Cooking Up a New Hobby

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  Cooking has never been a strength of mine. I don't feel comfortable doing it, and that is likely due to me not cooking very often. The first time I really had to start consistently doing it was my Freshman year of high school, but I still wasn't doing it too much from scratch since I was often busy with school. This past spring semester I was on my first co-op in Portland, Oregon, so I really had to rely on myself to cook. Since I had more time in my evenings due to no homework I finally had enough time to start cooking, unlike during the school semesters. Prior to this experience I just told myself that I am not good in the kitchen, so I avoided it, but I decided I would finally try it out. 

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     During co-op I would try to cook myself something at least twice a week and would get advice and recipes from my mom and from my other friends that cook. I started off easier, making meals that were not entirely from scratch. I used premade pizza crusts and created a vegetable, pesto pizza that I made a few times as one of the easier starter recipes, along with different pasta recipes. Eventually I started trying more, such as quinoa and bean tacos. Those are just some of the recipes I made that I enjoyed enough to remake multiple times.  Little by little I began feeling more comfortable and realized that even people who have cooked for years still make mistakes.

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     Through this I began learning to not let being bad at something hold me back from doing it. Being bad at something usually just means you don't do it enough, so with practice and patience with myself I finally started feeling more confident in the kitchen. While there are still aspects of cooking that intimidate me, I am beginning to feel more confident in myself and 

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     I often doubt myself and my abilities when I'm not good at them the first time I try to do them. Through this experience I had failures and successes, but overall have become far more confident and comfortable in the kitchen. Trying something I have avoided for a long time because I thought I was just always going to be bad at it has taught me to try new things even if I think I will fail.

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