Well shits to expensive and I’m finally home enough so I’m learning to cook. Turns out when your not being constantly criticized for existing, cooking isn’t nearly as terrible! (Trauma made me hate cooking).
So far I’ve been keeping it very simple. Store bought pasta, store bought sauce, put them together, that kind of thing. I think I’m getting ready to branch out and learn more.
I’d love to hear some things from those of you who know your way around the kitchen. If you have a recipe you love or, a story to tell or, a warning you learned the hard way or, a great website/cookbook/youtube channel or, anything else you feel like sharing.
I’m just here to learn some stuff, hear some stories and get some ideas to try. Thanks for having a fun cooking convo with me!
Pasta is a great dish to get started, because you can expand upon it in tiny steps that also teaches you other cooking basics. Such as how to:
Each time you make pasta, additionally cook one of the above add-ins to experiment with. Cook it in a separate pot/pan, then mix with the sauce once complete (if you pour the sauce directly into the meat/vegetable’s pot/pan, that’s known as “deglazing,” as it picks up all the yummy brown stuff stuck to the bottom of the pan, and also makes the pot/pan easier to clean later!)
Also, and this is a biggie, if you never had anyone teach you how to cook (it’s unclear from your post if you did), you missed out on a lot of critical kitchen safety instructions, such as how to not cut yourself on knives and other bladed kitchen equipment, how to not start accidental fires on the stovetop or in the oven (and what to do if one happens anyway), food-borne illness prevention, etc. Unfortunately I don’t have any specific resources for you, but please look into kitchen safety before diving in too deep! Don’t let it scare you off though; remember billions of people have been cooking around the world for thousands of years, and while there are dangers, basic safety precautions go a long way (also the modern kitchen makes cooking safer than ever).
I’ll sum up my learning about kitchen skills by saying this: my Mom made pork chops by rolling them in plain flour, putting them in a pan with far too much vegetable oil and THEN turning it on. 🤢 Neither my brother or I can stand the smell of pork chops even when they’re cooked well these days.
That being said, I do have some food safety experience from working in a sandwich shop in my teens/early 20s. My boss was very good about being clean and sanitized and safe. We were the only place in town the health department ordered catering from.
I know there’s more to learn but at least I have a foundation on safety and cross contamination, cooking and cooling temps and keeping things clean.
Ah yes, appreciate a meme from one of my favorite movies! Yeah… I genuinely thought I hated fried chicken for years until I was at a friends house and her Mom made it and it was delicious. Bet you can guess on the statement above on how she made fried chicken!