learning to cook?

[tessa_s212]

I admit it. I'm a horrible cook. I live off of microwaveable foods.

But I guess there will come a time a future husband or kids might actually appreciate someone that can cook.. maybe not a chef, but at least decent.

Yesterday I made these potato things out of a box and they turned out good, and today made pancakes. Took me awhile to get the hang of it. First I was burning them, then I was not cooking them long enough.. the last 5 or so were probably good though. But both those are out of a box. Ask me to do anything else, and I'm hopeless.

How do you learn to cook? Especially when you have a mother that is a BAD cook. She cooks all our meat until its pretty tough. The first time I heard people will still eat a steak that still had some blood, I thought they were actually kidding me. When friends come over, sometimes they'd rather go hungry all day than eat what my mom cooks. And what is a real meal like? Our meals consist of maybe a hamburger sandwich, frozen pizza, or sometimes we might actually have pork chops or chicken with mashed potatoes out of a box. But that is about as glamorous as it gets.

What are some good meals that are pretty easy to make? Do people actually make meals that consist of most the food groups?

 

[PWCorgi]

You could try some casseroles, they're usually easy and they can contain many of the food groups at the same time.

Do you have a slow-cooker/crock-pot thingy? You can usually put a whole bunch of different things in it and it's usually really easy and really good.

 

[PWCorgi]

Do people actually make meals that consist of most the food groups?

We usually have a meat or a pasta and a vegetable for supper, no fruit though, I just eat that with breaksfast or lunch.

 

[Baxter'smybaby]

watch some of the food network cooking shows--great way to learn the "why/how' of cooking--could read too--but I find I get more info through the visual! :Yep--make dinner with several food groups--mostly protien and veggies--but rice, pasta, etc. also have their place.

 

[tessa_s212]

I can't really watch TV.. and I have seen some of those shows before, and they all seem to be more difficult dishes.

 

[PWCorgi]

The library should have some nutrition books as well as cook books, you could check there

 

[Renee750il]

Tessa, see if you can't get hold of some of Martha Stewart's Everyday Cooking magazines.

 

[noludoru]

*raises hand*

 

[~Jessie~]

I learned to cook just by following recipes. I found recipes that looked good, followed the exact directions, and they turned out good.

My mom is a really good cook, but I was never interested in learning how to cook when I lived at home. Now that I live 3hrs away from my parents, I've learned to do things on my own because I've had to.

 

[GlassOnion]

I'm still learning to cook (made a topic like this a while ago). But yes, meat with blood in it is common. It's the only way I'll eat my meat, really. Done meat is way too tough and not enough flavor to it.

 

[~Jessie~]

Oh, and I second the crock pot idea. Our crock pot is like my best friend... it's amazing! There are so many things you can make in it, and it's soooo easy!

 

[squirtsmom]

Tessa, make a thread that everyone who wants, can put down their favorite recipe. Every day food that isn't too hard to make, but that tastes good and good for you. I am sure you would get lots of recipes.

 

[Zoom]

Trial and error, really. Actually, one thing I do is think of things I like eating at restaurants and then try to recreate it at home, but only for the easier stuff.

Chicken is a good thing to experiment with, it holds a lot of flavor and goes well with just about anything you can think up. Just make sure to cook it all the way through; a meat thermometer might be a good investment to make sure you don't accidently poison yourself. That's bad! Chicken should be at least 165 F in the very middle of the portion.

 

[Renee750il]

Tessa, make a thread that everyone who wants, can put down their favorite recipe. Every day food that isn't too hard to make, but that tastes good and good for you. I am sure you would get lots of recipes.

There's a Recipe thread in the Buried Bones forum If it gets active again I'll move it back up here and sticky it.

 

[Fran27]

I would get a book that gives easy recipes and just follow them.

I'm not a good cook either, but probably because I just don't enjoy cooking, so I don't really bother. What I make is ok when I try, though (my husband usually does the cooking). To be honest I usually buy frozen meals on sale for lunch, I figure that for the $2 it costs me it's worth it, and most are ok also... but yeah I'm going to have to learn recipes when I have kids.

There's some easy stuff though. For meat you can just put spices on it and cook it in a pan (if you're not sure it's cooked enough just cut it in two or something until you get a hang of it), mashed potatoes are super easy (boil the potatoes, smash them, add some butter, salt and half and half and mix until it tastes right) - or you can just bake the potatoes or boil them, and you can just boil any kind of veggies.

