I buy loads of herbs and spices to try and make my own homemade food, and it's just always lacking flavour. I follow the recipes accurately, but they still taste so bland! :'( My sisters could both make the same recipe and it would turn out absolutely amazing.

For example, I made a BBC Good Food leek risotto and it was so bland. I added salt, pepper and garlic granules. I used a nice chicken stock, but the white wine was kinda old. I don't know if they would have made any difference.

The only good thing I can make are roast potatoes.

I usually use salt, pepper, and garlic salt.

Drawing an creative blank about changing it up.

Thoughts?

This is probably a stupid question, but besides trial and error, is there some special process that people use to perfect their recipes? I have a few recipes I want to perfect but money is tight so I’m not too keen on spending copious amounts.

this is not going to be exact WHATSOEVER, the amount mostly depends on preference and this is... basically all i know how to make. but it tastes great!

i use 3 eggs, however many green onions i want (usually 4), 3 slices of deli turkey, a bit of butter, and however much cheese i want.

first i chop and clean the green onions, then cut the turkey one way then the other so it's little squares (stack the slices so it's easier)

then i crack the 3 eggs and mix them very well with a fork

put eggs in the pan on very low heat, put in the turkey and cheese when the egg is almost done.

when it is fully cooked, put it in a bowl, add a bit of butter, and your green onions.

enjoy :>

Cooked some sweet potatoes in my 12 in lodge skillet tonight. Absolutely no sticking and cleanup was super easy. That work cleaning and seasoning this beat up old pan seems to be paying off.

I preheated a long time, checking temp with an IR thermometer as I went (as I don’t think it was hot enough last time). Took a lot longer than I expected to heat up fully. Then I added some oil and warmed it. Then cooked.

I do wish preheating didn’t take so long. Perhaps slightly higher heat would help. Our gas stove isn’t that powerful.

Any tips on the best way to heat up and get as even as possible?

What heat should I use?

Chicken breast, mushrooms, garlic, jalapeño or serrano pepper, olive oil. All in the pan at once.

White rice cooked in rice cooker.

Pan cook everything until chicken is white or a little brown cooked on the outside.

White rice in bowl. Put chicken and vegetables on top. Season with soy sauce and Parmesan cheese.

Since I began cooking for myself this has been my go to meal for almost every meal I have personally cooked. I am an extremely simple person. It has never gotten old.

Hey there! If anyone else is going through a cooking slump and feels super burned out (can’t decide what to cook, everything sounds bad, decision paralysis etc) I highly recommend getting a physical cookbook!!

This is probably one of those “well duh” solutions, but I’m chronically online and up until now only found recipes via social media/google. Somewhere along the way I ended up losing the joy cooking can give you because there were just too many options.

I found a beginner friendly cookbook over the weekend and told myself I’m not going to pick anything out. I’m just going to work my way through it and come back to stuff I like later. And it’s been amazing. The mental load of making decisions is gone and I’m actually excited to try stuff I never would have made otherwise.

So if you’re like me and the thought of having to plan another week of eating is driving you insane, it’s worth a try. :)

I don't live in the US so I don't have options like All-clad or Demeyere locally. There are some brands here like Zwilling but I haven't heard good things about this one.

Anyone tried SS pans from Temu?

I have no familiarity with this spice blend, a friend gave me some. I've used it in tahini in lieu of lemon and za'atar with some positive results but that was based on the flavour I got when touching a small amount to my tongue.

How is it used normally?

I wanted to sautée mushrooms for a burger. I bought pre sliced in a can. I put some oil then medium heat. And these mfers started exploding all over, getting burning water on my skin and stuff.

The worst part is they came out kinda hard. Why? What did I do wrong.

I've been going sober, but in a moment of weakness, I bought a bottle of wine. Ended up throwing away about a glass, which I had poured. The rest of the bottle is still there but it feels like a waste to throw it away.

Is there something simple I can use it for in cooking?

I know it can be used in cooking, but I'm mostly finding recipes calling for 1 glass. Anything for a nearly full bottle? I can't just make a huge amount of a recipe, as it's only feeding me.

Also if I can just use the slow cooker, it would be better, I'd rather just easily use it up as soon as possible and forget about it.

I’m limited to 35g of fat daily at maximum, and FODMAP was a suggestion given by my doctor. I’ve been able to handle alliums, but I would like to eat more than just seasoned chicken.

