That's right. I've learned to cook. And I learned from watching daytime television mavens Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray.
When I lost my job at 52 years old, I had very little cooking experience. Seriously, I was the most spoiled working woman ever. My darling husband did all the cooking. I never had to do it, so I never learned.
In the early 90's when my kids where in high school and middle school, my father-in-law had a heart attack. This led to my husband staying several days at the hospital with him. I dutifully came home at night and attempted to make dinner, usually spaghetti sauce from a jar, etc. Anyway, on the third day when the kids got home from school they asked if I would take them to the hospital. I was very touched and thought to myself "How sweet is that ... they want to visit their grandfather." So I took them to the hospital. Upon arrival in the cardiac ICU waiting room they both made a beeline for their dad. The first thing I heard them say was "Dad, you have to come home. Mom's been cooking!" At that stage of my life, even opening a jar and cooking spaghetti was a challenge and I didn't know how to do anything else.
When I lost my job I spent many, many days just sitting in front of the television. Finally, after the shock wore off, I realized that the only right thing for me to do was to take over the running of the household. That meant learning to cook.
I watched Martha Stewart every day. Martha teaches proper technique. If you want to know how to do something right, watch Martha. What I learned from Rachel Ray is that anyone can do it. Rachel just jumps right in and does it. She doesn't worry about cutting everything to exactly the same shape or size. She'll tell you "Just run your knife through it and chop it up."
Basically, Martha taught me HOW to do it and Rachel made me realize that I COULD do it. Thanks Martha and Rachel!
Today when I say "Grams Made It" I may be talking about dinner.
