It's time to eliminate the idea that you have in your head that you don't know how to cook and possibly can't even learn how to cook! In fact, I say that you already have some cooking knowledge and I'm going to prove it to you. How? Well, you are eating something at home right? We all have to feed ourselves at some point, even if it’s opening a can of soup and heating it up.

Opening up a can of soup, emptying it into a pan, mixing in some milk and heating it up was one of the first meals I was ever able to make for myself. When I was a kid, I used to love Campbell's Cream of Shrimp Soup and I played hockey. Somehow, along the way, I had convinced myself that eating Campbell's Cream of Shrimp Soup made me a better hockey player and I had to have a bowl before every game. (I know, some people think they play better with a new pair of shoes, I played better when I cooked myself something...go figure.)

Adding Variations
After some time went by, I realized that there really weren't that many shrimp in the soup, so I added some whole fresh shrimp. I didn't have the cooking knowledge at the time, but I was poaching the shrimp in the liquid. Then, I noticed that while I had more protein, now the soup itself seemed thin. So, I added some American cheese to thicken it and then some cayenne pepper for a little more flavor. Eventually, I put some sherry in the soup to give a little smoky flavor. I took something as simple as opening a can of soup to expanding on the method and created variations.

If you can open a can of mushroom soup and pour it over a  pan of chicken breasts, that's a method! Maybe you could do that with fish instead. Or you could decide that the cream of mushroom soup is a sauce and make the sauce better by adding different items. Add variations to a method that you already understand and you're increasing your cooking knowledge and learning how to cook.

Each time you make a new variation, you'll gain more confidence and as you explore, create and discover, you'll increase your cooking knowledge and be where you want to be as a cook.

Grilling Example
Let's say that you're great at grilling but you're not a good cook inside the house. So, here's what you do...pay attention and make a mental note of your grilling steps. Perhaps you heat the grill, put a burger on, look for grill marks. Now, go inside and put yourself in a zen-like state (you can do it!) and pretend as you look down into the sauté pan on the stove that it’s actually the grill. Perform the same steps or method as you would outside.

Really, this works! Grilling is a conductive heat method and sauteing is a conductive heat method as well. Because the transfer of heat is the same, you can simply try variations.

If your one dish is mac and cheese, you make it great, but you might say you can’t make a good alfredo sauce. If you examined the method, you’d see that making a white sauce and putting cheddar for mac and cheese is no different than adding parmesan for alfredo sauce.

Variations...Like Driving a Car
You do this already in other areas of your life. Let's take driving for instance. Think about it. You drive the same way to work everyday: start on Main Street, take a right on Jones St., left on Smith St. and you're at work. One day when you're driving, you notice a cool place that's closer to your home but it's on the way to work. Well, you may not realize that if you took Washington St. from work you would get there quicker, but if you don't know the route, you will take the route that you know and make a slight change to get to your destination. You will make a variation on the driving route or method that you already know.

You do know how to cook, eliminate the doubt, because you do know how. You might not have a wide range of cooking knowledge, but you have a start. Experiment, learn and build on it.

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Today, I want to help eliminate the doubt that you don't know how to cook, because I know that you can. Now, don't shake your head at me, I know that I'm right! You see, today, I am going to give you information about cooking that will help you to understand that learning to cook starts with you. Not a recipe...not even with one of my lessons.

Look, everyone can make something to feed themselves, even if you are one of the Worst Cooks in America. And to prove that you can learn to cook, we're going to start without pots or pans and you're not going to touch a stove, food, look at a recipe or take a single cooking class.

Are you ready? Here's the first step...

Examine what you already know.

Seriously, what is the one thing that you can cook, that consistently meets your expectations? What is the one meal or dish that you can make with or without a recipe, just because you like it and you want it? It may be that you have two or three dishes like this, but let’s start with the one thing that you can make confidently.

• If it’s just opening a can of soup and heating it up, start there.
• If you can cook a really good grilled cheese sandwich, start there.
• If you can grill a hamburger, but can’t cook inside, start there.
• If you make great tomato sauce, but can make alfredo, start there.

With each of the above examples, what you may not realize is that you already understand a basic cooking method and not only can you learn how to cook, but you will be able to make amazing dishes!

If you start with what you can do, understand and what you like, then you just need a little confidence to attempt a variation. You might not realize that you’re already performing a basic cooking method, you just don’t know what it is. Hey, don't look now, but I think you're learning how to cook!

In my next post, I'll introduce you to a cooking method as a general concept and by taking a look at what you cook already, what you already know, I'll teach you to add variations. With this information within your grasp, you will learn how to cook!

“Burn Your Recipes” and Cook Like a Chef at Home with my cooking DVDs!

The Complete cooking DVDcollection for cooking without recipes.

I help people every week to learn to cook and yet I'm approached all of the time by people telling that that they can't cook. I'm here to tell you that you can cook, in fact, I believe that you just don't have the right information about cooking. Think about it, saying that you can't cook is like saying that you've lost something, right? If you've lost a leg, then you might say, "I can't walk." But what have you lost to be able to say that you can't cook?

