better late than never

In the early days of living with the Old Folks, they enrolled me in what was then quaintly known as a "home economics" class. I think their thought process was that I would need to learn a variety of domestic skills before they released me to live on my own. I don't think they even bother to teach home ec anymore in schools. I wonder if children today have private lessons?

Anyway, it wasn't the raging success they'd hoped for. I was rather stubborn. And, was too self conscious of my differences from the other "children" in the class to really do much of anything useful. It was in this class, and subsequently reinforced, that I came to suspect that home ec teachers the world over are ever so slightly insane. I have distinct memories of the instructor constantly inspecting my "hair" -- I don't know if she thought mutual grooming might make me relax but couldn't bring herself to actually do it -- or if she were wary that I might be bringing in bugs in the classroom. (Which was nonsense, the Old Woman was very clear about hygiene.)

As an aside, in later years, I was acquainted with another home ec teacher whose solution to Friday night meals for her family was to dump all left overs from the week into one large container and microwave it. Cole slaw, tuna casserole, fried chicken, it didn't matter the combination. Interestingly, none of her children's friends ever spent the night a second time on Fridays.

Anyway, this weekend, I probably finally passed that old, wretched home ec class. Saturday, I cooked a pot of pinto beans. I had some frozen broth from a ham cooked sometime ago which flavored the beans deliciously. Then, tonight, I fried bacon and used the grease to soften onion and garlic, and then made real, homemade refried beans. We used them to make burritos. Tomorrow night, I will take the remaining beans and make chili. Three complete meals from about a dollar worth of beans and ingredients I already had in stock. Somewhere, a home ec teacher is getting her wings -- or golden apron, or whatever it is they get when they finally teach the unteachable a domestic skill.