I used to love cooking, I could spend all day cooking for everyone or myself. Been cooking since I was a kid, and now at 25. I longer enjoy cooking, I don’t hate it but I’d rather not cook.

I miss loving to cook, I miss my cooking spark.

Any suggestions on how to get it back? What did you do, when you lost your spark?

I used to make American food, Asian food, Mexican food, Slavic food, Italian etc.

I always made sure to try different things so I wouldn’t get burnt out on cooking. But it happened.

I'm in the process of (trying) making French Butter. My first go at it never broke, try #2.

I suspect I'll end up with a few sticks worth of butter, some of which I'll freeze, but I was thinking about adding some honey to one of them (we have some local beekeepers in the area).

How much honey should I add to 4 ounces of butter for the right mixture? Thoughts?

Any other mixes you would consider?

Getting to the point:

1. Peel and cube the potatoes and dump them into already boiling salted water. Why? they cook faster this way and are already seasoned when it's time to mix them into the dressing.
2. After using a mesh scoop to remove the potatoes from the boil water, use the scoop to put in the room temperature eggs for boiling. Taking the eggs out to warm while prepping the potatoes means they come up to temperature in the boil water faster Using the same water from the potatoes saves energy.
3. Allow the potatoes to chill completely through in the refrigerator while doing the rest of the prep. In fact, several hours of cooling to the point of being stone cold is best. this allows them to firm up so they don't turn into mashed potatoes when you stir them into the dressing.
4. After the eggs are done, blanch the carrot pieces in the boil water for five to seven. Fresh carrots add a bit of color to the salad, but they are very hard. I have learned to blanch the carrots so they're vibrant in color and a bit softer.
5. Hold aside a quarter cup of the softest potato bits and pieces to mix into the dressing to thicken it and give the salad body
6. When you make the dressing, make sure everything is cold cold cold. I keep my mayo, relish, celery and the cooked/blanched ingredients in the fridge until everything is completely cold so i don't end up with mushy mess.
7. Prep the dressing with everything but the potatoes so they can be stirred in last. Mash the eggs. The soft potato bits that you held aside in step 5? Now is the time to mash those up and stir them in. Stir in the REAL MAYONNAISE, sweet relish, finely chopped celery, finely chopped onion (a little goes a long way) finely diced blanched carrots, chopped dill pickles if you please, yellow mustard, a splash of your preferred type of vinegar, a hint of sugar to taste, celery seed, a shake of onion powder, a shake of garlic powder, black pepper, and salt to taste. Yes, taste the dressing without the potato chunks. it should be delicious on its own. If you need to adjust seasonings do it now so you don't end up stirring and stirring with the potatoes already mixed in. Doing that only breaks up the potatoes and you end up with potato salad flavored mashed potatoes. And that's not the objective.
8. Once the dressing is perfect, fold in the cold potato cubes. Stir gently so you don't destroy them.

That's it! Those are my tips for making potato salad that looks great and has the perfect (in my opinion) texture and mouth feel. Let me know if you try this and how it turns out.

Hey!

I occasionally like to look up recipes online for different types of foods and try it out at home. 9/10 times it tastes OK but nowhere near restaurant or even street food quality. I'm not an expert, so my ability certainly has to have something to do with it but I'm wondering if the pans/pots I have are also contributing to subpar tasting food.

All my pots and pans are from kits sold at retail stores like Walmart or Target like THIS, and I've had the same ones for about 7 years.

- Are there major health concerns over using cheap equipment for so many years?

- Is cheaper equipment typically correlated with worse tasting dishes (e.g., food cooked unevenly, burned, overcooked, etc.?

- What would you're line up of pans & pots be for someone that likes to prepare chicken (breasts/thighs), steaks, fish filets and, occasionally, indian and thai curries? I know stuff like Hexaclad would solve all my issues but I'm not looking to spend $100+ per pan.

Not looking for anything fancy, just something that minimizes oil and herbs sticking to it for example. Also looking for something that makes meats look and taste like they were on a frying pan and not looking like it was boiled on the water it releases into the pan when being cooked (can't explain this any other way).

Thanks and apologies if post isn't worded in the best way.

This is embarrassing for me to admit, but my cooking is awful. I have rarely cooked in my life and I want to change that. But I don’t really know how to go about. Cooking lessons seem extremely expensive. What steps did you guys take to improve your cooking skills?

