Learning to Cook

I have always loved to cook, and I attribute most of this to my grandmother, who we all called Mamaw. Everything she cooked and baked was wonderful, and the love that went into everything she did for us was food for the soul as well! I remember the Christmas when I was about 10, my favorite present was a Betty Crocker Baking Set. I could hardly believe all the beautiful, not to mention wonderful smelling, cake mixes and the bowls and utensils just my size. The morning after Christmas I made "homemade" biscuits, rolled out on my own little cloth with my own little rolling pin and cut with my own little biscuit cutter, about the size of quarters. Mamaw just raved about those biscuits and went on and on about how light and tender and fluffy they were. She certainly fed my love for cooking ... and my love for her!

One funny story involves my little sister and a cake mix. Our dad was very insistent that we learn to follow directions, and follow them to the letter. One Saturday morning when Mom wasn't home, Pattie wanted to bake a cake and she asked Daddy how to do it. He said, "All you have to do is follow the directions and you can do it all by yourself." So far, so good, but keep in mind that this was over 40 years ago. At that time there were actually two sets of directions on the back of a cake box, one on the top half and one on the bottom half. One was for mixing with a mixer and one for mixing by hand ... and both sets of directions listed the ingredients! We also lived in Denver, and there were high altitude directions on the side of the box. Soooo, Pattie started at the top of the box and followed each and every line, from top to bottom and around on the side which called for extra flour for baking at mile high elevation. I think she added something like 4 or 5 cups of water and 6 eggs to this mix, which turned out like brown water. Needless to say, it never did bake!

Our family still gets a laugh about Mexican Wedding Cakes too. This is a recipe that our daughter-in-law's Mom has made for years. Well, when she and our son first got married she set out to make Mexican Wedding Cakes for the Christmas holidays. They were rolled in powdered sugar and looked so pretty on the fancy plates that she had set around their little home. My husband, son and I thought they were tasty, but she complained that they were not the same consistency that her Mom's always were. When her mother stopped in for a visit too and sampled the cookies, she asked Jen how long she had baked them. Jenny's eyes got big and her pretty face turned red as she replied, "Bake? I didn't know you're supposed to bake them." Like I said, we still laugh about this and once in a while we tell Jen, "If you're going to make Mexican Wedding Cakes, I'd like mine baked." She's such a good sport about it ... and by the way, these days, an awesome cook!