I love to cook also...my family jokes about my "gourmet meals"...they say that I don't cook things like normal people cook (fried chicken, spaghetti etc). I like to keep it interesting so i change up my recipes...they say i make things that you only find in restaurants.

I'm as good a cook as I am a baker. But I enjoy baking more.

My mother could only cook seven meals...and she rotated them through the week for my entire childhood. The only exceptions were holidays where they all had the exact same spread with a different meat depending on the holiday.

The first thing I did when I moved out on my own was subscribe to Bon Appetit magazine. 30 years later I still subscribe and have every issue from the last 30 years piled up in the basement. I can cook anything from classic french cuisine to nim chow to hush puppies to east Indian Pav bhaji. I can remove the entire shell, legs and all from a live lobster, keeping it alive and whole.

My sister followed the same path as I did. But while I prefer the sweet side of things, she prefers the savory. We make a great team at family functions.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to be in my kitchen! Cooking, baking, whatever...(not doing the dishes, though! lol!) I'm told I'm great at both - inherited it from my mom and my grandmothers. I think it's important to pass it down, too...My kids are ALWAYS in the kitchen with me, making something, measuring, whatever. They both (ages 5 & 3) have their own aprons - my daughter has (I think?) 4 at last count! With hats to match! I agree with many PP's...it is a great way to spend time together, they see how "stuff works" and the fine motor skills that come from using a knife, or pair of scissors (supervised closely, of course!) is great!

We eat dinner together every night as a family - I cook almost every night - or it's leftovers from the night before. It's funny...I had a coupon for a free jar of tomato sauce at the grocery store - I brought it home and my kids said, "Mommy, what's THAT?" So funny...I wasn't quite sure what to do with it myself!

And Indy - I can't make pies either!!
The only one I ever make is scratch pumpkin pie - my MIL taught me...from whole pumpkins - you'll never eat canned again!

Who me??? YES, I think I am an excellent cook. I love to do it. I have been cooking since I was a small child. I would like to consider myself a caterer, but I sure need a lot of practice in that area, but if someone wants me to prepare a menu of items for an event, I sure will do it.

I guess I am in the minority or at least one of the few who will admit they don't like to cook. We don't starve and my food is okay but if I can figure out how to get out of it I will. I love to bake and will find any reason to do so.

My daughter loves to cook and experiments with new recipes whenever she gets the chance. She got the love of cooking from her grandmothers and aunts who love to entertain.

I've been wanting to make dumplings for the longest but everytime i find a recipe online the reviews aren't that great for me to even waste my time trying. I think i made a mistake by cooking "gourmet" meals for my hubby because now he's spoiled to the point where he won't eat bake chicken if it doesn't have some kind of special sauce...or spaghetti if it doesn't have Italian sausage.

My family says I have spoiled them to eating practically anywhere else. My boys have decided to learn to cook from my recipes so that they can enjoy some good food from time to time.

Michele

I am a horrible cook and HATE to cook. I would say that I do pretty good at baking though, and, obvioulsy enjoy it.

I learnt more from my grandmother than my mother but I also love to cooks. Before she passed away we wrote down a lot of "her" recipes which I have contnued to make 15 years after her passing.

I know make cookies and easy dishes like pizza on bread with my niece who is 4. It gives her confidence in the kitchen and we bond over it

The only thing I wish is that I was a little more adventorous - I tend to make the same things over and over.

artscallion - that reminds me on a "This American Life" episode on NPR when the girl said her mother made chicken every night of the week so when she went ot college and ate cafeteria food it was like her world opened up but everyone else was gagging

oh yes! Good at both. My husband is as well, though he is much better at cooking than baking. He is a grill and meat smoking master too. We love to be in the kitchen and will have people over and be in the kitchen the whole night. One of our favorite things are sushi night, we pre-cut all of the stuff and stand and roll sushi and drink wine, it's really fun. We <3 food!

I love to cook and I love to bake as well. I learned by watching and my mother and grandmother didn't have recipes for most of the "family" dishes. Unfortunately that means I do a lot of cooking with a little of this and a little of that and when I hit on something my DH really likes, it's sometimes hard to recreate. Like others before said, it is a lost art.

Have been baking since I was a little girl, my "signature" items are pecan pralines and pecan pie, but with more pecans that filling because that's the way by DH likes it.

I'm a good cook too! My granny was a phenomenal cook. Growing up my mom and I lived with her and 2 of my mom's spinster sisters. My mom and my aunties couldn't cook and hated being in the kitchen whereas I spent a lot of time watching and helping out.

When my uncle died suddenly at the young age of 26, my granny got so depressed she wouldn't even get out of bed for a couple of months. Guess who did the cooking? 10-year old me. The first dish I I cooked was mooshoo pork which I saw being made by a Chinese chef on TV. It was burnt and crusty and I'm sure mooshoo pork isn't supposed to taste like caramelized ginger but everyone ate it up without complaint. Fair to say I've been cooking since then.

