Here's the problem - Ready Made Meals

It sometimes feels like forever since I started to learn how to cook and it has changed my life for the better ever since. My two favourite meals are fajitas and spaghetti bolognese and when I began to learn how to cook I promised myself I would not stop until I could make them. Times have changed and now I can cook and bake and I use nearly everything in my kitchen. It is a great stress reliever and I see it as a form of art.

When I started to learn to cook, I primarily used recipes that people gave me. For new meals that I wanted to explore myself I would use the BBC food website. This website contains thousands of recipes done by professional chefs, however they think you have around 4 hours to prepare your meal. No one has this kind of time and I would certainly not use it on a daily activity like dinner. This does not mean you just suddenly give up and resort to ready made meals in the microwave. I sifted through all the advice and I found my own style of cooking. It is a long road where I broke many pots and ate a lot of terrible meals but sooner or later, I was regularly cooking new and delicious meals with very little outside assistance. It seems the road never ends as I am still developing my cooking skills today.

I have always loved Christmas. As a kid, I always loved the presents and now I love seeing family and friends (and also still the presents). It is also a great excuse to have a huge family dinner. We all gather around the kitchen at around lunch and prepare for the dinner feast. We work together to boil the sprouts and veggies, marinate and glaze the turkey and ham, peel and clean the potatoes and ready up the stuffing. Trying to judge when everything will be ready turns the whole experience into a military operation. For this and many other reasons, I try and stay away from impersonal ready made meals. I feel cooking will always be a part of who I am and I think it shows in the effort and taught I put in.

It is a little known fact that visitors always tend to gravitate towards the kitchen. It seems to be the natural meeting place where people gossip and relax. This seems to be a motivator for some people to spend lots of their money on sprucing up their kitchen to make it look more modern and stylish. This is a complete waste of time and money as these are never fully utilized by most people. In my experience, the kitchen is also the most customized rooms in the house. Every ingredient and food item is tailored selected to your needs. Everything from the type of flour to the type of cheese was selected by someone in the house. It is these little differences in home made food that makes a huge impact on the whole experience of food. Also, if it was not for cooking, the kitchen would not be as warm and cosy as it is today.

I understand the need for fast food. Plenty of times have I been hungry in the city centre and just needed something quick so I can get on with my day. However, I think too many people over indulge. The good things in life aren't easy and you should fight for what you believe in, so I fight for good food. I think you can get a similar experience to home made food with a nice restaurant. Here you get the feeling of eating amongst friends and usually there is enough diversity in the food to keep anyone satisfied. You will also notice the effort that most nice restaurants put into their food and atmosphere. It is this effort that makes cooking an art form and a beautiful experience. If you pour you heart into cooking, you will never be disappointed with the end result.