. I got a cookbook made for broke college kids that want to

eat healthy, and that changed a few things about me. It taught me how to cook

tofu, the first time I every knowingly had it. I fell in love.

Fast forward to around Febuary or March. I had come to terms with my lactose

intolerance and realized that lactiad doens't always hel. I had already given

up milk, but living near a childhood fave ice cream parlor didn't help. Then my

copy of " Skinny Bitch in the Kitch " came in the mail. I didn't open it until

after I received and finished reading " Skinny Bitch " . By page 85 of that book I

was a vegan. Being vegan and having that cookbook have made me want to cook a

lot more than ever. I am having a lot of fun with it, and am looking foward to

" veganizing " that cookbook my grandmother is setting up for me.

 

Kris

 

 

 

 

Don't forget to check out my blog at:

www.roguedecadence.vox.com

& my online store at:

www.roguedecadence.etsy.com

 

 

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

 

 

[Guest guest]

I am glad to see that " Skinny Bitch " has been helpful for some members. On

another board I belong to, many of the people have steered clear of it due to

it's vulgar name and obscenities throughout.

I really liked it, and it helped me to finish the step to vegetarianism and

gotten me on the road to vegan life.

Congratulalions on the long journey and finiding what works for you. I was

raised as a member of the clean-plate club, and desserts were rewards for me.

 

Best Wishes,

Cassie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Mobile. Try it now.

 

 

[Guest guest]

I started doing our family's cooking in my mid teens. My mother was

involved in a direct sales company (plus she was terrible cook) and needed

me to fix dinner while she prepared for her " demos " .

 

I spent alot of time in the summer with my grandmother who was a fantastic

cook. She cooked everything including bread from scratch and never used a

recipe. I was lucky that she passed down a lot of her recipes to me. She

had a HUGE garden so during the summer I had lots of fresh veggies and

fruits. She made some of the best jams and pickles this side of the

Mississippi.

 

Over the years I " perfected " my skills by reading cookbooks and watching

cooking shows. My favorite was the Frugal Gourmet (I was heartbroken with

the scandal) but he know so much about food and its history.

 

I read cookbooks like most people read novels. I'll try just about anything

(although I'm dragging my heals on tofu). I'm always trying new recipes.

Most of the time my husband likes them. I know he doesn't when he says,

" Honey, if this was a lot of work you don't really have to make it again. "

That's my clue that it's pretty bad! lol

 

I have tons of cookbooks with more and more vegetarian titles occupying my

shelves.

 

As a kid I was always baking cookies, muffins, cakes, etc. As I mentioned

my mother was pretty bad cook. We usually had the same things over and

over again. Lots of Hamburger Helper, I still gag at the thought. I was so

sick of cheeseburger macaroni by the time I was a teenager. We had taco

salad anytime we had company. Since we lived on a small farm and raised our

own beef, we had lots of red meat......when I think about how much beef we

ate, its a wonder that my brothers and I didn't develop heart disease in our

teens! I was on the heavy side in my teens and my mother was always on me

about my weight, well I wonder why I was heavy....everything we ate was

fried or had a ton of butter slathered on it! I cringe to think about it!

 

Anyway that's my story on how I began cooking and baking!

 

Have a great day!

Stephanie in NV

[Guest guest]

I relatively did little cooking until I became a veggie a few years

ago. Then I bought myself a few good veg cookbooks and started

slowly. I don't even open them up now. I make recipes from this

grouips files. Everything turns out excellent. I find myself in the

kitchen more and more now. It's a pleasure instead of the chore it

used to be.

 

Mona

[Guest guest]

I did some cooking at home in high school and when home from college,

but my mother was a basic meat and potatoes cook with a limited

repertoire. Her main cookbook was the loose-leaf Betty Crocker

cookbook, which, as a college friend said, was designed so you could

over cook the dish by and hour or under cook it by an hour and it

still came out fine.

