I took Home Economics class my 8th grade year, mainly because I’d heard it was an easy A. My lazy ass needed a good grade to cancel out what was sure to be my mediocre grade in Geometry.
Unlike many Home Economics classes, the one at my junior high school did not involve sewing, which was a bonus on two levels: a) I suckity suck at sewing and b) boys weren’t averse to taking the class.
In fact, a lot of boys took Home Economics back then (but not nearly as many as those who took typing; the typing teacher, Miss Schuler, had a ginormous rack). My dad was wicked excited for back-to-school night the semester I took typing.
I can’t even remember the name of our Home Ec teacher, but I can tell you that she was a strange creature. She wore more makeup than a Zulu warrior and had an affinity for wearing plastic objects (eg: fake fruit, flowers and ornamental birds) in her elaborately coiffed bun. She was like some Nora Desmond/Carmen Miranda hybrid.
She also had a crush on my history teacher, Mr. Deuth, and she used to swoop into his classroom several times a week, depositing “leftover” treats from Home Ec. on his desk. Mr. Deuth was a short, shy man who seemed rather beleagured by her ardor, but he always thanked her politely, which made me fall in love with him, too.
Although I’m not good with names, I do remember a boy named Jeff who sat at my table in Home Economics class. He was a year older than me and was one of the Gearhead Guys. Gearhead Guys only attended regular classes in the afternoon; in the morning, they were shipped off to the technical school to work on cars and carve wood and manipulate dangerous machinery like buzzsaws. G. G.’s always had dust on their jeans and smelled a little sweaty and looked you in the eye a little too long. It was a heady mix, let me tell you.
Jeff had black, tousled hair and light green eyes with heavy, hooded lids. In retrospect, he was probably stoned to the gills, but I just thought he was mysterious. I remember one afternoon, after we’d made chocolate pudding, he tipped his chair back on two legs, watched me lick my spoon clean and said slowly, “You eat sexy.”
I’d never been called sexy in my entire 8th-grade life. I looked into his gecko eyes and felt sweaty in places I didn’t know could feel sweaty. I dropped my spoon as if it were on fire, annoying the petite gymnast named Debbie who also was assigned to our table. “You have issues,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
Debbie, Jeff and I were not accomplished cooks. Many times, our table cooked up the worst product in class, such as the purple pancakes. Who knew that when, adding canned blueberries to pancake batter, you needed to drain them first? Apparently, not us. Miss Desmond/Miranda actually publicly criticized us for that little error, much to my embarrassment.
Jeff didn’t seem fazed by it in the slightest. The following week, I saw him open one of the running clothes dryers in the Home Ec. room, reach into his pockets and throw in several handfuls of fluffy, jumbo-sized marshmallows. I shook my head at him, slack-jawed, but he just smirked, tilting his chair back. Blessedly, our teacher never found out who the Marshmallow Vandal was.
We made some interesting things that semester–unexpected things like crepes and stroganoff and caramel sauce. I tasted those dishes with a mixture of wonder and accomplishment, feeling somehow worldly. Of all of those dishes, though, my favorite was Cheese Souffle. Watching an emulsion of eggs and cheese turn into an ethereal puff that boasts, just for a moment, and then falls back down to Earth? That’s exotic stuff for a girl from North Dakota.
Looking at that recipe now, I can see that it’s certainly dumbed-down for novice cooks. There’s no separating of eggs or folding in beaten whites, but still, it’s a tasty facsimile. And believe me, it beats the Hell out of purple pancakes.
Simple Cheese Souffle*
serves 6
6 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
dash of freshly ground nutmeg
3/4 cup grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese
3/4 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 425. Beat eggs vigorously until thick and light. Mix in whipping cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Fold in all cheeses. Pour into a very well-buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole or baking dish. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until puffy and set. Serve immediately.
* Where’s the picture, you ask? Sorry, dudes, did you see that cup of heavy cream called for in the recipe? Backside Suicide. I may have handled it at 14, but at 40+? Forget about it. Make this when you are under forty, or on a day when you run, like, five miles or something, or have someone to impress.
ps: Any memories, good or bad, about Home Economics class? This post was written via a prompt given by Serious Eats (in the Talk section). Some of the responses were hilarious, so head on over if you’re curious. But I’d love to hear your memories; you know I love to hear y’all talk.
