How to Be a Better Home Cook

Good food and quality family time go together like peas and carrots. Whether your family enjoys its mealtimes in front of the television or around the dinner table, good food provides the perfect opportunity for bonding and sharing the experiences of the day. Admittedly not every mom is a natural chef. But there are a number of things you can do to up your game in the kitchen.

Invest in Quality Equipment

Cooking is one of life's most enjoyable pastimes, and it can be made more enjoyable with the help of some proper kitchen equipment. If blunt knives, thin-bottomed pans and electric stoves are the sum total of your home cooking arsenal, it's definitely time for a change. The number one tool you need in your kitchen is a good quality chef's knife, plus a sharpening steel. Good knives don't come cheap but they are absolutely essential, unless of course you enjoy spending your hours trying to hack through onions with a blunt shard of low-grade metal. Good quality heavy bottomed pans are a must as well. Cheap pans have thin bases, which burn easily when placed on moderate to high heat. As well as good tools, a good cooker is vital. Electric stoves, however inexpensive, simply do not cut it. In cooking, there is simply no substitute for direct heat. Cheap electric stoves – as opposed to quality Better Kitchens gas cookers – are far to inconsistent and inconvenient to use. And although a good cooker will cost money, the end results are worth the investment.

Experiment and Learn

The power of the internet today means your repertoire of recipes should no longer be limited to the list of dishes in an old Delia Smith cookbook. With countless websites dedicated to providing great recipes for free (BBC Food and Jamie Oliver to name but two), your list of potential dishes is literally endless. And as far as cooking is concerned, experimenting and learning from your triumphs and mistakes is the best way to get better. Recipes are not set in stone. Instead, they are a guide, which you should take with a pinch of salt.

Better Food, Happy Families

Providing good food is an integral aspect of raising a family. And with the right tools and the right approach to cooking, you can make the whole experience of food both exciting and rewarding.