Home ec. or lessons for scratch cooking

[ZenSojourner]

I started cooking and sewing when I was 6. By the time "Home Ec" rolled around, it was a ridiculous waste of time for me. In cooking, the teacher made a big deal about NEVER CHANGING INGREDIENTS in a recipe. So I just lied, and said the recipe called for whatever ingredients I felt like using. Turned out fine. In fact, the only failure I had in that class was a recipe I followed slavishly (for cake, turned out to be from a WW2 cookbook that was skimping on eggs, sugar and butter because of war time shortages).

Sewing was pretty much the same - total waste of time for me. I picked an easy pattern with some challenging details and the teacher tried to talk me out of it (reversible poncho with some fancy embellishments you had to do by hand - yeah, it was the 70's). Again, it turned out fine and I spent most of the class period working on my macrame because I finished my "difficult" project early.

You should have heard the screaming when I put my foot down the next year - 8th grade - and insisted I wanted to take SHOP. After fighting and the intervention of my dad, they "let" me take photography.

Can you imagine a world where "photography" would be considered solely a male occupation? I was the first girl ever to take that class.

PS - They DO make oven cleaner, you know. Given the chemicals in that stuff (rubber gloves are de rigeur) I guarantee there's no oven scurf scary enough to live up to them. And I've seen scary ovens - before I whupped 'em into shape.

Even if it did take 3 cans of Easy Off.