Dis and Dat

Although I once took a cooking course at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA, I've mostly learned to cook by reading cookbooks, watching Food TV and by trial and error. Lots and lots of trial and error. Anyone who wants to eat well on a budget, and wants more control over the ingredients, could learn to cook reasonably well. If I can do it, so can you.

My mother hates to cook. She used to feed my sister and me Ritz crackers with peanut butter and jelly, or canned tomato soup, when my father wasn't home for dinner. My brother, who was a bit older than us girls, probably was at his friend's house eating a good Italian meal on such nights. My father worked rotating shifts for the sanitation department of NYC, so every third week he wouldn't be home for supper. When he was home, more often than not my mother would say she was too tired to cook and ask him to do it.

My father had been a short order cook in his earlier days, so he knew his way around the kitchen and could put together a decent tasting meal. He made a mean pepper steak, and was the best pan gravy maker I ever met. He never minded cooking for us and, all in all, was the more nurturing parent in the family.

It's rewarding to make good tasting food, especially when you have someone to share it with. To lighten the cooking load, however, I tend to cook once and eat two or three times. The freezer is my best friend. My boyfriend calls it the "magic freezer." When I got home from work tired, it was just so easy to take something already made out to reheat.

It doesn't much matter how you learn to cook, or what inspires you to cook. The main thing is to have fun doing it and not see it as such a chore. Oh, and of course, enjoy the great tasting food you've made.