Becoming a better cook

[momee]

I've been playing around with the America's Test Kitchen cooking school free trial.

 

Besides that - and buying a cute chef's coat :)  what else can I do to kick my skills up a notch?

 

On a 5 star rating scale for skill set, I would say I'm roughly at a solid 3 if you compare me with most working moms who grew up with chef boyardee and are now just trying to get dinner on the table.  

 

Now if you compare me with moms brought up in cooking homes with years of experience and high level of interest, maybe a 2.

[regentrude]

I'm not exactly sure what you are asking for. Are you talking about technical skills or creativity in cooking?

Technical skills, IMO, require demonstration of the correct technique (live or online tutorial) and lots of practice. And, of course, the right equipment. You can't develop good knife skills if you don't have sharp knives.

 

Creativity? I'd say experience, a good palate, and the right mind set. Eating interesting foods certainly helps the inspiration.

 

ETA: I also think that some theory helps. A basic knowledge about food chemistry goes a long way. Understanding that a Maillard reaction can occur only at high heat, understanding the behavior of proteins, emulsions etc, helps cook with more intent.

 

 

[bibiche]

Practice makes perfect. Only way to be really good at something is to do it. What are the things that you think are holding you back? General skills (knife, etc), coordinating cooking times, combining flavors...?

[Rosie_0801]

Cook something from a recipe book, scribble notes in the margin, try it again with those modifications and see whether it turns out better or whether you need to scribble more notes in the margin.

 

Cookbooks are the only books I can bring myself to write in, lol.

[LuvToRead]

One thing that helped me was learning why things worked.   I love Good Eats because Alton really explains why things happen the way they do.  I also discovered roasting veggies instead of boiling them.  My family likes them so much better.  I can even get DH to eat roasted green beans.  Oh, and I also learned that high wasn't the only setting on my stove.  Seriously.  Once I learned to turn down the knob I quit burning everything.  I could not cook at all when I first got married, and now I consider myself slightly higher than average.  My DD10 thinks I am the best cook in the world!

 

Now if I could just figure out a way to enjoy cooking....

[LuvToRead]

Cook something from a recipe book, scribble notes in the margin, try it again with those modifications and see whether it turns out better or whether you need to scribble more notes in the margin.

 

Cookbooks are the only books I can bring myself to write in, lol.

 

I do this too.  If I don't write it down immediately, I will forget what I did to change the recipe. 

[Carrie12345]

I try a wide variety of new recipes all the time.  Recipes written and eaten by other people first, lol.  I figure there's little that can go wrong there, other than not meeting personal preferences.  I RARELY fly solo, but am able to produce good food and take credit for doing the work.

[Guest]

I've been playing around with the America's Test Kitchen cooking school free trial.

 

Besides that - and buying a cute chef's coat :) what else can I do to kick my skills up a notch?

 

On a 5 star rating scale for skill set, I would say I'm roughly at a solid 3 if you compare me with most working moms who grew up with chef boyardee and are now just trying to get dinner on the table.

 

Now if you compare me with moms brought up in cooking homes with years of experience and high level of interest, maybe a 2.

My belief about what makes someone a good-great home cook - effort. My casual observation of others (and myself even) is this: home cooks who are focused on making meals easily, cheaply and quickly are the least likely to serve the most delicious and nice-looking to the eye dishes. Home cooks who will search out (or grow) fresh, whole ingredients, who will put effort into chopping celery, onions, peppers, who will let things come to room temperature or thaw naturally, who will rise yeast for fresh, homemade dough; in sum, who will go to the effort to make food/meals from whole, fresh ingredients more often than not, are the most likely to serve very delicious and visually appealing foods.

 

Also, you get a feel for how flavors compliment one another through practice, as well as how things should look or behave when they are properly cooked, properly mixed, etc. Honestly, I learned how to make a great roast beef from watching Emeril Legasse shows. He is also the reason I learned how to make a good gravy or anything starting with a roux. I had to see what it was supposed to look like to understand how to do it.

 

A book that helped me a lot was How To Cook Without A Book. I love this book! Instead of having 200 recipes, it has principles, which one can then apply to several kinds of meats, pan sauces, relishes, pastas, stir-fries, etc. So you can meld together how to sear scallops with how to make a Lemon Caper sauce and come up with Seared Scallops in Lemon Caper Sauce. Get it? It's a great book.

