I highly recommend Good Eats with Alton Brown - it explains why you do each step in recipes, gives some options for variations, and there are some episodes dedicated primarily to basics (knife skills, keeping knives sharp, cooking with kids, safety, etc). You don’t have to make every recipe, but it’s interesting to watch even recipes you don’t think you’ll make. Keep watching until you find something good, then you have a video of doing it with explanations, plus his website and books have step by step instructions. Watching will show you how to do a lot of techniques for different things - doing them will help you remember them.
Some of my recommendations that I still make often:
Tomato sauce - easy to make (you prep your veggies, drain tomatoes, then basically just stir a pot occasionally and stir a pan in the oven, then combine and run it through your blender/food processor), it’s good on basically everything (pasta, eggs, pizza, base for soups, etc), and keeps in the freezer for at least a year. I like to add a lot of fresh basil to mine when it’s in season. https://altonbrown.com/recipes/pantry-friendly-tomato-sauce/
Baked Mac and cheese - tasty, creamy, flavorful, and easy. Cook your pasta, shred cheese, whisk a pot while adding stuff to it and letting it form your roux (sauce base), add all your cheese, add pasta, put in a dish, add a stirred together topping, and bake. The recipe itself tells you when to add stuff so it’s not a guess or anything, the episode is good too. (If you prefer stovetop Mac and cheese, equally easy and the same episode does that too, easy to find the recipe on the website as well) https://altonbrown.com/recipes/baked-macaroni-and-cheese/
Scrambled eggs - the episode is well worth watching at least once, and the eggs turn out super fluffy and tasty. (The harissa and herbs are optional, but recommended if you already have them or want to jazz it up) https://altonbrown.com/recipes/20-second-scrambled-eggs/
Just remember, especially if you’re new to cooking or trying to get better: it’s okay to make mistakes! Don’t get upset if you mess something up, figure out what you did wrong and try again later. If you mess up your meal for the night and can’t recover it, fall back on leftovers or takeout or frozen food, but don’t give up on cooking.
Also, if cooking for a special occasion - don’t make it for the first time for the event, make it at least once beforehand as practice and to make sure the recipe itself makes sense and is good
I highly recommend Good Eats with Alton Brown - it explains why you do each step in recipes, gives some options for variations, and there are some episodes dedicated primarily to basics (knife skills, keeping knives sharp, cooking with kids, safety, etc). You don’t have to make every recipe, but it’s interesting to watch even recipes you don’t think you’ll make. Keep watching until you find something good, then you have a video of doing it with explanations, plus his website and books have step by step instructions. Watching will show you how to do a lot of techniques for different things - doing them will help you remember them.
Some of my recommendations that I still make often:
Tomato sauce - easy to make (you prep your veggies, drain tomatoes, then basically just stir a pot occasionally and stir a pan in the oven, then combine and run it through your blender/food processor), it’s good on basically everything (pasta, eggs, pizza, base for soups, etc), and keeps in the freezer for at least a year. I like to add a lot of fresh basil to mine when it’s in season. https://altonbrown.com/recipes/pantry-friendly-tomato-sauce/
Baked Mac and cheese - tasty, creamy, flavorful, and easy. Cook your pasta, shred cheese, whisk a pot while adding stuff to it and letting it form your roux (sauce base), add all your cheese, add pasta, put in a dish, add a stirred together topping, and bake. The recipe itself tells you when to add stuff so it’s not a guess or anything, the episode is good too. (If you prefer stovetop Mac and cheese, equally easy and the same episode does that too, easy to find the recipe on the website as well) https://altonbrown.com/recipes/baked-macaroni-and-cheese/
Scrambled eggs - the episode is well worth watching at least once, and the eggs turn out super fluffy and tasty. (The harissa and herbs are optional, but recommended if you already have them or want to jazz it up) https://altonbrown.com/recipes/20-second-scrambled-eggs/
Just remember, especially if you’re new to cooking or trying to get better: it’s okay to make mistakes! Don’t get upset if you mess something up, figure out what you did wrong and try again later. If you mess up your meal for the night and can’t recover it, fall back on leftovers or takeout or frozen food, but don’t give up on cooking.
Also, if cooking for a special occasion - don’t make it for the first time for the event, make it at least once beforehand as practice and to make sure the recipe itself makes sense and is good