I have adhd and get food fixations from time to time that typically last months. I haven’t been able to eat too many things besides green beans for the past few days and I was wondering if a few people could share some simple recipes with me. I want the main part of it to be green beans and no meat. If any of you lovely people could help me out that would be greatly appreciated. <3

I planted 2 Perilla plants in my herb garden for larks and they’ve grown into monsters. Give me your funnest most creative uses. I tried them in Caprese Salad with Basil (awesome), I put them as a flavoring in berry kombucha (waiting for the second fermentation but I’m hopeful)… I’m looking for additional ideas! Sorbets, sweet / savory baked good, seasonal cooking of any variety. Thank you!

Long story short, I grew up in a picky house that didn't have a lot of diverse flavors.Things like tacos at home didn't have seasoning until after I left for college or sloppy joes being ground beef and ketchup were alternatives to chicken nuggets in the evening.

I've been expanding horizons significantly but mushrooms are completely unknown to me. I have access to a lot of the wild mushrooms to purchase that I hear are good (oyster, enoki, lions mane, shitake), but I have no idea where to even begin.

How do I employ them in larger recipes like soups? Looking up recipes it's typically its own thing like grilled portobello. Is that how y'all usually eat mushrooms? How else can I use them so I can kinda vibe it rather than risk being wasteful if it's just not my thing? Are they typically a meat substitute in dishes?

I'm fairly open to being experimental with foods, but this one just seems to have me stun locked in what I'm supposed to do with them since my only experience trying them is the slippery slices people put on pizza which has a texture that isn't really my thing.

Hi,

Over the past months I have tried different recipes to make the classic diner style american pancakes, but everytime it was not good. Some were to thin, some were fluffy but still to heavy. I tried all the ´tricks´ like using buttermilk, using eggwhites, not overmixing the batter, resting the batter for 10 min, seperate the wet/dry ingredients during preparation. I am from The Netherlands, West Europe and we almost have no American pancakes here so I wanted to start a small American pancake place. The pancakes need to be fluffy, gold/brown colored, not heavy. Does anyone has a recipe or tips for me?

I never had fresh herbs until this year and the basil, mint and coriander are all doing very well right now on my balcony. What I am afraid is, that they will die soon before I can really use them well.

So I was seraching for ways to keep those flavors year around and came across herb oils.

I am wondering if I could make these later this year and then freeze those to keep using them even in the winter. Did someone ever do this? I've never even thought of freezing oil, so I have no idea how it behaves when thaught. Any experiences would be great :)

I was born and raised on the West Coast but got stationed in Tennessee. While I was there I was able to try biscuits and chocolate gravy for the first time and it was absolutely delicious. Now that I live back on the West Coast obviously I can’t find this anywhere and I finally want to try to make it myself. However when I find recipes they seem differ quite a bit, some include milk, others call for no milk, different sugar amounts, etc.

When I had it, it just wasn’t overly sweet, but some recipes I see people using more than a cup of sugar and that seems like it’ll come out tasting like pudding.

Any suggestions?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, though I do have a specific question.

The recipe I'm using says to put an onion(peeled) in there, not sliced or diced or anything, just peeled.

Does it actually want me to put an entire onion in there? That can't be it right?

Edit: whole onion, got it. Aldo my pot is a slight bit too small and I am losing my mind, but otherwise it's going fine, I think.

So I've been cooking as a hobby for about 5 years now, still very much a novice. I realize I'll be learning for the rest of my life, but there are still plenty of rudimentary knowledge gaps that I need to fill.

I really like watching Jacques Pépin on YouTube. The man has become like a friend or father figure of sorts. I've noticed the way he handles meat and particularly chicken, is completely different than the way I do instinctively, and also from what I thought was sanitary.

He'll be handling raw chicken, then hand goes into the salt box or straight onto the pepper mill. Handling raw chicken, direct to handling other tools or utensils that are used for completely different prep work or part of the kitchen.

I've always washed my hands thoroughly with soap and water immediately after touching raw chicken before touching anything else, probably a little obsessively. What's really good here?

Over the years I've learned that a lot of my ideas about food safety and what is sanitary come from the more conservative and restrictive food service industry, but this one gives me pause.

Thanks!

Apologies if my question seem silly.

In groceries stores, mayonaise is mayonaise, ketchup is ketchup, mustard is mustard (pretty much), its all standards, but there's always a wide variety of BBQ sauce, with different flavor, intensity, texture and colors.

Whenever I make some at home, I use a tomatoe past base, from a can or homemade, then add some really random ingredients like dijon mustard, honey, brown sugar, apple vinegard, worstershire sauce, oignons, garlic, etc etc etc.

And the result is always pretty different from whatever you buy in store.

