My Life Story-According to What I’ve Cooked

I remember the first dish I ever made–and why I made it.

I was about 11 years old, my sister was 8ish. We lived in a 3 bedroom ranch in Flint, Michigan. My Mom cooked almost every night and my Stepdad, sister and I would clean up. At 11, there was nothing in the WORLD I hated more than doing the dishes. I don’t remember for sure, but I think there was probably a lot of whining and carrying on about it. So, my mother devised a brilliant system. Whomever cooked, did not, I repeat, DID NOT have to clean up. Well sign me up for cooking classes. I had just washed my last sink of dishes!

That Saturday, my mom showed me how to make my first casserole. Tuna Noodle Casserole, in fact. Anyone who was born in the later seventies had parents that were raised on casseroles. Lots of rice or noodles, condensed soup, some type of meat-usually leftovers, or in this case, out of a can, frozen veggies, and top that off with some french fried onions or crushed up corn flakes and melted butter. There are literally thousands of versions of this casserole. All of which lacked nutritional value and were high in saturated fat and cholesterol.
Anyway, I digress. So, it made perfect sense that this was the first item I learned to make. I can admit now, I wasn’t that crazy about it. But it served its purpose-I did not have to do the dishes!

I gradually learned to make other things. I asked my Dad to look at his cookbooks. He showed me pasta and sauce recipes, talked to me about smoking a whole hog, and the chicken and dumplins my Mama (great grandmother) used to make. I did vaguely remember eating this delicious concoction as a very young girl. After looking over Mama’s recipes, I decided to try making chicken pot pie. I didn’t feel I could conquer dumplins at this point (and 20 years later, I’m still not sure I can!) I followed the recipe to its exact specifications with the exception of using store bought crust. I cut out a beautiful leaf design from the top crust and baked it accordingly. Perfection! My family loved it! This has become one of my most beloved recipes in my memory stored collection, and one no one else in my family can make it the way I do (or so they say).