Life Skills 101 part 2

Yesterday you saw a discourse on sewing. Can save you upwards of $20 per garment and is only “not worth it” if you let the body corporate tell you that you should follow fashion.

Today, I cover cooking.

Cooking is an essential life skill and will save shittons of money if you’re used to eating out of the drive-through.

Yes, I know some places charge more for fresh produce. I have two words for that: Farmer’s Market. Or three more words: Grow Your Own. The latter is lesson 3.

There are three basics to cooking: Boil, Bake, or Fry.

You boil it in water, you bake it in the oven, or you fry it. Simple. Everything else is just fancy dressing of those three.

Poaching? Lower-heated version of ‘boil’.

Sautee? Frying in butter, usually. Mostly with onions.

Roast? You put it in the oven, you bake it.

Reserve the fancy stuff for when you can handle it. Likewise, the kitchen gadgets. What you need is some form of oven, some form of cooktop or hotplate, a big pot, a medium-sized pot and a little pot, and a frying pan. For stirring, you can use kitchen utensils, but sooner or later, you *WILL* need a spatula and a ladle. Big spoons are optional.

There are recipes absolutely fucking everywhere.

Most of them will contain an ingredient or two you disagree with. Or that disagrees with you. Or that you just plain can’t afford. That’s okay. You can leave them out. Or pick another recipe.

After a while, you get a sort of feel for cooking. Especially when you eat the results of your experiments. You may not produce cordon bleu, but you’ll make something that is all the more satisfying for being homemade.

Cooking can be a bonding experience, between parent and child, between couples, between families. Sharing meals where the secret ingredient is care can be amazing.

Try some. It’s delicious.