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Journey of Cooking - One
Cooking – the practice or manner of
preparing food – is definitely one of those skills only mastered with "hands
on" learning. We can browse through the most beautifully decorated cookbooks but will
only produce our own "masterpieces" when we have followed the recipe and used
our own kitchens to bring them about.
It would be nice to attend Chef school or take classes in gourmet
cooking but that isn’t a feasible option for most of us. I don’t think this
should hinder us from learning where we can by reading cookbooks and paying attention to
their illustrations, watching shows on television where professional chefs show you how
its done:) and there are many other ways to learn everything there is to know about
cooking!
The best learning I’ve ever done in this area… the
learning and taught skills that remain with me every time I cook… are the lessons
taught by those dear family and friends who have let me learn by their example and
experience. The online dictionary says that "taught" is "to carry on
instruction on a regular basis." This is the kind of instruction we get from those
who touch our lives in this important area of learned skills.
I don’t think it would be wise to include every thing I have
learned in one post so I will send them one or two at a time:)
For me the learning started with my mother. She was a single
mother but she didn’t want us to live with any less than those with married parents.
There were some areas where we would never have the same stability, routine, or advantages
than those homes with two parent families but one area she had control in was cooking!
She found ways to make herself anything we loved but didn’t
have the funds to purchase on a routine basis. I always wondered how she could imitate
foods and create such close (or better) versions and now people wonder why I even bother:)
doing the same thing but I do! I will try my best to figure out a way to make from my
mixing bowls and using my measuring utensils anything mass manufactured or bought already
prepared!
When I was a teenager I fell in "love" with
McDonald’s sausage McMuffins! They were better to me than any other breakfast food
and I craved them unabashedly! We could not afford to buy many of these so my mom set out
to prove to me that she could make the exact same thing from home. I did NOT believe her
and told her "thanks… but it won’t be the SAME". The next morning I
awoke to a delicious scent wafting up from the kitchen and after fixing my hair, putting
on make up, and on with how the "teen-girl-getting-ready" goes I heard mom
calling me down to the kitchen. When I got there she handed me something wrapped in wax
paper the same exact way a McMuffin was wrapped when you got them. I opened it up and it
looked amazingly – just like the favored ones I had been scraping my dimes together
to buy with every chance! I was still skeptical but I tried a bite and that breakfast
biscuit had one thing different than the fast food versions… it was BETTER! From that
point on my mother made those for my best friend and I every single morning… I
don’t know how long that went on or even when she stopped. At the time… I sadly
say today that I didn’t see how special that effort on my behalf was. I just accepted
that as something moms were supposed to do and like she just wanted to do it to save money
or something! How many times since I have had my own children have I thought of that?
Beyond the numbers available to count… so pretty much endlessly!
I will include my dear mother’s instructions in making these
but I must tell you that I have never made them myself. The sweet memory has always been
too tender for me to bear long enough to get through the process.
Mom’s McMuffins
English muffins
Round Sausages
Eggs
Metal round cookie cutter (best to find one as close to the size of the muffin as
possible)
American Cheese Slices
Cook sausage round first – slowly so they don’t burn and stay soft. *Using a
non-stick pan is preferred for this*.
Cook eggs next – in a separate skillet. Grease pan enough that there is no way the
egg can have dry places and place round cookie cutter in the center of the skillet and
ease egg into the cookie cutter. Mom cracked the egg into a small bowl first so that she
could "pour" it into the circle. Cook on that side until firm and gently remove
cookie cutter. Tenderly flip the egg and slowly cook the other side until it is done.
Place a slice of cheese on the egg and heat until melted.
*Mom didn’t have a microwave back then so it might be much easier to do the next part
using a microwave*
Boil some water or heat up some in a tea kettle and hold the split
English muffins over the steam until soft. Place face down into the sausage grease in the
skillet they were prepared in. Immediately and quickly place the sausage, the egg &
cheese on the bottom of the muffin and place the top on. Place this in a plastic zippered
bag and allow to remain there until cool enough to eat.
Only love could motivate someone to go through this process every
morning for a moody teenager carrying around more attitude than gratitude!
On another occasion… mom performed an act of love like this.
It was my 16th birthday. I loved, loved, loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and when
mom asked me what type of cake I would like I told her peanut butter and chocolate:) Guess
what? She worked with recipes and tried this and tried that and on my birthday she
presented me with a home made peanut butter cake with real chocolate icing. The cake was
covered in a sweet peanut butter icing and chocolate was poured over that. It was decadent
to say the least! My other favorite food of that time was Kentucky Fried Chicken but she
opted to just buy that instead of making it AND the cake:) This was a very memorable time
for me… just another gift of love from my mother’s kitchen.
Since then there have been different kitchens from which my mother
poured out, mixed out, iced together, served out, and given from. She has always made
hearty vegetable stews but none have ever, ever been the same as the others… she has
perfected the most mouth watering pork loin ever tasted and try as I might to follow her
instructions… mine has never come close. This mother, this wife, writer, registered
nurse, seamstress, and cook book collector accomplished more in my heart – the heart
of her child, her daughter – than she will ever know.
I can only hope that my children will one day think as fondly of
me while cooking, cleaning, or just "being" as I think of my mother when
I’m in my kitchen.
It would be enough – in my humble opinion – if it was
only her children she served throughout the years but she went beyond her own home. She
hand gathered hundreds of pecans and made up exquisite Christmas gifts with them…
shelled them by hand and made German chocolate pecan pies that she sold to a local
restaurant for money to spend on our Christmas gifts. She made extras for our friends when
they came over and sometimes sent some to their parents, she made home made fudge and
divinity for teachers, friends, and co-workers… she served by taking the precious and
limited time she had at home and away from work and used every minute of that time for
good.
I don’t know how she did it but I hope that some day I can
become as worthy, righteous, and beautiful in the eyes of my children as she has become to
me.
Is there something you could make today to show your husband you
love him? Does he have a favorite dish that you know how to fix that you could plan for
tonight’s meal or one this week? Is there a special treat you could fix for your dear
ones to reveal to them a mother’s love? A shown love, a just-because-love, a very
welcome-home-my-darling love?
When you prepare something home prepared today for your own
family… would it be much more difficult to make up two instead of one so you could
give the extra to family or friend?
Take care of your kitchen today. Clean it, shine it, organize it,
and bring about sweet order. Appreciate the mixing bowls, measuring spoons, shiny pots and
pans, capable cookie sheets, and well used baking dishes. If you haven’t cooked in a
while… get out a cookbook or go online to get a recipe and just cook it! Fix it, stir
it, mix it up, whirl it around, dance and dare in this room of memories. Memories for you
and memories for those you serve it from.
Happy baking, cooking, preparing, and making day!
Love, Your sister in Christ… humbled and kneeled
at His throne… Sandy:)
Sandy Willoughby © 2001
