Reflection About Cooking

My mom instead was a stay home mom, and she worked all day also, and manage the house affair. She taught me how to saw clothes, how to do crocheting, how to clean the house and manage the house, and cook. She was also a compassionate person, and helped others when in need. When she passed away I had to retrain myself and use the funds of knowledge that she gave to me. My grandma was an authoritarian person, after my mom I helped her in her house and learned some of her skills that were to keep the house in shape and always clean, she was very close to God as my mother was also. She wanted to be a nun when young, but my grandpa did not agree. My Dad taught me how to do multiplication and division in my mind. He is smart and good at numbers, even he doesn’t have a degree. I like math and did the same with my children I helped them at school and they said that when I explained math to them, they understood better. Furthermore cooking is a skill in our family as Italians. Because I was still 15 when my mom passed away I had to learn things on my own. I am teaching my children how to cook, and be resourceful in the house learning to be able to do things; and another skill that I am good at and trying to teach to my children is to be good to manage

Indeed, my father is responsible teaching me an excellent lesson that still holds strong to my beliefs today. I absolutely hated the process, which was a childhood filled with chores, but in the end, the chores weren’t so bad and believe it or not I was eventually doing them without being

Growing up, my mother always encouraged me to be involved in any activity I should interest in, whether that be soccer, softball, theater, or chess club. While my mom did not always have the extra money or time, she never told me I could not pursue a new activity. Through my mother’s actions, I have learned to never settle and to continue to fight and work for better, for myself and others. My mother’s selfless attitude and positive attitude inspire me to have the same attitude with the my future family and the people around me.

From emancipation, leading all the way to the 20th century, African American women struggled to find better opportunities outside of their agricultural laborer and domestic servant roles. In Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865-1960, author Rebecca Sharpless illustrates how African American women in the American South used domestic work, such as cooking, as a stepping stone from their old lives to the start of their new ones. Throughout the text, Sharpless is set out to focus on the way African American women used cooking to bridge slavery and them finding their own employment, explore how these women could function in a world of low wages, demanding work, and omnipresent racial strife, and refute stereotypes about these cooks. With the use of cookbooks, interviews, autobiographies, and letters from the women, Sharpless guides readers to examine the personal lives and cooking profession of these African American women and their ambition to support themselves and their families.

Once we moved farther into the country my brothers and me became older and more capable of helping my dad on the farm with chores. So it was in these early years where were learn a work ethic. With having all the cows we did my dad did need help. For me being the youngest I didn’t have to help as much as my brothers. I spent more time helping my mom around the house with things she needed help with. But my dad always made sure I got my hands dirty in the corrals, which I can see helped me with just being able to do manual labor with no problems, and also made me a very observant learner from watching my dad do things

From emancipation leading all the way to the 20th century, African American women struggled to find better opportunities outside of their agricultural laborer and domestic servant roles. In Cooking in Other Women’s Kitchens: Domestic Workers in the South, 1865-1960, author Rebecca Sharpless illustrates how African American women in the American South used domestic work, such as cooking, as a stepping stone from their old lives to the start of their new ones. Throughout the text, Sharpless is set out to focus on the way African American women used cooking to bridge slavery and them finding their own employment, explore how these women could function in a world of low wages, demanding work, and omnipresent racial strife, and refute stereotypes about these cooks. With the use of cookbooks, interviews, autobiographies, and letters from the women, Sharpless guides readers to examine the personal lives and cooking profession of these African American women and their ambition to support themselves and their families.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I believe because of my experience that set the foundation for the student that I am today. My brother started Kindergarten and my mother would drop me off at the babysitter so she could go to school. My first “academic memory” is remembering my mother sitting at the table saying she had homework, my brother not wanting to be bothered because he had homework. So when my mom didn’t have school and my brother had school together WE did homework. That became our time together, she didn’t send me to school, she created school at the kitchen table. She had books, worksheets, cards, and my own folder. My mother loves to remind me how I use to tell everyone that I didn’t go to preschool. Fast Forward five years, my friends were getting grounded for their grades and asking me why I never got in trouble for mine. My friends and I spoke with my mom and her reply was, “I believe if you do your best, try your hardest, and do everything you can to be the best you can- I don’t believe in punishing Bethany. Now, If Bethany didn’t try her best, try her hardest, do everything she could to get the best grades she can then we will look at why.” My friend looked at me and said “Oh, you're lucky! I wish I had your mom!” I never shared that all my grades were A’s, because I did my best, I tried my hardest and I did everything I could to get the best grades I could and I still do. If I need to study for 3 hours, If I need to seek out a teacher, plan a study group with friends or students who can help, I’ll do what I need to do. I appreciate the academic recognitions as they continue to motivate me. I am not afraid of hard work and I believe this will benefit the National Honor

