Anatomy of Cooking Methods

Sometimes it seams impossible to please everyone in your household without becoming a short order cook. Take it from a woman who knows, after a 1.5 hour commute each way the last thing on your mind is short order cooking and figuring out how to repurpose left-overs! Simple yet tasty dishes are great for week days when you don't want to have a mass production in the kitchen the minute you step through the door. Organization is the key and the method you choose to get you to the point of "Dinner's Served" is the key to your happiness and everyone else's as well.

Also remember that you do not have to be a master list maker or organizer to get dinner on the table each day. Finding out what makes you comfortable is the key to daily success.

Doing your steps in the right order is essential. Sometimes when you read a recipe it seems like a great idea, but as you get into it you feel lost. The best thing to do with any new or new-to-you recipe, is not to try it out (especially for the first time) if you are rushed or frazzled. There are two types of cooks so figure out which one you are; Visual or Ingredient Driven. Sometimes this depends on the amount of space you have available so don't be alarmed if you have to modify your methods to fit your lifestyle. I just mention this here to get you thinking about your method to ultimately get a great end result.

First Method, do you like to do things one at a time without a lot of clutter around you? You may be ingredient driven or a method cook. Or, Second Method, do you prefer to have everything available within reach prior to starting? If so, you may be a visual cook.

Lots of recipes tell you to gather all your ingredients and then begin. If this drives you nuts, you are probably ingredient driven instead of visually triggered. Visual people like to see everything as they work, traditionally they have more shelves that can be viewed from different vantage points within their kitchen and like to have their pots and pans within easy reach as well as utensils handy in containers on the counter. Method cooks [ingredient driven] usually like to have just a few items out at a time, clean up and go to the next step or phase of cooking, even if it means rinsing that knife five times! Uncluttered is the key for Method cooks.

There are some really great cooking videos on You-Tube. The problem is there are so many videos on You-Tube these days, how do you choose? Well I usually try to be specific and type in things like "Cooking Lamb" to get ingredient driven topics, but there are literally hundreds of topics. I also go for [sort by] most views since those are normally shared to friends and seem to be good choices. You can also sort by recently uploaded, especially if you are returning for something "fresh".

Most people, old or young, will at some point need “memory joggers”.

• Memory jogger = Cognitive Clue
• Cognitive Clue = Tool
• Tool = [whatever works for you!]

For everyone from toddler to over 100yrs learning is the same.

• Technique = Habit
• Habit = Learned Behavior
• Learned Behavior = Repetition