Well, things didn't work out that way. I went off to work and stayed single for a VERY LONG TIME. And when I finally got married, it was Mr. Lorna who did (and still does) at least 75% of the meal prep. (Mostly so he can get a decent meal, although I've gotten better at cooking in the past couple of years.)
I was poking around in the basement a couple of weeks ago and found my little recipe box. Boy, my handwriting was a LOT neater in those days. (These days I have to squint and sometimes use a magnifying glass on my edited manuscript pages to figure out what the heck I've written.) And darned if that little recipe box didn't contain 95% cakes, cookies, quick bread and muffin recipes. Yup, I've got a sweet tooth, and my baking has always been better than my cooking.
I'm ecstatic because I've found the recipe I always used for pumpkin bread. It was one of the first recipes I made all by myself. I haven't been able to make it for years before I lost the copy I had. Thank goodness it was a copy--because there's the original bad boy in that little gray file box. (I'm going to type it up and put it on the computer.)
Yesterday was grocery day and a big can of pumpkin went into the grocery cart. Got the walnuts, too. Ain't nothing like toasted pumpkin bread for breakfast. Ahhhhhh.... I have a feeling that pumpkin bread is going to make it into one of my future books. Whichever one comes up the fall, first.
What's the first recipe you remember making all by yourself?
An one-egg yellow cake in the Betty Crocker Cooking Book.
ReplyDeleteI would get fancy and add food coloring or chocolate to make it different.
My sisters and I always did the pies at Thanksgiving, and I'm the youngest of the three. Pumpkin was my favorite pie, so I got to mix up the pumpkin stuff, and used my grandmother's recipe instead of the one on the can. It has more spices and less milk, so it's richer, yummier. And I still have the recipe in my metal recipe box!
ReplyDeleteEdith
http://edithmaxwell.blogspot.com/
LOL, Dru! My very first cookbook was the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I still have it and it's my go-to reference for everything. (It's held together with duct tape.) I passed up a mint-condition copy at a garage sale a few years ago and I'm sticking kicking myself over it.
ReplyDeleteEdith: my husband loves pumpkin pie, and there's nothing wrong wit the taste of it--I just can't get past the texture for some reason. Go figure!
Spice cake! My sister and I would often go into the kitchen to bake and pretend we were doing that old tv cooking show with Florence Hanford and Jeannie, her assistant. My mom's one stipulation ------ we had to toally clean up afterwards - lol. Guess who always was Florence? Me! My sister, Terry, was mad that I always was the 'lead' - uh oh, I think I had a bit of Angelica in me! We had such fun!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRitaestelle
Rats! I knew I should've had a sister instead of two brothers! Sounds like fun. (And I love spice cake--especially with walnuts and raisins.)
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my mother's story. When she got engaged, Gram decided Mom should learn how to cook. She taught her how to make donuts. That's all. Just donuts. End of lessons.
ReplyDeleteSisters can be a lot of fun in the kitchen. One year the three of us (probably high-school era) volunteered to make all of the Thanksgiving dinner. At one point prior to stuffing the turkey, we were flying him around the kitchen with sound effects and peeing our pants laughing.
ReplyDeleteEdith
I love to bake, too! In fact I always say that I only cook because we have to eat, but I LOVE to bake! I don't remember what I made first, but it was probably oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. That is a staple in my family. I have a great pumpkin cookie recipe that we have been making since I was a kid, too. Let me know if you want it.
ReplyDeleteBut my favorite baking story is about my mom. My grandma always told it to us, and we never tired of hearing it. They were renting a farmhouse, so the chicken coop was off limits. But my mom was making a mud cake and thought that if she added eggs (like she saw my grandma do) that she could make a yellow cake. So in she crawled, through the little opening the chickens went through. And out she would come using her dress to hold eggs. After multiple trips, her mud cake would still not turn yellow! Later that day, when the farmer came to collect eggs and found none, but found lots of shells under the front porch, he was livid. My grandma had to shield my mom from him, as he was so angry. I still makes me giggle to remember my gram telling us that story, in her most dramatic voice, and us kids laughing at our silly mom trying to turn mud yellow with eggs.