My mom started teaching me to cook when I was very young. Really young. As a matter of fact, when I was four or five, I made homemade biscuits because she was sick in bed. Yes, my dad helped me, but she told us how to do it, and I felt very grown-up when I took her the finished product. The problem? I had used a bowl to mix the dough that she used to put my goldfish in when she changed the water in the goldfish bowl. Looks like my dad would have known, but to say he knew nothing about cooking is putting it mildly. I wonder if she figured that out when she took the first bite—dirty fish water taste maybe:
I took home ec, as we called it, my freshman year, and during the cooking semester we prepared and ate a meal during our 60-minute class time. We cooked easy things, but still we cooked. We had homework to make cookies, muffins, biscuits, and cornbread, and we’d bring one sample to our teacher to evaluate. Maybe other girls had their moms do the cooking for them, but I never even asked Mom. I just went by the recipe, and she helped by supervising.
She also started teaching me to sew when I was 12, using an old treadle sewing machine on which I made Barbie clothes. Yes, I was still playing with Barbies at the age of 12. I can confess it now, although it was a deep, dark secret I told no one back then.
So I haven’t let vision loss stop me from cooking. I discovered low-vision cooking aids on Amazon, and I have measuring cups designed for people with low vision, measuring spoons (which were great at first but with the vision decline, I can no longer see without a magnifier), and tactile (bump) dots. The dots are on my oven controls and on frequently used buttons on my microwave. Sure, I make a mess at times, but truth be told, I did that at times even before vision loss!
I still have problems. Yesterday I made guacamole. I used garlic salt accidentally instead of garlic powder, and it was WAY too salty. I ate some of it but had to throw out the rest. I have a Braille labeler that I used to make labels for my spices, but I have gotten lazy about labeling the new ones that replaced the old ones. Now that’s a project I need to do today.
But why was I thinking about all of this at 4:15 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep? Partly because I was thinking about what topic I’d like to address in my blog. I was thinking about how, as challenging as vision loss is, it would be so much worse to be deaf with no hearing at all. At least vision loss doesn’t keep me from interacting with other people. It doesn’t keep me from enjoying music. To me, being totally deaf would be much worse than totally blind. That’s because I’m a social person, but maybe someone who prefers to be alone or with a very small circle of people would prefer the loss of hearing over the loss of sight.
We’re all different. Yet it would be my hope that anyone facing adversity would be active in searching for solutions to living as normally as possible and finding fulfillment in new areas.
One thing both blind and deaf people can do, though, is cook. So whether you are reading this blog or using Voice Over or Talk Back to read it, I hope you’ll try this recipe. It’s easy, just the kind of stuff we made back in home ec. And, oh, a special thanks in my mom who passed away in 2021–thanks, Mom, for teaching me so much!
Four-Layer Delight
Ingredients and instructions for each layer:
First layer: 1 stick softened (not melted) butter, 1 cup flour (all-purpose or self-rising), 1/2 cup chopped pecans. Mix well and press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 casserole dish. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for one hour.
Second layer: 1 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened; 1 cup powdered sugar; 1 cup of Cool Whip. Mix well with mixer and spread on top of cooled crush. I use a rubber spatula for this, dipping it occasionally in water to keep the mixture from sticking. You could do the same with a table knife.
Third layer: 2 small packages of Jello instant pudding mix (lemon, chocolate, pistachio, or butterscotch–I use lemon) and 3 cups of milk. Beat well and spread on top of cream cheese layer.
Fourth layer: Cool whip and if desired sprinkle pecans on top. Cover and keep in refrigerator.
Life As I know it 