Sometimes I'm amazed, I really am...

[Two_Sheds]

- i always worry about how whatever i post is percieved, as its really difficult for us to express in print, exactly what we are trying to say!!

That's why smileys were invented

[Two_Sheds]

the thing i think needs to change in schools is the home economics class.

What's that then?
We don't have a Home Ec class any more, nor a kitchen. There just aren't the facilities in schools for cooking. We make biscuits at Xmas and bread at Easter (in our normal classroom, flour in the carpet & everything) and the children love it.

We just don't have the facilities for lots of pans, cutlery etc. As for sharp cutting knives and hot ovens/burning fat, forget it

The place for learning to cook is at home, surely? Mums & Dads should be involving children in the creation of meals, not just plonking reheated food in front of them. If Little One wants something in particular (not often) then I try to get her to help make it: flapjacks etc. I have to say, she is very much a TV/MacD child: we only get once a week and she expects pizza, nuggets & fizzy pop

[rustylady]

Have to agree with TS - my children all learned to cook at home. The grandchildren now enjoy helping me cook. Five year old grandson's favourite is "shaving" carrots and potatoes.

[gemsplus2]

oh no i totally agree with you that childen should be taught at home. i love teaching my children and taking an interest in what they are doing.

some parents though do need a bit of a gentle nudge. i dont know if anyone remembers the hoo haa when schools changed their lunch policy to healthier food? parents were going up the school at lunchtime giving their kids bags of chips through the fence.

i just think if schools gave a bit of time to healthy eating (i know not all schools have the facilities) maybe if it got the kids interested that interest would rub off on the parents? if that makes sense?

[Alison]

I too learnt to cook at home and then taught myself more varied stuff as I got older. However if your mum and dad don't know how to cook how and earth are they going to teach you?

[OverWyreGrower]

My mum hates food and hates cooking. She sees it as a necessary evil and pretty much eats the absolutely minimum required to stay healthy. Eating has no pleasure for her, not even if someone has cooked the meal for her.

I'm still not sure whether my growing/cooking genes are a throwback, or a rebellion!!

I'm mostly self taught for cooking, as I got thrown out of Home Ec class in high school for making choux pastry instead of fairy cakes (when I was 12). It led to a permanent disagreement with the teacher, who wouldn't have me "undermining her" in the class anymore!

However, I cook from fresh, local food all the time; hardly eat anything ready-made. I take a pride and a pleasure in the preparing, eating and giving people food.

You don't need role models at home to do it, I guess you just need the appetite and impetus to start!!

[Alison]

You don't need role models at home to do it, I guess you just need the appetite and impetus to start!!

You don't but I think it really helps if you do have a role model so that you realise that option is there, if everybody around you eats rubbish then how are you to know that you don't have to?

[cupcake]

My mother was an exceedingly plain cook. On a holiday with her with my boys she cooked beef mince on Yorkshire pudding 3 days running it took me years to get them to eat mince again! I pretty much taught myself and now we rarely have more than 2 "English" meals a week! Mexican is the current favourite.. Both my sons are enthusiastic cooks.
Recently a checkout girl asked me what broccoli was!

[OverWyreGrower]

You don't but I think it really helps if you do have a role model so that you realise that option is there, if everybody around you eats rubbish then how are you to know that you don't have to?

I realised when I turned about 16 or 17 that Italian food actually had flavour, and there were other things to do with vegetables than boil them until they were mush.

I suppose it wasn't until then, when I started going out for meals with friends, and cooking for myself, that I realised that food was nice, and didn't have to come from a cardboard box in the freezer!!

[Alison]

I realised when I turned about 16 or 17 that Italian food actually had flavour, and there were other things to do with vegetables than boil them until they were mush.

I suppose it wasn't until then, when I started going out for meals with friends, and cooking for myself, that I realised that food was nice, and didn't have to come from a cardboard box in the freezer!!

My mum's a good cook but didn't really do anything foreign when I was a kid with the exception of spag bol which was quite sofistimcated in the 70s. She then started doing this bizarre curry thing which was a strange shade of yellowy green and served up with desicated coconut, raisins and sliced banana. Don't remember it having much spice but it was absolutely disgusting. Didn't eat curry until I went to college in Birmingham when Baltis were a wonderful revelation. Funnily enough OH said his mum did something similar so can only assume that there was a dubious early celeb chef claiming knowledge of Indian cookery in the late 70s / early 80s. Thankfully things have moved on

[Two_Sheds]

spag bol which was quite sofistimcated

Lol - too much sauce?

[Alison]

Lol - too much sauce?

Yeah and served up on a big plate in the middle of the table with the spagetti round the outside - dead exotic like

[Two_Sheds]

Ah _ Vesta curry in a packet

[Patchninja]

. She then started doing this bizarre curry thing which was a strange shade of yellowy green and served up with desicated coconut, raisins and sliced banana.

My Mum was a very good cook but she did the same so it must have been fashionable at the time

[Two_Sheds]

Yep, Nan used to put raisins in her "curry" too.