My 4 steps to dreamy, confident, cooking genius

I love cooking, mainly baking, but I love it. We are talking fresh kitchen smells, keeping the ovens warm, fresh bread for a Sunday morning.

Chocolate brownies. You know what I mean

When I was at university, I ate freezer food nearly everyday, unless I was at the university canteen – that was where the magic happened. Curly fries anyone?

I was under confident and unaware of what I should be doing, I just didn’t really know how to hone my own excitement in the kitchen.

UNTIL

I met Rob, don’t worry – this isn’t a sob story. BUT Rob has the talent and skills where he dreams of something and then can magically make it happen in the kitchen with an onion and a can of chickpeas.

And through his understanding and freedom in the kitchen, I have honed my own four steps. Let’s go!

Trust your gut

You know that you love garlic, or you hate the smell of almonds. Trust it, keep it as a centre of your work and you’ll be grand. Be real, if you don’t like the taste, you’ll be able to taste it regardless of how much you’ve put in there!

Recipes aren’t set in stone

This is something I really struggled with, I can’t just change the recipe after Nigella has told me specifically what to do. Oh… let me tell you that you can! You can go all rogue on Nigella. Treat her as the scaffolding and then branch out.

Add some mustard to your Toad in the Hole or choose to not add so many eggs to the brownie recipe – try it, you never know what genius you might discover…

Failure isn’t a thing

It really doesn’t exist in the kitchen. Even burning something teaches you not to put it on at that temperature. Let’s say you’re baking some delicious bread and you leave in for a little too long – cut off the top. You will know for next time. Keeping yourself free of your own judgement in the kitchen will work a treat.

Also, a messy kitchen is the sign of a good time!

It is a muscle

It takes time to mould the perfect muscle, along with learning how to be confident in the kitchen. Choose trial and error over pressure (oo rhymes!)

I like to try one new recipe a week, I’m not saying something crazy cool or different but maybe make the potatoes in a fun way this week, or find a new way to cook the carrots.

You don’t know until you’ve tried and you don’t know what goodness could come!

Unlock your inner cooking genius!

Tag me – @girlabouttheyard – if you make anything, I LOVE seeing cooking madness!