Who taught you how to cook?

[puffkin]

I am also pretty much self taught. My mom isn't a bad cook, but we grew up on a pretty limited diet (meat, potatoes, corn, peas). She grew up on that diet as did my father who wouldn't even try anything "different". They are still pretty bland....but they have improved their palettes over the years and are a tad more adventurous. My mom also didn't really ever show me stuff in the kitchen. She was usually in a hurry or the meal was made before I got home from after school activities.

When I first started out, I mainly did box type meals. But over the years as my confidence grew I started pulling recipes off the internet and from cookbooks and we have really expanded our horizons and cooking skills. Right now we both work FT and get home around 6, so we try to focus on quicker meals (so we aren't eating at 8pm) but when I have the time I do like to make a nicer, more complicated meal. My dad won't eat anything I make because it is all "weird food" (not sure how turkey chili is weird ) but my mom says I am a pretty good cook now.

 

[mrodgers]

Cooking isn't rocket science, but then if you watch Alton Brown, he does get a bit into the rocket science of cooking. Makes it interesting knowing the "why" things go together and other things don't.

How to cook my way: Take a home raised steak out of package, slap on a hot grill for 1 minutes. Flip and wait 1 more minute. Done, eat.

 

[Sorsha]

My mom, completely. I still use her recipes almost exclusively.

However, my DH and I have altered the recipes to suit our family's tastes. So basically I guess even though I learned from her, I evolved my cooking as an adult.

All of my kids' friends always want to eat dinner at our house. They say we have the best food; and at most of their houses, dinner comes from a Pizza box or a Hamburger Helper box.

My DH is a very good cook as well, he learned from his mom who has been a cook for a living for years. HOWEVER, he and his sister HAD to learn to cook from a very early age, because his mom worked odd hours, and his dad (not even going to discuss the a$$-hattery of that man at this time) expected SOMEONE to plop a hot meal in front of him at mealtimes every day, or all heck would break loose. They were standing on chairs, cooking alone, from early-grade-school age.

 

[tms295psu]

My grandmother taught me, but I was raised in a German/Dutch family... Meat and Potatoes kind of menu, gravy with amost everything.

It doesn't really help me since my hubby doesn't "like" the foods... So on to cook book recipes I go

 

[BadgerGirl84]

Mom and Food Network. And AllRecipes.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

My Dad taught me how to cook (or at least let me stay in the kitchen to watch, he didn't really let me get involved). He cooked (and still does) family dinner every night (and cooked at the fire station before he retired). Even the days when he was at the fire station, he would put a crock pot on in the morning so my Mom wouldn't have to cook that night.

I learned baking from my Mom. She heavily involved me when she baked.

My interest and love of cooking really came from watching Food Network (and before that watching Julia Child and "Yan Can Cook" on PBS when I was a kid; my brother and I were so enthralled by them) when I was a teenager and cooking magazines. I could never (and would never want to) do it as a full-time job, but I enjoy cooking. I'm glad I have a guy, though, that enjoys the cleaning up part. That's the part I hate!

 

[girli565]

I watched my mother cook when i was younger, then when I got married and I had to cook for my family, the years of watching mom cook I was actually paying attention, lol.

My husband gained 15lbs the first year we were married and blames it on my "amazing" cooking

 

[nancycg56]

My Mom taught me basics and I taught myself everything else

 

[HunnyPots]

My mom never enjoyed cooking and just did it because we had to eat. She had no patience for teaching, so I had to pick up what I could on my own. In recent years, Food Network and previously, PBS were a big help. When I first got married, my MIL taught me to fry chicken and how to make her Mexican dishes (she's half Mexican).

I love to cook and have tried to pass it on to my own children. My daughter loves to eat but won't spend much time cooking. My son, on the other hand, has become a very good cook and I plan to turn Thanksgiving over to him in the near future!

