Cooking for Others
We all have different living
situations. Some of us prepare food for others on a daily basis, and for
others of us, preparing food for family and friends is a special
occasion. These tips will make it much more fun to cook for other
people.
Stick With What You
Know
If you are new to cooking, you're likely to have more fun as well as
success if you approach it as a hobby and not a life skill in the
beginning. In other words, when you need to feed yourself or others,
stick to things you know. This may seem like it's missing the
whole point of cooking, but it's an approach that will make your
adventure much less pressure-filled, and more fun for everyone. You'll
also avoid displaying your disasters for the entire world to see!
Plan Ahead
People who don't "cook" don't
generally think about food preparation until it's time to eat.
Unfortunately, this approach is generally what turns so many people off
to cooking in the first place! It's no fun to
cook when you're hungry or when you've got the pressure of other hungry
people waiting for you. So if you're having dinner guests, try to do as
much of the cooking as possible ahead of time.
Practice Makes Perfect
One way to look at it is like a musician. When
you're cooking for others, you are doing the performance. The rest of
the time is practice. You wouldn't expect a musician to walk on stage at
a concert and perform a piece of music that they'd never played before.
You need to expect that you will have a few disasters along the way, and
even once you get your feet on the ground, it still may take a bit of
experimentation to perfect a dish to the point where it is ready to
serve.
Now, that doesn't mean that if
you have a family to feed you should simply make a bunch of experiments
and throw them away. It just means that you try it out when it's not
mealtime. This works especially well with dishes that can be easily
re-heated. If it turns out well, then you can re-heat it and serve it
for a meal. If it doesn't, then you can lend it to the compost heap, or
give the dog a treat! |