whatyousay's Profile

I was always wanting to help my mom and dad cook and bake and I believe they started letting me help (with very close supervision) around age 3. Dumping measured cups of flour of sugar into a bowl, stirring a pot of simmering (not bubbling/splashing at all) pasta sauce, carefully dropping chopped potatoes into the water. Nothing very complicated.

Around 6 or 7 I was making bread for the whole family every week without help or supervision (in a bread maker, mind you) and by 9 or 10 I would make myself a can of soup or pack of ramen noodles on the stove. I starting making full dinners at age 12 and by 15 I had a job cooking dinner for an older couple every night.

This isn't quite what you're asking for but I discovered this method the other day on hisxhers.com and it worked wonderfully. Melt butter, sugar, and ice cream of your choosing on the stove. Add water to thin to desired consistency. So simple! I used a dark chocolate & marshmallow ice cream and it was perfect.

I use Out Of Milk as well and I love it!

Growing up my dad said NEVER ever (and would tap our elbows with the handle of his knife if we forgot). I remember once when I was about 6 or 7, we went out for dinner. I put my elbows up on the table while I was reading the menu. Dad noticed right away and that was it, we went home. My manners weren't ready for eating out yet, we would try again when I was older.

Now that I'm older, I think it really depends on the situation. When I'm having dinner with my family, I don't care. When I'm in a more formal setting, I try to remember to keep my elbows off the table. But because I eat in casual settings more often than not, sometimes I lean on my elbows without even realizing it; it's habit! Which can be a problem when I'm out at a fancy place.

There are certainly benefits to being Canadian--like having Smarties just as available as M&M's.

My favourite after-dinner, every-day kind of treat is ice cream. Usually I go for something with chocolate and peanut butter but every once and a while I feel like a fruity flavour. It's more of a once-a-week thing for me though because I can't help but eat a cereal-sized bowl full. I'm not into those cute, one-scoop bowls when it comes to ice cream.

Where I live the grocery stores all have plastic bags still, sometimes at a fee of about $0.05 per bag, depending on the store. I reuse the plastic bags as garbage liners so I don't bother with reusable bags.

My parents live on Vancouver Island and most grocery stores there do not carry paper or plastic bags AT ALL, whether for a fee or not.

If I do ever switch over, I will probably buy a few plastic bins/boxes to load groceries in rather than getting reusable fabric bags.

We do turkey these days and we all love it! But I should mention that I'm Canadian so Thanksgiving is loooong gone by the time Christmas rolls around.

My family is from the east coast (Nova Scotia) so when we lived there we had lobster for Christmas dinner. Yum!!

I used to work at a pizza place that was family owned and run. Our ovens were so old that the numbers had worn off the dials but we all knew to just turn the knob till it wouldn't turn anymore! Wait till the oven is FULLY preheated before putting the pizza in!! (This took a full hour at our shop!)

As for how long to cook--it all depends! How thick is your crust? How loaded is the pizza? How cooked to you like it??

The bottom of the crust should be golden brown, use a pair of tongs to lift up the pizza and look at the underside. Many things factor into how long this will take so every pizza is different.

I think I saw something similar in white at IKEA a few weeks ago.

@cmcinnyc, in a casual setting like having some good friends over for dinner, I would find it hilarious to see someone lick their plate and I would be 100% okay with it. But then again, I'm barely an adult so I'm probably a little immature still.

I always mop when I like what I'm eating. I have never thought twice about--I hope I haven't offended anyone along the way!

Along the same lines, how do people feel about dipping bread into soups/stews? Is that rude too? Because if it is, I can think of a few formal occasions where I was out of line. Oops!