Is this normal to feel this way in regard to recipes and cooking?!
What are good easy ways to learn to cook and bake new things? I find the kraft receipies some of them to be too many steps and indredients.
How do I get past this fear if you will and learn to be a better cook and a good baker?
Do you have any easy recepies to share?
Answers: I enjoy cooking basic things and can make arthicoke dip and good lasagna and I even learned how to make chocolate foundue, and every days foods like meat starch and vegetables, my probelm is I am afraid to try and cook new things for fear the recepie will fail and I get very overwhelmed when the recepie calls for a lot of steps and ingredients.
What are good easy ways to learn to cook and bake new things? I find the kraft receipies some of them to be too many steps and indredients.
How do I get past this fear if you will and learn to be a better cook and a good baker?
Do you have any easy recepies to share?
well i can tell you as a child at my grandmothers knee is where i learned to cook and have been in the industry for more years than i'd like to admit....but my secret for cooking is if it has too many ingredients...pass it by...theres nothing out there that you can make that really needs 30 ingredients....if it has more than 15...i just pass it by ...the best thing to do is take a favorite recipe and add an ingredient..then that recipe is yours!!!! And most cooks arent good bakers and visa versa.
I think the best way for you to get over your fear is to watch the Food network.Just watch for a while.It might not seem so scary to try something new if you watch first.Hope I helped:)
Take it easy and don't be hard on yourself. Everyone gets like that sometimes. All you need is a break from cooking. Take a week or two off. Let the old man cook or one of the kids or just treat yourself to a two week cooking vacation. When you come back you'll be recharged and ready to take on a new challenge.
Well first of all, I can see what your problem is. My mother taught me before she passed, Go Wild, Follow your instincts. You might come up with your own creation. Personally, I experiment and experiment till its just right and then I serve it to family and friends. I would say just follow your heart and you might design something marvelous! I have lots of resipes. Over a hundred in fact. I have been cooking since I was 2.
-Sadye (age 15) (my fathers personal chef, want to be come professional!)
Email me if you want a lot of simple resipes! (its on my profile)
Try watching Rachel Ray. She has some great recipes that only take 30 minutes. Also, remember... if you screw up the recipe what is the worst that can happen? You throw it out, and go to a restaurant for dinner! Maybe you could try it on Sat morning just for practice. That way there is no pressure to perform for an upcoming meal. As far as getting overwhelmed, try this:
1) Set out all ingredients
2) Set out all bowls, cups, spatulas needed
3) Read the recipe - twice
4) Do what recipe says
Looking at it that way it is only 4 steps!
Another thing to try:
Write out the recipe on a sheet of notebook paper. As you complete each step scratch it out with either an ink pen or marker. That way, when that step is finished it is not sitting there taunting you, but rather is done and gone away!
Good Luck! YOU CAN DO THIS!!!!!!!!!
What's the worst that can happen if something doesn't turn out well? It isn't as though anything is going to explode! That's what I had to tell myself while I was learning. I also had a rule for those who ridiculed my culinary experiments: (from a plaque I saw somewhere) "Sit at the table, take a look. The first to complain is tomorrow's cook." No one ever dared complain!
Don't worry, if you can make good lasagna and artichoke dip (two things I still after 30 years can't quite get - lots of others, but not those) you'll be great at many other things.
Good luck and happy cooking!
HAH! i've been cooking for many years and never have I read a full recipe if it looks too long... Since you have a great base knowledge of generally how food should be done, do what i do and only read ingredients- make the rest up yourself. Sometimes with baking and cakes its all about accuracy, but I find this gets me past the dauntingness of some recipes.... or look at it this way.
Keep in mind some chefs / authors are very long winded. Sometimes you read the recipe and think to yourself it could have been condensed into fewer steps... don't fret my pet!!!
I collect menus from restaurants and cafes whenever I go out of town. Then I look up the recipes when I get home on the Internet. Think of things that you really like, and try one at a time. My dog got really chubby trying all my mess ups.
It really just takes practice.Email me and let me know some of your favorite meats and fish, and I will send you a few suggestions.
After working for so many years in a French Cafe, I have learned some easy ways to make fancy looking meals.
be blessed, vicki
I was like you once. Not that long ago, actually. I began watching the Food Network and I would go out to http://www.allrecipes.com and find recipes I liked, read all the reviews and see what people, who knew more about what they were doing than I did, said about the recipes.
I was a good cook, don't get me wrong, but as far a stretching out of my "cooking comfort zone", no way! Watching other cooks, and reading others comments really gave me the courage to try new things. I've made some terrific things totally from scratch; dishes that had a long list of ingredients, and had a lot of prep time.
I've done my fair share of messing up recipes, but all-in-all it's not as hard as I thought. Here is a website that has relatively easy recipes http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com I hope you enjoy them. Make a harder recipe on a Saturday when you have time to mess with it all day. Maybe once a week, or once a month. Ease yourself into trying new things.
Good luck!
Remember that while baking is chemistry--accurate measurements are important, etc.--cooking is art! There is a lot of "wiggle room" in cooking.
Two suggestions to help you continue to practice the art of cooking:
1. Experiment in order to broaden your repertoire. Try to change one thing in a favorite recipe--perhaps a new fresh herb or sauteing a vegetable with garlic and butter or olive oil instead of steaming it or using a different kind of cheese or pick up a new item that's on sale or...
2. Go with your strengths and tastes. If you eat something somewhere that you really like, ask for the recipe (or at least how it was made) and try it out--that way you know what it should taste like for comparison of your version to the one you liked. Try out a recipe that looks good--if the picture and recipe make your mouth water, you won't mind how many steps it takes.
Good luck! Cooking is a great way to express yourself.
I would say THROW YOUR FEARS OUT THE WINDOW!!! Cooking is not a science! you only get better by trying and doing! With everyday cooking there is no "real" recipes, you can always change ingredients to your liking! Just try, the more you do, the better and faster you get! When it comes to baking, the recipe and steps are very important because baking is a science ;] Just have fun in the kitchen... and remember some of the best foods come from mistakes... Like chocolate chip cookies ;]
Oh man...if I can only tell you how many recipes I've destroyed. In the last few years though, I've gotten much better. My husband and I cook everything from scratch now, and don't rely on prepackaged or frozen food at all. What a difference.
What we did was, we went to the library and got a whole bunch of recipe books out. Sometimes a recipe looks huge, but then it turns out that most of it is just prep. Like cutting onions or garlic. I precut onions, bell peppers, celery, and keep them in bags in my freezer. Chinese cooking is always easy, and a good way to start. I buy fresh cauliflower and broccoli, and I cut and wash it and keep them in bags in my freezer also.
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/5-or-l...
I go here alot also, for something easy, if I don't feel like cooking.
Even the best chefs in the world still make mistakes. That's why I don't even get upset anymore. I've watched Emeril mess up and it made me feel so much better. If he can still make mistakes then I can too.
I hope you stick with it. Cooking for yourself with fresh ingredients is so much better for you, and sometimes it's just relaxing. It takes your mind of things.
Good luck!