Friday, January 27, 2012

Are You Going to Cook That Chicken?

There are few questions that stop me in my tracks, but "Are you going to cook that chicken?" was one that did.  I had deposited my groceries on the counter at Sam's, then bustled to get everything ready to check out. The twenty-something woman who was scanning the items got to the raw chicken thighs and continued on after this question by adding whistfully, "My mom used to cook chicken. Roasted it and then we'd eat. Oh, it was so good. I wish I knew how to do that."

"It's not hard," I said, frowning. "Didn't your mom every teach you how?"

"No. There must be a trick to it or something. I wish I knew because I would cook like that if I could."

There are times when you have converstations and you just don't know what to say. This was one of those instances.  Why didn't her mother ever teach her how?  Why didn't I simply say, "Check a cookbook out of the library and you'll learn!" But I didn't think of it at that moment. Now the moment's gone, and the young woman may never learn.

The incident bothered me enough to where I shared it with The Man Who Puts Up With Me on the phone one evening. "How the heck does she eat?"

"Precooked food, prepackaged food." he answered.  "Every kind of food now is ready to serve or you can add water, stir and presto!"

So expensive, albeit so convenient. Still, one never knows how many chemicals are added to food like that.  Wouldn't it be healthier as well as less expensive to learn how to cook at home?

"I can't understand people who don't teach their kids to cook," I said. 

The issue hits close to home for me. My mother wouldn't teach me either and when I asked her how I was supposed to learn how to cook, she replied, "Oh, you'll learn." The answer aggravated me to pieces. Did she expect space aliens to land on our roof and come in for a cooking lesson?  I explained to her that our neighbor's daughters not only had full access to the kitchen, their mother actually taught them how to make cookies and casseroles. But it didn't budge her resolve one bit. 

"Oh, that's crazy," said my sister-in-law. She was a newlywed and I was sent to help her watch my nephew while she did chores out in the barn. "Bake a cake while I'm gone," she said, handing me a cookbook.

I followed the recipie to the letter. But when I took it out, the middle had collapsed in such a way that it looked as though a little old woman had stepped right on the center of the cake! I was devastated, certain that my sister-in-law would be crushed that I had failed.

'Oh, for goodness sakes!" she exclaimed, when she returned from outside.  Then, cutting a piece out of the corner, she pronounced it fit for a king. My confidence soared, and from then on, I experimented in the culinary arts whenever I had the chance.  Even with loaves of bread that turned out like doorstops, chestnuts that nearly killed me when they turned into missles, fires that have started on the stove or in the oven, even with all of those adventures in our kitchen, I've endured the fine art of homemade cooking.

I told this all to The Man Who Puts Up With Me.  "I wonder," he said thoughtfully."

"What?"

"Well, my mother's mother wouldn't teach her either. But I wonder if that's because years ago in some cultures, girls were not taught how to cook until they were engaged. Then they were sent to their mother-in-law's house where she taught the bride-to-be cooking."

"So that the new wife would always cook what her husand grew up with and loved," I finished.  Good heavens.  One half of the tradition was forgotten; only the not-teaching-your-daughter part was remembered.

I thought about all these things this morning as I stirred together my mother's banana bread.  Right now the smell is wafting through the house and I think of that young checkout girl.  Is it possible that without teaching our daughters and sons to cook, we bind them to poverty? Do we take away choices of a better life because they have to spend more money on food? After all, if your budget is higher because you spend more on prepackaged food, is there enough to save for education, a better car, a better wardrobe to attract a better job?  If we allow our children to get used to eating foods loaded with MSG or other chemicals, do we saddle them forever with paying higher medical bills?  It's pretty hard to stay healthy with junk entering the body.

I know now that I have a responsibilty to my sons beyond the schoolwork, beyond helping them live their dreams. It's in the kitchen, and one hour a weekend may determine how bright their future really may be. I never want them to wonder about how to cook a chicken.

4 comments:

  1. Cooking truly is a lost art these days. Would you like to do a guest post for one of your favorite recipes on my Food Blog? it's called Delish Dish in the Kitch here on Blogger - delishdishinthekitch.blogspot.com I'd love to have you make a splash on my blog!!!

    LOVE, CARM

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  2. I think people blame their parents, their friends, their neighbours, whomever, too much for things that are within their own scope to master. Honestly, in today's day and age ... a mother that didn't give you culinary tips is no excuse for not preparing home cooked meals.

    Cooking shows are in abundance, the Internet is chock full of recipes, videos and more to help anyone with anything kitchen and cooking related.

    Then, there's friends, co-workers, extended family and more to call upon if need be.

    To say you can't cook because your Mother didn't teach you - and you're a grown up yourself ... you may as well say, "I have no interest in home cooking - so, I'll blame my Mother."

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  3. Good for you, my dear! You always keep me in perspective! Still, I do think we do our daughters and sons a service by teaching them to cook. Thanks for visiting!

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