super good, love her stuff

Try a good brine before you cook any meats, but dont leave it in too long otherwise it will be WAYYYY too salty (usually about 2 cups of salt per gallon of water, but everyone has different methods)
Use REAL BUTTER and not margarine, especially with cookies and pies.
Low and slow for any sort of roast, ribs or general "hunks" of meat


Lastly, pay attention to your food while cooking and make adjustments as needed.


I've gotten really good at making cookies, pies and cobblers, most of them require the same basics ingredients (flour, salt (to help enhance flavor, never cut the salt in any dessert))

Just prepare food as directed in any video or book. Everyday cooking will even improve your cooking. Also, fry the onion, chili before properly, then, it will taste better.

Brine is good; or along the same lines, there is also marinating meats and/or veggies too.

Experimentation is really good though... you can have the exact same ingredients and measurements for two dishes; however, they can taste completely different based upon method of cooking.

-Steamed usually is the healthiest method, but also lacks extra flavor, or keeps more in tune with the natural flavor, usually the most moist way to cook something.
-Baked is a healthy option, just under that of steaming. This usually provides a good flavor and if done right, can be moist.
-Fried is the least healthiest option, but also can be arguably one of the tastiest ways to cook foods. Air Fryers are helping to reduce trans fats nowadays, while still providing that delicious crunchy texture we enjoy so much.
-Grilled is another pretty healthy option that is quite delicious and usually pretty fair in the moist category. This method is not to be confused with BBQ Grilling; although very flavorful, it leans toward the unhealthier side of fried foods. BBQ grilling has also been linked to higher risk of cancers.


Cooking is really all up to you on what you are trying to get out of it.


Baking is a whole different story; in which, I bear less experience in. I have heard certain tricks like using applesauce in cakes and stuff to keep them very moist. Some of the best/sweetest brownies i've ever had were made with vinegar as one of the ingredients. ( Not it, but similar --------> https://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/texas-sheet-cake/ )

I use pinterest from time to time, i think its a good alternative than youtube

Might try making curry- Indian, east-Asian, and british-american types. That should keep you busy for while.

Couple other thing I love to make is:
Caldo Verde with chourico or linguica.
Saag Paneer if you are willing to make Paneer or have an Indian store that makes it fresh.

Wikipedia is a good starting point to learn what is popular in other parts of the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cuisines Learning about different cultures is where a lot of my ideas come from. I just google what I want to make and find recipes with a lot of positive reviews. I pretty much exclusively choose recipes from websites that have a user review system. Why take chances making something with no peer reviews?

This post was edited by NatureNames on Jul 3 2019 11:04pm

In my opinion, the best way is to study other culture's food. Google cultures and their dishes. Then pick out one dish from that culture that you feel passionate about, like "THAT'S the dish i am going to make tomorrow or some time this week!". Then you go out and try to find the ingredients, and you try to make it.

As long as you keep costs in mind, this is the best way to me. At least without being a chef trainee, traveling the world and trying out different cuisines that way, being your job.


Of course the difference between trying new culture's food, is the preparation. You can make a curry at home very simply by chopping onions, garlic, ginger, and chicken breast, cook it in oil of choice, adding chopped tomatoes, and then adding premixed curry powder.

The difference is, for instance, to prepare the curry mix yourself, from scratch. In my experience, that is where true experience comes to play. If you don't know the intensity of the spices you grind in your mortar/grinder, you'll end up with a unbalanced dish that taste too much of this or that. First time i added too much cinnamon, and it almost ruined the dish. This is the only way to learn, by trial and error. After a few tries, i actually managed to make a spice blend that tasted extremely good! Another instance is to use fresh tomatoes that you prepare (cut out the stem attachment) boil, cool, de-skin and use that instead of canned tomato.

That is true cooking. Take a new culture's cuisine, play around with the flavors, make something you enjoy, and move on to a new cuisine, or a new dish from the current cuisine.

The problem is as always economics. If you're not rich, you have to stick to a budget, which can be done, but it limits your range of ingredients. But that is no different than what hundreds of millions of people, if not billions, have to deal with daily. It makes you more resourceful. I would rather have a dish with fewer ingredients that taste good, than a too rich dish that is too overpowering and not balanced. More ingredients takes more skill, and is usually hardly worth the effort. It usually requires a trained palate too, to taste all the different flavors.

Pro tip - believe it or not, its fucking delicious and will make the cake amazing - take your regular boxed cake mix and do most as the box reads - do not put in the oil, in it’s place put an equal amount of applesauce and add in 2tbsp of mayo. I understand how this sounds but it is not a troll and actually makes it amazingly moist and great. Nobody will be able to tell that you put mayo in your cake and it works with all box cakes really - even the chocolate ones! It’s so damned good lol.