My first foray into cooking something completely on my own was when I read about a meal in Cooking Light magazine. Needless to say, that turned into a disaster.
When I would go home, I would sit in the kitchen and watch my mom cook. In the past, I would never want to cook because it was a chore. Not in the sense of doing the cutting up and such, but my mom wanted it just "so." She would get frustrated with me and I would leave the kitchen.
At this point, I would watch and ask questions. I got the hang of how she made "goulash", so I would make a lot of that. I talked with her about how she made tuna noodle casserole. I got the recipes for making shrimp gumbo and hungarian chicken goulash. All of the comfort food I loved. I made mistakes, but I learned from them.
My kitchen in my first apartment did not leave a lot of room for putting meals together. When I started my attempts on making banana nut bread, my mom started the plan for getting me some Calphalon cookware and cook books for Christmas that year. She was quite happy that I was cooking because she knew that I would continue to live on my own.
I started watching a lot of Food Network and soon, I moved out of that apartment and into my current apartment. The kitchen was larger and had more space. Pretty soon, I was baking cakes, cooking other types of meals, actually using the cook books and cook ware. Mom was excited when I would come home and try out a new recipe on the family. She enjoyed my cooking for her.
Towards the end, she would ask me to make her hungarian chicken goulash. It was her favorite and she said I made it better than she did. Now, I do not believe that, but I would make it for her. I had cooked a few Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. The one thing I never quite got down was how to make a gravy. She would always chuckle about that.
Today, when I returned from my New Orleans trip, I have made Jambalaya. She was never a fan of that, but with me making the pralines, she would have enjoyed that.
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