Life List: Become A Confident Cook

I have never really been much of a cook.  Mostly this is due to my issues with handling raw meat and insecurities over being able to cook it thoroughly enough that no one will die from consuming it.  Because of this, my husband has taken on the roll of the cook in the house and he has made most of our meals ever since we got married.  He has done an amazing job with it too.

Recently I decided to get past my insecurities in the kitchen and learn to make some meals that I feel confident preparing.  No reason more than to be able to provide meal for my family on my own for the sake of knowing I can do it.  I put "become a confident cook" on my life list and decided I would work toward that goal a little at a time.

So I starting collecting recipes online and buying cookbooks that interested me.  From those I found a few recipes that I felt I could manage without making a big disaster of things.  Armed with a meat thermometer, I got started and actually managed to handle meat without much of a problem.  So I started making a meal here and there from the recipes I had on hand and found that they actually came out pretty good most of the time.

It wasn't long before I started to feel like I knew was I was doing.  It took a lot less time that I imagined to start to gain some confidence in myself that the food I was preparing was actually good.  With my trusty meat thermometer I knew that I could at least manage to get any meat I cook to a temperature that would kill anything that would make us all sick. 

Last night I made something completely new that we have never tried before.  I managed to get through the whole process without feeling once like I didn't know what I was doing.  It occurred to me that I WAS already feeling confident!!!  I had made most of my families dinners for the past two weeks and no one got sick and my husband seemed to like all the things I have made. 

I think that we can call this life list item well done!