[Guest]

One thing that helped me was learning why things worked. I love Good Eats because Alton really explains why things happen the way they do. I also discovered roasting veggies instead of boiling them. My family likes them so much better. I can even get DH to eat roasted green beans. Oh, and I also learned that high wasn't the only setting on my stove. Seriously. Once I learned to turn down the knob I quit burning everything. I could not cook at all when I first got married, and now I consider myself slightly higher than average. My DD10 thinks I am the best cook in the world!

 

Now if I could just figure out a way to enjoy cooking....

Totally agree with Good Eats! Alton Brown is also a huge reason why I now understand certain aspects of, shall we say, the science of cooking.

[Pippen]

The paths leading to becoming a better cook are many and varied, so it's just a matter of finding what works for you. For me that was a combination of having a trusted source of reliable methods and recipes early on (Long live Betty Crocker!). That was before the internet days and I was fearless about picking a recipe and running with it. Made a lot of stuff we didn't care for, but made a lot that worked and learned a lot along the way.

 

Later that morphed into searching out good recipes later and modifying them to work for my family--first through cookbooks and now mostly online. When I'm looking for new recipes, I usually take time to read through reviews to see what worked well for others.

 

My SIL rarely followed/follows a recipe--she just tosses things in and loves to experiment with different ingredients. She's a good cook. 

 

My oldest just moved out and I bought him a copy of Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything The Basics. I checked out a lot of books and liked this one because it really does cover the basics, but in the context of producing genuine grown up food without a lot of crazy ingredients I don't keep around the kitchen.

http://smile.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Basics-Food--/dp/0470528060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435411208&sr=8-1&keywords=how+to+cook+everything+the+basics

[Cottonwood]

I became a much better cook when I began to understand METHODS. A solid understnding of method leads to experimenting with FLAVORS. if understood how to make ice cream, for instance, I always use that method and then modify to our taste or just experiment with flavors from there. I would pick other areas of interest like, bread making. I would follow a recipe a few times until I understood the method of successful breadmaking, then I played with adding nuts, seeds, or other things. By now I've figured out some pretty great food combinations all on my own that make my cooking unique with frequent compliments. All because of getting quite of few methods under my belt, then experimenting with flavor combos from there. Once flavors are understood the sky's the limit and recipes are much less necessary. Dh and I often stand in the kitchen and say...oh this sounds good...or that...we toss stuff in. Suddenly, a great new dish! I remember the first time we did this, it was grilled cheese and tomato soup, we had just moved in together and we experimented with a different cheese and added different herbs to the soup. Omg, was it delish. Now we are on to homemade sausage and much more complex dishes. But it was a great start!

 

Oh...and learn how to make a great roux. I find now that when I make anything creamy, a rich roux is the key. From homemade Mac and cheese to pot pie filling. That is the first method I'd perfect. It's the first thing I taught my daughter therefore she was suddenly equipped to make 8-10 different meals.

[ErinE]

* Subscribe to Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country. Cook's Illustrated is for more time intensive, restaurant quality meals; Cook's Country is great for families. To develop your skills, read the process for developing the recipe, then cook or bake the food. I've subscribed to both magazines for years. The regional recipe discussions in Cook's Country are particularly interesting to me. Over time, I've been able to pick up basic principles that translate to other recipes or in developing my own. The many cookbooks from America's Test Kitchen are wonderful resources. My favorite is this one: The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. The other ATK cookbooks are great as well, but there's a lot of repeats. Check them out at the library before purchasing anything beyond the basic cookbook. 

 

* Cook (or bake) regularly. I browse the magazines every few months and make a list of the recipes I find interesting. For example, I wrote down recipes in May from the June/July Cook's Country and use that list to menu plan each week before buying groceries. This has helped me move beyond basic meals. If I really like the recipe, I put a copy in a binder that contains all my go-to recipes.

 

* If you want a less science oriented cookbook, Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is excellent. He gives you a basic recipe then lists variations. 

 

* If you want more science, I like  Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen.

 

* Search youtube for cooking videos, like knife skills.

 

Over time, I've found that these tips have improved my cooking and baking. I can look at a recipe and decide if it will work or what needs to be tweaked. Just last night, I had a dinner roll recipe that required 24-hours to prepare. With my knowledge of bread making, I was able to cut it to 2. It may not have been as flavorful as the original recipe, but I was able to get dinner rolls on the table.

 

What I have not found helpful: recipes in any of the other lifestyle or food magazines. I might browse them to get interesting ideas, but I rarely find them useful.

[ErinE]

Cook something from a recipe book, scribble notes in the margin, try it again with those modifications and see whether it turns out better or whether you need to scribble more notes in the margin.