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
I wish we had Home Ec in Italy… it sounds like fun. And cooking with sexy boys can be very interesting too. Not that I would have known back in middle school, since I went to an all-girls school =(
I took Home Ec in 6th grade but don’t have many memories of the class. I do recall that almost all the recipes for the class turned out tasting rather nasty even when made properly!
I was the girl who hated home ec so I took shop. Yup! 8th grade I took shop with the boys. I was always that type of girl. ;)
So, the real question is, did you hook up with jeff?
Can you believe I never had to take any type of Home Ec class? Isn’t that weird?? And I hope Debbie got chocolate pudding all over her bratty self.
Where’s the recipe for purple pancakes? I love purple! My home ec teacher was very homely looking…greasy hair…very thrifty looking.
I love your descriptions of the teachers and the GGs. Great memories.
I, unfortunately, don’t have memories of home ec. See, the thing is, I remember that I took it. But I have no memory of going to class. I remember also that I took shop, but again no memory. I hate hate hate sewing, and I remember I had sewing class in grade 8 in which I — was forced to make– the most hideous 80’s style clothes in the most hideous 80’s fabrics. Not many good memories there. Can I sew now? Hell no. I didn’t learn a thing.
The only thing I remember coming out of home ec were snickerdoodles. It was a right of passage in 7th grade to get to make them. : )
I remember we did a whole week on muffins. At the end of the week we had to bake our own. My group reversed the measurements for baking soda and baking flower. I’m not sure I need to say more. Suffice it to say we didn’t pass muffin class!
Ah, home ec–the destroyer of later creative cooks in my opinion. My classes were all about economizing which doesn’t lead to the best of offerings at the table. On parents’ night, my group mixed up baking soda and baking powder and our triple layer cake was about a half inch high!! I still haven’t finished the sleeveless, buttonless, zipperless blouse I started the second semester. Good thing 7th grade grades didn’t affect my GPA!
Best,
Bonnie
I took Home Ec in junior high and learned all about fertilized chicken eggs (that’s what I remember) and then again in high school. My cousin’s boyfriend took the class with us and he was hilarious. I’m not sure if he was a GG, but he was definitely a stoner. We did have to do sewing and he made himself a pair of pants… that he actually wore to school afterward. And one of the cutest boys in school was assigned to my table during the cooking section. I think there were about six of us at the table, the rest girls, and we pretty much let him get away with murder. We were supposed to rotate duties, but we never made him do anything. But this one time we had to make something with eggs and we picked this really nasty casserole. It was inedible, but we were supposed to eat it anyway. You had to eat what you cooked. So that time he said, I’ll do the dishes. And were all “huh?” He shoved that whole casserole down the drain while we stood look out.
OK – so I may have been the snarky petite gymnast back in 7th grade homec (though yours was 8th grade?) – I was a late bloomer – totally self-conscious that when we made our requisite wrap skirts, I had to buy a pattern in a child’s size and NO ONE else did (this was possibly before the maddening size 0 that I’ve heard tell about ;-). Anyway – I remember my teacher told us that if we put the ovens on “clean”, they would explode. To this day, when I self-clean my oven, there is part of me that believes it might explode.
OK, so… onto the souffle – soooo intimidating, but it says “cheese” so I’m going to give it a whirl :-).
I never took home ec. Not sure why, maybe because I already knew how to cook? Anyway, I am amused at the moment because your story reminds me of how my oldest son came home from school last week complaining about how he took “Foods” class because he thought it was an easy A. Hah! She has him doing homework. No lie. And I chuckle….
In junior high I remember making things like rice krispie treats and peanut butter cookies with a Hersey’s kiss pressed into them. Either our teacher wasn’t particularly skilled at cooking or she just didn’t trust us.
Back in my 8th grade year- the comment would not have struck me as odd being a hormonal teen that I was- but I can’t even think of the word sexy and an 8th grader now. EW- sexy should never mix with anyone under 18. Gosh, I’m a codger.
Sadly, I never took home ec. To be honest, I can’t really remember my junior high or high school offering it. Looking back, I wish I had taken it. I can only imagine how much more progressed I’d be in my own kitchen skills by now.
Love the story. And it’s good to know that the marshmallow vandal made it all these years unknown!
I went to an all girls, Catholic high school. So I have no home ec stories to share.