I grew up, went to culinary school, worked very briefly as a chef and then pastry chef. Now I'm a housewife. My husband is a good cook too but he's lazy with his mise-en-place. I can't stand how unevenly he cuts up veggies and is too impatient to sautee long enough. Everyone of my boys love cooking---and eating! In fact just last night, my 17 year old, who can stand to lose quite a few pounds said to me, "How can I lose weight if you cook so well?"

dkelly,
Oh no! Here I go agreeing with a Red Sox fan again! I could bake or cook all day every day, too. (I prefer baking, though, because I'd rather eat the sweets.) I've made soap (but just once--once was enough!), I quilt, sew, knit and crochet. My friends can't believe I make bread, jellies and jams. (I could have been a pioneer woman, but I would have REALLY hated all those hardships they faced!) I could stay home and do this stuff every day--just let me out once in a while to re-stock the pantry.

Regarding making butter...My daughter fondly recalls the time her fourth grade class was making butter in a jar. The principal came into the room and asked for a chance to shake the jar. The lid flew off, sending cream all over his shirt and tie. The kids laughed for days! They're probably still laughing, and it was over 10 years ago.

Oh that's a great story cutthecake. I think we all had a principal that we would have liked to see that happen to!

I love reading all these replies.........it's nice to know that there are others who enjoy cooking for their families as I do.

I can never seem to explain the joy and sense of accomplishment I feel when I watch people enjoy a meal that I've prepared for them.

My "real life" friends don't understand it, so it's nice to know that my "cc friends" get it.

As a kid growing up most of my family memories are "meal" related........such happy times to think about. I hope I can pass that on to my children and someday my grandchildren.

Thanks for a great thread!

P.S. I only have heavy whipping cream in the fridge, will that work for butter? of do I need just plain heavy cream? I can't believe I've never tried this before, I guess I had boring home-ec teachers!

dkelly,
I agree, almost all of my memories involve food! Our huge family Thanksgivings, vacations at the beach, trips to North Carolina-I remember the food! And when we're planning any kind of gathering I always think of what I will be serving.
And I think feeding people is such a nuturing thing. Good food can bring such joy. And my memory might be pretty bad but I can remember when someone says that their favorite dessert is key lime pie, or that they love butter beans, and guess what I'll cook for them they next time I'm feeding them!?
I am blessed to be in charge of our church kitchen, so I get to plan the meals. And when we have a covered dish my DH always says I go overboard - I fix too many dishes! I also love to quilt (by hand). I wish I liked to clean! I just do enough to get by. At least the kids are getting old enough to do alot of the chores.

Melissa

Oh Melissa I would love to quilt by hand. I made one "machine" quilt once it was a simple log cabin from that book "quilt in a day" I don't know if you've heard or it.

My sister and I got together with my Mom and 2 older Aunts (they've all died now) but we spent every Monday together at my Mom's house making our quilts. (Of course, we took turns bringing some kind of food item and it turned into an eating party as well).

I ended up donating the quilt to my church for their Christmas bazaar that year and I've never gotten around to making another.


I LOVE visiting the Amish stores in PA to see their AMAZING quilts. I would love to buy one some day, they do beautiful work.

I love to cook as well as bake.
Was started by my mother at a very young age & greatly encouraged by her all the time.
My family are extremely appreciative of my cooking & greatly encourage all experiments with great enthusiasm.
Have encouraged my offspring, as I was encouraged, with very pleasing results.
A great pleasure is decorating cakes & cooking, in partnership with my daughter, when home from university.
We both really enjoy it.
I certainly agree that it seems a lost art & is getting more so as time goes on.

I use a lot of recipes too. One of the sweetest thing EVER done for me was right after I got married, my MIL, her sisters and a few of the cousins got together and make me a cookbook. Its full of all of the recipes that they make for the family at gatherings and all of the recipes we love! DH loves it because I have all of the recipes from his childhood!
Also, about being a pioneer woman, how many of you can vegetables? I don't can, but I always help put up the veggies from my papaw's garden every year. So i have a freezer full of sweet corn, green beans, peaches, etc... Now THATS a lost art. Im 21 and NONE of my friends know how (or have a desire) to do that.

When my parents built our house (Dad did much of the work himself, and Mom provided manual labor and cooked for the workers), I was just a kid. Mom disappeared one day from the job site, which was next door to where we lived. She said she was fed up with all the construction, so she went home and made grape jelly! I still say "I need to make jelly" when the stress gets to me. And sometimes I actually do make the jelly.

I come from a long line of Ukrainian cooks so I learned from my Ba-Ba and Mom....I have definetly gotten better over the years and having a hubby who is also an excellent cook helps also!!

I love to cook. I love to sew window treatments. I love to draw. I love to paint the walls a great color, then paint a canvas to hang on the walls. I love to make my kids' rooms look like their wildest dreams. I love to make wreaths and other flower arrangements for the front door. I have a degree in interior design, so I love to design stuff, then make it all happen. I love to take discarded stuff from Goodwill and turn it into something completely cool.

Now if I could just turn off my creative brain at night, and get a good night's sleep, I'd be OK!