 

Cookbooks are the only books I can bring myself to write in, lol.

 

Yes, write in your cookbooks! I used to have an aversion to this, but I could never remember my changes so I now scribble away. I put them right on the page with the recipe. The notes section at the end of many cookbooks just get lost for me.

[Heatherwith4]

Practice.

 

Don't be afraid to fail.

 

Plus what everyone else said. I think using good quality ingredients makes a big difference, too.

[ErinE]

Oh...and learn how to make a great roux. I find now that when I make anything creamy, a rich roux is the key. From homemade Mac and cheese to pot pie filling. That is the first method I'd perfect. It's the first thing I taught my daughter therefore she was suddenly equipped to make 8-10 different meals.

 

Agree with this. With a brown roux, you can make gumbo, brown gravy, thicken soup, etc. With a white roux, you can make a cream of _________ soup replacements, mac and cheese, sausage gravy, or thicken soup.

[Mbelle]

I definitely grew up with the quick meals and I was not taught how to cook daily meals.  ( I could cook a roast lunch or friend chicken and potato salad and that was about it, other than southern style breakfast.)  It has taken me some time to even get to a 3 and I cook every day.  One of the main things was realizing that i was not doomed if I did not have every single item in the recipe.  I had no idea it would be ok if you skipped a small ingredient.  The other thing that helped me was growing fresh herbs.  Basically they do not need any help to grow where we live.  Just plant them and leave them.   The other thing that has helped is the grill!!!  I used to get so depressed thinking of all the d$$%n dishes I was going to have to wash.  

 

Making a menu for Mon - Thurs helped me a lot for awhile.

 

I am looking forward to hearing more tips.  I want to get up to a 4 this year! LOL

 

I am a baker and I can do that pretty well, but the daily cooking is hard.

[kubiac]

All good recommendations.

 

Look for cookbooks with "simple" in the title or "introduction to" -- they will usually have fewer ingredients and steps. Alice Waters' Art of Simple Food and Art of Simple Food II (more vegetables) are great. She has a lot of good technique and philosophy explanations before she gets to the recipes.

 

My favorite you-can-do-it! book of techniques and encouragement and BEAUTIFUL language is Tamar Adler's An Everlasting Meal. She is ACES.

[Mbelle]

The other thing that helps is if you actually like to eat.  I really don't care about eating, but wow the kids and the hubby sure do.  It's hard to always be motivated when I'd rather just cut off a hunk of cheese and eat an apple and call it supper!  I had to find other motivations, such as creating an environment for quality family time to take place and creating a warm atmosphere for conversation etc..

[redsquirrel]

I totally agree with watching Alton Brown's show. My 10 year old has learned a lot from him, lol.  Also getting good knife skills! That is something you might have to ask around to find...or maybe on youtube? It will make things much easier. Good tools and good ingredients certainly help.

 

My dear friend had the same goal and she found the two cookbooks by Mark Bittman "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" very helpful. She said she really used them a lot and they did help. They made her much less afraid and willing to try new things.

[Junie]

I didn't learn how to cook until I got married.  Several years later I had to start over when I found out that I am (severely) allergic to wheat.

 

It's a work in progress.

 

One thing that has helped me is to figure out what parts of cooking I don't like.

 

I figured out that the clean-up part is the worst.  The kids have now been assigned that (now that some of them are tall enough).

 

I also discovered that I hate measuring.  So baking is out.  (Gluten-free baking is so tricky anyway.)

 

Also, with 6 kids/homeschooling/health issues I don't really have a lot of time or energy to devote to cooking dinner.  So I concentrate on one dish that requires a recipe.  We eat veggies that can be steamed in the microwave and canned fruit.  With the side dishes taken care of, I can concentrate on the main dish.

 

My advice to you is to break down the goal of becoming a better cook.  Pick a specialty (main dish, desserts, or Mexican, Chinese, vegetarian) and work with that for a while.  You could get a couple of cookbooks focused on those specific types of recipes.  

 

Try to find a signature dish or two that you are really good at to take to pot-lucks or to make when you have guests.  If you have one or two awesome dishes, people will think that all of your cooking is awesome. :)

 

 

[ErinE]

The thing I don't like about Alton Brown is he's far too gadget-oriented and fussy for me. The final straw was a biscuit recipe that required a food processor to mix together the dry ingredients, but didn't require its use any further. A whisk (or fork) will quickly combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda without dirtying up an appliance. I also didn't think his baking recipes turned out well.

 

I enjoy his show, but I would be cautious about using his recipes.

