When I was around the age of ten, I began to become interested in cooking and baking. Every Sunday, we visited my grandma’s house and I was the designated cookie maker at her house. Cookies of all sorts after dinner time was a normal routine. I could always count on opening her fridge and finding cookie dough ready to be baked for dessert.
When I think back to my earliest time of cooking, I think of Kraft’s Macaroni and Cheese. Why? I don’t know. It is just one of the early cooking memories that sticks with me.
I vividly remember asking my dad if he could help me make the famous mac and cheese from the box. I had mac and cheese so many times before, but I had never made it all by myself. I was interested on how it worked and wanted to learn something new.
I remember feeling so, so excited. My dad asked me to grab a small pot and put water in it, then put it on the stove. I turned on the heat and let the water boil. I remember watching the water boil and standing next to the warm stove.
What seemed like a million years later (for an excited ten year old), the water was finally at a boil. My dad told me to open the box of mac and cheese, then put the pasta in the pot. Again, after waiting for what felt like a million years, the pasta was tender, we drained the pasta, and put in the remaining ingredients. After the tasty mac and cheese meal, I put our green plastic measuring cups in the sink to rinse them off, and then placed them in the dishwasher.
Being only ten years old, I was so ecstatic. My first meal that I made “all by myself,” with parental supervision of course.
From then on, I have felt that learning a new recipe or new dish was a little milestone in my cooking world. The summer before I left to college, I closely followed my mom around in the kitchen when she would cook so I was able to perfect her recipes. I always had a pen and paper ready to write the ingredients and instructions. She never measured anything when she cooked, so I would have to slow her down, and ask things like, “Okay, how much rice did you just add?” And that was the routine with every single ingredient…. She probably got tired of me asking her lots of questions, but she was so patient with me and made sure to give me other cooking advice as we went along.
When I went off to college, I tried a whole new assortment of recipes. Some dishes I was eating for a few days because I made just a little too much. But, you learn as you go on.
One day, when I was missing my family, I decided to make one of my mom’s dishes; her arroz con pollo (chicken and rice). It is probably my favorite dish that my mother makes. I remember feeling nervous about making her famous arroz con pollo. She knew how to perfect it. Every. Single. Time. Even without measuring ingredients! I still have yet to perfect it the way she does, but each time I make it, I get a little closer.
Anyways, I strongly encourage you to make a dish that is a little different than you would normally make. I love trying new recipes!
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