This is the exact way I love my eggs: yolk doesn't run or runs just a tiny bit, and jammy middle that stays in place. I feel like maybe one in 20 tries I am able to get this consistency lol

Does anybody have a trick to achieve this every single time?

Question, my spices have hardened despite my spice bottles and containers being closed. If the location is the reason I keep them above my stove. Is that the reason?

Thank you so much… this makes me feel so dumb 😭

How does a repost work? Are people able to see the original body text?

When i first started learning how to cook my mom told me never to put a pot with a lid fully closed on it while cooking as the pressure can build and cause the lid to pop off. But in alot of recipes im seeing no one seems to keep the lid slightly cracked like I was told to. Is this true?

Hello! So I bought fresh salmon fish from the fishmonger at HEB (8/29) on Saturday at 7:30 PM. I thought I would be cooking it either Sunday/Monday, but I got very sick, so I cannot cook it till Tuesday 7:30 (which will make it 3 days in the fridge). Is it okay to use my fish that has been left in the fridge in the paper/parchment packaging for three days? Thank you!

Okay so just fyi, I'm a recovering alcoholic and besides sweets, I'm getting major cravings for pizza. Going out to a restaurant to get pizza isn't really so doable for me right now, since it was part of my old habit of getting pizza and alcohol each time. But if I don't go anywhere, the craving doesn't kick in and I get to enjoy making a little food (I like cooking just not very good at it lol).

Anyway, I have my ingredients and my sauces and I don't actually know how to cook it. Other reddit posts I saw already posted said to freeze the store bought naan or flatbread, heat on stovetop with a little water OR bake it for a little bit to thaw in the oven, then add the sauce, cheese, and toppings. Bake for 10 mins at 500 (seems too high and too long to me) then it should be good to go.

Is that right or do I misunderstand? This would be store bought pre-packaged naan and flatbread, and pre-packaged sauce, cheese, and veggies or meat. I know 500 is good for uncooked dough, but cooked naan pre-packaged? I guess since I need to freeze it first, it would be good to cook hot like that, but would the bread be burned and the toppings not hot enough? Maybe a lot lower and for a little longer? Or am I underestimating how hot everything will actually be on the pizza lol

Tldr: need basic steps on baking store bought pre-packaged naan pizza. Should I freeze the bread first, bake and slightly thaw in oven, add sauce and toppings, then bake 500 for 10 mins?

Following a recipe is fine. But every time I open one and see 12–15 ingredients and three of which I'll use once and never again, I just close it and make the same three things I always make.

I live alone, and what eventually worked for me was flipping the math. I still buy about 14 things but for the whole week, not for one dinner. Fewer kinds of ingredients, bigger amounts of each, and everything has to go with everything else. I cook one proper dish and assemble the rest from the same set.

Recipe shopping makes sense for a family. For one person, that same list turns into a fridge full of half used stuff. Do you actually shop for recipes, or do you skip them for the same reason?

I haven't really cooked in a long time and I'm just starting to cook again for me and my fiance since we're finally on the same shift again. I'm back to basics since I wasn't the best cook in the world and still learning and we're both exhausted after work so I'd love easy meal ideas that are also semi inexpensive.

Every thread/forum I find with easy recipes are always crockpot meals, I don't own a crockpot but I do have a small rice cooker though it doesn't work well. I also have a microwave, toaster oven, and oven/stove.

My fiance also is very picky on any veggies beside corn and lettuce and hates onions of any kind. So it does seem like my options are fairly limited.

We're kinda getting tired of our small list but these have been quick, easy, and semi cheap meals since we're usually on a budget of about $150 - $200 a month on groceries.

For reference these are things I normally make now:

• cheeseburgers

• spaghetti

• fettuccine

• cheeseburger mac/stroganoff

• grilled cheese

• breakfast sandwiches

• scrambled eggs and toast

• misc. Freezer food like chicken nuggets/fries/pizza

TIA!!

How do you develop knife skills if you are somewhat visually impaired (depth perception etc)

I am not a beginner cook, but I would like to learn how to cook differently. Currently my cooking method involves just intuitively dumping a seasonings and spices on things. It tastes great, however:

I want to learn how to cook healthy using fresh herbs, citrus, vinegars, healthy fats, etc. I want to be able to cook with more simple, whole ingredients but still have foods that taste great.

Can anyone recommend YouTube channels that can teach me how to do this?