[HS Mom in NC]

I became a better cook by watching American's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country on TV and buying their recipe books.  I also bought Rachel Ray's 365, No Repeats cookbook.

[Artichoke]

Totally agree with Good Eats! Alton Brown is also a huge reason why I now understand certain aspects of, shall we say, the science of cooking.

Cooks Illustrated magazine does this as well. I've learned so much from it over the years, especially the science of food.

[Artichoke]

Cook something from a recipe book, scribble notes in the margin, try it again with those modifications and see whether it turns out better or whether you need to scribble more notes in the margin.

 

Cookbooks are the only books I can bring myself to write in, lol.

I get so excited when I find old cookbooks at estate sales with notes in the margins.

[ErinE]

I've always loved to bake, but what made cooking easier for me was keeping the kitchen tidy while I work. There was a moment in Ratatouille were the competent chef scolds the inexperienced one for his messy workspace. She fussed at him to clean up the spills and be neat. As a self-taught cook, that was a revelation for me.

 

I've found that starting with a clean kitchen, an empty dishwasher (or empty enough to fit most of the dinner dishes), and a sink with soapy water helps minimize the after-dinner mess. Ingredients, once used, are immediately put back in the cupboard, dirty dishes are put in the dishwasher, and spills get wiped up right away. I use a large plate to hold all my utensils so I don't pull out extras because I can't find the butter knife I just used. The soapy water lets me wash and reuse knives or measuring utensils. Any down time between recipe steps is spent cleaning up.

 

By the time dinner is served, the only items I have out are cooking pans (that hold food), serving utensils, and the place settings. My kids clear the table while I put away the food, and they wipe down the counters and table and sweep while I wash up any dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher. I used to dread the kitchen after dinner; now that I stay on top of the mess, though it's an unpleasant chore, it goes much faster.

[Mothersweets]

I've been playing around with the America's Test Kitchen cooking school free trial.

 

Besides that - and buying a cute chef's coat :)  what else can I do to kick my skills up a notch?

 

On a 5 star rating scale for skill set, I would say I'm roughly at a solid 3 if you compare me with most working moms who grew up with chef boyardee and are now just trying to get dinner on the table.  

 

Now if you compare me with moms brought up in cooking homes with years of experience and high level of interest, maybe a 2.

 

Are you looking for another online cooking school - something like this? - http://rouxbe.com/cooking-courses

 

I watched the Knife Skills class and thought it was very good but didn't go any further as I had a crummy internet connection at the time and now I'm just too lazy. :)

 

I stumbled onto the Rouxbe courses after reading two of Kathleen Flinn's books - The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry and  The Kitchen Counter Cooking School - both are great reads.

[Lizzie in Ma]

One thing that helped me was learning why things worked.   I love Good Eats because Alton really explains why things happen the way they do.  I also discovered roasting veggies instead of boiling them.  My family likes them so much better.  I can even get DH to eat roasted green beans.  Oh, and I also learned that high wasn't the only setting on my stove.  Seriously.  Once I learned to turn down the knob I quit burning everything.  I could not cook at all when I first got married, and now I consider myself slightly higher than average.  My DD10 thinks I am the best cook in the world!

 

Now if I could just figure out a way to enjoy cooking....

 

This absolutely, Alton Brown teaches why thing work when you cook them.  We love him.

[KrissiK]

Practice, practice, practice. I am a good cook. But I'm not one of those cooks who can just go through the pantry, grab a bunch of ingredients and voila, it's an amazing dinner. I follow recipes. Religiously. My mom mocks me for how closely I will follow a recipe. But, it does take practice, and a good cook book. I use Betty Crocker recipes and Taste of Home Magazine Recipes, I also subscribe to Cuisine at Home magazine and have had good results with their stuff.

[Zinnia]

I think finding a source of recipes that you know will inspire you and turn out well really helps.  For me, that is Southern Living and Cooking LIght.  They always turn out well, my family almost always likes them, and they are pretty easy. 

 

I also really like to eat, so cooking at home helps me to eat well without spending all of our money at trendy restaurants.  That's a good thing. 

[KungFuPanda]

Time, persistence, and trial and error. If you keep plugging away and trying new techniques and recipes, you'll get better. Not every recipe is a keeper, but don't let that discourage you or think badly about your skills. You tweak it, or find something else to try. My most recent nemesis is poached eggs. I finally figured it out before admitting defeat and buying a "poaching" machine that would actually steam the eggs rather than poaching them.

