Cooking

Sigh. Just received an email from my cousin Shelley. Turns out that her grandma kept her recipes the same way my grandma did: all in her head. So there goes any chance I would ever have of learning to cook as well as they did. When I finally expressed an interest in learning to cook, mamaw really did try to teach me. But it is difficult to learn when the conversation goes like this:
"OK, mom, how much yadada do I put in?"
"As much as it needs."
"Well, what temperature do I set the oven at?"
"Oh, about 350, 400, whatever."
"OK, how long do I cook it for?"
"Until it's done."
Well gee whiz, why didn't I figure that out on my own?! Needless to say, my cooking skills do not begin to match the Smith women's. But thanks to friends and neighbors, I have learned to make a few interesting munchies. Dusty initiated me to the joys of rice, scrambled eggs and bacon; Gail taught me sweet-n-sour chicken and rice, and chicken noodle casserole. Of course, I modified the chicken and rice, to a slightly cheaper version (chicken hot dogs), but the basic idea was put there by Gail, whose mother is a WHIZ in the kitchen and was good enough to teach her daughter those skills... And then I have developed a tendency to "change" standard recipes, add a little dash to them, and so far all my attempts have turned out to be edible! LOL Haven't poisoned anyone yet, and even managed to teach a male not to challenge me: he had the lack of intelligence to tell me I couldn't possibly make a taco sauce too hot/spicy for him. Wrong move, Einstein! Needless to say, half a gallon of milk later he admitted that yeah, it was pretty good sauce... Men, they can be so amusing....