The holidays are filled with family, friends, and lots and lots of food. If you’re doing the cooking and baking, invite others to help you. If you’re a guest, offer to lend a hand. Cooking with family and friends is not only fun, it’s an incredible learning opportunity.
Everyone does things in the kitchen their own way. The way you cut, saute, bake, etc. was learned from parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, children, friends, from TV shows, books, courses, or simply by trial and error. The holidays are a great time to spend time together in the kitchen and learn from one another.
Here are a handful of things I learned in the past several years when cooking with family 
and friends:
- When sauteing Swiss chard, cut the stalks and leaves separately and cook the stalks first since they take longer
- When cutting tomatoes, use a serrated knife so you don’t crush them
- Put a damp cloth under your cutting board to keep it in place when you’re cutting and chopping
- The fastest way to chop a bell pepper is to cut off the top and bottom first, slice the side open, then run your knife around the middle to remove all of the seeds, then chop it how you’d like
- When making salad dressing, add a tiny drop of lecithin (found at health food stores and many grocery stores) to emulsify it (keep it from separating)
Get cooking! Loads of tips and tricks are waiting for you, to make cooking simpler and more fun! Do you have a cooking tip you learned from a family member or friend? Share it in the comments below.
