I grew up cooking. But what really stepped up my game was getting a cheap “three ingredient cookbook” and learning how very basic things can become amazing when combined. Now this cookbook had like “Italian sausage, pasta. Pasta sauce” as a recipe for spaghetti with meat sauce. Then I started making the things you make things from. Make the sausage from ground pork and seasonings. Make the pasta from semolina and water. Make the sauce from tinned tomatoes and other things.

All the things you cook with are eventually reduced down to some basic ingredients. I ended up making the things I made things from.

Now this does become a problem. 30 minute meals take two hours. When you are hungry you don’t have any food, just the things you make food from. But that’s a problem for another day.

Today’s meal was those Philly cheese steak tacos. If I had had money I could have gone and bought flour tortillas. But I had the stuff to make my own tortillas already on hand. And that is when you start developing textures and flavors you just can’t buy. That’s when you are cooking instead of wetting your drys and pouring things out of jars and bags. That’s when you really start to learn how to cook.

I mentioned it the other day, the first thing I ever made from scratch was a PB&J. Three ingredients. Each of those ingredients has about four ingredients. And except for the bread two of the second generation ingredients are shelf stable. Which means making things in advance that future you can enjoy with almost no work.