Chef Telian Vs. The Kitchen!

I eat chicken…and lots of it! It’s easy, it tastes good, and pretty much everything goes with it.  But I think it’s time for me to exit early 20’s cooking, and enter mid 20’s cooking.  I’ve begun to experiment a little with some new sauces (by that I mean buffalo, teryaki, and BBQ out of a bottle), a couple of pork chops here and there – I even bought some ground turkey the other day and cooked it up into some Ragu with pasta. Nailed it!

Here’s the thing.  I’m curious if am I the only one doing this? And by this, I mean cooking the most basic things ever over and over again. I mean, have you guys already figured out the kitchen, what tastes good, what the hell fennel is, and how to cook portions smaller than a weeks worth of food?  If so, good for you! I’m proud/jealous of you and I’m a little upset you haven’t invited me over for dinner.  If not, I think we’ve both got a lot of learning to do.

The question I’m struggling with is where do I learn to cook? Do I just buy a cook book and do what it says? Do I just get random ingredients and start splashing them around the kitchen like an episode of Wet, Wild, and Crazy Kids?

Or do I just go with the classic, ask Mom!

Having said all that, I have to admit that I have learned a couple things along this journey throughout the kitchen and I’m going to share them with you.  And don’t worry, I’ll keep you posted with my progress and if I some day happen upon a successful recipe, I promise to share it with you, pictures and all.

Now before I get to Adam’s Lessons of the Kitchen, I will recognize the fact that I don’t know anything and that me giving advice to the world on cooking is like me giving advice to the world on not being awesome but still.  Here’s a couple things I stick to when I’m cooking.  (I didn’t originally plan on making these rhyme, but the first one did so I thought I’d just keep it going.)

Smaller pieces of chicken = Yum! Finger Lickin’! 

Cut your chicken up and cook it in a pan instead of cooking whole chicken breasts in the oven.  I just learned that one recently and it has revolutionized my world! No more struggling through the thick part of a boneless chicken breast because none of the seasoning/sauce made it in there and it’s just boring old (literally old, I make chicken for the whole week) baked chicken.  Oh no, now every bite I take is covered in what ever sauce my little heart desires!

Eggs AFTER bacon, delicious breakfast (or brinner) you’ll be makin’!

Yup, added bacon to my repertoire this year.  I know what you’re thinking, what’s so hard about making bacon.  And I’ll tell you… nothing!  No clue why I waited so long to start making it but I did so just deal with it.  Anyway, cooking those scrambled/fried eggs in bacon grease? It doesn’t get much better than that.  If it does, I don’t wanna know because I probably won’t be able to cook it and that’ll just make me sad.

For flavor that never ends, you must marinate my friends!

DISCLAIMER: I’m not saying you should marinate my friends, I don’t know how that would improve your cooking. Unless of course you’re cooking and eating my friends, then I guess it does apply here. But I’d have to ask you to stop doing that because I don’t have many friends and the more I lose to your insatiable appetite, the less I’ll have to high five.

Not really much to say here, just marinate that chicken! Let Sir Clucksalot soak up the delicious goodness before you cook him so you don’t just burn it all away in the pan.

As always, my ears/eyes are open.  If you have any suggestions or lessons that you have learned a long the way on your journey in the kitchen, I’d love to hear them.  My cousin Derek suggested I bread my pork chops next time I make them and so I’m going to give it a shot.  Any ideas like that are more than welcomed.

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Here’s an additional video for you. I realize it has absolutely nothing to do with this post but I found it while searching Wet, Wild, and Crazy Kids and it’s just too good not to post.