just add water

i was never taught how to cook. i'm not blaming my mom, or nannie, or any other female figure in my life when i was growing up. i mean, do moms still do that? take their daughters into the kitchen and teach them how to whip up meringue? maybe they do. mom once said that she may be partially to blame because when my sisters and i were younger, she would tell us to justgo play or watch tv until she was finished with dinner instead of inviting us in there to show us how it was done (which makes me think...perhaps my impatience was inherited from my mother?) and nannie, god rest her soul, was a student of the "pinch of this, dash of that" school, from which i completely flunked out. i tried that with smoked salmon dip once because i couldn't remember how much of what went into the recipe. the outcome was not good. it's not that i'm complaining; i'm just making an observation. but as a result, i'm not a good cook to this day. luckily, my husband is.

i have had several instances of recipes gone bad. like the corn pudding that i tried to make 2 thanksgivings ago. it wasn't that i didn't prepare it correctly, it's just that my oven is too hot. so my burnt-to-a-crisp creation ended up in the trash, i ended up crying my eyes out, and the family ended up at kroger buying pie to take to the kennedy family function. and twice, i screwed up hamburger helper. the first time is because i mixed everything together instead of preparing the cheese sauce separately. the second time, i used soy milk instead of regular milk, which would've been fine had i remembered that i bought the vanilla flavored instead of plain. and just last night, i added too much milk to some "just add milk" muffin mix.

i doubt my girls want to learn how to make soupy muffins and vanilla hamburger helper. yet, for some reason, my girls still think that i'm the greatest. madelyn thinks my "homemade" pancakes (read: pancakes made from mix in which you just add water) are the best she's ever had. and the phrase "you're the best cook ever" has actually come out of ella's mouth after eating ramen noodles to which i "just added water". but what else do i have to teach them? well, i take them to church and teach them about god. they know how to pray (even though ella still says "a minute" instead of "amen"). they are in the process of learning how to pick up after themselves. they know to say "please" and "thank you". i tell them stories about when i was little, and about their great-grandparents so they know where they came from. they can responsibly drive a barbie jeep, which i think will serve them well when they get older and learn to drive a real vehicle. they also know that you can't wear white before easter or after labor day. and how to eat with chopsticks. they appreciate good music. madelyn knows that jim morrison was the lead singer for the doors, and led zeppelin's "going to california" used to be one of the only songs that would make ella stop crying in the car when she was a baby. so maybe i'm not a chef and can't keep a spider plant alive. but for everything that i have taught and will teach my girls, they think i'm the greatest. and really, that's all that matters to me.... hopefully one of their grandmothers can teach them all the domestic stuff.