My love of the kitchen began way back in junior high school and was the start of my kitchen learning curves. The girls took home economics and the boys took shop. That was the way it was and the only choice you got.
Home Economics Class Mix-up
The home economics room was super nice with three or four complete kitchens. The teacher also taught sewing, so there was a line of new sewing machines for the students to use.
The students put together a cookbook using recipes the teacher gave us so we could eventually cook for our husbands and families. A lot of those recipes used a ready mix which we put together in class consisting of flour, salt, baking power and I think a type of shortening. There were no concerns about calories or eating too much starch back then.
As the story goes, we were making soufflés for this class. Our group of bakers was excited because our assignment was chocolate soufflé. None of us had ever made anything like that.
The chocolate soufflé was taken out of the oven. But after one horrifying taste, we knew something was amiss. Yes, I was ready for my first kitchen learning curve lesson because salt and sugar are not interchangeable. Our kitchen group put in salt instead of sugar into the chocolate soufflé.
Kitchen tools not in our Home Economics room.
Party Planning Errors
As my son was growing up, I held three or four large parties every year inviting family, friends, and neighbors.
A huge goof I remember is using a shallow pan to cook tar pit chicken wings. The wings always turned out great but this time the chicken wings were full of water. The shallow pan overflowed and the stench of burning was evident for all my guests to smell.
Another time, I added horseradish to my fancy piped deviled eggs. At the end of the party, I wondered why no one ate them. I tasted one and the horseradish was spoiled and they all went into the trash.
With planning a party, at times, something will go wrong and my kitchen learning curve this time was to taste everything I put out on the serving table.
Accidents and Kitchen Learning Curves
If you are in the kitchen, then accidents can happen.
Once I accidently severed both tendons in my little finger with a knife accident and went to the Emergency Department. They sent me home and then to a hand specialist. I had immediate finger surgery and then weeks of physical therapy to try to fix that finger.
More recently, when a new kitchen slicer arrived, a household member sliced the tips of his fingertips off. I looked in the slicer and told him to put the finger tip on ice and away we sped to the clinic.
This time the kitchen learning curve was accidents do happen in the kitchen at any time or in any way. Always, be careful and keep a first aid kit around.
Turkey in the Trash
Once when plating the Thanksgiving Day turkey, it slid from the dish right into the trash can. If you could only see the horrified looks on everyone’s face.
Well we got the turkey out the trash can, ran water over it and served it up.
Kitchen learning curve here was be careful of those large slippery cuts of meat and get a good grip on them and now I can laugh about the event.
Learning by our kitchen mistakes.
Kitchen Learning Curve
So today’s blog shows the kitchen is a schoolroom where your can learn by making mistakes. Some things you only have to experience once to be set for life.
I never used that cookbook from junior high but, of course, twenty years later couldn’t find it. Perhaps I should do a blog on kitchen organization and see if there is a learning curve with that.