Time Travel: the cooking edition

Once again it is time for Time Travel Tuesday--hosted by Annie. Hop on over to her place, sign Mr. Linkey and join in the fun. This week we are revisiting our first cooking attempt or if that is too hard to remember, then how about the first time you cooked for your husband!

My first remembered experience came when I was in 7th grade. I know that I had probably helped get salads ready or baked with my mother before this time, but age 14 was the first time I had to cook an entire meal by myself. My mother was in the hospital, having hip replacement surgery....she was very young--early 30's and they were just beginning to do this surgery. She had been born with a hip deformity back in the 1930's and medical knowledge was so limited back then that treatment options were poor--but got her through her growing up years and becoming mom to 2 little girls. She was in the hospital for a long time---close to a month--once again, back in the 1970's when you had surgery you stayed in the hospital longer than a day! Anyway, my dad was doing the best he could, working long hours, cleaning house, grocery shopping and getting us 2 girls to wherever we needed to be. One night he decided I could cook something. Well, I had an idea...visions of crispy, golden fried chicken danced in my head! Of course with the drippings I would make mom's famous milk gravy and mashed potatoes to go along with it. Well...imagine my dismay when the chicken just wasn't cooking up right. I had dredged it through some seasoned flour and popped it into the fry pan...yet...something was oh-so- dreadfully wrong. It wasn't turning crispy or a lovely golden brown color. It was in fact burning, turning a not so appetizing black color and the flour was getting kind of gooey.... Imagine my further dismay (and tears) when I finally realized that to fry chicken you had to put oil in the fry pan!!! Oh. Brother. I had a hard time living that one down.

I don't have a specific memory of cooking for Kerry while we dated, but I know I did a lot. But I do have a funny cooking story from when we were just newlyweds. This is a story that I still have not lived down with my beloved husband. I was going to bake a cake or brownies or something and as I read the directions I saw it called for a 9x13 pan. I got my pan out to check the dimensions and without skipping a beat yelled out the fateful, never to be forgotten question to Kerry....."Honey, is a 9x13 pan the same as a 13x9??" Before you wet your pants laughing at me, let me show you just how young I was when I got married....

That's it folks. I have bared my soul and left the door wide open for ridicule!! :)