Things I wish I knew Before I learned to Cook

Sometimes, trial and error in the kitchen can be fun. That story about the time I ______, hilarious. However there are some things I wish I had known before I started cooking, especially when I was a poor, starving college student, and ruining dinner (and the leftovers it was supposed to yield) meant I would only be eating $.15 ramen for a couple days.

So here are some tips and tricks that have made my life easier, please share yours!

~ First and foremost, The Always's:
Always cook with a glass of wine.

Always salt your pasta water, A Lot.

Always taste your food! While you're cooking, not when it's plated. By then it's too late to fix anything.

~ Recipes (or cookbooks) with cutesy names never have the staying power that the tried and true standbys do. If you want to add a cookbook to your library and you don't already have all 25 of the ones in this slide show, you have no business buying one titled Eat Your Feelings: Recipes for Self Loathing (this honestly exists).

 ~ Make way more spinach than you think you need. This way you will not find yourself in the position of having one cupcake-sized mound of sauteed garlic spinach for your whole party of four to share.

~ Buy  yourself a pair of kitchen scissors. I know you think those regular scissors in your junk drawer are just fine, but trust me, it's much better to have a pair dedicated to food. You will use them to chop herbs, cut up those chunks of canned tomato, snip the bones of that gorgeous roast chicken, etc...

~ Sometimes it pays to be Type A: When having guests over for dinner, do everything you can in advance. No matter how easy or mindless the task seems to be, no matter how many times your husband (or wife) says, "Why don't we just do that later?" If you disregard my advice and do nothing in advance, at least do this one thing; start your evening off with an empty dishwasher. You will thank yourself later when you've had one too many and the sight of all those dishes kick starts a headache.

~ Add acid. A drizzle of vinegar, a spoonful of tangy buttermilk, a simple squeeze of lemon or lime will always add brightness to an otherwise boring and flat dish. I believe it was Mario Batali who once said: the easiest way to pretend you know what you’re doing in the kitchen is to talk about the “acidity” level of a dish.

~ Learn the correct way to deal with an onion and avocado. Onions are the staple of so many dishes that knowing how to properly dice one is imperative. And who doesn't like a delicious, creamy avocado in their salad?

~ Be flexible, it’s ok to substitute! Don’t let not having a particular ingredient stop you from trying a new dish. You won’t get arrested if you leave out an ingredient or replace it with something that’s not called for. In fact you might create a version you like even better, and that will increase your confidence in the kitchen. And if it doesn't work, you'll have another funny story to tell.

~ When shredding up a block of cheese, put it in the freezer for 5 minutes before hand. This firms up the cheese and makes the task much more manageable. You can do the same thing with a filet if you want some really thin slices for carpaccio, an ice cold steak will slice much nicer than a refrigerated one. HOWEVER…

~ Always bring your remove your meat from the refrigerator 20 minutes before cooking. Meat will never brown properly if you add it to the pan when it’s freezing cold and wet. (And browning properly is where you’re going to get most of your flavor, brown foods taste good.) It should be patted dry and room temperature.

There you go, a couple tips to make life in the kitchen a little easier. I'll add more as I think of them, feel free to post yours in the comments!