Home ec. or lessons for scratch cooking

[skhill]

I never took home ec, and on top of that my mother and both grandmas were terrible cooks. One grandma was so bad that we'd stop at McDonalds just before we got to her house for lunch... Also, my uncle always had a big bottle of pepto-bismol in his luggage when he came for a visit! And somehow I've taught myself how to cook over the years, (thank you, Joy of Cooking!), and I enjoy it. Especially baking.

Oh, and I sew also. But I don't know what to do with those pattern things, I just make it up as I go along.... that doesn't work so well when I'm baking a cake, tho...

[andtckrtoo]

I like the thread. Thanks for starting it. I took Home Ec in Junior High. I still have nightmares of the skirt we had to make then WEAR to school for a day! I'm an okay sewer. I did make a Halloween Costume for my daughter (she was a bear) one year. My mom was a professional seamstress who taught 4H classes (yes, I was a member of 4H for sewing), etc. I did not inherit her talent, unfortunately. I'm much too impulsive. (She also went back to college when I was in college and got an associates degree in computer programing - another skill at which I'm useless).

As for cooking - I learned to cook from my mom and my grandmothers, and both of my daughters (step and natural) learned to cook from me. I actually enjoy cooking and I think I passed that on to them - they both are good cooks (and yes, I encourage them to make dinners and I sit on my hands when they do not do things the way I would). I'd like to think that the most important thing I taught my daughters was to not be afraid to experiment and try new things. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and it's not the end of the world. I am a good cook, but I've served some very questionable meals. Fortunately, I have a fairly tolerant DH who enjoys the occasional PB&J for dinner.

But I do agree - if cooking is not your thing, why worry? I have friends who are my age, and have gone through Home Ec and all of that, but who would burn water. They have other talents that I often envy.

[lph]

I enjoy cooking only as far as I enjoy knowing how to prepare basic ingredients well and simply. Sure, I like eating more complicated dishes, but all the prepping just feels so fussy - fun with a beer in hand and friends around as an evenings entertainment but for every day I don't like spending much more time making food than eating it. But it's important to me that my son learns the basics of healthy, simple food and how to make it.

Eating out is a lot more expensive here than in the States, and mostly for special occasions.

[ny biker]

I took a sewing home ec class in high school in addition to cooking. I remember making something out of kelly green fabric, but I only remember the fabric, not what I made from it. We also got kits to make a stuffed animal - I made a black scottish terrier which I still have.

When I was little my mother made lots of dresses for me and my sisters, especially for holidays. I recall having to stand very still while she pinned things that I was trying on.

[shootingstar]

but for every day I don't like spending much more time making food than eating it. But it's important to me that my son learns the basics of healthy, simple food and how to make it.

+1 The healthy basics is most helpful for the young'uns.
which is why it bewilders me when even some people, ie. single, childless women /men who complain "how much time" it takes to cook at home. Really? Scrambling eggs for 1 person with some cut veggies and onion is not a huge effort. Under 10 min. Same for a totally different dish of washing, cutting and sauteeing Chinese green leafy veggies in a bit of oil and 1 small of soy sauce. Same amount of time for this side vegetable dish.

Both healthy and fast. Cooking simply and healthy is a daily (survival) skill.

My partner (who is 66) learned cooking by watching his mother. It was source of fascination to him especially the baking process. (And she was a real gourmet baker in the traditional German style.) His mother had a very natural style of story-telling and gentle manner that seemed to draw children and teenagers anyway. He did not do much real cooking in kitchen as a child...but he must have soaked up those lessons to prepare some of those dishes now off the top of his head regularily at home. I don't think he cooks because he loves to, it's just a daily thing to him...like brushing your teeth. Only occasionally he'll go onto this gourmet, creative streak where he invents some great stuff based on some recipes he found online.

He taught his ex-wife (who is British) how to cook better, tastier food because she lacked cooking skill (her mother died when she was 15) and also her family ate more dull, British cuisine (in England) which at that time, did not have the dynamic colonial influence of Indian, Chinese, Carribbean, etc.

I know my brother is not a cooking dummy, he knows how to do all the basic Chinese cooking techniques...steaming fish, stir-frying/sauteeing, cooking rice from scratch ...but he has eaten more take-out food and has become abit overweight.

[ny biker]

which is why it bewilders me when even some people, ie. single, childless women /men who complain "how much time" it takes to cook at home. Really? Scrambling eggs for 1 person with some cut veggies and onion is not a huge effort. Under 10 min. Same for a totally different dish of washing, cutting and sauteeing Chinese green leafy veggies in a bit of oil and 1 small of soy sauce. Same amount of time for this side vegetable dish.

