Comments on: How I Learned To Cook http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/ Fashion, Lifestyle, and Humor for the Plus Sized Woman. Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:14:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: VerseFameBeauty http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9535 VerseFameBeauty Mon, 10 Mar 2008 03:53:47 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9535 I recommend "Jamie's Italy" by Jamie Oliver - it's part cookbook, part travel diary and a very enjoyable read. I recommend “Jamie’s Italy” by Jamie Oliver - it’s part cookbook, part travel diary and a very enjoyable read.

]]> By: susan http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9525 susan Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:32:58 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9525 I (and my 7 siblings) learned my watching mom cook. We had a counter that separated the kitchen from the dining/family room. We could pull up chairs to the counter and watch, talk and lick beaters. My dad also cooked. I have great memories of his saturday morning buttermilk pancakes. He always poured us ice cold buttermilk to drink out of a metal measuring cup. YUM!!! It was also great theater watching him make bread. He was a rather tall and masculine man and instead of kneading the bread, he would punch it out (to the delight of his children). Anthony Bourdain. MMMM! If you have not seen his show "No Reservations" you are really missing out! Thanks for prompting the recall of these wonderful memories, Twistie! I (and my 7 siblings) learned my watching mom cook. We had a counter that separated the kitchen from the dining/family room. We could pull up chairs to the counter and watch, talk and lick beaters. My dad also cooked. I have great memories of his saturday morning buttermilk pancakes. He always poured us ice cold buttermilk to drink out of a metal measuring cup. YUM!!! It was also great theater watching him make bread. He was a rather tall and masculine man and instead of kneading the bread, he would punch it out (to the delight of his children).

Anthony Bourdain. MMMM! If you have not seen his show “No Reservations” you are really missing out!

Thanks for prompting the recall of these wonderful memories, Twistie!

]]> By: JaneC http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9503 JaneC Sun, 09 Mar 2008 15:42:59 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9503 My biggest memories of my culinary education are making oatmeal raisin cookies with my dad as a kid (he sent me oatmeal cookies in care packages when I was in college, and my friends didn't understand why it was never chocolate chip), my period of experimentation in my first apartment (when making curry, go for a fruit-ish curry or a vegetable-ish one, but raisins and zucchini don't really go together *bleh*), and my mother teaching me to make gravy. I also have fond memories of instructing my dorm mates on making baked macaroni and cheese the way my mom makes it. Most of them had never seen anyone make mac and cheese from scratch, and after tasting the result, at least two of the five girls said they thought they could never go back to the boxed kind. ~JaneC, spreading the gospel of food that looks like food rather than plastic My biggest memories of my culinary education are making oatmeal raisin cookies with my dad as a kid (he sent me oatmeal cookies in care packages when I was in college, and my friends didn’t understand why it was never chocolate chip), my period of experimentation in my first apartment (when making curry, go for a fruit-ish curry or a vegetable-ish one, but raisins and zucchini don’t really go together *bleh*), and my mother teaching me to make gravy.

I also have fond memories of instructing my dorm mates on making baked macaroni and cheese the way my mom makes it. Most of them had never seen anyone make mac and cheese from scratch, and after tasting the result, at least two of the five girls said they thought they could never go back to the boxed kind.

~JaneC, spreading the gospel of food that looks like food rather than plastic

]]> By: Toby Wollin http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9499 Toby Wollin Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:50:15 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9499 I picked up certain specific skills from people I lived with or knew over the years. I learned how to make bread from one of my boyfriends from college. I learned how to chop up vegetables for Chinese food from Taiwanese graduate students I shared a kitchen with. I learned how to make Mexican food and flanken from a guy I knew in college. The rest has come from a pretty big collection of specialty cook books and feeding three kids and a husband. I did NOT, however, learn to cook from my mother or the women in my father's family, who were all really awful cooks who never met a vegetable they could not overcook or a piece of meat they could not turn into shoes. I picked up certain specific skills from people I lived with or knew over the years. I learned how to make bread from one of my boyfriends from college. I learned how to chop up vegetables for Chinese food from Taiwanese graduate students I shared a kitchen with. I learned how to make Mexican food and flanken from a guy I knew in college. The rest has come from a pretty big collection of specialty cook books and feeding three kids and a husband. I did NOT, however, learn to cook from my mother or the women in my father’s family, who were all really awful cooks who never met a vegetable they could not overcook or a piece of meat they could not turn into shoes.

]]> By: Jane http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9459 Jane Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:17:46 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9459 There are those who claim I never did learn to cook. However, this evening I got to hang out with my cool cousin J, who has been a professional chef for more than 10 years. He described the maple pecan pie he made last week and I told him his great-grandmother had a very similar recipe. Then he talked about how he likes recipes where everything is in weights and it's very precise and you get the exact same results every time. Why yes, one of his parents IS a programmer... There are those who claim I never did learn to cook. However, this evening I got to hang out with my cool cousin J, who has been a professional chef for more than 10 years. He described the maple pecan pie he made last week and I told him his great-grandmother had a very similar recipe. Then he talked about how he likes recipes where everything is in weights and it’s very precise and you get the exact same results every time. Why yes, one of his parents IS a programmer…

]]> By: Whitney http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9457 Whitney Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:52:50 +0000 http://manolobig.com/2008/03/08/how-i-learned-to-cook/#comment-9457 My mother cooked for my father, and my father had definite tastes: hominy came from a can, rice came from a box with the word "Minute" in the title and was seasoned with sugar, and pork chops were meant to be paper-thin and fried to the consistency of shoe leather. When I turned 16 I got my first job as a page in a library, and I discovered the cookbook section. I pored over the lot on my breaks, and eventually ordered my first subscription to Gourmet magazine. I taught myself to cook from those books and magazines as best I could in college dorms and military barracks. I hate to admit it, but secretly the best part of getting married the first time was moving to an apartment and having an actual kitchen. I discovered that I had a gift for cheesecakes and German food and barbecue, and came very, very close to applying to the CIA. Unfortunately, military assigments and a bad case of repetitive-stress injury (to my grip; there was never anyone to show me the right way to hold a knife and a whisk and a pastry bag) put the kabosh on that. But I still subscribe to plenty of food porn (hello? Saveur?), and keep my family, friends and co-workers very, very happy. Even Dad grudgingly admits that my butterflied boneless 1"-thick grilled pork chops are fabulous. My mother cooked for my father, and my father had definite tastes: hominy came from a can, rice came from a box with the word “Minute” in the title and was seasoned with sugar, and pork chops were meant to be paper-thin and fried to the consistency of shoe leather. When I turned 16 I got my first job as a page in a library, and I discovered the cookbook section. I pored over the lot on my breaks, and eventually ordered my first subscription to Gourmet magazine. I taught myself to cook from those books and magazines as best I could in college dorms and military barracks. I hate to admit it, but secretly the best part of getting married the first time was moving to an apartment and having an actual kitchen. I discovered that I had a gift for cheesecakes and German food and barbecue, and came very, very close to applying to the CIA. Unfortunately, military assigments and a bad case of repetitive-stress injury (to my grip; there was never anyone to show me the right way to hold a knife and a whisk and a pastry bag) put the kabosh on that. But I still subscribe to plenty of food porn (hello? Saveur?), and keep my family, friends and co-workers very, very happy. Even Dad grudgingly admits that my butterflied boneless 1″-thick grilled pork chops are fabulous.

]]>