Follow the Damn Recipe!
From my experience, if you are just learning how to cook, it’s definitely best to follow the recipe and use the actual ingredients it calls for.
One of my first attempts at cooking involved a book that boasted easy recipes and a recipe for Shrimp Scampi. Seemed easy enough - use pre-shelled shrimp from the grocery store and add a few more ingredients. Well, the recipe called for garlic…actual cloves of garlic or minced garlic.
Being the poor, just out of college girl I was, I decided to use garlic powder since I had it in the house. Needless to say, it didn’t work and the dish tasted like dead rats. My poor roommate decided to be nice and eat her portion, despite the fact that I couldn’t hack my own cooking and had to throw it out. I vowed never to make that recipe again and 5 years later, I’m still scampi free…
Adrienne
