Experience is the ability to recognize a screwup the next time you make it.
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If you are afraid you will screw up cooking something you will.
Do not be afraid of trying something new in your cooking
Just remember if you screw it up too bad Dominos delivers

Recipes are a suggesting on most things, if you do not like something there is usually a substitute that can be used that you do like.
Most things I cook never come out the exact same every time as I almost never measure anything unless baking. Guess and golly method for me Guess that is enough or should go good in this and golly it did or didn't.

If you want good food start with good ingredients if you want good results

My wife thanks God for this one. We would live on ramen and hot dogs if it was up to my wife.

Im gonna take a few notes from above....

I'll also add that if you have kids get the parent that isnt cooking to watch them.......... dinners come out less burned that way.

I started cooking at a pretty young age.

When they discovered fire???

Mine already do some cooking with me, and I do enjoy that, they get in on the sausage stuffing etc. too. But when ive got something on the stove, something on the grill, and something in the oven and my 2 year old says daddy i gotta poopoo... something is getting burned.

Guess you don't reply with, "sounds like a you problem."

Corn starch is great for thickening a sauce or gravy, but you MUST mix it into a thin paste with cold (tap) water before adding it to the food.

I thought I was smart, and tried to just sprinkle it in lightly directly into the pot. The result was a bunch of lumps that I eventually had to fish out because they just wouldn't dissolve.

I tried it again another time, thinking I'd be SUPER careful. Same result.

Now I just get a small cup or glass, put in a teaspoon or two of corn starch, then add a little water and mix it up before adding it to whatever I'm cooking.
I guess I'm a slow learner, but I have definitely learned!

Yes, corn starch is amazing stuff. How such a little thing can do all that to a soup, gravy or stew is beyond me!

Ive had luck putting it in an old spice bottle with the shaker on it. Shake in as you stir.

Season through the cook oppose to just dumping a whole bunch on at once.

Beer can chicken with raw or powdered garlic in the can, put it on a metal plate , indirect heat for about a hour @ 325 degrees and rotate as needed Yum !

You know, in all my cooking, I have yet to try a beer can chicken. Put it on the list for a must try!!

Beer can chickens are good, used to make them all the time (used to make the stands for them too out of SS tubing before it was a thang). I like to inject the chicken, then make a paste out of peanut oil & Tony's and rub the bird down good with it. For the cans, I like to use the 16 oz'rs. Drink about half of the beer, and cut the top off. Load the can with quartered up onion, whole garlic cloves, sliced serrano or jalapeno pepper, cilantro, and a few lemon wedges, black pepper, a little more Tony's, a little cumin, then top off with beer. Put the chicken on, & stuff the hole on top with a potato. Pull the skin down over it. Cook on indirect heat until finished/let rest/quarter up/and pour the contents of the can over the top of the chicken. It's stupid moist and full of flavor. When my oldest boy was little, that used to be his favorite thing to eat lol.

Just be careful taking them off the pit, more than once my fingers have popped into the bird shooting hot chicken juice all over. It burns.

Copied and saved!!

The leftovers also make excellent chicken sandwiches and chicken salad sandwiches.

I think it’s very overrated, pure gimmick to me.

I’ve learned to trust BigPig when it comes to what’s good or not before knocking it.


2 years later and I’m STILL surprised at how well Oreos and sriracha work together
I ain’t eating a cold steak though.

A lot of great tips for sure. Best I have learned through trial and effort is Pay attention to the heat, And always taste the food
But the big one is learn Timing.... Timing is everything make sure all is done within 5 minutes to serving.

Cooking is an art. Baking is a science. I can cook. I'm not a very good at baking

One of the things I never really appreciated was just what effect altitude has on our baking success here in Idaho Falls. We are right around 5000 feet, so just on the edge of the "high altitude" instructions for a lot of baked goods. I think the science of baking is great, and knowing what more or less baking powder/soda, skim vs whole milk, or an extra egg does is part of the fun in learning to bake!!

The number one thing I have learned over my many years is that there is no shame in using a good meat thermometer when grilling. I get easily distracted by beer, gin and tonics, pretty women in swimsuits around the pool, hunting stories and grandboys.

How dare you want your expensive steaks to come out perfect every time!

When utilizing pepper on fish, only use white pepper.