clive
My wife got me a handmade leather belt shortly after we started dating 10 years ago. I have worn it daily and its still in great shape. About two years ago I finally had to start using the next tighter hole as it has stretched, but theres definitely another 10 years of life still in it
The biggest thing with getting better at cooking is to just find a recipe that looks tasty and go for it. Follow the directions and see how it comes out. Try to understand the directions too. Why are we cooking things in X Y Z order? Why are we cooking at this temperature? Etc. You might still mess stuff up, Ive been cooking at home for 10 years and still have meals I just have to trash because theybare unsavable, but try to figure out what went wrong, and then try making that meal again but looking to fix your mistake.
There are also some great cookbooks and resources out there to kickstart your journey of understanding cooking. Salt Fat Acid Heat is a fantastic book that dives into the four pillars of what makes something delicious. It was also adapted into a Netflix series so you can watch that as well. The Food Lab is all about nerdy food science. Kenji Lopez Alt has spent his time figuring out the science behind cooking so you dont have to. Also, a lot of info from the Food Lab is also available on Serious Eats’s website, where Kenji was a writer for a long time.
Also if you have kids, get them involved! Learn with them so they have a jumpstart on being comfortable in the kitchen!
Now to answer your actual question, my go to recipe is pizza. Ive been making it pretty much every week since I was 22. I’ve built up a collection of tools for pizza making, so I have a propane oven that reaches 900°F for neopolitan pizza, a baking steel for regular oven pizzas, pans for south shore bar style pizzas, etc. Its all nice to have but you can make pizza on a cookie sheet or in a cast iron pan. The first pizzas I made were store bought dough in a greased cast iron pan with jarred sauce and some shredded mozz. Nowadays I make my own dough and sauce.
For an easy NY style pizza I use Kenji Lopez Alts same day dough recipe (https://youtu.be/uXkT8LbCPOY), and for the sauce I do
- 1 28oz can whole peeled tomatos (I like Cento, but look for brands that dont use Calcium Chloride or Citric Acid in the ingredients)
- ~2tbsp Olive Oil
- Like 2-3 tsp of kosher salt Blend all that with an immersion blender in the can of tomatos (might have to pour out some of the liquid in the can).
Often times Ill just leave it at that, but you can also add dried oregano, dried basil, a pinch of sugar, or some red chili flakes to spice it up.
Ive been mostly doing western style with an infuser basket and a temperature controlled kettle, but I also have a gaiwan for when I feel like sitting down and doing a gongfu session.
Spring/summer Im mostly drinking chinese greens (longjing and biluochun) and high mountain oolongs (alishan, baozhong, dong ding). Fall/wintee I might still have those occasionally but Ill do more wuyi and dancong oolongs (shuixian, duckshit), and the occasional ripe puer
A new bar just opened up last week in the ground floor of our apartment building. We went a few days after their grand opening and the cocktails were great. I am very much looking forward to patronizing them more
For me, Dominos is never a place I would consider getting pizza from if I want pizza. I get Dominos when I specifically want Dominos and a regular pizza wont scratch the itch for the salt bomb that shares a passing resemblance to pizza.
Same thing goes for taco bell. Id never consider it an option if I want mexican food, but sometimes its what youre craving
