I voted fried for fried eggs or grilled cheese, but then I remembered I probably made instant noodles before that 
growing up we didn't have a microwave for pre-made meals, so my parents taught me and my brother how to cook at least some basic food like pasta, rice, etc for when they weren't home.
I chose fried...not deep fried, but scrambled eggs and grilled cheese XD
I'm going to sound old...but I remember when we got our first microwave. o_O I was so scared to use it 'cause mom said foil and metal would make it blow up XD
I can bake a little but I need a recipe in hand for that, lmao.
I can cook rice and... instant noodles...
This! We weren't in the worst dire straits (we at least had a good support network,) but my mom was a stay at home mom, and there were two kids. Dad also...well, he was a bit spend thrift on certain things he SHOULDN'T have been buying. So mom cooked all our meals from scratch.
We did go to the bread outlet a bit, since you could get loaves discounted really cheap. Usually when grandma got her social security, we'd all pile her boat and she'd take us there XD
But more often than not, mom would make fresh loaves, or monkey bread. It was a special treat if she made pancit (my dad's mom's recipe.) Our house always smelled soooo good 
She taught my sis and I how to cook, and we often baked cookies and stuff together for holidays.
I don't think it's specific to America. If anything, I think young adults in America might be better equipped at domestic stuff like cooking and laundry than some other places. I have friends who don't know how to cook at all, some girls and a lot of boys. Some people consider cooking a woman's domain, which is regressive and wrong. Some people reason that they can learn it when they need to.
It's a life skill. Knowing how to cook saved me a ton of money during my final year of college, and home-cooked food is much healthier than takeout.
hmm...my brother and I were expected to help mom with cooking, but I remember peeling potatoes and chopping vegetables were the first things we learned to do and just watched what she did for the cooking part. I'd guess the first thing she let us actually make ourselves was stove top porridge ^_^;
The first thing i learned to cook was a cheese sandwich.
That and learning how to use the microwave to heat stuff.
As far back as I can remember...
When I was five, I cooked bread and tried to make toast...IN THE MICROWAVE! It, uh...it lit on fire.
That fits under Something Microwaved, I do declare.
Hmmm... as far as I can remember, something boiled. I believe I was taught how to make top ramen and mac and cheese from a box pretty young. I guess before that maybe microwaved oatmeal but idk if I really classify that as "cooking" By middleschool though I was proficient enough for a 10 year old in like baking/heating food up in the oven, making some simple things in a frying pan like grilled cheese, and the aforementioned easy pastas.
To be honest my pots and pans are so I can make armor out of them and terrify the dog. In other words, my first thing I learned how to cook was french toast, I'm a pretty mighty baker.
Beef pot roast. I made that for my seventh birthday dinner. It was pretty easy. My mother just supervised while I cut the vegetables.
The first thing I learned to make was probably mac and cheese. Like the box kind. I honestly hate cooking with a passion. I do it when I have to, but luckily my husband does it most of the time while I draw so I don't have to.
Definitely one of those people who exist off of microwaved meals. Not like all the time. It was definitely worst when I was in college and on my own.
I'm sure I wouldn't mind cooking if I had the time to do it. I love Gordon Ramsay and all of his shows and they make me feel like I want to cook. But I mostly just see it as a huge waste of time. Time I could be using for something else.
I don't think it helped that my mom put maybe 5% effort into "teaching" my brother and I how to cook and I don't think my dad has ever cooked in his life. I would always make myself breakfast and lunch which was usually just cereal, bagel or a sandwich.
I am very thankful that other people out there enjoy cooking so I don't have to.
I'm not entirely sure, but I assume the first thing I ever used was a microwave since they're easy to teach to kids and I used to use it a lot when I was little to make chamomile tea.
I don't really count heating an entire meal in the microwave as cooking, so I'd say the first thing I cooked was either scrambled eggs or maruchan packet noodles.
I don't know what the first real food I learned to cook was. Probably some kind of egg dish. But I do remember the first..uh... recipe? My sister and I invented? It was a "cake." Simple recipe really, anyone can do it:
1 stack of 2-3 english muffins
1 large glob of berry jam
Too much maple syrup
1 plate
1 microwave
Instructions: Stack muffins, apply glob and syrup, microwave just long enough to melt the glob into a sickly pool that should scald the mouth.
This meal is complimented appropriately by lukewarm water with a spoonful of coffee grounds stirred in.
We were very, very young and just trying to make a nice breakfast for mom. She did us the honor of having exactly 1 bite and she still remembers the horror of it to this day. I don't think she touched the coffee.
I always cook my own breakfast; eggs, burgers and something simple like peanut butter sandwich.
As for lunch, I just help my family preparing the ingredients such as cutting vegetables and gather the seasoning and spice and I even cut meats into pieces which makes it easier to cook all over and tearing of skins and shells like the chickens and shrimps.
Doesn't sound pleasant for cutting and skinning but that is how it goes.
As for dinner, you eat leftovers, make something else or order foods from restaurants.
Cake! Homemade birthday cake! I still remember the importance of silence around cakes to this day. Don't bang the door or it'll sink.
Wow!! That's actually really cool. The first thing I learnt to make was pizza. That too l, on the very first day in my new school. It was one of the most awkward and unforgettable experiences of my life.
grab those eggs add some good shredded cheese(we use Swiss or Parmesan) a bit of pepper and slat, add a bit of bacon and some bread, cook it while you swirl it around so it doesn't burn till it's soft and creamy and that's one Delicious breakfast =P
Some people don't have families that cook their own meals, so it's not a custom they pick up growing up. A friend of mine is from a poor foster family and they only ate ready-made meals. To this day she never really cooks and after getting a Phd in a stem field and living a very hectic life she probably will never learn.