[KungFuPanda]

I've always loved to bake, but what made cooking easier for me was keeping the kitchen tidy while I work. There was a moment in Ratatouille were the competent chef scolds the inexperienced one for his messy workspace. She fussed at him to clean up the spills and be neat. As a self-taught cook, that was a revelation for me.

 

I've found that starting with a clean kitchen, an empty dishwasher (or empty enough to fit most of the dinner dishes), and a sink with soapy water helps minimize the after-dinner mess. Ingredients, once used, are immediately put back in the cupboard, dirty dishes are put in the dishwasher, and spills get wiped up right away. I use a large plate to hold all my utensils so I don't pull out extras because I can't find the butter knife I just used. The soapy water lets me wash and reuse knives or measuring utensils. Any down time between recipe steps is spent cleaning up.

 

By the time dinner is served, the only items I have out are cooking pans (that hold food), serving utensils, and the place settings. My kids clear the table while I put away the food, and they wipe down the counters and table and sweep while I wash up any dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher. I used to dread the kitchen after dinner; now that I stay on top of the mess, though it's an unpleasant chore, it goes much faster.

I'd be embarrassed to admit how long it took me to figure all this out. I do it now, but it took me waaaay to long.

[Guest]

I totally agree with watching Alton Brown's show. My 10 year old has learned a lot from him, lol. Also getting good knife skills! That is something you might have to ask around to find...or maybe on youtube? It will make things much easier. Good tools and good ingredients certainly help.

 

My dear friend had the same goal and she found the two cookbooks by Mark Bittman "How to Cook Everything" and "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian" very helpful. She said she really used them a lot and they did help. They made her much less afraid and willing to try new things.

I ran out of likes!

 

Ditto to Alton Brown and Mark Bittman. I don't have the prettiest presentation on food, but I am a killer cook. These two men are the only reason why. I started out making pretty much inedible things because I had creativity but not enough functional knowledge of how and why flavors and cooking techniques worked or didn't work. They gave me the technical background so now I can be creative.

[AnnE-girl]

One more good source is the Pioneer Woman's website. I like how she has pictures of almost every step of the recipes so you can see that your version looks similar to hers. There are a few other cooking blogs that do this, but hers is the one I've used most.

[momee]

ive signed up for saltedtv and have had a hard time breaking myself away.  LOVE watching the chef interviews, really gets me inspired to hear how others began cooking or listening to the benefit of a good meal towards bringing people together.

 

I am loving it.  Free subscription for first two weeks, I think.  Made THE BEST hash browns I've ever made and my eggs in my stainless skillet were perfect three days in a row!  Bam.

[Arcadia]

Have lots of food tasters. I was just commenting in the thread on entertaining that my aunts just love cooking and feeding all of us cousins and grandsons/daughters/nieces/nephews.

My aunts remember all our food preference: sweet, sour, salty, bitter. They could also just take our any "old" food in their refrigerator and make a meal out of it. None of them use cookbooks though. It's just years of experimenting and trading secrets in the kitchen.

The maximum number of aunts cooking in the same kitchen when I was a kid was five. They were cooking for all the relatives who were waiting for the bride's arrival at the groom's parents house for the wedding tea ceremony.

[fdrinca]

I don't enjoy eating or cooking (especially cooking for four children 8 and under, who have the least sophisticated tastebuds in the world!), but I like learning about new things.

 

I went through a period where I watched a LOT of cooking shows - I love America's Test Kitchen (another good "why" show), Martha Stewart's cooking class on PBS, and Chopped. Listening to the chef's critiques on Chopped helped me understand what other people were looking for in recipes. Watching different recipes made over and over helped me learn how flavors and textures combine and how to be more creative with my own cooking. 

 

[Carol in Cal.]

Ask people for optimized recipes, and make those.

Lots of recipes are kind of 'filler'.  Once someone has really tweaked a recipe into perfection, that's when you want to ask for it.

 

For instance I make cookies that sound simple and look kind of plain, but are extremely good.  The reason they are so good is that I figured out that coarsely grated walnuts rather than chopped ones really enhance them and also that brushing them with egg white is best done with slightly beaten egg white, moved around with my fingers, instead of a brush. That recipe was always good but now it's a swoon with joy and eat 10 of them version.

 

A good cookbook for this is 'Beat This'.  Junior League 'favorite recipe' cookbooks tend to be this way as well. 

 

ETA:  A more complex cookbook when you're ready for a challenge is 'Savory Baking'.  I have tried at least 10 of its recipes, and they are all outstanding.  That's quite a record.