 

[pixiewings71]

I learned by watching Mom and then I evolved that on my own. I moved out at 16 so I hadn't learned everything I wanted to know and I live 10 hours from her now so I still don't know. I don't know how to make gravy from scratch or to cut up a whole chicken but since my family doesn't eat much gravy or chicken with bones and skin I guess that's ok. I taught my DD23 everything I could and she has developed her own style as well. DD15 is good at making a few things (when we want grilled cheese sandwiches she always makes them because she makes them so well! I always burn mine but hers are perfect! lol) and DD12 can make a full meal. DD12 has been in the kitchen with me since she was 6 or 7 and has been able to make a full meal since she was 8 or 9. I was always with her in the kitchen at those ages but sometimes now she will make a full dinner for us. Usually tacos, pasta or Hamburger Helper but that's absolutely fine with us. We eat Hamburger Helper every couple of weeks, the kids enjoy it quite a bit, I usually eat a little of it with a large helping of salad.

Tonight I'm planning on making oven baked chicken strips with herbs from France, garlic and capers, rice or mashed potatoes on the side and either beets and green beans on the side or a big green salad. Tomorrow I'm planning to make steak (probably some filet mignon we got at work for Christmas) with bacon, mushrooms and onion sauteed with some bleu cheese crumbled on top.....I may do baked sweet potatoes, I may do regular baked potatoes or roasted potatoes, I'll probably do a big green salad and serve it with red wine and for dessert, chocolate Lava cake with ice cream. I get off work at 4:30 and can stop at the grocery store and still be home by 5:30-6 so dinner is usually served at our house around 7 or 8. DBF works until 7 tho so that works into our family life just fine.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Definitely can't attribute this to my mom!! She made tuna noodle casserole and spaghetti when I was young, and they/we went out to eat A LOT.

I am mostly self taught. I started making a few things for myself in college in my sorority house (when I wasn't eating in the dining halls). Then after college I decided I wanted to lose weight so I started the South Beach Diet. They stress (or at least used to stress) homemade meals, natural ingredients, etc so I just sort of taught myself through recipes. Then a graduate school friend I lived with for a summer told me about Cooking Light and gave me a handmade cookbook of some of her favorite recipes. Trial and error from there with Cooking Light and AllRecipes.

There are still some things I am not good at or don't know how to make. I should make the effort to watch the food network or somehow figure them out but I just get by with what I know now.

 

[ZehnJahren]

In my family growing up, cooking was the way a woman showed a man she loved him (along with cleaning up afterward). I watched all the women in my family cook constantly and was always expected to assist, mostly fresh foods from the garden. After my mom and dad divorced, we moved away from that side of my family and my mom worked a lot so I often had to cook my own meals. Ever since, I have really enjoyed good food and cooking and pretty much cook every single day. I read recipes and then try out my own variation (for example, just recently I found the temperature to roast vegetables at, and then just julienned carrots, covered them in olive oil, added a touch of thickened pot roast seasoning mix, and roasted them to perfection!).

I have several fall-back recipes that I make often, but I'd much rather spend an hour cooking something delicious than head out to a restaurant; after a day working, I find time in the kitchen to be relaxing and a good transition into the night. DBF enjoys my food too; he told me I've "never made a bad meal". Sometimes, I wonder if he's telling the truth!

 

[tlenzendorf]

I taught myself how to cook using cook books and looking stuff up online. No complaints from anyone yet!

 

[Pooh2]

My aunt gave me one cooking lesson when I was 16 years old:
She said, "If you can read, you can cook!"

 

[sparkyboy]

my mom taught me when I was about 8 years old the basics. My aunt taught me how to make pie crust and other yummy desserts. I generally follow recipes but do some tweaking for calories and salt.

 

[angierae]

My stepmother pretty much only cooked out of boxes, so I taught myself (using the internet) how to cook real food.

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

my dad and my aunt-- 100% italian

 

[neatokimmo]

I am self taught on cooking and cleaning. Which is probably why we eat so much chicken and the house is a wreck

 

[englishteacha]

I learned some from my mom, and heavily rely on a copy of the original Betty Crocker cookbook (the old red one) and a plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I don't like cooking very much! Mom is a great cook, as are my siblings. I just don't find any joy in cooking. I don't mind baking so much. Probably because the result is cake or cookies!

 

[kim929]

A variety of people. My mother and grandmother the basics. My ex husband for others add ons. and many cookbooks. Growing up we ate the same thing all the time. Veggies consisted of corn, peas and green beans. Carrots were for a roast. There has been a lot of trial and error.