As we approach the season of holiday eating, people who can and cannot cook are sure to be strongly divided. This is important so the wrong sector isn’t given crucial holiday food assignments.
You don’t want someone to take their solo cooking voyage on the Thanksgiving turkey or pumpkin pie.
Lately, I have talked to many people my age and younger who can’t cook. It blows my mind.
I’m not taking away from the generations before who were amazing cooks. However, even if you come from no culinary knowledge, there is no reason not to know how to assemble meals in 2024. If you choose not to, then that’s fine, you do you. However, there is really no excuse to be the proverbial bringer of napkins and a soda to every “bring a dish” gathering. It is easier than ever, honestly, to learn to cook. You didn’t have loved ones to teach you? That’s fine. You know how to watch a video online though, right? Our grocery stores abound with foods so close to ready-made that they almost drive themselves to your house.
Scratch
Things I can do because I am a) old, b) had grandmothers who were amazing cooks and c) had to feed my children because apparently that’s like a LAW or something, include but are not limited to making bread from scratch. Yes. I have. I’ve done it all from hand kneading to bread machine ease. It’s all good and much better than mass-produced store bought. Ditto for homemade rolls or cinnamon rolls.
I can also make a pie with fresh fruit and homemade dough. That is my superpower. I bow to no one on my grandmother’s famous pie crust. The crust really makes the pie and is the main reason why frozen store-bought pies rarely measure up.
I also learned to make ice cream at home. I’m now trying to forget everything I know about that because it’s dangerous territory.
Back to the healthier side of the grocery aisle, I can wrestle a fresh squash into submission and cook it to make it edible. Sure, I almost lost a finger hacking into the flesh of a particularly thorny butternut but this is how we learn.
I can make homemade soup because my grandmothers wouldn’t have allowed it otherwise. Think leftovers + broth = perfection. Soup is like the first rung of the cooking ladder. I also make chili from scratch. I know chili is not soup, but it feels “soup adjacent.”
My chili recipe is legendary if I do say so myself. Although, to be fair, I think every single person who makes chili will insist that theirs is “the best.”
I have made marinara sauce from scratch, but I am about to blaspheme: I prefer store-bought to the recipes I have tried. I even had an Italian grandmother and still I speak these terrible things. I do hang my head in shame. Then, I open a jar of Classico and enjoy myself.
I can cook a pot roast with all the veggies because I grew up watching my grandmother do just that for Sunday dinner for four decades straight. There is no easier meal. People who think they “can’t cook” should start here.
I have made potato salad from scratch as well. Potato salad, however, is a polarizing dish. Every family seems to have a different idea of what the “perfect” potato salad recipe is. Mustard, mayo or both? Ditto homemade macaroni and cheese. You can follow the recipe perfectly, and it still may not taste “right” to people who had a Mee-Maw who made it differently. Proceed with caution if agreeing to bring this dish.
The advice I’m about to give a newbie or wanna-be-cook is to test run on your own time. Practice makes perfect for holiday cooking, after all. Cook a whole turkey right now. It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving. They sell them year-round — I checked.
On the other hand, for daily dining, it’s fine to aim for “stupid simple.” Look for meal ideas so basic they are effortless. Mr. Wonderful will tell you that there is nothing wrong with “breakfast for dinner” too. One or two of these, plus some sheet pan meals where you toss the chicken or fish (breaded and from a bag or box is fine) on a sheet with some fresh or frozen veggies to season and roast (or microwave those) and then add pasta and garlic bread (if dietary needs allow).
Anything is a meal if you employ the “and a salad” theory (again bagged is fine). Get yourself up to say, five meals that you can toss in or on the stove so fast it’s mindless.
I implore all young adults to learn to cook and to remember that it’s perfectly acceptable to buy the frozen lasagna sometimes too.