 

My senior year in college I rented a room in a house off-campus and

had a hot plate and a broiler/toaster oven. I tried a bean casserole

from the original edition of Diet for a Small Planet. The recipe said

nothing about cooking the beans first. Vegetarian cookbooks were like

that in the early and mid 1970's. I was not happy with the results.

 

After graduation I hung around my college town for a couple of years

an shared and apartment with my friend George. He understood cooking,

and I learned a lot about cooking from him, as I did from his

girlfriend (who became my close friend), Alison.

 

That's my story,

 

Mike

http://csquaredthoughts.typepad.com/foodthoughts

[Guest guest]

I cook because I am married. Period. When I met my hubby I was kind of

a vegetarian. I figured with all of that cooking - I'm good at it - I was

going to enjoy the goodies as well! I am having quite a bit of

trouble right now, going on two weeks, with my digestive systtem and

I know that I have to clean up my act. I'm eating everything -

literally, all day - literally. I think it has something to with my

daughter being pregnant.

Has any tried juicing? If yes, please share your success.

Thanks.

[Guest guest]

I did a week long juice " fast " last fall. It was amazing. I felt great, my

skin looked the best it has ever looked. I really want to do one again soon,

but I've been lazy about it.

 

Elizabeth

 

 

On 4/24/08, Susan <susanewilliams wrote:

>

> I cook because I am married. Period. When I met my hubby I was kind of

> a vegetarian. I figured with all of that cooking - I'm good at it - I was

> going to enjoy the goodies as well! I am having quite a bit of

> trouble right now, going on two weeks, with my digestive systtem and

> I know that I have to clean up my act. I'm eating everything -

> literally, all day - literally. I think it has something to with my

> daughter being pregnant.

> Has any tried juicing? If yes, please share your success.

> Thanks.

>

>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

I highly recommend " The Master Cleanser " . It is a small booklet

(about $6). It was originally written about 30 years ago. The

author is/was a vegan. It contains " The Lemonade Diet " , a cleansing

diet. I still go on this diet 3 or 4 times a year. This is the book

that turned me vegetarian.

 

Here is the link in Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/f5mlw

 

Although, they are currently out of stock I'm sure you could find

it somewhere else.

 

¸.·´ .·´¨¨))

((¸¸.·´ .·´ -:¦:- Terri

-:¦:- ((¸¸.·´

 

 

 

On Apr 24, 2008, at 3:05 PM, Susan wrote:

 

> I cook because I am married. Period. When I met my hubby I was kind of

> a vegetarian. I figured with all of that cooking - I'm good at it -

> I was

> going to enjoy the goodies as well! I am having quite a bit of

> trouble right now, going on two weeks, with my digestive systtem and

> I know that I have to clean up my act. I'm eating everything -

> literally, all day - literally. I think it has something to with my

> daughter being pregnant.

> Has any tried juicing? If yes, please share your success.

> Thanks.

>

>

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

That's when I started to pick around in the kitchen, everyone else was

sleeping and I was starving and I got sick of a bowl of cold cereal

each day so I would make hot oatmeal, scrambled eggs, breakfast burrito

with some diced bell peppers, potatoes and eggs. I would pop open cans

of biscuits and bake them up and eat with peanut butter and jelly.

I found a little used cookbook and it was all mine, I would practice

with easy recipes. It went on from there. I would say when I joined

the group and became a full fledged vegetarian, I really taught

myself. The recipes from the group are the best.

 

Kenia

 

, " Kathleen M. Pelley "

<kmpelley wrote:

>

> I was about 10 when my brothers and I would get up on Sunday mornings

> and my parents were sleeping in. I began by cooking breakfast for us

> because we were hungry--I began with toast and later learned how to

> make pancakes, french toast, biscuits, etc.

>

> I recall one disaster in which the recipe called for three tsp of

> baking power and I misread it and used 3 tbsp--they ate it anyway,

but

> it tasted awful

>

> Kathleen

>