The First Meal I Ever Cooked

In my quest to get my "Vintage" recipes more organized, my dear hubby pulled two of my large tubs (yes, there's more) of recipes out of storage. I haven't looked at them for about 10 years. There are thousands of recipes that I have collected during my 37+ year marriage. Of course I haven't cooked all of them, but I pulled out the ones that I have made through the years. It was interesting to see how my cooking style has evolved through the years. 

It was a lot of fun taking that trip through memory lane as I recently spent several hours looking through some of them. I remembered most of them, and it was fun thinking about what city I lived in, what kitchen I cooked this recipe in, how old the kids were, etc., when I made the different recipes. I will post many of them in the near future. One problem is that I don't have pictures of any of these recipes. They were made long before we started taking pictures of what we cook and what we eat! I appreciate the simplicity of most of these recipes that I cooked in years past, and I look forward to having them posted here.

I think it is appropriate to post the first recipe I ever cooked. I knew that I still had the recipe, it was just a matter of finding it and of course, I found it! I had the great memories of how excited I was the first time I made it. I remember our huge kitchen, in our home on 107th just off Sandy Boulevard in Portland. Well, I guess that is all relative to a 4th grader, just how big that kitchen really was! In my memory, it was huge! 

I set the table, I made the pear and cottage cheese salads, I had everything just right! I even remember my dad coming home from work that night and after dinner he told me what a good job I had done. I must have driven my mom crazy after that, begging her to let me make it again and again. I'm guessing she was probably pregnant with my youngest sister at that time, as I remember Mrs. Williams getting a phone call in her room and she announced to my class that I had a new sister! Thanks dad, for calling the school that day! It was a very happy day! Sorry, I digress. I'm sure she probably liked the break, although she watched me closely and never left the kitchen while I was cooking!

So here it is, a very simple recipe, but it instilled me a desire to cook and a love of cooking from the heart



 The following recipe was also on the sheet of recipes from Mrs. Williams. I loved making these meatballs. I thought I was so grown up as I would roll those meatballs out and line them up on a cookie sheet. I always tried to get them to be exactly the same size, but it was hard to do back then. My mom didn't let me saute them or cook anything on the stove for several years, which was frustrating then, but I guess it's understandable now. I'm sure she didn't want me to get burned. Once they were sauteed, I would pour in the sauce and wait for them to be done, trying not to lift the lid too many times! I thought it was so cool to watch that rice puff up and look like little porcupine's.



Enjoy!