Both healthy and fast. Cooking simply and healthy is a daily (survival) skill.

Unless you just really suck at it and manage to screw up even the simplest things. Then you just wind up with food that tastes bad. And you feel like a loser because somehow you managed to screw up such a simple task.

It's less aggravating to just have cereal for dinner.

[PamNY]

+
which is why it bewilders me when even some people, ie. single, childless women /men who complain "how much time" it takes to cook at home. Really? Scrambling eggs for 1 person with some cut veggies and onion is not a huge effort. Under 10 min. Same for a totally different dish of washing, cutting and sauteeing Chinese green leafy veggies in a bit of oil and 1 small of soy sauce. Same amount of time for this side vegetable dish.

It's not bewildering at all. Shopping takes time; if you have a busy or unpredictable schedule, keeping fresh food on hand isn't practical. I love to cook, but when I was working long hours, commuting an hour each way, doing volunteer work and taking night classes, I didn't cook much.

The grim misery of fulfilling a moral mandate that one "must" cook or eat a certain way undoubtedly wipes out any health benefits the food might have.

Pam

[redrhodie]

It's not bewildering at all. Shopping takes time; if you have a busy or unpredictable schedule, keeping fresh food on hand isn't practical. I love to cook, but when I was working long hours, commuting an hour each way, doing volunteer work and taking night classes, I didn't cook much.

The grim misery of fulfilling a moral mandate that one "must" cook or eat a certain way undoubtedly wipes out any health benefits the food might have.

Pam

I almost never cooked when I lived in NYC. It was easier to eat really good ethnic food than to try to prepare anything with no counter space, and often cheaper, too. Here, it's pretty necessary to cook. We don't have the restaurant choices, and eating out is definitely a lot more expensive than cooking.

[ny biker]

I almost never cooked when I lived in NYC. It was easier to eat really good ethnic food than to try to prepare anything with no counter space, and often cheaper, too. Here, it's pretty necessary to cook. We don't have the restaurant choices, and eating out is definitely a lot more expensive than cooking.

I barely had a kitchen when I lived in NYC. It was a combination kitchen/foyer. Four gas burners on top of a half-refrigerator (no freezer). I was always afraid I'd set my hair on fire if I bent over to get something out of the fridge while I was cooking something. Very old dirty oven that I was afraid to use. I prepared all food that wasn't take-out in either a toaster oven or a microwave.

[Trek420]

it bewilders me when even some people, ie. single, childless women /men who complain "how much time" it takes to cook at home. Really? Scrambling eggs for 1 person with some cut veggies and onion is not a huge effort. Under 10 min. Same for a totally different dish of washing, cutting and sauteeing Chinese green leafy veggies in a bit of oil and 1 small of soy sauce. Same amount of time for this side vegetable dish.

We who live in urban areas have access to fresh produce, or are able to grow our own, we who have creative and or ethnic foods and the knowledge and time to learn how to use and enjoy them, wealth and leisure to explore and shop around for the perfectly ripe summer fruit .... we sometimes forget that whole sections of our cities, sometimes whole towns do not have access to grocery stores.

My own wife grew up so poor that though there was a grocery store nearby the family could not shop there, instead sometimes surviving off charity from a church and often raiding the dumpster behind the store. It's impossible to get fresh produce under those conditions. It isn't laziness that keeps people from cooking and prevents them from being scorned by wealthy home cooks, it is poverty.

I never felt poverty or hunger as a child, living on a farm food abounds. Besides our crops we always had a garden and bartered what we did not grow with neighboring farms. But when I asked my Mom & Dad why we supported the UFW (United Farm Workers) since we owned a farm they replied something like "we are in the same boat. We earn about the same. The only difference is we own the land". So we were very poor, I never knew it.

In the Bay Area, where I formerly worked as a chef, large areas still lack grocery stores. They have liquor stores or fast food. Grocery stores and banks do not go to these areas. Working class and urban poor sometimes working 2 jobs are not going to be able to go to the farm market and fast food advertises as the friend of the busy and/or working poor "got a buck? you're in luck".

I'm glad to see a growing (pun intended) movement of non-profit groups literally bringing farms and fresh produce to urban areas.

Rather than criticize others for not eating in the way we are truly blessed and privileged to enjoy, I hope we can all support, donate and/or volunteer for groups bringing gardens to needy areas. Here are just a few:

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.734899/

[PamNY]

We who live in urban areas have access to fresh produce, or are able to grow our own, we who have creative and or ethnic foods and the knowledge and time to learn how to use and enjoy them, wealth and leisure to explore and shop around for the perfectly ripe summer fruit .... we sometimes forget that whole sections of our cities, sometimes whole towns do not have access to grocery stores.

