Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s day is a time to remember Mom. I also would like to thank my Mother for all she has done over the years, and especially for being my first culinary mentor.
As I look back and remember my cooking experiences, I have to recall my first cooking foray which happens to coincide with my first cooking disaster. I don’t recall exactly how old I was but I could not have been more then 4 or 5 years old. My mother was not feeling well and as the Brits say “went in for a lie down.” Well, being the caring son I decided to cook my mom something for dinner. After all how hard could it be? I saw her cooking many times in my short life and I thought I had it down pat.
My first step was to decide on a menu. I knew Mom liked eggs so I checked the fridge and we had eggs. I then hard to pick out my hardware and new that frying pans were used a lot so I grabbed the first one I could find. My next step was to turn on the stove. I saw that done many times and figured I could do that as well. Okay there was one problem; I could not reach the stove! Okay, problem solved. Go get a chair and move it near the stove.
I would of course like to say that after I moved the chair closer everything went smoothly, but of course that is not the case. As a short recap, eggs check, pan check, heat check (thank God the pilot was lit). Now it was time to get cooking. I knew that the eggs had to be cracked and shells were not good so I paid extra attention to make sure that the eggs were cracked correctly and put them in the hot pan. I was “cooking with gas” and quite proud of myself. That is until the smoke started and I could not get the eggs out of the pan! I did not know it at the time; but I forgot on key ingredient to the sauté direct heat technique of cooking. I forgot the fat or oil. Keep in mind that this was the 60’s and non stick cookware was not as prevalent as it is today
Well I learned a lot that day I learned the first of the basic cooking techniques and also how recover from a cooking error. I switched over to plan B and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Going forward, I learned a lot more from my Mom. I recall sitting at the kitchen counter and watching the basic cooking techniques of baking, roasting, braising, poaching, and simmering. On this day I also remember my first cooking teacher and I say Thanks Mom.
Mother’s day is a time to remember Mom. I also would like to thank my Mother for all she has done over the years, and especially for being my first culinary mentor.
As I look back and remember my cooking experiences, I have to recall my first cooking foray which happens to coincide with my first cooking disaster. I don’t recall exactly how old I was but I could not have been more then 4 or 5 years old. My mother was not feeling well and as the Brits say “went in for a lie down.” Well, being the caring son I decided to cook my mom something for dinner. After all how hard could it be? I saw her cooking many times in my short life and I thought I had it down pat.
My first step was to decide on a menu. I knew Mom liked eggs so I checked the fridge and we had eggs. I then hard to pick out my hardware and new that frying pans were used a lot so I grabbed the first one I could find. My next step was to turn on the stove. I saw that done many times and figured I could do that as well. Okay there was one problem; I could not reach the stove! Okay, problem solved. Go get a chair and move it near the stove.
I would of course like to say that after I moved the chair closer everything went smoothly, but of course that is not the case. As a short recap, eggs check, pan check, heat check (thank God the pilot was lit). Now it was time to get cooking. I knew that the eggs had to be cracked and shells were not good so I paid extra attention to make sure that the eggs were cracked correctly and put them in the hot pan. I was “cooking with gas” and quite proud of myself. That is until the smoke started and I could not get the eggs out of the pan! I did not know it at the time; but I forgot on key ingredient to the sauté direct heat technique of cooking. I forgot the fat or oil. Keep in mind that this was the 60’s and non stick cookware was not as prevalent as it is today
Well I learned a lot that day I learned the first of the basic cooking techniques and also how recover from a cooking error. I switched over to plan B and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Going forward, I learned a lot more from my Mom. I recall sitting at the kitchen counter and watching the basic cooking techniques of baking, roasting, braising, poaching, and simmering. On this day I also remember my first cooking teacher and I say Thanks Mom.
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