Long term goal: achieved!
Some twenty years ago I made an apple pie for my new husband, and he declared that he liked his mother's better. I have not made an apple pie since.
Generally speaking, all I ever get from cooking is negative feedback. Kids say "oh no, not THAT". My husband tends to disappear whenever dinner is ready. I find cooking to be a bother and get nothing but grief for it, so I generally cook as seldom as possible, and when I do cook I put very little effort into it.
The result of my apathy is that my children all learned to cook in self-defense. My eldest daughter loves to bake, and my youngest son is into the chemistry of cooking and takes cooking as an elective in high school. My husband is always willing to cook so we all manage to share the chore.
I'm cooking this evening, a somewhat typical meal for me. I tend to make "food made of food", i.e., a couple of vegetables grown by me or someone I know, and some meat from my farm share or fish. I make rice, potatoes, quinoa or wheat berries, but never pasta. (This is mostly what got the kids to start cooking:you want mac 'n cheese, you make it. If I'm cooking, you get kale.) I eschew processed foods other than sauces that don't have corn syrup in them, which I'll happily cheat and use. So today I made meatloaf using farm-share ground beef and pork, a cole slaw using a cabbage from the farmer's market and Trader Joe's Spicy Peanut sauce, some boiled beets, and boiled potatoes I dug out of the garden just before dinner.
While I was digging the potatoes B. and Small Boy were nearby picking apples. They were arguing over whether Small Boy should make apple cinnamon scones, or B. should make an apple pie. B. won, and is making the pie as I type this. This is the first time I think he's ever baked a pie. I'll be sure to compliment it.
Generally speaking, all I ever get from cooking is negative feedback. Kids say "oh no, not THAT". My husband tends to disappear whenever dinner is ready. I find cooking to be a bother and get nothing but grief for it, so I generally cook as seldom as possible, and when I do cook I put very little effort into it.
The result of my apathy is that my children all learned to cook in self-defense. My eldest daughter loves to bake, and my youngest son is into the chemistry of cooking and takes cooking as an elective in high school. My husband is always willing to cook so we all manage to share the chore.
I'm cooking this evening, a somewhat typical meal for me. I tend to make "food made of food", i.e., a couple of vegetables grown by me or someone I know, and some meat from my farm share or fish. I make rice, potatoes, quinoa or wheat berries, but never pasta. (This is mostly what got the kids to start cooking:you want mac 'n cheese, you make it. If I'm cooking, you get kale.) I eschew processed foods other than sauces that don't have corn syrup in them, which I'll happily cheat and use. So today I made meatloaf using farm-share ground beef and pork, a cole slaw using a cabbage from the farmer's market and Trader Joe's Spicy Peanut sauce, some boiled beets, and boiled potatoes I dug out of the garden just before dinner.
While I was digging the potatoes B. and Small Boy were nearby picking apples. They were arguing over whether Small Boy should make apple cinnamon scones, or B. should make an apple pie. B. won, and is making the pie as I type this. This is the first time I think he's ever baked a pie. I'll be sure to compliment it.