BUT I hear you about the heavy cream. Yesterday I made chocolate mousse, basically only cream and melted chocolate. I think I gained 5 pounds from the one tiny bowl!
I wish we had home ecs! I was in a French lycée and we were only learning very academic stuff which made me hate school so much that I waited years to go to college; too bad, if I had been in the US system, I would have loved it and gone on to cooking school probably.
I love your writing and relished every sentence, especially the descriptions of the teachers and that boy, Jeff. Whatever happened to him?
I’m envious of your home ec experience, and not only on account of the “sexy eating” compliment (that would have made my day into my twenties). In our class, we did a lot of slice-n-baking, fundraisers, and multiple-choice quizzes. I wished for authenticity!
Sweat and dust.
“You eat sexy?” From a 9th grader?
And here I have myself convinced I didn’t miss a thing not going to a co-ed school.
I took a lot of Home-Ec classes, actually. You’d think I’d be a famous chef right now. From 8th grade where we sewed pillows and made brownies, to junior and senior year…. Well, here’s the thing. I won the Home-Ec award when I graduated high school. And I don’t sew. Or cook. (Really.) But when I had an elective, I went for something practical. I was nice to my Home-Ec teacher when no one else was. And it was so darn easy, so it gave me an easy A. I planned a wedding (with no budget! How messed up was that?) and read about other practical matters while working with others to whip up brownies. It was pretty fun, actually. I just wished I had learned something that stuck with me a little past the report card.
This took me right back… and made me think about how I was pretty much a clueless nerd, but not entirely (owing to a deep streak of subversive nihilism). Thus the Jeff/Gear-Head guys always liked me and would typically initiate our fleeting bromance with a punch to the stomach. I’m pretty sure I took Home Ec, but for reasons best left out I can’t remember anything at all. I do know that in Bio we had to burn a peanut to see how many calories it had (the closest I got to cooking that I could remember)—as it burned like a log under some measuring instrument a “Jeff” of that time and place expounded, unrelated to anything, on how using condoms was like taking a shower in a raincoat. Given that the girls always liked the Jeffs, and not the peanut gallery boys who could only watch and pretend to know just what the Jeffs meant about showers and raincoats, I half wanted to go home and take a shower in my raincoat so I could at least have the worthless bit of pleasure that Gear Head Jeff wouldn’t even bother with :)
I sure hope Mr. Deuth and your Home Ec teacher somehow got together.
I never took Home Ec. For some reason, though, it was located in the Science wing of my junior high…I may try that cheese souffle, though, regardless of John’s cholestrol level….
I took home ec in 7th grade, but I only remember making monkey bread, and as I recall we even made it from frozen dough so I never learned how yeast worked or any of that.
And we sewed quilted bags. They were so horribly uncool at the time that I don’t think any of us ever took them out of our lockers afterward.
Also, I ama blueberry pancake fanatic, and I do not drain the blueberries. I like that they turn the cakes purple (and that little extra hint of blueberry flavor). Am I weird?
Home Ec… I vaguely remember cooking. I do remember the sewing. I made a pillow and a duffle bag that semester. The black denim with the rainbow colored stars all over it was bitchin’ and made for a totally awesome volleyball bag. The pillow I gave away to??? Damn, I’m sure she was one of my best friends too! Above all I remember Matt Maloney. He actually sewed his finger to his duffle bag! We got an impromptu lesson in first aid that day. And I learned that I need to stay away from sewing machines and men who sew!
Thanks for the lovely compliment on my pictures. I have always thought you take lovely pictures yourself. I wish I had your story telling abilities – even when you don’t take a single picture your stories are pictures enough for me.
I didn’t take Home Ec but now hearing about your experience…I wish I had! :-)
Jeff reminds me of a couple of bad boys from my past. I actually asked my 8th grade boyfriend Allen to give me a hickey. Ack! My poor parents. Then there was the quiet mysterious boy in high school that everyone said killed cats. He passed me a note in the hall once. He wrote about his life back in Alaska. I think he was lonely and misunderstood. I don’t remember much about Home Ec other than a dress I sewed that weighed 8 lbs.
I’ve blanked out the cooking, though we did some, I know. What I remember was the simplest ever apron – just fabric folded over and seamed – in a burnt orange (what?) that I ripped and re-sewed about 27 times. It was so embarrassing to be such a clutz.