[Tsuga]

Boy do I have some different advice!

 

My #1 is watch others in the kitchen. Even if they say, "It's not fancy", provided they don't have anxiety, it doesn't hurt to ask if you can watch. Don't bug if they are busy, but if you can help them out, help. That was how I learned to properly saute onions and do all kinds of things.

 

#2 is buy a proper bridal (so sexist, I know, sorry) cookbook that explains things like you're five. I had the Betty Crocker Bridal cookbook. I'd much rather have had an earlier edition without all the sugar.

 

#3 is sauces. Eduard de Pomiane's French Cooking in 10 Minutes will help you make the perfect sauce out of pretty much anything.

 

#4 is don't do too much. A single recipe per week, one dinner that you really spend time thinking about, is enough. Try four over a month and then repeat them the next month but better. If you do too many it will just all be a jumble.

 

 

[Audrey]

Practice.

 

Don't be afraid to fail.

 

Plus what everyone else said. I think using good quality ingredients makes a big difference, too.

 

 

That's how I feel, too.  Quality ingredients are key.  And, you have to be willing to try new and different techniques, flavour combinations and ingredients.  That's how you really learn what works for you and what doesn't. 

 

I like to try new recipes all the time, but my usual cooking has no recipes -- they are just things I know how to do because of all that practice.  I try out new recipes and let my family know that I want their honest feedback.  They give me the info I need to either make it better or scrap it.

[Slartibartfast]

I would learn how to make great stock from bones.

 

 

[Slartibartfast]

If using recipe websites always check the comments, particularly on epicurious. (I don't mean the people that say things such as, "this calls for eggs but I didn't have any eggs so I used ranch dressing instead, it tastes funny! 1 star!")

 

I have found that sometimes the changes commentors recommend are sometimes BETTER than the recipe.

[LisaKinVA]

I would learn how to make great stock from bones.

 

Great chicken and vegetable stocks are easy to make.  The best beef stock (IMO), you roast the bones first before you cook them.  There are some really good recipes on-line.

 

The main reason I want to learn how to can is for my stocks, marinara sauce, sweet chili sauce, basic red Italian sauce, etc.  Freezing enough of those just takes up too much space in my freezer.  But, I love the my homemade stocks and sauces so much...and they are always great for a quick meal.

[LisaKinVA]

I watch videos, read recipes, read reviews, and just try new things.  There are lots of on-line classes popping up which will teach basic techniques as well as more advanced things.  Although, I haven't yet done anything with those (except for some cake baking/decorating ones).

 

Quality ingredients DO matter.  Fresh ingredients DO matter.  

 

Proper equipment matters.

 

That said, I don't use extra equipment for most things *unless* I'm doing a lot of them.  I don't use many cook books.  Most of my favorite recipes I've gotten on-line, or have been handed down.  I have a difficult time buying cook books and magazines now.  As I've tried more things, I've gotten a lot more confident about how I can manipulate recipes.  I've also made my own using combinations of multiple recipes and trial and error (eliminating things I don't like and adding things I do -- keeping proportions in mind).

 

Right now, I am collecting resources to put together a culinary arts course for my oldest daughter.  She is actually quite capable, but is timid.  My younger son is very bold in the kitchen and just wings it.  My two youngest are in training.  My oldest is learning grilling, deep frying, and can also make cakes from scratch.  I expect all of my children will have solid cooking skills (from scratch), how to use and care for different types of equipment, how to adjust a recipe when you have limited equipment, and plan to give them all copies of their favorite recipes when they leave my house (as we perfect things, they go into my computer-based cook-book).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ausmumof3]

I'm not a great cook, but I can be pretty good when I'm paying attention. It's just that most of the time I'd rather read and play with the kids so I forget about dinner and burn it.

 

What does work for me when I'm going through a cooking phase is just to do a heap of stuff at once so I'm fully engaged in the kitchen and I don't dare to get side tracked. Also where I can be good is doing stuff like Quill said. Do it all from real ingredients. I am just now starting to take packet short cuts occasionally.

 

The other thing I find helpful is to have a good basic recipe that's modifiable. Learn to make muffins then change the fruit or spices. Learn pastry then change the filling. Get a butter cake recipe and you can do it with vanilla or juice and zest or add nuts etc. basic mince can be pie, lasagne, potato topping, mince and noodles. The technique that works for steak works for venison. Make your own gravy, it's no harder than gravox and so nice! I'm not a great cook but we eat a good variety of home made meals and they aren't boring, because I get basic techniques and change them around a bit.