My cooking adventures

Food, memories, prompts, Sadje's View, You Asked

This week Lauren has invited us to share some of our coming adventures!

This week’s prompt is: Cooking Skills

First of all I must admit that I’m not a dedicated cook. I cook when I have to. In the past I had a love for baking which has also frizzled out with time.

My culinary journey started around age 13-14. I and my younger brother would go to the kitchen when the elders had retired for the night and we cooked up treats for ourselves. French fries, pakoras, parathas, French toasts…. We made whatever we could find the ingredients for at home and then we cleaned up leaving no trace of our activity. These were our secret forays in cooking, unauthorized you can say.

I discovered my mom’s cookbooks when I was in grade 9-10 and the mouth-watering pictures in those of cakes and pies etc made me interested in baking. I started trying out these recipes for which I could find the ingredients. Remember it was around 45-50 years back and we could only get basic ingredients.

I tried out different cakes, pies, desserts , donuts etc from these cookbooks. Gradually I became quite good at baking. I tried making breads, buns, rolls, muffins and cookies, which were quite good too.

When I got married I could bake pretty well but couldn’t cook traditional Pakistani food. My mother in law taught me basics of cooking curries etc and since she was a great cook, I too learned to cook well. But it was not my passion and I used to cook only when I had to. We always had someone to help in the house, and it included cooking. On special occasions like Eid or a birthday, I’d make a meal but since I wasn’t very keen on cooking, my interest soon diminished.

Right now I live with my elder daughter and am in charge of menu planning and occasional cooking. My specialties are haleem, biryani, chicken tikka masala, and parathas. I do bake an occasional cake or brownies but due to diet considerations, these are rare occasions.

As for mistakes during cooking, they are not very entertaining but numerous. The kids always eat if I’ve cooked a meal and even praise it. I remember in school we had to make pistachio ice cream once and it was so horrible that it had to be all thrown away!

Thanks Lauren for this lovely journey back in time.

#Keepitalive

#TBTMemory

Published by Sadje

I am writing to express my opinion, share my experiences and to maybe provide some insight. My blog is addressing women at 50 ( but men are welcome to read my posts) ,their issues and the questions that come up at this stage in life. I don’t aim to teach, but to learn together.

Published

44 thoughts on “My cooking adventures”

  1. You reminded me of my first ‘brick’ brownies that I left in the oven too long. My father tried one and said he ‘loved it’ – but when I had one I knew he was ‘fibbing’. 😉

    I am an OK cook. Just for me and my hubby these days. But I just put food together using recipes as guidelines. I have found out though with box cake and muffin mixes that I can subsitute half the water with applesauce and it makes the end result tasty and moist. 🙂

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  4. Thanks for joining in Sadje. I think the idea of cooking after everyone is asleep is hilarious, How fun to sneak to the kitchen to cook. It’s nice that your MIL was kind enough to teach you the basis you needed too. It’s rough that at this stage of the game we can’t make and eat all the cake we’d like too.

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  6. Pingback: My cooking adventures — Keep it alive | Ups Downs Family History

  7. Great stories, I’m also not a keen cook but as a single person with no ‘help’ I wont starve! My biggest error was cooking rock cakes that could have been used for missiles in a war zone 😦

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          1. Once a week don’t hurt nobody, unless you are trying to reach a certain size. But once you get there, once a week or a fortnight should be good. Meanwhile exercise usually makes that even more possible.

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  15. Hello 👋 love your post. Thank you for sharing about your cooking journey. I have been too overwhelmed to comment lately on any posts because whenever I have the time to read, I binge read as quickly as I can. I often think of a comment but too tired to write it. But for this post, I just had to say I related to you so much. Im surrounded by in laws who are passionate about cooking. All they talk about is cooking and trying new meals and shopping. I enjoy neither cooking nor shopping. I used to love baking back when it was something me and mom did together as quality time, but due to diet restrictions, I don’t bake often because I end up eating everything I baked as my husband and son aren’t very fond of baking. On occasion, I have sent what I baked to my family but they eat super healthy no sugar so they wouldn’t eat it. I sent to my in laws a few times but the problem is it has to be fresh for me to send so usually I end up baking on Sunday so that I can send to in laws but I rarely do that nowadays.

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    1. Thanks for taking time to comment. I do pray that you feel better. Being conscious of what we eat is a stumbling block in the way of making tasty, calorie rich food. You should try some low calorie, healthy options for baking so that all your family can enjoy them together. But do cooking or baking when you want to do it for it’s no fun if done under pressure. Hugs.

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