You have issues. I love that.
I’m fascinated that you saved the recipes. Blueberries notwithstanding, there must have been a spark. . . !
Back in the dark ages when I went to high school, home ec was mandatory. As was shop. For everyone. I actually learned how to sew (I’m not that good, but I got through Halloween costumes and pillows for dorm beds) and cook…although my mother and grandmother did more guiding there.
Now shop was different. I learned about motors and woodworking. Unfortunately, when we took shop, the guys were taking home ec. Boo on that.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again I just love it when you tell stories. This could be the opening chapter of a novel, it is so good. I can picture your reaction after licking that spoon. Just wonderful writing.
I went to an all girl grammar school so no boys in my Home Economics class. I did O level and would have taken it as a fourth A level subject but sadly my academically minded school did not run a course. I loved being in the school kitchen and my love for cooking and baking really took off there. Our teacher was a dry somewhat wizened spinster named Miss Parsons. Sharp on the surface but underneath had a heart of gold. Her fiance was killed in WW II and she never found another love in her life, other than her love of teaching Home Economics.
haha.I took HomeEc in high school. We learned nothing. Shame on us.
and this is hilarious and made me laugh out loud: In fact, a lot of boys took Home Economics back then (but not nearly as many as those who took typing; the typing teacher, Miss Schuler, had a ginormous rack). My dad was wicked excited for back-to-school night the semester I took typing.
NOT WISE to read this and laugh out loud when in a meeting and secretly reading on my BB.
We had home ec but unfortunately there were no boys in the class; they took shop. And more unfortunately, we sewed aprons. I can barely hem something! You told a great story and nothing like being sexy at that age!
This is so awesome — sounds like a chapter from a novel, truly. Jeff = hot main object of affection; petit gymnast = Mean Girl in the making; you = sweet lovely protagonist with whom we can identify.
You just draw me in to your stories! I love how you craft a tale. No-Bake Cookies is my favorite recipe from Home Ec. But alas, no boys in our class. Your class sounds so much more interesting.
Fun memories! Thanks for sharing!
I just realized that I never took home ec.
We had sewing in 8th grade and had to make our graduation dresses. That is cruel.
As always, you readers never disappoint. I swear, the comments are always better than the original story–God, you people are funny. And honest. And awesome.
I love, love, LOVE your stories. They’re always so interesting and fun. I had a home ec class too but I barely remember it. It was not that interesting, apparently!
I love that you posted the recipe for cheese souffle. It’s been posted on my desk top! Yummy!!!!
i never took home evc, and i’m paying for it now because i can’t sew a stitch to save my life. i CAN bake, however, and a cheese souffle sounds like a noble goal. :)
I took home ec in 7th and 8th grade, and wished I could have taken shop instead. The cooking was too simple and the sewing was so useless. I still remember the horror of a dress I made.
Home Ec was compulsory for all girls in 7th grade (the lucky boys got to take wood working) when I went to school. I remember sewing the infamous apron and a blouse and cooking lemon snow pudding, orange marmalade and cheese souffle. We did make messes and mistakes but our teacher was extremely patient with us all.
OMG I remember Home Ec. We had to make nightmare dresses, printed denim, (shudder) and have a fashion show for our Mother’s and we cooked an absolutely horror of a lunch, some sort of green jello chicken salad,ugh. To this day I can’t eat green jello. The only thing I remember learning and can still do is a blind hem otherwise I can’t sew a stitch. I do remember immediately throwing that dress in the trash as soon as I reached home that day. But I must say I have been sitting at my desk at my office getting odd stares as I laugh out loud at your blog and the comments I’ve read. Thanks.
i really enjoyed my home ec. class long ago, i learned to, to, to.. i am not really sure what i learned but i’m sure i had tons of fun! :D
We don’t actually have Home Economics in middle school, but if we have I sure want to learn few things about cooking because I really don’t have the ability and time to cook some dishes, all I know is to fry some fish, chicken and pork it sometimes look nasty so I hired a maid that know how to cook. :)
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I love my Home Economic subject during my 7th grade. I have learned so much about baking cakes and cookies. Anyway, does your story about Jeff still continues after Home Economics? Kidding aside. I like your web page it’s cool.
my favorite past time is to bake and cooked.so every time i search i make sure i have new found recipe.but anyway i like the os hope everything is well..