How many of you can cook?

krlaws2

But how do you buy ingredients? As a student I live on a weekly basis and buy my food shop weekly (namely because there is only one of me, so don't want food going out of date, and because I eat a lot).
So for example recipes that have a teaspoon of pesto, or a garlic clove or some rosemary...I'd hate to go out and buy those things just to make one meal and then waste the rest...whereas at home my mum can build up a cupboard of all these little ingredients..

Start simple and build, as far as seasonings go, you should start with the basics and build from there. Plus, the more you do it, the more you will know what to keep on hand. I like the suggestion someone earlier made about making soups. I love soups and they are easy to make and adapt to what you have on hand and most of them are built with the same basic ingredients, which are easy for you to keep on hand. As you get better, then you can swing by the store to pick up a special ingredient or two for specific recipe. You can keep frozen soup starter veggies on hand and find the spices/flavors you prefer to build with. Whenever you have some leftover chicken, you can cut it up and throw it in to make your soup or whatever leftover meat you may have available. You really can't go wrong with it and it will build your confidence with cooking and allowing you some wiggle room to play with different flavors.

Also, I personally am a huge fan of allrecipes.com. These are recipes submitted by real everyday people so many of them are very simple, they are rated and the comments are great b/c you can learn from others' efforts before you make it and adjust the recipe before you try. I find a lot of my recipes there and very rarely have made something that I didn't like or that didn't turn out decent.

The most important thing is to just dive in feet first. And it may seem silly, but I really have learned a lot about cooking from watching the Food Network. You think you aren't learning, but little things just stick in your head and then you find yourself applying them when you cook at home.

atsteele

I can cook. I had to teach myself when I was first married. I did cook a little as a teenager, but my Mama was a fabulous cook and never imagined she'd die when I was 17 and hadn't learned yet.

I love spending hours in the kitchen and love to cook and bake. I generally follow a recipe, but am good at adapting or changing a recipe if it would better suit my family's tastes and/or nutritional needs. But I started by following a recipe exactly and doing it again and again until that recipe came out perfectly every time. I do still need to set timers for almost everything, as I'm the Queen of Distraction. I might not let things burn, but I definitely can get distracted doing another task while task 1 is just waiting for me.

You may want to check out some cooking classes in your area, though, if you are interested in learning. And I also think there are some who are naturals in the kitchen (that would be my middle child) and those who just are not and will need lots of time and repetition (that would be my youngest). I have a friend who could never cook, even when following a recipe exactly it never turned out, and she always hated cooking. Then she started taking classes and slowly but surely she became quite the gourmet chef! Now she loves it and she turns out some fabulous meals.

Sounds like me. I feel very comfortable in the kitchen. I rarely follow a recipe to a T. I know what spices I like and sometimes make healthier substitutions when I can. And if I like a recipe, I generally try it over and over again, tweaking it each time until I have it the way I want it. Or the way everyone in the house might like it best. My meatballs have made several changes over the years. Cooking is an "art" meaning, it's something that requires some knowledge, a lot of practice and a love of learning... beause there is always more to learn and experience. Try skinnytaste.com. That's one of my favorite new sites!! And good luck in your journey!!

NiciS72

I cook and bake. I learned by cooking/baking with my Mother. That said, I do LOVE to learn more things. I pretty much watch all of the tv reality shows related to cooking as well as a lot of Food Network. You can learn a lot there. I would HIGHLY recommend you take a knife skills class. I knew how to cook, but my skills were mediocre at best. After taking a class they are much better. I am in the process of teaching my husband to cook. He, like you was good at preparing. I say start with some simpler recipes and go from there. I've been using a lot from www.myrecipes.com (I get the Cooking Light Magazine) and have been super happy with them.

I see others have recommended some cook books, but I'll put my pitch in here. my Bible is my Betty Crocker. You can get one at Target or other discount stores. It tells you how to do things like boil an egg, poach an egg as well as how to cook certain types of meats, sauces, etc. It has recipes too, but the basics are in there. Even though I know HOW to cook, I still refer to it as I don't do those things on a daily basis. With this book I make a mean homemade Hollandaise sauce and put it on my Canadian Bacon and a poached egg for my Gluten Free Eggs Benedict!

Is there something in particular you want to know how to do or make? PM me for more if you'd like!

IronmanPanda

I'm pretty damn amazing in the kitchen. I think I got most of it from my mom who was executive pastry chef until she recently retired and I've also worked in F&B for over 17 years picking up things here and there.

TheRoadDog

I am a very good cook and, when we retire in a couple years, we plan to move to Las Vegas so I can enroll in Culinary School.

