If you have the budget for frequent fast food (wow that gets spendy fast), you definitely have the budget to try cooking.
Judging by your pictures, I don't think you'll have any problem taste testing frequently, which should help a lot in figuring out what works, faster.
Tools/Appliances:
I hope you have a blender. A mixer would be useful too. Your local Goodwill location will probably have used ones for cheap. May also be a good place for additional pots and pans. May have to wash them first, but same problem with getting new ones so that's not a downside. You'll need measuring cups too, and well as spatulas and ladel spoons for stirring. Plastic resealable containers may be useful for things like partially used tomatoes, onions, and other fruits and vegetables. I would tell you to get a timer, but pretty much any smart phone these days will have a timer feature.
Getting recipes:
Sure, you could order them online and guess by the reviews, but I recommend visiting the book store and flipping through pages. Only you can really know what seems tasty and you might want to make. When you find some good ones, then you'll know what books to get.
Basic cooking and just following a recipe is actually pretty easy. Some recipes are potentially time consuming, unfortunately. When I used to make pumpkin pies I remember something like 45 minutes. As you get better and start learning how long it takes you to do things, you'll get better at multitasking so you could prepare many things at once, saving time.
There are a few caveats though. As some recipes are poorly written, you should read through them to the end before you do anything the recipe says. One example that I've seen is where in the middle of the recipe, it said something like... now place the batter into a flat pan and into a preheated oven set to 400 degrees. Well, what if you don't have any clean flat pans or you didn't turn on the oven?
Start making a list of ingredients to get whenever you go shopping. Be mindful of expiration, but spices tend to have a long shelf life. If you don't have a "system" in your kitchen, make one and be consistent (e.g. the salt is here and the basil is there).
Warnings:
If the recipe calls for eggs or raw meat, cook near the top end of the time the recipe calls for. If it says 19-23 minutes, cook it for 22.5 minutes. Set the oven for 5 degrees above what the recipe calls for. This is to make sure it doesn't make you sick. By extension, if you want to eat raw cookie dough, skip the eggs. Doesn't change the taste except it also won't make you sick.
Raw meat should of course be handled away from everything else, and wash your hands when done preparing for it to be cooked.
When you get more experience doing this, here where it gets more fun with substitutions. This is kind of trial and error, and you have to experiment. Recipe calls for white sugar? Try brown sugar. Adding some sugar to pasta sauce might make you scarf it down.
I have discovered that you can often substitute half and half, or even heavy cream whenever the recipe calls for milk, and it won't change the taste very much. Half and half and heavy cream even lasts longer than milk which tends to spoil, but I don't like how regular milk tastes so it sits there.
You can also sometimes add extra butter to a recipe but it can backfire too. Doubling the butter for mashed potatoes doesn't taste very good, but you can use heavy cream in place of the milk and it doesn't taste that different.
There's many possible little ways to make food taste more delicious and or make it more fattening. Of course, if you don't live alone, you might start noticing that everyone else's waistlines and figures are expanding but that just means what you're doing is working. If you get really good at cooking, your future husband will almost certainly get fat too, or at least chubby.
You can also try cooking different cuisines. Indian food and those cream-based sauces sounds yummy right now. Baklava is supposedly fattening as hell.
Might even go so far as to say that unless you want to make shakes you can drink, you can probably get away with only using heavy cream and use it whenever a recipe calls for milk or half and half.
Anyway, I hope this helps. This is all I can think of so far.
Judging by your pictures, I don't think you'll have any problem taste testing frequently, which should help a lot in figuring out what works, faster.
Tools/Appliances:
I hope you have a blender. A mixer would be useful too. Your local Goodwill location will probably have used ones for cheap. May also be a good place for additional pots and pans. May have to wash them first, but same problem with getting new ones so that's not a downside. You'll need measuring cups too, and well as spatulas and ladel spoons for stirring. Plastic resealable containers may be useful for things like partially used tomatoes, onions, and other fruits and vegetables. I would tell you to get a timer, but pretty much any smart phone these days will have a timer feature.
Getting recipes:
Sure, you could order them online and guess by the reviews, but I recommend visiting the book store and flipping through pages. Only you can really know what seems tasty and you might want to make. When you find some good ones, then you'll know what books to get.
Basic cooking and just following a recipe is actually pretty easy. Some recipes are potentially time consuming, unfortunately. When I used to make pumpkin pies I remember something like 45 minutes. As you get better and start learning how long it takes you to do things, you'll get better at multitasking so you could prepare many things at once, saving time.
There are a few caveats though. As some recipes are poorly written, you should read through them to the end before you do anything the recipe says. One example that I've seen is where in the middle of the recipe, it said something like... now place the batter into a flat pan and into a preheated oven set to 400 degrees. Well, what if you don't have any clean flat pans or you didn't turn on the oven?
Start making a list of ingredients to get whenever you go shopping. Be mindful of expiration, but spices tend to have a long shelf life. If you don't have a "system" in your kitchen, make one and be consistent (e.g. the salt is here and the basil is there).
Warnings:
If the recipe calls for eggs or raw meat, cook near the top end of the time the recipe calls for. If it says 19-23 minutes, cook it for 22.5 minutes. Set the oven for 5 degrees above what the recipe calls for. This is to make sure it doesn't make you sick. By extension, if you want to eat raw cookie dough, skip the eggs. Doesn't change the taste except it also won't make you sick.
Raw meat should of course be handled away from everything else, and wash your hands when done preparing for it to be cooked.
When you get more experience doing this, here where it gets more fun with substitutions. This is kind of trial and error, and you have to experiment. Recipe calls for white sugar? Try brown sugar. Adding some sugar to pasta sauce might make you scarf it down.
I have discovered that you can often substitute half and half, or even heavy cream whenever the recipe calls for milk, and it won't change the taste very much. Half and half and heavy cream even lasts longer than milk which tends to spoil, but I don't like how regular milk tastes so it sits there.
You can also sometimes add extra butter to a recipe but it can backfire too. Doubling the butter for mashed potatoes doesn't taste very good, but you can use heavy cream in place of the milk and it doesn't taste that different.
There's many possible little ways to make food taste more delicious and or make it more fattening. Of course, if you don't live alone, you might start noticing that everyone else's waistlines and figures are expanding but that just means what you're doing is working. If you get really good at cooking, your future husband will almost certainly get fat too, or at least chubby.
You can also try cooking different cuisines. Indian food and those cream-based sauces sounds yummy right now. Baklava is supposedly fattening as hell.
Might even go so far as to say that unless you want to make shakes you can drink, you can probably get away with only using heavy cream and use it whenever a recipe calls for milk or half and half.
Anyway, I hope this helps. This is all I can think of so far.
5 years
