Cooking failures and successes

We were talking in the office about the show “Worst Cooks in America” and how some of the “cooks” did not know some of the basics, which brought to mind some of my first cooking experiences when I was a novice (not that I am an expert now but I know a lot more than I did in my teens).

We had a small kitchen growing up so there was not a lot of room for mom to show us how to cook and she was not someone who used recipes a lot. She was a wonderful baker and known for her sugar cookies. She would give people her recipe and I would hear comments about how they never tasted like hers.

No, I have never tried her sugar cookies. I think the baking gene skipped me. My Grandma Thronburg had it, my mom had it but it got lost after that.

I wrote in my column two years ago about how I forgot sugar the first time I made mayonnaise cake, so there you have it. I tried numerous times to make chocolate chip cookies the right size but they either came up too thick and somewhat hard or thin like pancakes.

I am fairly good at a crockpot chocolate cake that my husband described as too chocolatey (I did not understand those words). Alas I do not make it anymore.

I also made a pretty decent rhubarb custard pie and rhubarb crip (again, do not make them anymore).

I tried cinnamon rolls once and Alan asked why they were so small. They tasted OK but were not even close to my mom’s.

So those are my baking successes and fails.

My first venture in cooking came with my sister when we wanted to make tapioca pudding one night when our parents were out. We found a recipe and after looking for a while in the refrigerator for the cream of tartar we finally called my grandma to see if she had some we could borrow.

She said she was sure our mother would have some and asked if had checked the spice rack. Say what? Why would cream be in the cupboard. She assured us it would be with the spices. It was.

The recipe said mix until it comes to a peak. We discussed what this might mean, using a hand mixer and got the liquid good and foamy and it sort of peaked so we called it good. After cooking we realized it was way too runny. When Mom and Dad got back mother explained what mixing it to a peak meant. (Mind you this was before the internet and Google).

It tasted fine and our dad was a trooper and ate a healthy helping.

We tried again and got the peaks right but …. We forgot about it and burnt it. Bless our father he was going to eat it anyway but it was really not edible.

My first job as a teen was at the snack bar at the Tepee Pools when it was owned by the Mecca family. I could make good pizzas (but no one was ever told their secret sauce recipe). I got good at burgers and I can still make a mean bacon cheddar burger or mushroom swiss burger.

Tried to make my own pizza dough once. That was a fail. Homemade biscuits a fail. Only tried those once. Not worthy trying again when Pillsbury does a nice job.

Gravy has been another fail, unless you count white sauce. Yes it is a gravy but it’s not from scratch using drippings. Trust me many people have tried to teach me. It just does not work and I am OK with that.

We cook a lot with the crock pot and it is great, as long as you remember to turn it on. But then sometimes when you forget, you get taken out for dinner so it’s a win either way.

Fortunately I have a wonderful husband who is willing to be patient with my failures and only once uttered those words every wife dreads “that’s not how my mom does it.” But it was a funny story and he was right, it was not even close.

We had some baby red potatoes and some fresh garden peas so Alan asked for cream peas and potatoes. So I boiled the potatoes and made cream peas. Two distinct dishes.

His mother and I later, combined the peas and potatoes into one gravy dish. It is very tasty.

I still never quite made it like his mom (the gravy thing), but at least made it one dish and Alan was happy with the way I made them after the first try.

With us eating healthier the past few years we have worked on low sodium barbecue sauce, which now we have to figure out how to limit the sugar in it as well. I have learned to sauté carrots and experimented with some dishes.

Despite the failures I find I enjoy cooking if I have the time. I am willing to deal with the failures so long as I have a back up plan in the freezer, such as an almond crust frozen pizza or plenty of salad.