My wife and I are just beginning to find our ‘sea legs’ when it comes to cooking…
We were both definitely the kind of people who ate out most of the time for a big chunk of our adult lives, and who didn’t pay nearly as much attention as we should have to our parents in the kitchen.
It’s been a bit of a process coming up to speed with cooking for ourselves on a regular basis, and evolving past the point of things like pasta, simple grilling, and simple frying, and getting to the point where we have a small repertoire of recipes we’re very comfortable with.
A few potentially obvious things that are worth restating anyway:
- If cooking for yourself beyond boiling water seems daunting, Just Do It. That feeling abates after the first few successes in the kitchen.
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Start with recipes that involve only a few steps. Better to build your confidence with several small, satisfying victories than to go out with a bang and resign yourself to eternal take out again.
- Working with a partner is much more fun, and besides, then you’ll have someone to share dinner with :)
- Slow cookers are awesome. Nothing says “Hey, even I can’t screw this up!” like a recipe that calls for cooking something on LOW for 8-9 hours. In fact, I have a pot roast bubbling away in mine at home right now :)
- Try the no knead bread recipe! It’s idiot proof. I should know, I’ve succeeded at using it twice and made two lovely loaves of bread - very well reviewed by everyone we had handy both times :) The recipe originally appeared in the New York Times but my favorite rendition which includes some nice refinements and is a whole lot more fun is over here on the Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen blog.
Now for the less obvious stuff, and the reason I bothered writing this to begin with.
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