What got you into cooking?

Maybe this is in the archives, but I'd like to know what got people interested in cooking.
My story has its early beginnings as a 10 year old kid making Oatmeal cookies of the box of Quaker Oats. My older sister would make them and put too much baking soda (yuk!) so I thought that I better take over. I had a stint at Mrs. Field's Cookies prior to becoming a missionary. And, it became imperative that I can cook. We went through a type of "bootcamp" living in the woods of Kentucky for 8 weeks to simulate jungle living. We made a house of plastic tarps and a stove made of a 50 gallon drum, and clay. We had to haul our water and used wood for our fuel. We canned all our meat and had only one supply run the whole time. So, in order to eat what WE wanted, I had to learn to cook.
In Thailand I learned to make homemade ravioli, lasagna noodles and even poptarts. I swore to never make tortillas by hand, but by the 3rd of 4 years, I was selling them! My most prize cookbooks include Making your own groceries 1 and 2.
When we went to Thailand, I figured that I could use cooking as a way to learn language, and it worked. In our last year in the Village, (we worked with tribal people in the Northeast), I was making steamed buns, sticky rice, curry paste, grilled sate, and spring rolls too. It was hilarious in the North (Chiangmai) when I brought some spring rolls to my Thai/Chinese neighbors. They were so thrilled. I asked them if it was like theirs...? And they laughed, (oh no!) "We don't make them ourselves, we buy them at the market!" Oh brother! Now I am making Thai sweets, which is a challenge and a true labor of love. So many stories! I hope I'm not boring ya!


[This message has been edited by blueribboncakes (edited 01-13-2001).]

Hi blue...I've been on a few months and have seen two threads on "what got you into cooking"....not sure how to search for them though.

My mother was a wonderful cook, though she went back to work when I went to school at age 6. I learned to cook by helping, which also earned me "snacks" while helping (I'm no fool). Since my mom worked didn't get home until 5:30 and we were "latchkey" kids, I used to "start dinner" at about the age of 8.

Though she was a wonderful cook, we usually had standard Louisiana/New Orleans cooking (delicious, I know), but I wanted to expand the repertoire of recipes. I wanted lasagna like my schoolmates spoke of (laughed when I saw one family made it from a box -- so much for my dreams of "Italian" food). My father had grown up wealthy and had quite a developed palate. He cooked, too, but really got off on my interest in different foods. So when I finally made lasagna from a recipe I decided on, he went to three stores to get the ingredients: Central Grocery on Decatur Street for fresh mozzarella and freshly grated imported Romano and Parmesan, Puglia's on Rampart for their homemade Italian sausage, another store for the canned Italian tomatoes I wanted... It sure helped my first "end results" to have started with primo ingredients.

Never stopped cooking and reading about cooking. Owe it to both parents rather than just one...

[cape chef]

Blueribbon and Patterson,What wonderful stories, Very passionate
cc

[Live_to_cook]

I cook because I like to eat. Sad but true.

Sometime in my cash-strapped 20s I realized that it was better to cook and be satisfied than sit in a restaurant and be p1ssed off because the money I just spent didn't buy me something that made me happy.

I love good restaurants, don't get me wrong. I was just intrigued by the "how do they DO that?" factor and wanted to figure it out. So I could save money and still satisfy my palate.

Ten years of cooking later, I realize how few people really bother to cook well. I get invited to all sorts of parties (fringe benefit) because of the stuff I insist on bringing.

Being able to cook has helped make me a popular guy to have around, and I don't have any problem with that. (Not to mention my charming personality, but that's another story.)

As I type this I can smell the sweet smell of roasting tomatoes wafting from the grape tomatoes roasting in olive oil, fresh rosemary and crushed garlic in my toaster oven. I've been invited to a party, and I could never arrive empty handed.

Tomorrow I will make crostini from fresh bread and butter, slather with a goat cheese spread tarted up with a touch of mayo and Sriracha, and top with roasted grape tomatoes, drizzled with the tomato oil.

And I will make a dozen new friends...

[This message has been edited by Live_to_cook (edited 01-13-2001).]

Today I made a very fattening American Housewife recipe. Country Potato Casserole. But being the consolidator that I am, I put a few chicken breasts in there, chunked up, so that I could make it a one dish wonder. My family loved it, and I got to take a breather while it was in the oven. Now, for the dessert, I went gourmet! I have always heard of "poached pears with ganache filling" and it has such a flair and quite a nice ring to it. So, I made them, and remembered that someone on this board said something about using apple juice and seasonings instead of of normal. So, it turned out just great, and now I can add ganache to my cake order listing. Very fun, and yummy too!

[Afra]

To answer your question, "What got you into cooking?" I would say that my passion for cooking traces its roots back to the time when I was 8. This is when I began to learn how to cook for the first time. I was soon cooking for my family all the time, following recipes and sometimes making up my own. Now I want to go to culinary school to satisfy this passion by becoming a chef!