As I’ve mentioned before, dear reader, I don’t know a whole lot about cooking thanks to my family surroundings. “Kathleen Jo Raskin, this is wonderful. How did you do it?” is always heard around the dinners I cook for our gatherings. Contrary to what people tell you, cooking is more than just following a recipe. I remember some of my first failures to this affect involving too much salt and inedible chicken. It’s a devastating blow to have to order pizza when a meal doesn’t work out, but you just must jump back up on the saddle and try again.
Find a recipe at your skill level
Let us assume that you have never made a dessert before in your life. Making the Arc De Triomphe out of nothing but sugar is probably not the best way to keep yourself from failing. You may be a savant, and you get lucky, but for the rest of us, that probably is not the case. I started with simple chocolate cookies, but you do not have to start there. Boxed cakes are a good way to get your feet work, with minimal mixing and simple ingredients. Looking at multiple sources, cooking websites, books, television shows can give you a solid idea of where to get started.
Read, Read and Read again
One of the best tips that I can offer to try again is to read the recipe at least three times before you even get started. Noting that it is a teaspoon versus a tablespoon can be a life changer or baking soda or powder can mean the difference between amazing cookies and hockey pucks that break your teeth. Whether you like the internet or not, there are many options for getting recipes, and you will want to explore the best one for your learning and cooking styles. I’ve seen descriptions with the recipe told like a story, and cold clinical recipes that just tell you the bare bones.
Prep for the Recipe
So you’ve decided that you want to make a fabulous dinner. Step one is to make a shopping list to make sure that you aren’t missing anything or that it is fresh. Your guests probably won’t appreciate a fuzzy cheese dish. Go shopping with a list, whether it is hand written, on your phone or ordered thanks to pro delivery services. It will save you plenty of headaches later so you don’t have to figure out if your 2% milk is a good substitute for buttermilk or other things. From there, take the time to set out exactly what you need and then put away any leftovers.
