How to be the boss of your kitchen

 

In my mind I’m a gourmet chef that doesn’t understand why I haven’t gotten a deal for a cooking show yet. In reality I’m a decent cook that can create good recipes and make it into a meal.

I can’t take full credit for my recipes though, my fiancé is the idea guy and I am the risk taker that implements the ideas. This relates to most life situations in our relationship and we make a good team.

I come from a family of bakers so we never had great family dinners growing up but when it came time for dessert my grandmother made the best cakes from scratch.

I enjoy cooking over baking because when you bake you can’t mess with the measurements of ingredients and with cooking you can just wing it and I’m more of a wing it type of woman.

“Cooking well doesn’t mean cooking fancy”

Whenever I have friends or family over the first place everyone migrates to is the kitchen.  It’s very important that while you’re cooking  you make sure everyone knows this is my kitchen, my rules.  Don’t let anyone come in and try to tell you how to make your meals.  The best is when you cook a meal for someone and as soon as they put the food in there mouth they think they are the judges on Top Chef and critique your meal.

 

Here are some things I do when I cook to make sure I’m the boss of my kitchen:

• Drink wine while you cook.  I don’t care if I have guests or not I need a nice glass of wine next to me while I figure out how to prepare new meals.
• Ignore the comments from the peanut gallery and enjoy the entertainment of them making a fool out of themselves.
• If someone asks if they can help give them a simple job like cutting up vegetables or preparing the pots and pans on the stove.  This makes them feel important and also helps so you can focus on more important things.
• If you feel like your kitchen is filling up with too many people and you can’t breathe, be firm and tell them to get out. Don’t let them ignore you and continue to stand there. Heard them like sheep if you have to.
• Once everyone is out of the kitchen, put the appetizers in the other room, preferably with a sports game on and some drinks on a small table so no one has an excuse to come into the kitchen.

Cooking a meal is very therapeutic for me and I really do enjoy creating something that is visual and you can enjoy eating.  I’m not a gourmet chef, but I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love a good home cooked meal.

Do you enjoy cooking?