So much cooking and baking over these past few years! I think it's been about two years by now, and I'm proud of how much my little blog has to boast as far as my culinary accomplishments! With being so near to post number 100, I thought it would be a good idea to do a post about what I've learned through all of this. So put away your apron, sit back, and read on for advice, words of caution, and hopefully usable information for your own kitchen adventures.
1) Cheese is best when freshly grated. I learned this from the Cheese Lady? Don't know who/what that is? Google it. (It's a Michigan thing, so hopefully that helps you click the right link!) Good, fresh cheese (...or really any actual cheese...) is not meant to be pre-grated/shredded, especially if it needs to remain that way for a long time! Grating cheese too far in advance dries out the cheese. That's just bad news...and less flavor for you! Don't buy pre-grated cheese, just take the extra minute to grate it from the block yourself. It'll be yummier and fresher, guaranteed! (Watch out for your fingers though--grating yourself instead of the cheese is pretty painful.)
2) Even with a spyder, burning yourself while frying is possible (especially when you don't use the spyder). Lumpia. Lumpia did it. I seriously used to love lumpia. And I still love the idea of it, given all of the sentiment and memories that go along with it. BUT, a lumpia-making session with good friends resulted in a super-nasty burn on my hand/arm that left a scar. And hurt. A lot. Yes, I had a spyder for frying, but I used a deep pot that wouldn't allow any functionality of my lovely, professional spyder. So I'm pretty sure I was attempting to use tongs. I dropped the tongs in the oil, splashed hot oil on myself...and the rest is history. (Secret tip if you happen to make the same or a similar mistake: Mustard relieves burns! Seriously!)
3) Prep, prep, prep! This is my passion. Being organized in the kitchen. It's really super important, and I NEVER start cooking without ensuring that I am as prepared as possible to apply heat, start mixing, or really doing anything listed on the recipe. What does this entail? Pulling out all of your ingredients. Pulling out all needed bowls, utensils, pots/pans, measuring devices, etc. Chopping/dicing/slicing/grating anything needing those steps. Washing all produce. Arranging and rearranging your kitchen and counterspace. Anyone who has cooked with me before or who will ever cook with me will be able to testify to my step-by-step method of preparing every aspect of my dish before actually cooking or baking.
4) Read the recipe before, during, and after. Ok, so I won't admit to having mastered this one. BUT I have learned the importance of it! Recipe writers or food bloggers aren't perfect, and sometimes they forget to list an ingredient under the 'Ingredients' portion of the recipe but describe it perfectly in the actual recipe. Or sometimes the dish takes wayyyyy longer than you've accounted for, and you are eating your arm instead of food halfway through the cooking process. Or maybe the recipe is complex, and you mess up because you didn't read the recipe thoroughly enough. All of these things and more have happened to me, and I'm now and advocate of multiple recipe readings during every step of the cooking/baking process. (I'm just an unintentional hypocrite sometimes...)
5) Capture the good smells, be rid of the lingering ones. Food can smell goooood. But not all food smells good all the time. Making bacon? Revel in the smell (if you're into that kinda thing). But seclude the smell as best as you can, and air the place out once you're done. If not, you could find yourself dreaming of Bacon Monsters and Bacon Grease Rain at nighttime because that bacon smell has permeated every cranny of your home (even your sanity!). Bacon's not the only culprit, so use your noggin and think before and after you cook to minimize smelly food. But hey, feel free to close up all the windows when baking chocolate chip cookies--those little devils NEVER leave behind a bad smell!
6) Not all spatulas are heat-proof. You know how I know? Not because I tested out spatulas. Because an old roommate was using an ancient, non-heat-proof spatula of mine in hot oil...and the spatula meltedddddd. It was totally cool because it was probably a dollar store spatula, but she went out and bought me a brand new heat-proof, heavy-duty spatula to replace it! So...lesson learned from all parties. (Though I wish I could find that beautifully fancy spatula today...)
