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I'd say tackle pasta first, or really how to boil it just to the point where it's toothy but tender and not mushy. Also remember after you drain the pasta you sauce it in the pot over heat so the noodles can absorb the flavor. Therefore, you take into account that extra cooking time. I always drain my pasta underdone by about 2(?) minutes. But as it cooks in the sauce it's also yielding more starch and that thickens your dish too, so a bit of reserved pasta water or stock or just regular water might be needed to loosen things up if it starts getting gluey.
If you've been taught to rinse your pasta, don't, unless a particular recipe calls for it. Those starches that cook out to the surface of the noodles are what absorbs the flavor of the sauce, and rinsed spaghetti ends up being a bunch of slippery eels that nothing sticks to and has no flavor. Remember too that a pasta dish does not have to be drowning in sauce, just thusly coated, flavorful enough with some puddling of sauce.
Pasta will probably cover half your meals.
Next, learn how to bake a chicken to the right doneness. Learn how to salt your food properly first without oversalting. Then the same lessons will apply to seafood. If you follow recipes, it's really just a matter of care and attention rather than any ephemeral genius in the kitchen. That is, simply knowing what overroasting physically does to breast meat, for example, so you know how to forestall it. Knowing that meats continue to cook after you've taken them out of the oven, for another example.
In addition to the good advice you've been given so far, I'll add that an important skill is timing everything to finish at the same time. Earlier in my cooking years, I'd finish one thing too early, so it would get cold while the other things finished, or sometimes dinner would be much later than expected because I didn't plan enough for the prep time. Take it easy at first.
Find something easy that you can make and that tastes good, like pasta or soup, and always keep frozen, fresh or canned ingredients on hand so you can make something when you are hungry. Sometimes you'll forget to go to the store, or errands take longer than you planned, and you need to get home and make dinner.
And don't go to the grocery store when you are hungry!
Basic spices: salt/pepper/onion powder/garlic powder/oregano/thyme and so on....
Olive Oil
Worcestershire Sauce
Red & White Wine for cooking
Flour
Brown & White Sugar
Soy Sauce
Buy some cuts of meat you like---I get a 10lb bag of frozen chicken breasts at Costco for $19.99 and my husband & I get a lot of use out of it...
you could also buy pork chops, steaks, whatever you like...just portion it out & freeze it
Pick out 5 recipes that you want to make for dinner for a week
Write down what you need for each recipe and get said items from the store & then when it comes to cook you don't have to go to the store--who wants to do that after work! Just do easy stuff for breakfast & lunch like oatmeal, sandwiches etc....
I don't know what kind of inventory you have in your kitchen but in the beginning it may be sort of expensive buying certain kitchen appliances, spices, food storage containers and so forth but once you get this stuff built up it gets easier. Now that I have a pretty good amount of meat in my freezer, when I go to the store it's basically just whatever I need to complete certain recipes....
It's so much fun & cheaper to cook at home and once you get started you will never go back to unhealthy processed food!
My biggest expense has been all the spices I never had that I need but I am pretty much stocked up on those now too....
Starting with some easy crock pot stuff is a good way to as others have mentioned. Do something easy your first time like chili! You'll be so pleased with the results you will want to see what else you can put together
Crockpot cooking..
chicken - with salsa or soups of such... beans....
ribs.... enoughs aid
ground beef with cheese and green beans - seasoned to taste. etc..
There is a great big yellow paperback cook book called "How to Cook Everything", by Mark Bittman, which is exactly that. It is the fundamental basics of cooking everything. Even experienced cooks use it often and regularly.
If you are starting from a "clean slate", learn the basics first, and use fresh ingerdients. Avoid recipes that call for canned soup, seasoning packets and other convienience foods, they are an unhealthy crutch.
Big crock pot fan here too, they are very easy to use and it's pretty hard to burn anything.
A few general tips, prepare and assemble your ingerdients before you even turn on the heat. Have clocks and timers close, as well as any recipes. Have multiple measuring spoons and cups so you don't have to stop and wash them during cooking. The silicone rubber spatulas are great, one of the best products to come out in many years.
Thank you 2goldens I've just gotten really into cooking over the past 8 months or so. Thought I knew how to cook before, NOPE! I like to share what tips have helped me as I am a newbie to it all too I love it though...I am going to make it a priority to teach my (future) kids how to cook so that when they get out on their own they know what to do & aren't living off Mac&Cheese and Ramen noodles!!!!
Pick out 5 recipes that you want to make for dinner for a week
Write down what you need for each recipe and get said items from the store & then when it comes to cook you don't have to go to the store--who wants to do that after work! Just do easy stuff for breakfast & lunch like oatmeal, sandwiches etc....
This is good advice. I do this too. I plan all the meals for seven days (Sunday through Saturday) and do my grocery shopping on Saturday morning. I go through all the recipes and check what I have on hand, so I rarely have to go to the store during the week. Whenever I go to pick up one or two things, I end up getting a few other impulse buys, so doing all my grocery shopping in one day helps keep the budget under control.
I go through the grocery store circulars, see what's on sale and plan the menu accordingly. If there's a great sale or I have some good coupons (hopefully both), I'll pick up some extra of something canned or frozen to use later.
It can be easy to fall into a rut when planning meals. It might help to designate a certain type of food to a day of the week. For example, we eat pasta on Thursdays, and Fridays I make soup or stir fry. We eat fish on Wednesdays when it's in season. So instead of trying to figure something new and exciting to make on Wednesday, I find out what fish is on sale and find a recipe to use. (I love Allrecipes.com.)
One more tip: Make twice as much dinner (should be easy since you're cooking for two) and freeze the leftovers or eat them the next day. Cooking twice as much is much easier than cooking two dinners.
Get some good basic cookbooks - Joy of Cooking, Art of French Cooking for instance - that explain WHY to do things as well as what to do.
Also suggest watching episodes of Americas Test Kitchen on PBS. Explains the process of finding out how to make things better, how to make classic recipes in an efficient fashion and most importantly WHY certain steps are necessary. They also do consumer tests of products to show whether it really is better to spend more money on certain items.
They also have a website and cookbooks.
Couldn't agree more...Rep to you...
Cooks Illustrated runs both Americas Test Kitchen and Cooks Country (same host and chefs). Go to their websites, there's lots of free stuff and it even has videos. Be aware a lot of things you need to pay for. I say do all the free stuff now and after you get the basics down, sign up if you like what you see. They also have in depth cookbooks.
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