MissFit0101

I can cook if I follow a basic recipe the first time ( or at least use a recipe as a guide ) and then build on it from there. I don't often cook extravagant meals because it's just not practical. I love making complex meals but don't love to pay for the millions of ingredients needed that will either go to waste or never be used again.

macx2mommy

I used to be an awful cook, or even preparer (I don't like reading or following instructions) when I first moved out. I wasn't allowed in my parents kitchen because they were too picky. I actually thought I was a great cook if heated up a frozen meal properly, and was able to heat up some frozen veggies.

Now, I'm a pretty good cook. I found that once I started practicing and experimenting, I was getting better. There were some really awful meals, but good thing I lived close enough to take out. The only thing was I learned not to try out a brand new recipe with dinner guests. My friends would eat before they came for dinner for years, until one of them ran late and had no choice but to eat, and found it good.

I started by buying a book on spices (you can find all of that on the internet now), and just reading about the applications. I took more notice when I went to restaurants at the descriptions of ingredients and then would try to see if I could taste what they described. I still don't follow recipes, but I have gotten to the point that I know what things might taste good. I also learned alot about what would be good substitutes for foods especially if you don't want to have a lot in your pantry. For example, milk with a little vineger can be a substitute for buttermilk. I still keep seeing if I can find ways to 'make' or substitute items that I don't usually use. I would recommend that you start with the basics first before this step. Other things such as you need ~3x fresh herbs compared to dried herbs for the same flavor.

My quest now is to see if I can take some of my less healthy foods that I enjoy and find better substitutes that tastes just as good.

But how do you buy ingredients? As a student I live on a weekly basis and buy my food shop weekly (namely because there is only one of me, so don't want food going out of date, and because I eat a lot).
So for example recipes that have a teaspoon of pesto, or a garlic clove or some rosemary...I'd hate to go out and buy those things just to make one meal and then waste the rest...whereas at home my mum can build up a cupboard of all these little ingredients..

I will assume that you are not in a dorm even if you are a student. If you have a freezer, it will be your best friend. I found cooking for one really challenging in this area. There are few things you can do.
- You can find ways to make different dishes that week with the 'Key Ingredient', sort of a like a personal Iron Chef challenge. It would be how many ways to use pesto. I bought a whole bunch of tortilla wraps one time on sale (like 100 wraps), and I went to see how many things I could make with wraps AND could be frozen.
- See if there is a way to freeze them. Ice cube trays work great for individual portions, 1 cup containers for family size. I do that for a lot of sauces. To save room, after they are frozen, I put them in a Ziplock bag, and just take out the cubes I need.
- For spices and herbs, if they are dry, you're fine. If the are fresh, often after I've used all I can, I will put them on a cookie sheet, freeze them, and then put them in a ziploc bag.
- Garlic - I buy it in bulk, and peel it. I will then either chop it, or just leave whole, and put in a small glass jar, and cover with olive oil. Just make sure all the garlic is covered. The garlic will last for months in the fridge this way, and it ready to be used with the scoop of a spoon. The oil is awesome for cooking with after too. Just adjust your recipe by reducing some of the oil required.
- Meats - cut up in to single portion sizes, and then freeze individually. If it's a roast, I will make a roast, and then under cook part of it, and take the leftovers to make my own frozen meals.
- For anything that you doesn't freeze well as it's own seperate ingredient, then I just make batches, and portion them out into containers and freeze. If you're running out of containers, then once the are frozen, pop them out of the container, and put them in bags. One hint, is to get the same size and type of containers, so later when you want to reheat it, you just put it back in the container you orginally froze it in.

Hope some of these help. I actually love coming up with tips like this. They not only help with my eating, but we saved up to 40% of our grocery bill doing stuff like this.

MaraDiaz

I'm a terrible cook. I'm actually afraid to cook things like chicken and pork because I worry it will be dangerously underdone. When I do try cooking these foods, I end up burning them because I'm over cautious or I get the temperature wrong.

I should learn crock pot cooking, although this does require an insane amount of patience (okay, it requires thinking ahead, actually!). Crock pot cooking might count more as preparation than cooking anyway, though.

SeasideOasis

I cook well, and I LOVE IT.

I never had any real reason to be a good cook prior to meeting my boyfriend. As we started to date longer, going out to eat three meals a day on weekends was getting a little crazy. So, I started "cooking". Well, I had only mastered about 2 meals and everything I made included pasta.

So, I grabbed a couple tasty recipes and tried them. Found out it was SO easy. Within a month, I can just look at things and put them together nicely. If I want to expose myself to new foods and cultures, I find a single recipe, see what are common foods and spices in that culture...THAN BAM!!