Listen, you’re not born knowing how to cook, none of us is and the fact that you don't know how to cook is not your fault. If cooking wasn’t a family hobby or if you didn’t have a mother or grandmother to teach you, then you've been left to get cooking information from recipe books and celebrity chefs. And I know that that means, they always let you down! They may have brighter colors, prettier to look at and be more entertaining than grandma, but cook books and celebrity chefs don't teach you how to cook.

I had a student come to class once and tell me a story about how wonderful her Grandmother's lasagna was. In an effort to ensure that the legacy of her Grandmother's lasagna lived on, she got the recipe from her Grandmother and went home to create the masterpiece making sure that she followed the recipe exactly. Lo and behold, it didn't hold a candle to the Grandmother's lasagna. When she confronted her Grandmother, she said, "Well, I never follow that recipe anyway."

Recipes let everyone down. In the end, when following the cooking information that a recipe gives to you and it doesn't come out right, you think you don't know how to cook...that you can't learn to cook. You have doubts creep into your thoughts, "Everybody cooks with recipes, right? I’m the only one who can’t make a recipe look like the photo in the book."

Wrong!

You’re not the only one who can't make a recipe turn out great, you’re one of everyone. Everyone can't cook at one point in their life.

Everyone can’t cook to one degree or another and to be a great cook:

• You don’t have to be a celebrity chef
• You don’t have to know the difference between escarole and escargot
• You don’t have to know how to bake a cake
• You don’t have to know how to open a clam
• You don’t have to know how to make beef bourguignon

So what cooking information do you need to have to know to learn to cook? You already know it!

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1) Pick One Method - choose one cooking method that you can repeat with confidence (for example, if you know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich, you know a saute method, add some tomato or ham. If you can make soup, you know a moist cooking method, you can add some shrimp and expand from there and build your confidence.)

2) Pick 3 Confident Spices - Find 3 spices that you like together and feel a little more confident in their flavor profiles. It might be basil, garlic and oregano (Italian seasonings), it might be cumin, coriander and red pepper (Mexican seasonings). Get these three spices and begin using them in different dishes to practice with quantities of the seasonings and the flavors that they produce with different foods.

3) Get a Thermometer - Getting an instant read thermometer will allow you to quantify when things are done rather than guessing.

Guessing is something that you are going to try to eliminate from your cooking method. Guessing is the biggest point of stress in cooking. Guessing puts great mystery and inconsistency in your cooking and inconsistency will increase your fear of cooking whether you're cooking with a recipe or not. Then, once you're psychologically ready, invite a friend or relative over for a cooked meal. You’ll be facing your fears directly when you cook for someone else. And, by repeating this process over and over again, your confidence will increase, your enjoyment of cooking will increase, you'll want to learn more about cooking and completely eliminate your fear of cooking. “Burn Your Recipes” and Cook Like a Chef at Home with my cooking DVDs!
The Complete cooking DVDcollection for cooking without recipes.

1. Anxiety - this can come from the thought of the "impending" meal and not knowing what to cook or how to cook.
2. Depression - eating the same things over and over again can cause depression and place a person in a lull where they lose the desire to learn to cook.
3. Lethargy - most often this comes from eating foods that aren't good for us. In particular, eating empty calories or fast food over and over again.
4. Embarrassment - are you the person that always brings napkins to the pot luck? Not knowing how to cook can cause embarrassment when you never bring a meal to gatherings.
5. Loneliness - eating home cooked meals has the potential to bring families together. Without home cooked meals, there may be a sense of loneliness because so much conversation and socializing occurs over a cooked meal.
6. Non-Reciprocation - Have you been invited to dinner by your friends multiple times and never returned the favor? This can cause a feeling of being a "deadbeat".
7. Poor provider - Not knowing how to cook can lead to a lack of variety for your family and feeling guilty from not feeding your children healthy foods.
8. Taker/not giver - Always depending on your spouse or partner to cook for you can make you feel like a taker and never being able to give back to the cook in the family.
9. Spend–thrift - Do you have kitchen gadget that were gifts or purchased that you don’t know how to use? Do you have a multi-thousand dollar range that makes popcorn? This type of guilt can intensify the fear of cooking.
10. Money stress – When one has a fear of cooking and doesn't learn how to cook, there is a tendency to spend more money on take-out foods which can cause anxiety around money and cooking.

You don't have to suffer these effects of the fear of cooking! These are exactly the types of feelings and thoughts that drive me to continue to help people to understand how easy it is to learn to cook using simple cooking method. Having an understanding of how foods go together without using a recipe can not only make the fear of cooking go away, but will enable you to cook anytime anywhere with confidence. You will not only know how to cook but will never suffer from the devastating effects of the fear of cooking again! “Burn Your Recipes” and Cook Like a Chef at Home with my cooking DVDs!
The Complete cooking DVDcollection for cooking without recipes.