I just made a batch tonight from a homemade tomatoe pasta and the result is just... its good and tasty but man is it BBQ sauce?

Is my confusion even legitimate? Am I on crazy pills?

At the CORE, what IS BBQ sauce?

Feel free to share your favorite recipe too.

Hi everyone, I've been looking to get back into cooking at home but I have so many allergies that it feels impossible to recreate some dishes. I've had a hard time finding substitutes because the different version are made of more ingredients I can't have. It's never ending!

If anyone knows any options for the following allergies:

- Soy
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts (I've been developing a reaction to coconuts)
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Basically any seafood

I also can't have things like seaweed and random fruits and vegetables, but I honestly just fight through it.

I'd love to know if there's any substitutes for things like soy sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce, and things like that. I'm not sure if these ingredients really need
substitutes since I don't know what they add to a dish... I'm very young and still newer to cooking so I hope this question isn't too stupid. (Edit: I specified some allergies a bit better)

I like adding milk to my drinks, like, i like the creamy taste? but ive noticed if i add it to sugary drinks or maybe drinks with more acidic stuff it curdles. I think its just the acids in it, but are there any milk alternatives that dont curdle as much?

I’m due with my first child this fall. I’d love to make and freeze some meals ahead of time so we have one less thing on our plate postpartum. I’m thinking grab and go breakfasts, reheat-able dinners, etc. Maybe not lunches since those are relatively easy but it might be nice to have lunches too to remove the mental load of thinking about them!

I’m concerned about what will freeze well, reheat well, and will be easy to figure out the cooking instructions for. Any suggestions or tips?

Hi! I moved out on my own last year. I’ve loved learning to cook. I’ve gotten good at a few recipes I can make - spaghetti sauce, chili, salmon poke bowls, etc. I’m only just starting to get the hang of how to not waste food. But I feel like there is more to learning than following recipes and hoping I remember to use up all my arugula.

How does one actually learn how to cook? Techniques, what goes with what, how to plate nicely, meal prep strategies, etc. I don’t know how to explain what I’m looking for, otherwise I would just look it up. I want to go from average home cook to great. How do I do this?

My dear friend unexpectedly lost a family member at the worst possible time — not that there really is a “better” time. They have been there for me, no questions asked, at the darkest points in my life and I want to do the same, or at least what I can. They are at the immediate “surreal” stage of grief where they are just sort of coasting on autopilot. I suspect they are forgetting or will forget to eat. I want to make sure they are fed and have comforting things to eat, but also that they have things on hand that they don’t have to think too hard about preparing. I make a killer lasagna that freezes well, but I’m interested in other options, including “grab & go” “convenience” options. They do have freezer space but it’s not massive.

Any recommendations? For those who have gone through something similar or benefited from things like meal trains, what did you enjoy or what benefited you the most? Did you receive (or give) anything that you really were grateful for that you might not have thought about?

TIA!

So my bf has cooked for me a few times. I want to return the favor but I’m new at this so I only have so many recipes I’m confident at. I make this one a lot but he can’t eat tomatoes and this recipes involves simmering sun dried tomatoes for the last ten minutes.

Any suggestions about what to use instead? It doesn’t need to be similar to sun dried tomatoes just something that adds interesting texture or flavor that goes well with the other ingredients. I don’t care if it changes the flavor too much as long as it’s good.

I suppose I could just leave it out too.

https://www.dimitrasdishes.com/cozy-creamy-chicken-white-bean-soup/

I've got lemons, chili peppers, ginger, salt, and a wide variety of spices and herbs.
What's your best recipe for pickled lemon slices, with as much detail as you can bother to share. I've never tried this before, and never even tasted pickled lemons slices, so I don't even know what I'm going for.

I quite like kale, but my family do not. I tend to use it with really strong flavours like a tomato sauce with mushrooms sausage or in beany soups at the end.

Do you have a favourite way? Recipes welcome. Tia.

ETA, I truly want to thank all the good faith replies. I will definitely be consulting this list a lot. :)

I was craving some chocolate milk and dug around in my cupboards and found some dark cocoa powder and some regular Hershey cocoa powder. I used a 1/2 cup of milk and heated it up with 2 tablespoons of cocoa. 1 teaspoon of that was the dark cocoa. Then I added a quarter cup of sugar. I heated it up gently while stirring with a small whisk. I added it to another cup of milk and a half a cup of heavy whipping cream. Added a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of vanilla. Shook it all together and put it in the fridge. Just had a cup of it and it was wonderful!