Kitchen Nostalgia: What Is the First Thing You Ever Cooked by Yourself?

I grew up spending many hours in the kitchen with various adults and have lots of happy memories of baking bread, rolling cookies and canning applesauce under their guidance. But one of my strongest childhood cooking memories is the first time I cooked something ‘all by myself.’

Actually, I wasn’t completely alone. If memory serves, my best friend Amy was the instigator and I’m pretty sure it was at her house and with her recipe. (I still have the recipe card, scrawled in my 11-year-old handwriting, titled Popular Muffins.) What I remember the most was pulling the golden brown, magically puffed-up muffins out of the oven, and the feelings of joy and pride and accomplishment mixed in with a little wonder at the mystery of it all. Oh, and I think they tasted pretty good, too.

I also remember figuring out that a dollop of jam in the middle might be good, or some cinnamon sugar and walnuts. For several months, Popular Muffins became my signature dish and I’m sure my family grew weary of their constant appearance. But they would always disappear and, encouraged, I would leap into the kitchen and whip up another batch. Funny how little we change!

So what’s the first thing you ever cooked by yourself ? Was it a success or a disaster? Do you still make it today?

(Image: Dana)

Comments (19)

I'm sure I must have made some cookies or brownies, but oddly enough, the first thing I actually remember cooking by myself is Moo Shi Pork (odd because I'm not Chinese). I learned a very important lesson about finishing all your prep BEFORE you heat up the wok .... it's hard to chop vegetables and stir fry at the same time! But I still make that dish today, with minimal changes to the recipe.

It was summer and I thought I'd surprise my mom and make dinner before she got home from work. So I made a meatloaf (like I had seen her mix it up), and put it in a loaf pan - made sense when I was 12. I was so disappointed when I took it out of the oven and there were congealed pools of fat on top.

After that I stuck to making only french toast for the longest time, and it was delicious!

Now I don't eat meat, so no more meatloaf. And prefer eggs to french toast.

I got a Klutz-series kids' cookbook for my 8th birthday, complete with a set of measuring cups that I still have. That book had an awesome brownies recipe that I made a lot for years and years afterwards; I'm pretty sure that's the first thing I ever made by myself.

pretty sure the first thing I made was blueberry muffins. the first meal I made in my very first apartment was a mexican plate-- chicken, beans, rice all slathered in cheese, cholula and sour cream.

I've blocked it out, it was traumatic. I remember malt-o-meal that came out a lot thinner than mom made it. My brothers griped. I still refuse to cook for them.

My mother made pancakes that her brothers said tasted like rubber tires.

We had a bunch of apple trees around us, and so several of us kids decided to "bake apples"... Sliced them, cinn and sugar a touch of butter on a sheet pan. I don't remember how they tasted, but we did eat enough that we got sick....

I don't really remember not cooking... and I know that wasn't the first time, but it is what I remember when I think of young happy cooking time.

When I was a kid my older sister always was making cookies, brownies, & cakes. But she never made a pie. So to be different I made a pie. First it was a chocolate pie, then it was a butterscotch pie. I made it a couple times, until one time it didn't turn out, then I got discouraged and never made it again! I'll have to find that recipe again in one of my mom's cookbook, and make it again!

It was probably pancakes or french toast. But I clearly remember making a burger in a small pan on the stove when I was probably 10 or 11 when my parents weren't home. It wasn't terrible, and I still like making burgers the same way.

I have to comment only because my mom has those recipe cards. What a trip. Thanks for the huge grin :)

My first memory is of making Chicago style deep dish pizza.

My mom picked up the recipe from the original Uno's way back in the early eighties when I was probably 10 or 11 years old.

It took me all day to make it because it was surprisingly complex. The dough had all kinds of ingredients in it like dehydrated onion and garlic, parmesan and romano cheese and of course I had to let it rise a couple of times and so on.

The sauce was home made and the filling had pepperoni, sausage, peppers, onions, olives and so on.

It was a great success! And it is probably the one recipe that I've promised (threatened?) to make the most but never have.

My other memory is of making rice pudding.

When I was 12 I terrorized my mother's kitchen (and traumatized my mother for that matter...) making eclairs. I have no recollection about the finished product, just the fact that the dishes took me hours to wash. My mother was from the 'you dirty it, you clean it' school.

You know, thinking back - the first thing I ever really cooked was hobo stew on a hobo stove (big kool-aid can over a tuna can 'sterno') I made with Campfire Girls. Mmmmm mmm good!

I'm sure I had help, because I was 5 or 6 at the time, but my first cooking memory is a tuna noodle casserole from a Disney cookbook my aunt gave me. I remember it turning out fairly edible, but it might have just been because I was so excited to be doing something so grown-up. (And I still have the cookbook, although I don't actually cook from it!)

my elementary school (which was actually a public school) was very big on cooking. at least once a semester we would get sent home with the name of "our" ingredient. we would each be responsible for bringing in "our" ingredient and then we would make the dish in class and enjoy! all of the dishes were great and we would go home with the recipe (I still have them all, except for the marigold soup we made in kindergarden that I can't find and was so yummy). the cornbread that we learned to make in 3rd grade became a family standard that I was always responsible for making myself.

I also had a children's cookbook, I still make the apple cake, fluffy pancake, and waldorf salad from it.

I'd guess either Toll House Cookies or french toast.

White rice. It was one of my daily chores to make white rice for my family's daily meals.

Uptown Girl, that is so funny! My little sister makes pies and I do not. Our mom doesn't, either. We sort of worship her pie-making prowess!

My first dish was scrambled eggs, followed closely by cornbread. I still make cornbread all the time. It is a fond memory. When we got older and my sister wanted to help I would have her stand on a chair and do the sifting.

Katef! I had that book too, and have my red, yellow, blue, and green measuring spoons STILL also!