She never told me how to dress a certain way in order to keep up with the latest fashions. She never told me how to wear my hair in a way that the other girls wouldn't make fun of me for. She never even told me how to apply makeup to my adolescent face. I don't think she ever knew how to put it on herself. My mother was always a simple woman. A brush of mascara, a touch of the gloss, and she was done.

She also taught me to finish something if I started it, and that carried over to my reading. If I start reading a book I always finish it and do my best to understand it. So, she instilled what I know about reading and she influenced the way I read. She always told me, when I was younger, to pronounce my words right so that when I get older I would pronounce my words right. All that she has said to me and taught me when I was coming up as a younger child helped me get to the level of reading I am on today and also to the level of understanding I have of all the words I read. Without her encouraging me in this way I would have had problems understanding things that I read and wouldn’t be as smart as I have grown to be. I am very thankful of how I was brought up as a kid.

“Chef girlardee” has been my grandparents nickname for me since I knew how to use a knife. After school, I would walk in the door and instantly be able to make out exactly what was cooking. As soon as I could make it out, I would rush up the small set of steps into the kitchen to see what I could help my Mamaw with. Even if it was a simple meal that could be prepared in ten minutes, she always let me help with something. This happened almost every day from first to fourth grade. Now at that time my skills were fairly limited I could peel potatoes, stir, mix, and go downstairs to get anything from the pantry she needed. Looking back, I know I wasn’t doing much but she still always told me how helpful and sweet I was for helping. Spend that time with my Mamaw and Papaw is what I looked forward to everyday after school. Going over there as much as I did and watching my Mamaw cook encouraged me to try new things.

When asked when it first hit her that she was on her own and was an adult. She said, “I first felt like an adult on the first day off college when my parents left. I felt like I had just been released into the wild and had to fight for myself. I learned a lot of life skills by myselfs. I was living by myself, defending for myself, cooking for myself, and just being alone”. This experience taught my mom to meet new people, teach herself life tricks, and helped down the road in

Watching my mother live from pay check to pay check when I was young was difficult. It was always hard for my mom to keep up with other parents but, she still somehow managed to get me everything I wanted, and more. Even though I was too young to understand, I could feel the stress, and the struggles my mom faced every day. She was only 20 years old when I was born and, because of that she had no choice but to grow up fast. At such a young age, I saw the effects of being a single parent, and the ways it changed my mom. She not only had to be a young mother but, she had to find a way to replace the void of a father, or a father figure in my life. My mom was strong, independent and courageous. Growing up watching her live her dreams under all the circumstances she faced, made me want to strive for a better life for myself. Seeing how hard is was to live and to have enough

Motherhood has taught me many life lessons. Before becoming a mother, I was a self centered child. I had no motivation to succeed. All I was worried about was where the next party was. At that time I had no want to try because I was so scared to fail. I was slowly progressing to go nowhere and do nothing with my life.

The Making of a Chef was a fascinating book that alternated my perspective on cooking giving me a clearer view of working through a culinary program. Michael Ruhlman gave readers a glimpse of life within the Culinary Institute of America, which is the most critical culinary school in the United States. Nothing is left to instinct or assumed information, everything is shown whether it is with culinary maths or precisely how you lay out unresolved issues for the ideal stock. Everything was just striven to be excellent, not good, nor O.K., but miraculously perfect.

In 1859 Henry Ward Beecher said, "the mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom." I believe that statement because of experiences I’ve had with my own mother. I have learned more about life from her than from my 15 years of schooling. Over the last 20 years my mother has taught me many valuable lessons just by being a living example of compassion, thoughtfulness, and generosity. She is an angel that has protected and carried me throughout life.