My first solo explorations with cooking began with Betty Crocker's Cookbook, (the 1976 edition). After my family went to bed I would thumb through the pages of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, and dig through the cabinets to figure out what recipes I could possibly make. Then to ensure no one would stop my plans, I would set my alarm for 4am, long before anyone else in the household would be awake…it would take forever for me to finish even the simplest of recipes, as I would causously stir my mother with whispered questions...
My wispered question: “What’s the difference of a teaspoon and a tablespoon?”
Sleeping mother: “The tablespoon is three times larger than the teaspoon….why?”
Me: “No reason”
What’s a stock pot, how do I sift, what’s confectioners sugar?…honestly I think most of the ‘kitchen wisdom’ I got from my mother was when she was asleep…except for when I failed at a recipe. Example: one morning I decided to make a Tea Cake Frosting (with no clue what a tea cake was, or what the frosting on top of it was). Unfortunately I didn’t know what a double boiler was, so I just ignored those two small words in the instructions…. Within minutes the house was filled with smoke, my frosting was a very thick black molten lava, and my groggy mother was in search of the source of fire. Needless to say, she was not happy with my and my early morning adventures….which was only cemented by the fact that I ruined the pot I was cooking in. I feared making frosting for 10 years after that day, but never again did I have to ask what a double boiler was.
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