"Kswck" > wrote in message
...
> Parent, other family member, friend? Or did you have to learn on your own?
>
> Mom boiled every veggie to death. Figure ALL pork must be cooked in a fry
> pan covered with mustard and sauerkraut, till it's dead, beef so rare it
> would moo and chicken ONLY in a pressure cooker, or Shake-N-Bake.
> (Don't get me started on her soups-she believed food was to keep you
> alive...taste? 'You want that too? Why?').
>
> Learned on my own.

I taught me to cook. In my birth family's tradition, men don't cook except
when working as cooks or chefs in a professional capacity. Men cooking at
home is just a no-no. When I moved to a rooming house in another city to
attend college, I barely knew how to boil water. The guys I lived with
helped with the basics, but I quickly wanted to try fancier stuff and bought
cookbooks (there were almost no cooking shows on TV back then). Which
explains why I'm something of a retard when it comes to cooking compared to
most people here.