by Gary Maclean

Created on: September 20, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2010

I'm not really much of a cook. I mean, I can cook enough to keep myself alive, but I don't really do anything fancy. I learned very little from my Mom about cooking, for several reasons. One, she didn't really cook all that much herself. Two, when she did cook she didn't want anyone else in her kitchen until it was time to clean up. Three, we never really had much of anything to cook.

Through the years I learned enough to keep myself fed. The foods I learned how to cook rapidly became my favorite foods. Whether they really are or not is something yet to be seen. I learned how to make canned soup while still in high school. I would come home after school, Mom would be gone, we didn't live with Dad, and I would make myself a can of soup for dinner.

To go with the soup I would boil up a package of hot dogs. So, I was a pretty good soup and hot dog maker. Those two foods became staples for me in my early college days and young adult life. I also learned how to boil pasta. My Mom made a dish we called goulash. It was a simple dish; pasta of any kind, one pound of hamburger fried up loose, and a jar of spaghetti sauce. Mix it all together and you have goulash. Goulash is absolutely my favorite food to this day. I could have it night after night after night.

I went through my loner college days living on hot dogs, soup and goulash. Of course, there was the occasional fast food hamburger and once in a great while I even went to an official sit down restaurant and ordered off the menu. For the most part though, soup and hot dogs made up my menu in those early adult days.

I thought I enjoyed cooking. The foods I had to cook were so simple that I didn't have much to complain about anyway. After looking back I realized I would yield to anyone who was willing to cook for me. I may have thought I enjoyed it, but given an out, I took it. As the years went on I learned to cook more and more dishes; grilled dogs and burgers, tuna casserole, eggs and bacon, toast, any canned vegetables, though I seldom ate them, and even a real piece of meat every once in a while.

The years have crept up on me and now it has been about 50 of them since I first tried my luck at boiling some hot dogs. During that time I learned how to cook at least one dish in a very good and enviable manner. My real claim to fame in the cooking arena is Beef Roast; they don't come any better than mine.

My recipe is someplace on Helium so I won't go into that but when my roast is done you have a golden brown

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