Generation X: Are we the last generation to learn to cook at a young age?

Is it just me or does it seem that those of us in our late 30s to mid 40s were the last ones to learn to cook when we were just barely tall enough to see the countertops without standing on our tippy toes? Perhaps we were too busy with working outside the home and too tired when we arrived home to take the time and find the patience to teach our children to cook. Perhaps, as in my case, we have boys and they were not interested in cooking once they were old enough to think that it's not 'cool' to cook if you are a male.

I started helping out in the kitchen when I was old enough to reach the pots and pans and I started really learning to cook somewhere around the age of 8 years. Our meals were simple. There were no racks of cookbooks to refer to, no fancy ingredients to buy, no exotic spices, and worst of all, no automatic dishwashers! We rarely measured anything unless we were making cookies or a cake. My mother was and still is the master of 'dump' cooking . . . "Yep, that looks like it will be enough. Just dump it in there and stir it!"

Today cooking seems so complicated. Go into any bookstore and browse the cookbook section. The selection is simply overwhelming! Better yet, read through some of the recipes. Really, just what in the heck is crème fraiche and where in the South do you find that? Then again, some would scratch their heads if I told them about my grandmother's squirrel jambalaya or her fig pizza!

In this blog, my aim is to pull out some old family recipes (yes, I actually do have some written down on old lined cards that are stained with use) and get back to basics. I hope you will pull out the standard staples, throw out the crème fraiche, and cook along with me.

Dee