Mentor Moms and Kitchen Fails

Can I share a truth with you? I wasn't a great cook when I first moved out on my own. In fact, I was quite terrible. Growing up, both of my parents worked a lot of long hours. I remember many days my mom would come home from work tired, so she often chose whatever was the quickest to cook: usually a meat, a canned vegetable, and a box of macaroni. My daddy's momma, my Mamaw, taught me to fry chicken, make the perfect mashed potatoes, and break green beans from her garden. By the time I was out on my own, my cooking knowledge was very basic.

My husband has always been the better cook between the two of us. For our first few years starting out, he did most of the cooking. See, once up a time, I decided to make chicken and dumplings, but I didn't necessarily have all the ingredients. I forget what I was missing, but I called my mother-in-law to see if she could help me. She told me to substitute this for that, and that for this. Well, let me tell you... you can only substitute so much before the recipe falls apart and becomes an epic failure! CRISCO! That's what it was. Now I remember - I was missing crisco and she said I could substitute a canned biscuit dough. Anyways, that first run of cooking from scratch was terrible. I wouldn't even touch that pot full of goop.... oh but my dear beau... he ate two bowls full. I knew then that he loved me! It had to be love... or he was desperately hungry and too tired to go down to the Wendy's on the corner.

Fast forward a few years... I was a new momma and now had a little person to keep alive. The time had come that I really needed to learn how to cook more than hamburger/tuna helpers (or) fried/baked chicken and macaroni. Around that time, my sweet mentor entered into my life and took me under her wing. She has literally walked alongside me for the last 7 years and guided me as a young wife and mom. I AM SO THANKFUL for this precious woman who has given so much of herself to pour into my family. (Mr. Beau is grateful too!)

About a year into my and my mentor's friendship, our family was relocated due to my beau's job. So, she and I began Skyping for our mentoring sessions. We would alternate between a bible lesson and a cooking lesson. She had intentions of starting a mentoring program at the church called "Apples of Gold"... and I was blessed to be the guinea pig to test it out. I remember well after one of our cooking lessons my beau saying that this mentoring thing was one of the best things to ever happen to us. We've shared many laughs over the years regarding my.... ahem, shortcomings in the kitchen.

Before we started mentoring, I was often afraid to try new recipes out of fear that the picky eater in our house (me) wouldn't like it or that if it was a fail, then I would have wasted our family's money. By practicing a few simple recipes with my mentor, that gave me the confidence I needed to step out and try new recipes. Over the next few years, we incorporated Wild Card Wednesdays into our meal plans and that was the specified day that I earmarked for trying new recipes. Pinterest Boards anyone? I chose one new meal each week. Some turned out to be great, and some my family politely said they could forgo for future meals.

These days, I've turned out to be a decent cook, if I do say so myself. My family has their favorites, and brings me joy to hear them say that was the best meal ever!... which us usually on taco day or chicken alfredo & garlic knots day.

So what about you? How did you learn to cook? Have you ever had any kitchen fails?

From my cottage of content,

Kimberly