So, for this prompt I get to give my opinion; something I am incredibly, offensively, good at doing.
When I was a kid, cooking was this elite privilege. My mom or Nana would go into the kitchen, work quietly and deliberately for hours, and then out came a beautiful masterpiece that the average Joe could never hope to create.
When my mom left we almost exclusively ate at Nana's house. She was neurotic (about many things) about her kitchen. For example, these were some of her instructions:
"1. Go in the kitchen
2. Wash your hands
3. Get a bowl
4. find the flour
5. Find the eggs
6. Find some oil
7. Find a measuring cup"
The point is that she prefaced the actual recipe with about 12 steps that she wanted done exactly as she stated. If she came in the kitchen and the oil was out but not the eggs, it was a wash. It was weird. I guess she was attempting to instill in me a sense of reverence for what I was doing, or maybe she was trying to make me as neurotic as she was about it... but in anycase, I realized early on that it was Nana's house, and Nana's kitchen.
My dad on the other hand was probably too lax. I remember being 10-11 years old and attempting to make chicken. I totally almost caught the house on fire. There's also the issue that I was alone in the house at that age. That being said, I remember the chicken being edible. I learned a few things through high school, I mastered most breakfast food (except bacon) and was ok with most starches (pasta, baked potatoes, etc).
I moved to California when I was 22, from living in a dorm for 4 years. I was chomping at the bit to get culinarily creative. Coincidentally we moved in with a chef. I just know that we ate roasted root vegetables at least 4 times a week until we moved, about 6 months later. One perk is that he taught us you can grill pizzas. That's still one of my favorites.
About a year later we moved into our own place (my own kitchen!?!) and I started working for a pretty affluent, health-conscious family. They were willing to put absolutely disgusting things into their bodies for health's sake. My goal at that point was to create food they would deem healthy, but also make it palatable. My first development was this mexican chicken 'noodle' soup. It was good, but my boyfriend doesn't consider soup food... so then I learned about "Gluuu-ten" (the kids that I currently nanny call it that and it is insanely adorable). I learned how to pretty much make anything without bread/pasta/potatoes. My favorite out of those things is zucchini lasagna. I can also make some bomb ass gluten free cupcakes using coconut flour. Cooking for me has become a comfort. I'm in school where I'm pretty much constantly feeling insufficient. It's hard. I wont even fake it!
Cooking is like art to me. It is more than sustenance, it is an experience. That is something my mom and my grandmother definitely instilled in me; eating good food is an experience. You shouldn't feel like a pig at the trough. You should prepare food delicious enough to savor, to make you pause for a moment and be reminded that we more than our ancestors scavaging for food. We are eating art. We are creating art. I would encourage you to put yourself out there and try something crazy. Try something new!
In 5 years I've thrown away 2 dishes. And one of them was the most expensive thing I've ever made. Keep it simple, and just keep trying.
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