This is a very good and important point. I was glad to see NYC is at least documenting this problem. You don't want to know what I said to friends and neighbors who think we are among the underserved -- I guess because the store with the best kiwi fruit doesn't stay open 24/7? What will come of the survey, I don't know, but at least the issue is being addressed

One good thing -- farmer's markets are available in most neighborhoods. I've even seen chickens in community gardens. We still need plain old grocery stores with reasonable prices available to everyone.

Pam

[Deborajen]

I took Home Ec, took cooking in 4H, Mom taught me a little, both Grandmas taught me a little, -- I guess after all those lessons you could say I know how to cook, but the meals I come up with always seem uninspiring. I love to bake but when it comes to meals, my creativity is pathetic.

I still have my recipe card box from Home Ec and still use a lot of recipes from back then. We had this goofy old lady come in and do a demonstration every year in Home Ec. She was from the Gas Service Company and she showed us some specifics about using a gas stove and gas oven (and explained that vs. using electric, etc.). She had these blue flame earrings that we all made fun of. But she did make some good casseroles and I still have (and use) those recipes.

Mom and I took a cooking class at the Santa Fe School of Cooking a few years ago and that was fun. I'd love to learn how to make some of the fancy flaming dishes someday.

So I've learned in Home Ec, at home, and all over.--

Deb

[PamNY]

IShe was from the Gas Service Company and she showed us some specifics about using a gas stove and gas oven (and explained that vs. using electric, etc.). She had these blue flame earrings that we all made fun of. Deb

Those earrings would go for a lot of money on Ebay.

[shootingstar]

It isn't laziness that keeps people from cooking and prevents them from being scorned by wealthy home cooks, it is poverty.

I never felt poverty or hunger as a child, living on a farm food abounds. Besides our crops we always had a garden and bartered what we did not grow with neighboring farms. But when I asked my Mom & Dad why we supported the UFW (United Farm Workers) since we owned a farm they replied something like "we are in the same boat. We earn about the same. The only difference is we own the land". So we were very poor, I never knew it.

We were urban poor, 5 children in 1-bedroom apartment in small southern Ontario city. (probably broke the fire code in maximum occupancy). My father was a restaurant cook in a Chinese restaurant his (not his own) his whole working life. We were just fortunate our mother was a full-time housewife who can't speak English..which probably limited employment opportunities (and caused other problems too complex to express here). Yes the food dollar had to stretch. No ethnic groceries (except for German stuff) in our city in the 1960's-1970's. But dishes still were 'Chinese' in taste and cooking technique for certain foods.

I dimly knew we were poor, perhaps by food because we were encouraged to eat whatever was on our plate. But didn't how poor until we moved into a 3 bedroom house later (where 6th child came later).

Sorry if I sounded clueless, but really that was not the intent. Depends on which context of "cluelessness". I disagree in some ways that poverty = possible lack of cooking skills. I have relatives who fell into the same income bracket for lst 15 years after immigrating to Canada. All restaurant or sewing factory workers. They bought food carefully in terms of saving money and cooked not to bad. (actually quite well, better than my mother). It wasn't access to local markets, but simply cooking with whole veggies and meats, habits probably carried over from growing up in Chinese rural villages where processed foods just wasn't the norm 40-60 years ago.


*Like cycling, you if you see a cyclist who maybe riding slow, that maybe that person already had cycled 100 kms. that day. Unless you ask, you don't know.

[Duck on Wheels]

Took cooking in 4H + learned from Mom. Here in Norway, home ec is required for both girls and boys, so my kids learned the basic techniques (including basic laundry and home-cleaning techniques) and a few handsfull of recipes in grade 5 and again, somewhat more advanced, in grade 8. Each of those years, there was a practical "exam" that involved planning and executing a housework day at home, shopping for the main meal, at least one major cleaning chore (laundry and ironing, say, or washing windows, or ...), cooking and serving a 3-course meal when the rest of the family got home, after-meal cleanup, and writing a report including an account of the meal's cost-per-serving. Teacher dropped in sometime in the course of the day to see how things were going, and parent(s) filled out an evaluation form (great opportunity for positive parental recognition there!). When UK went to college in the US, her roommates were living on pop-tarts while she was baking bread and making soups from scratch. She now makes the family meal if she happens to be visiting Th'giving or X'mas; cooks better than I do! DS caught the eye of his first gf by cooking her a meal of lime salsa shrimp on tagliatelle ... while on a hiking trip in the mountains! When training a women's volleyball team, he baked them each cakes for their birthdays. There are things I'm critical of in Norwegian schools, but the gender-neutral home ec requirement is one thing I'm really pleased with.