I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am clumsy a very long time ago. I have to be very careful around knives, because the second time I used a box cutter, one of the most user-friendly knives, it went straight into my thumb. Another time, I used a cheese slicer and somehow cut vertically through my pinky. Not life-threatening injuries, but injuries nonetheless. I have had to work around some things to be safer, for example, I now only buy sliced cheese. But the only area where I cannot purposely avoid sharp objects is cooking. While my boyfriend will not allow me to use a box cutter anymore, I cannot in good conscience let him do the cooking all by himself, simply because I do not have the precise motor functions. And that’s where the Internet comes in.
Methods
While these issues are not recent, they seem to have become more obvious now that I live independently with my boyfriend. My mom made me start cooking from about the age of 12. At first, she was helping, and after that, I could do most things independently. She was working a lot and me being able to make a simple spaghetti bolognese with only onion as its vegetable properties saved her a lot of time in the evenings. As described above, though, that did not come completely natural to me. I usually spent between 30 to 60 minutes cutting vegetables when the dish was a bit more elaborate than a single onion, and efficiency was at a low point. Fortunately, there was the Internet. With Youtube becoming a much more popular medium at the time, famous chefs such as Gordon Ramsey posted videos on how to cut different vegetables, and most importantly: holding a vegetable with your fingers folded so it looks like a fist so that you don’t cut into your fingertips. Added to this, there are so many appliances that either make the job of preparing food significantly easier or take over the job completely. Without the Internet, my family probably would not have come into contact with such appliances, such as a special device that allows for an avocado to be safely pitted and cut, or the appliance that completely slices anything you would need, as long as it can fit.
Recipes
Apart from my methods of cooking becoming a lot safer, the Internet also helped my eating habits become a lot healthier. As I said before, my first recipe was a very simple spaghetti bolognese. It stayed that way for a long time. And when I did make a more complicated dish, it had to come with a recipe that I strictly followed. I still follow recipes quite strictly, but because I have learned so much over the years, there are some things that are not as rigid anymore. Whenever it was my turn to cook, I turned to access an almost unlimited amount of recipes online. Entrees, main courses and desserts were all available on the vast amount of websites and social media. And now, whenever I feel like cooking something new, I turn to that catalogue. Despite me being quite critical of the Internet in some of my other posts, it has a positive influence on my life as well. And I wouldn’t want to live without it.
Here you will find a link to one of my first “more complicated” recipes.
I love the opportunities Internet creates for people who want to learn how to cook. Since I started living alone I’ve learned so many skills and what’s more important I explored the cuisine of many different countries by simply following more and less complicated recipes I found online. Also, the “cooking side” of YouTube is one of the most relaxing things you can find. Check this out for example https://www.youtube.com/c/AlvinZhou1
I can see myself in such a situation as well as I am very clumsy too. I always used to (and still do) cut all the vegetables and other ingredients so slow when cooking, it probably took me three times as long to cook than to actually eat my food. What I tried though recently is HelloFresh, maybe you have heard of it before. You basically select what you want to eat online or on the app and they deliver the fresh ingredients to your house with the (actually easy and doable) instructions on how to cook them. There are actually very nice dishes that you can cook and with the online instructions it’s not even that hard to prepare. However, I think I’ll stay too cautious anyways because I really don’t want to hurt myself haha.
I have tried it before, though it still involves an awful lot of cutting vegetables most of the time and it’s not cheap. So I tend to look for recipes on the AH app instead, because at least you have control over prices in that case. Their recipes are a good way to have variations in your eating pattern though so I often do keep it in mind.
The internet also helped me quite a bit when it comes to cooking. Seeing as I am living away from my family in a building with 100 other students, the kitchen and cooking situation is not very ideal. Since I’m also on a budget, it’s a bit difficult to break a monotonous grocery list routine… but every since finding a few pages on youtube and instagram that share easy, but interesting recipes my life has changed for the better. I am also quite a clumsy person when it comes to utensil and knife safety – I have cut pretty much all of my fingers at one point or another. That method of balling your hand into a fist while cutting onions has quite literally saved my life and I will never stop raving about my new “skills” in the kitchen. hahaha