Get Inspired to Cook!

We live in an amazing information-age when it comes to cooking. No longer are recipes just passed down by word of mouth or carefully written on index cards. Cooking shows are no longer relegated to a cable channel specializing in food; you can find videos anywhere these days. Cookbooks and magazines are still around in our paperless world and publishing houses continue to reinvent clever ways to repackage recipes in themed, seasonal, glossy editions. The Web is overflowing with food sites, recipes, and opinions!! You certainly don't have to look far these days to be inspired to cook!

Before you read any further, let me instill this simple rule in you: ALWAYS mark down your thoughts about the recipe you just made. Write in the margins of the cookbook or magazine if it was too spicy, or needed more kick. Should you have omitted the nuts and added chocolate chips instead? Did it take 10 minutes longer to cook in your oven than what was stated? Did it over or underfill your baking dish? WRITE THAT DOWN! Give it a 1-5 star rating---who in your house loved or hated it? Were the serving sizes off? Could you have used more or less of a listed ingredient? Would a certain side or vegetable pair well with what you made? Was it too greasy, too salty, too sweet? Jot it down so you can manipulate the ingredients to your liking the next time you make it. You will treasure these notes the next time you come across it.

Here are some easy ways to get inspired:

• Mom & Family: Start at home and what you are most familiar with. What were your favorite foods or meals growing up? Ask your mom and other relatives for those recipes; if they don't have them written down, have them show you how they make it, or better yet, make it together so you can get the ingredients and process on paper. If a friend ever makes something you love, hound them incessantly for the recipe!

• Cookbooks & Themed Magazines: Start by snooping through your mom's stash of cookbooks for inspiration. They might include things like: Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book, The Joy of Cooking, The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, Mastering The Art of French Cooking Vol. 1&2, Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, etc. These "old-school" classics have a wealth of information and traditional recipes to learn from. When you're ready to start collecting them, thrift or garage sale shop if you don't have the budget to buy new. Go visit the magazine section of your local Barnes & Noble, and you'll easily find 40-50 food magazines to choose from. As magazine subscriptions start to become a thing of the past, certain juggernauts of the cooking industry are pooling and repackaging their recipes into collections based on themes or seasons. You can walk away with a "mini cookbook" of desserts from Southern Living or one-pot meals from Cooking Light in a slick, shiny magazine format without committing to a year-long service or buying a coffee table-sized cookbook.

• Magazine Subscriptions: Even though magazine sales are waning, there may still be subscriptions out there worth tracking down. If you find something you like and actually cook from, subscribe and save those magazines!! I took Cooking Light for over a decade and saved each one, sorting them by month. When it was time to meal plan, I would pull out the magazines of that month so seasonal ingredients would be highlighted, as well as all my sticky tabs and notes from the meals we loved and frequently ate. When it was time to pare down and cull the magazines, I would tear out or transfer our favorite recipes onto my computer or to a binder, then recycle the magazine.

• Cooking Shows, Videos, & Websites: It's time to start finding who "your people" are. Who are the cooks and chefs you want to follow? Who is putting together the flavors you want to eat and recreate? An easy way to sample a chef these days is via video. Watch cooking shows, and scour YouTube videos; find your chef(s) and start collecting their work! A few of my favorites are Julia Child, Martha Stewart, Laura Calder, and Alton Brown. Don't be afraid to look beyond the big names, as there are so many home-cooks to fall in love with on YouTube as they bumble their way through cookbooks and various recipes.

• Tik-Tok: Um, let's "Tik-Not." There are waaaaay too many "stupid foods" out there that don't work, waste money, and are just plain click-baity in nature. It's worth tracking down well-known kitchen professionals to start with on social media (or whatever platform) to watch and learn from. Once you begin to understand basic cooking principles, you'll have a better discerning eye for what 30-sec video recipes would really work or not.

Get in the kitchen and start cooking!! If you find it too terrifying to know where to start, set some easy goals such as:

• Pledge to make a new dessert on the weekends, or at least once a month.

• Got a favorite ingredient? Find a recipe containing it and cook it this week!

• Plan a party and cook a meal for close friends (the ones who'll be forgiving and laugh along with you if something doesn't turn out right and you wind up ordering in).

• Better yet, plan a party and divide the dishes between your attendees, so you all are contributing to the meal.

• Don't start with challenging dishes, start with soup instead, as it tends to be an easier dishes to embark upon. As your confidence increases, venture out to more difficult dishes.

• Cook something you've never cooked before. If you are starting out, that may be anything or everything, but if you have some kitchen-cred under your belt, challenge yourself with an ingredient or flavor profile you are completely unfamiliar with.

Remember to log or write down your thoughts on the dish you made, laugh at your blunders (there will be many), and savor each bite of the incredible dishes that do turn out. Don't throw in the towel when it something goes wrong or it doesn't look or taste the way you want it to. Hone your chopping skills, measure carefully, cook tidily, read and reread the recipe before you start. Your confidence (and successes) will increase the more time you spend in the kitchen. Now simmer down and get cookin'! xx