My Learning Story

Cooking With My Family

 

My mother was a single parent as long as I can remember, my parents got divorced when I was very little. My mom worked very hard for my sister and me so that we never had to go without. This left most of the house work and cooking up to us.

I was eight years old when my mom, being the brilliant lady that she was, decided that we were going to take a whole weekend and she was going to teach my sister and I how to cook. She taught us the most generic things so that we would be able to make many meals. The weekend we spent at least 12 hours in the kitchen learning how to bake chicken, cook steak and pork, how to microwave canned foods, how to defrost meats, how to use a grill, and even how to clean up our mess after.

My favorite part was when she took us out side to teach us how to light the grill. The first thing she said to us was to never stand to close to an open flame. Then she turned on the gas and lit the grill. The minute she lighted the grill my sister screamed and we both looked over and her shirt was on fire. My mom picked her up and threw her into our pool that was about 20 feet away. Then my mom and me fell on the ground laughing.

She decided it was best if we didn’t use the grill for a few more years. When we went back in side she went on to teach us how to cut vegetables and how to know when they had gone bad. When we were done that weekend we had so much food in our refrigerator that it literally wouldn’t close. My mom, my sister and I took all the food we made and gave it to a food shelter. That was probably one of the happiest days of my childhood and something I will never forget. Learning how to cook, singing and dancing with my family doesn’t get much better to that. And how many college students do you know that can make just about any meal they want? I am very lucky to have been able to learn that skill at such a young age.