Part of being a successful mom and family woman is being an ace in the kitchen. Of course, in some cases, this can be a stereotype – after all, more men than ever are taking up kitchen duties over their wives! But if your partner works late, or if you are a single parent, you may find that the cooking buck lies with you.
Before you became a mom, you might have had images of yourself whipping up an incredible three-course dinner for you and your kids on the daily. You might have imagined looks of delight on their faces as you pull off another 5-star dish for the third night in a row. Of course, we all know the reality is very different. After a long day at work, and ferrying your children to and from class, it’s often more than you’re capable of to cook up a bowl of pasta with sauce from a jar. Or, if you’ve never really had a chance to hone your cooking skills, you might be faced with a row of upturned noses at the food you’ve just cooked.
This can be incredibly disheartening and can put you off ever attempting it again. But you might not be as a bad a cook as you think. A huge part of the skill of cooking relates to a lot of smaller things that you might be overlooking without even realizing it. It’s always best to start at the beginning and to never run before you can walk. So, put the complex cookbook away and get back to basics with your culinary skills.
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Turning up the Heat
Novice or new cooks tend to be quite paranoid about whether their food is cooked through, especially if meat is involved. This is understandable – after all, no one wants to give their children food poisoning from undercooked meat. White meats such as chicken and turkey can be the worst offenders – whereas eating raw steak poses a much lesser risk. Either way, though, many unskilled cooks simply cook everything on the highest heat possible simply to make sure the food is safe to consume.
When you do this, the results can be questionable. You’re pretty likely to end up with a meal that is overcooked, hard or burnt. You can also shoot yourself in the foot here – cook on a high heat and you can often make food appear to be cooked when actually it is still raw inside. This is because high temperatures tend to cook the outside of the meat first, making it appear golden and glossy. Don’t be fooled by this. Instead, check the cooking times of all your food before you start prep so you can use a lower heat for longer.
Using the Wrong Equipment
Does your food ever have a strange taste to it that you can’t quite place? If you’ve been swapping and changing your ingredients for months and you still haven’t seen a difference in the way your food comes out, you might want to look a little deeper. Being 100% honest, when was the last time you replaced your cookware? We tend to hold onto pans, baking trays and woks for longer than ever these days. But doing so can have serious consequences to both the taste of your food and your family’s health.
Most of us use non-stick frying pans which boast a useful non-stick coating. But once this coating starts to peel off after extended use, it can release potentially toxic fumes and also expose the metal underneath to your food. This is what can often lead to the rusty, copper-like taste that your food can get. If you are having this problem with your current cookware, why not look at something such as www.StoneFryingPans.com?
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Being Disorganized
You wouldn’t go into an important work meeting without writing notes, would you? Or plan a family day out without thinking of where to go first? In the same vein, it’s vital to have a plan of sorts before you start cooking -especially if you are a novice. Even if you hate using recipes, you will need to educate yourself on how to cook certain things. For example, it is useful to know the cooking times of certain vegetables compared to meats, in the event that you are cooking a dish that needs lots of separate pans.
You also need to know what spices go with what. A common mistake novice chefs make is simply overloading their food with spices to ‘add flavor’. But often, this ‘flavor’ can take over the entire meal, meaning that your ingredients are lost in the spices. Make sure you have everything you need in advance and try to designate a time for cooking when you know you are not going to be disturbed.
This is definitely easier said than done, especially when you have children around. But, if you can find time in your day to do so, you can end up with a meal that both you and your kids will be proud of.
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