7) Temperature and timing are key when working with yeast. This took a lot of learning on my part. And tons of attempts. (Many of which resulted in failure.) I'm also really stubborn, so I didn't listen when Brian tried to enlighten me of this ages ago. But, more recently, I learned. Yeast has specific temperatures on the package/jar for the liquid being added to it. A thermometer really is necessary to ensure you're mixing the yeast with a liquid that's ready to make the magic happen. (Yeast is magical. In case you didn't know.) You also have to let yeast do it's thing. If you don't time things out or pay attention to how much rising must occur at certain stages, you'll end up with dense food or flat food. Unless that's what you're going for...just wait it out and watch some TV while the magical yeast does what it does best.
8) Don't cook anything complex when ravenous. I'm good at breaking this rule. (Because again, I'm stubborn.) If I'm planning to cook something, no matter what it is, I'm going to cook it. I don't care if I'm so hungry I could eat my arm. I don't care that I've had a bad day. I don't care that hanger has hit. I'm going to COOK! But...that's really not what I SHOULD do. Cooking (or baking) while hungry results in stupid mistakes, injuries, lashing out at anyone in the vicinity, messiness, frustration, and sometimes eating uncooked or inedible things. (And yes, that's all from experience.) I always appreciate when Brian recognizes my state of hunger before the cooking starts so that he can offer to make me food instead. I especially appreciate when I recognize it and actually eat a snack to tide myself over. I know this scenario will likely happen again...but at least I've warned you all so you can save yourselves!
9) Know your audience. I'm going to explain this one with pancakes. I like making pancakes. It's fun, and makes me feel adventurous (don't ask...). But I'm a really strange pancake person. I don't like fully-cooked pancakes. I like them almost wet on the inside. I know, I know, I'm weird. But by default, I make all pancakes this way (especially since they take less time to make them this way!). I've been working on this issue, however, by reminding myself of who will be consuming the pancakes. If it's just me and Brian, I will ensure that a majority of the pancakes are normal (or overcooked, in my eyes). If I'm cooking breakfast for dinner for Brian and his brother, I'll make a couple delicious, soggy pancakes for myself and make cakey, fully-cooked pancakes for the guys. Apply that principle to your own choice of dish, and you have happy eaters all around!
10) 'Kitchen cleaning spray' is NOT counter-proof. Heh? You think I'm wrong? Nope. 100% right. Cleaning your counters with kitchen spray could be poisoning your next meal. That stuff has chemicals in it that will not only taste icky, it will do icky things to your insides if ingested. Feel free to clean your counters/stove/whatever with those popular kitchen sprays, but re-wash them with soap and water before eating anything from that surface--ESPECIALLY if using the surface for dough of any kind!
11) Gas ovens (and stovetops!) are WAYYYY different than electric. I hadn't really ever cooked with gas until a few months ago. Brian's apartment has a gas stove/oven, and I was excited to simply have some fun in the kitchen (why would the appliances matter at all?!). Come to find out that the oven warms up REALLY fast (hello sweaty Ali after pre-heating the oven wayyyy in advance), the burners on the stove are manually adjusted and transfer direct heat to the pot/pan super fast (yikes scorched eggs...), and anything just chilling on the stovetop while the oven or stove is on will be heated/melted right alongside the intended food to be heated (oh...the butter is already melted). Just do your research and know your appliances. They are like snowflakes--all are a little bit different.
12) Soak/rinse your pans. I'll leave you with a final word of advice that will save you both time and effort. See, lots of food sticks to pots, pans, plates, utensils...everything and anything. Some food slides right off or is repelled by non-stick cookware. But most food enjoys holding on for dear life post-cooking/baking, and this should be addressed ASAP. I don't care who you are and what kind of fancy cleaning equipment you have, do yourself a favor and rinse/scrub/soak your dishes before leaving them. I'll let you leave them while you eat, but that means there's no sitting around chit chatting afterward. I know about these things--Trust me.
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