10 Things I've Learned from Teaching Myself How to Cook:
1.) Cooking can be hard, but it can also be very fun.
2.) Always check for proper equipment and tools before beginning a meal (see my Waffles post).
3.) In that same vein, always make sure you have all necessary ingredients before starting to cook, lest you need to stop and run to the store halfway through.
4.) When making something with a lot of required prep work (i.e. chopping onions), do that before starting anything to make the cooking process easier. It is way faster to have everything ready first and working from there, rather than rushing to do it as you go along.
5.) Cooking can be dangerous (see my Paella post).
6.) Clean as you go; if you are done with a tool or bowl put it in the sink or if you are done using a spice put it in its proper place. This both minimizes the clean time at the end as well as keeps the space uncluttered while you are trying to cook, preventing accidents.
7.) Oil in the bottom of a pan gets hot quite quickly. This may seem like a strange thing to note, but for the Tomato Soup at the beginning I let the oil get much too hot before I added the tomato paste, resulting in a lot of sputtering and sizzling. Over the course of the month I slowly became much better at feeling when it is perfect.
7a.) Oil is scary.
8.) Cooking takes a certain amount of instinct, which can only be learned through practice.
9.) Mistakes are common and they aren't the end of the world. It's just food and you can always try again. In fact, the best way to learn is to make something multiple times (see my Cream Puffs post).
10.) Finally, to directly quote Disney's Ratatouille, anyone can cook. If my journey isn't proof of that, then I'm not sure what is.
1.) Cooking can be hard, but it can also be very fun.
2.) Always check for proper equipment and tools before beginning a meal (see my Waffles post).
3.) In that same vein, always make sure you have all necessary ingredients before starting to cook, lest you need to stop and run to the store halfway through.
4.) When making something with a lot of required prep work (i.e. chopping onions), do that before starting anything to make the cooking process easier. It is way faster to have everything ready first and working from there, rather than rushing to do it as you go along.
5.) Cooking can be dangerous (see my Paella post).
6.) Clean as you go; if you are done with a tool or bowl put it in the sink or if you are done using a spice put it in its proper place. This both minimizes the clean time at the end as well as keeps the space uncluttered while you are trying to cook, preventing accidents.
7.) Oil in the bottom of a pan gets hot quite quickly. This may seem like a strange thing to note, but for the Tomato Soup at the beginning I let the oil get much too hot before I added the tomato paste, resulting in a lot of sputtering and sizzling. Over the course of the month I slowly became much better at feeling when it is perfect.
7a.) Oil is scary.
8.) Cooking takes a certain amount of instinct, which can only be learned through practice.
9.) Mistakes are common and they aren't the end of the world. It's just food and you can always try again. In fact, the best way to learn is to make something multiple times (see my Cream Puffs post).
10.) Finally, to directly quote Disney's Ratatouille, anyone can cook. If my journey isn't proof of that, then I'm not sure what is.
You did a great job Eric! Dad and I enjoyed each and every meal!
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