Well, I suppose "a whole lot" is all relative.
To some people, pulling Pillsbury cookie dough out of the fridge and plopping it on a baking sheet a couple times a year qualifies as "a whole lot" in their books, but I digress.
I think I was about 12 years old when I decided that I wanted to really learn how to cook. However, even then I was a stubborn, headstrong thing. Cooking lessons? Who needs 'em? Certainly not ME! I decided to blaze ahead with not a whole heck of a lot to go on. And in an effort to actually follow through on this whole "cooking" thing, I believe I even made a deal with my mom that I would make dinner once a week. I believe I selected Wednesdays as the evening of choice for my
I pawed through our various recipe books (most of which lacked photographic aids), and settled on "Sweet & Sour Chicken" for my first meal. Folks, my poor family had to eat Sweet & Sour Chicken a LOT. My brother dislikes Sweet & Sour and won't eat it to this day....I like to pretend it has nothing to do with the weekly meals he was subjected to in our youth.
My culinary prowess did not extend much further as the years progressed. I once boiled out an entire pan of water, simply because I forgot about it. I can also attest that it IS possible to screw up Macaroni & Cheese. I've mixed up salt with sugar....which resulted in an extremely unappetizing peach cobbler. I do not recommend setting your oven to 500° in the hopes that your oven will heat up faster (I honestly have NO idea why I would think that....), but if you do, I urge you to remember to lower the temperature of the oven when you decide to bake those cupcakes...I also urge you not to completely forget about the aforementioned cupcakes and mosey on to bed, only to be awakened by your father asking if you forgot something in the oven...true story.
I will say this for cooking though, the more you do it, the better you become. Sure I still mess up. Just this very evening I misread a recipe calling for "1/2 cup White Vinegar and 1 tsp White Sugar"....something got inverted....yeah... But the important thing is to keep going. I can't count the number of times I have had to start over on a recipe, or double it because I accidentally added WAY too much of one ingredient.
Now, I am not saying that I am any sort of culinary whiz, but I do enjoy my time in the kitchen. I peruse cooking websites, read recipes and cooking blogs. I ogle kitchen gadgets like you wouldn't believe! But I still mess up, I still cut, smash and burn myself...I'm actually sporting a relatively new inch-long scar on my right hand thanks to my oven, but it goes really well with all the other cooking scars I have.
One thing is certain though. I have branched away from Sweet & Sour Chicken. I haven't made it in years...probably because it wasn't that good to begin with. But the memories are fun to dive into.