Yummo....

chefkev

Um, I cook...

maysflower

I cook, and I do it very well...now. It has taken me years of practice with many failures before I found my "groove". Practice makes perfect. Don't give up, just give it time.

hayskylar

I cook from scratch. Even grow my own spices. I learned most of it at culinary school. (:

vytamindi

This southern girl has never ever had a mason jar of any kind of grease in her house including my childhood home. Not all southerners eat like that.

quote: BTW, am I the only one who keeps a mason jar of bacon grease in my fridge? I'm a "southern girl" but I only use it for chex mix.

Oh, I don't eat like that. I only make chex mix MAYBE twice a year, but bacon grease really is the way to go! It's the ONLY thing I use it for haha!

tmontle

I started trying cookinglight.com recipes as well as skinnytaste.com (they both list the nutritional info and are super good) By playing around with a few recipes a week I have become quite a good cook...give it a try!

musicgirl88

I cook and have considered going to culinary school! I think it came from growing up with a family that makes everything from scratch. My grandma always made food from scratch and my mom used to always make food from scratch until her work hours changed. Now I am the one making food from scratch when I'm not working. I think it just takes practice and concentration. Being able to multi-task and know when things are done with out getting out the thermometer or constantly having to check it. Going by smell or how it feels while stirring or flipping etc. Cooking is a lot of times called an art because you are creating something. So the more you can just go by feel, the better things might turn out! Now, that is easier said than done sometimes when trying to measure everything so you can track it, but you eventually know what a tablespoon looks like without measuring! And if you you don't measure something out perfectly, just track it as a little more, that way it seems like more calories even if it's not, and if it is more, then you already have it accounted for!

LMHinson15

I also can cook, and I'm pretty damn good at it if I say so myself!

I watched my Southern mama cook a full meal every night of my life. So I partially learned from her. However, I taught myself how to cook more elaborately than she did by:

1) Reading a few well-written cookbooks. I highly recommend How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman because of the tips on preparation methods. He gives very detailed instructions. Pie in the Sky, although a high altitude cook book, gives some really great baking instructions.

2) Watching the Food Network and

3) Now I watch videos online if I'm unsure of how to do something.

This!

Both of my parents cooked professionally, but never really "taught" me much. I picked some things up from observation. Then just like ^^ she said, I watched cooking shows (quality ones), read good books, and just tried things. I can now do plenty of complicated recipes, and have developed my own intuition with things.

My advice (or just something fun to try) is find a recipe that seems a little complicated and just jump in and try it!!

gaylelynnbell

I come from a long line of cooks! I enjoyed it for years when my kids were still living at home. Now it's a 'once in a while' thing when my husband is home for a few days. (He is a long-distance truck driver.) Most days, I am also a master of the 'toss it in a pan and go' method!

Hellbent_Heidi

My mum's a chef so it'd a bit ridiculous that I fail at everything I make and it seems to take me AGES. Also I have no multi tasking skills so while the tomatoes are burning, I'm trying to flip a steak.

LOL..my brother is a professional chef, and he's always had a natural and amazing talent for cooking! I can make a few things well, but like you, I don't have the talent to multi-task in the kitchen. My husband does most of the cooking in our home. Obviously this is not something that runs in bloodlines :laugh:

PrincessLou71186

Even if I do say so myself, I am a great chef (trained under some of the best chefs in Ireland so I should be). Just a shame it's hard to find a job at the moment.

Baking? Nope. No matter how hard I try, I can't even manage to make a simple sponge cake. But I can make cookies.

callikia

I do almost all the cooking (daily) in our home. My wife busts her *kitten* a work and has long days, so to help relieve her of any stress I've GLADLY taken over. But it was her that showed me how to make actual meals. What I don't really like to do is all the prep. The cooking part is easy.

A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Want to come talk to my Hubs for me? *lol* I work 10 hour shifts and work about an hour away...add in gym time and I spend about 14 hours a day outside of the home, but I'm still the cook in the house. (Have to get creative.) Yesterday I made him throw some ingredients in the slow cooker for me because I ran out of time in the AM. I'm slowly teaching him and my 2 sons a couple standard dishes they can make so I can get a night off. Right now we're limited to - Spaghetti (box and jar, baby! *rolls eyes* Me? I'd make my own sauce, thank you! And turkey meatballs too!), Ground Turkey Tator Tot Casserole (my 12-year-old's got this one), Pigs in a Blanket (hot dogs in reduced fat crescent rolls with 2% cheese from my 9-year-old)...oh, but my Hubs pulled out all the stops when he makes his Pot Roast, which...even though it consists of meat into crockpot, cover with 2 cans cream of mushroom (98% FF), and a half a seasoning packet, is one of the best things we make in our house. Then he peels potatoes and boils them but I have to mash and mix in milk/butter/whatever to make them "mashed potatoes". *lol* Poor guy...his Momma did everything for him growing up and now I have to live with it (she still brings him lunches sometimes when she thinks I'm not home..I've "caught her" before when I was home sick!).