Another easy meal is shepherd's pie, make some mashed potatoes, cook some ground beef in a pan (I like adding some tomato sauce so it's not dry), alternate layers in a pan and bake. Or curry chicken, I just cut chicken in small pieces, put them in a pan, once they are mostly cooked I add some curry (quite a bit) and a cup of sour cream, I stir for a while and serve with rice.

That's about 80% of the meals I make, although I usually skip the veggies and just get some packaged salad, add tomatoes, mix olive oil, vinegar and mustard for dressing and that's it. Or I get fish and just cook it with a bit of butter.

I like it easy

 

[BSan]

Do you have a friend who likes to cook and would like to teach you some simple dishes?? You could work together on a dish once in awhile, and then all sit down to eat together. Once you get started, you will be able to use what you learn to make other dishes and recipes.

 

[Doberluv]

If you can, get the old, almost legendary cookbook, Joy of Cooking. It's big. It's got everything you need to know just about. It's got general information about things; about meats, temperature conversions, about tenderizing meats, about storage of food....everything you can imagine besides hundreds of recipies. The index is huge and you can find anything. All kinds of soups which are cheap and healthy....easy too. Appetizers, party things, deserts, how to cook vegetables, casseroles. You name it, it's in there. It's all you need to get started. It's important too, to learn about cross contamination if you don't already have a natural sense about it....very important when you're handling and cooking food. I'm a fanatic about that, partly maybe because I was in the medical field.

It's probably a pretty expensive book. Mine is old and it was $10.00, I see on the flap. I bet it's twice that or more now. But it could be a present for your b-day or Xmas if it's too much right now. Anyhow, I highly recommend Joy of Cooking as your foundation. Then you can aquire more cookbooks as you go. If it's just you or you and one other person, there are neat books with recipies good for just one or two people.

I have another one, I think Sunset puts it out called Favorite Recipies. That one has very simple and good recipies.

Growing up, my Dad always had a vegetable garden and I followed suit when I got out on my own. There is nothing better than home grown veggies. You can grow your own herbs and everything is fresh. We always had a salad full of peppers, tomatoes, green onions, radishes, carrots....all kinds of stuff as well as another vegetable like green beans or whatever out of the garden. Then we'd have some meat and maybe potatoes or rice, noodles. And we also ate things like spaghetti and a salad....always a salad and garlic bread. Or my Mom would sometimes make something Chinese or curried chicken or homemade mac and cheese with polish sausage once in a while.

My Dad baked all our bread. My Mom was/is an excellent cook and everything just about, was home made, even our mayonaise. LOL. That is GOOD homemade and easy! It's not so stiff and has more flavor.

My sister is a superb cook, as is my aunt and my oldest niece. She went to culinary school and became a chef and is now a dietician as well. I'm probably the least of the good cooks in my family, but it's passable. LOL. I don't do much lately, as it's just my son and me. I'm kind of a slacker. But once in a while, I'll bust out something.

Anyhow, I think that's just terrific that you're taking an interest in cooking. A lot of people love it. It's interesting and can become a real hobby for some, obviously. Duh...What profound statements I come up with sometimes. Well, keep us posted. And if you bring up a recipie thread, I'll be sure to contribute something.

 

[Fran27]

I have Joy of Cooking The recipes I've tried were easy. Heck, I even managed to make a decent chocolate mousse on the first attempt

 

[Dave-W]

When I was a kid I worked at McDonald's. On the weekends I worked the early morning shift. There I learned to cook things like scrambled eggs, sausage and hotcakes (you know they're ready to flip when the bubbles burst and they get dry around the edges).

Then I bought a paperback copy of The Better Homes Cookbook. About a thousand pages long and it has a recipe for just about anything you would want to cook. It's like 30 years old and I still use it!

After you cook a few things you will get an idea of what you like. I like onions and garlic, so I try to use that in as many things as I can.

You CAN teach yourself how to cook. My Mom is a horrible cook. For some reason my Grandmother (who was an excellent cook) never taught it to my Mother. So I was like you, pretty much on my own.

Now I would rather eat my own cooking than just about anybody else's (my Step-Mom being the exception. I would rather eat her cooking than my own. It's THAT good!).

 

[Renee750il]

Another good one is the one with the red and white checked cover - it's not only is full of basic recipes, but also gives very good instructions on techniques.