A few recent events have gotten me thinking about how one learns to cook.  The first event was that I stumbled upon an article describing "How to boil water"   At first I thought it was a joke but no it really did describe how to boil water.  Still unphased, I thought ok well that'll be good content to write about.  But then the other day I was talking to a sister of a friend and she said "a lot of women my age don't know how to cook" - she's 28.  She had recently taken a cooking class and wanted to learn more about how to cook.  I think it is great she is learning and I wish her all the best.  But it’s a bit difficult for me to relate - I've been cooking all my life. 

The earliest memory I have of cooking must be from when I was in or just before kindergarten.  I had a Betty Crocker pudding maker set.  You'd add this powder, some milk and shake it.  Sure my mom would help but I was cooking.  Also afriend had one of the cake baking ovens and we used to make cakes and frosting.  It was great fun.  Later in something like third grade I remember making brownies with my sister - and eating the whole batch before my parents came home from bowling!  By sixth grade it was cooking at Girl Scout events and in home economics.  In high school I was baking cookies for friends, treats to take in for sharing in classes, cooking dinners when I wanted something my mom wouldn't make - like tacos, and working as a short order breakfast cook on weekends.  And ultimately, in college I was cooking my way into Husband-to-be's heart via his stomach with those amazing brownies I learned to cook in third grade.  

Without cooking my life would have been much different. So in many ways I feel sorry for the women who are of just now learning to cook - to me they've missed out on so much.  How can we help?  I'm not sure but I guess the first step is realizing that not everyone can just walk into a kitchen, boil some water and make spaghetti let alone lasagna or macaroni and four-cheese.  If you're one of those who can't cook and would like to learn it would be interesting to hear what types of things you want to learn. Or if you have suggestions on how to help people learn more about how to cook that would be interesting to.  Just click add a comment to this entry so we can all see what you have to say...