On Mon, 06 May 2013 11:12:45 -0400, jmcquown wrote:

> I never read those books. Being a teacher of younger folks I can
> appreciate why you have.

I think you might enjoy them even now! The Little House books are full
of descriptions of historic cooking and preserving, churning butter,
slaughtering livestock, etc. The book I quoted, The First Four Years,
really doesn't belong in the series. The first eight books are magical.
>
> Cooking that first meal without "Ma" around can certainly be traumatic.
> When my mom went out of town to attend her father's funeral I was
> stuck cooking dinner for my dad and one of my brothers. I did *not*
> know how to cook. And Mom didn't *like* to cook so I didn't have much
> to go on. I'd get home from school around 3:00 and start dinner.
>
> I did just fine with creamed chicken spooned over drop biscuits (made
> from Bisquik). Mom always called it "chicken on a biscuit." Then I
> tried to broil some hamburgers (Mom always broiled them). Oh, sure,
> they looked great! But they were completely raw in the middle. I was
> mortified. They gamely tried to eat them, saying they were just fine.
> No, they weren't. I like med-rare burgers but these were a far cry from
> med-rare! I made them give them back and put them back under the
> broiler. This time I realized I should have lowered the oven rack as
> well as cook them longer. It was a confounding time, being thrown into
> cooking without much more than a clue.
>

The chicken on a biscuit sounds good to me! That was nice of your family
to try to eat the raw burgers.

Tara