Mother in Training: Cooking :)

A lot has happened since I posted last!  Here it goes!  Last weekend was Mother's Day, a great holiday, really to celebrate the divine role of motherhood and it's value in our lives!  My family had a nice picnic outside with grilled hamburgers, potato salad, and (one of my mom's very favorite desserts) carrot cake!  :)  I didn't like the cake because of the abundance of walnuts, it was a good feeling to know she liked it and felt celebrated! :) 


The few weeks before that, I was beginning to really contemplate the roll of mothers because I've had the opportunity to babysit and tutor for different people I know in order to earn money for my *trip!

My mom raised me well, to clean up after myself, ask for things politely, be kind to everyone, and ...really the list goes on, but I felt like there were so many things (skills, really) that I wanted to learn when I was away from my family in college.  It was a great experience, but helped me realize where I still want to grow.  One of these areas is cooking.

I'm just going to get it out now: I am not passionate about cooking.  I see it as a necessary part of life that you do to eat because you have to, but honestly, it's not a hobby.

I felt bad about that when I was younger because my Mom is a fabulous! :) cook that I took for granted growing up.  She also comes from a family of people who have a real taste for good food.  I am not passionate, [yet] and although I like good tasting food, it's not the most important part of a meal to me.  If it's practical and I don't gag, I'm probably okay...:) My siblings also seem to have a knack for cooking in a way that I just couldn't seem to relate too.  This was discouraging and my mom wasn't really pushy (forcing me to do it) growing up, so I didn't learn a lot of elegant dishes and hardly the basics even to making a meal-just a vague idea about it that I mostly ignore until I need it.

My room mates in college were really good.  Some of them were especially good cooks that I got to benefit from and so I tried to learn things here and there when I was with them. I appreciated more that fact I have a long ways to go until I feel like a cook, or even feel prepared to feed a family.  :)  I learned that I don't mind cooking so much when it's fun, with other people and for other people.  If I was making a meal for myself anyways because I had to eat, and I asked a room mate or two if they wanted some too, my cooking experience was much more pleasant knowing that someone else was going to (hopefully:) enjoy it too.

Knowing this is helpful in my anticipation of my life as a mother when I will be cooking for people everyday! :)  [Goal: get enough skills that my family will actually like the cooking.]  :)

Anyways, the past few weeks, I've had the marvelous opportunity to babysit and play 'mom' for my aunt.  She's given me recipe after recipe for me to make. Knowing that this is one of the weakest areas of babysitting for me and their WHOLE family was expected to eat it is certainly nerve-racking.  Thankfully, to my knowledge, nothing has turned out horrible yet. :)  The experience has actually helped me appreciate a mom's job more, realize that the skills that I did learn from my mom (a little chopping here, stir here, and pay attention here) have definitely helped just enough to get by and, if I keep moving forward, I will, step by step make it and hopefully become the best cook I can be! :)