Growing up I loved helping my mom cook, especially during holidays, so I was no stranger to the kitchen. However, I usually had a few favorite dishes that I made regularly so I still had a lot to learn.

My husband Andrew is a great cook, but with his busy and crazy schedule in medical school I knew that I would be doing a lot of the cooking. I have heard horror stories from family and friends about their first experiences with learning to cook and luckily I haven’t had any such experiences myself.

Starting out I kept things pretty simple and stuck with dishes that I thought would be difficult to “mess up”. I turned to Pinterest A LOT for meal inspiration and having a recipe to follow is a great way to learn.

Cookbooks are another great way to learn since you can find them on nearly any type of cuisine, diet, or food theme. A few cookbooks that we LOVE and use regularly are any of the Pioneer Women Cookbooks, Ad Hoc, and William-Sonoma Comfort Food. We cook out of those regularly to help us create a little bit of variety in our weekly meals.

After becoming for comfortable with cooking and experimenting with our favorite dishes I decided to branch out. Andrew and I try to pick at least one new recipe a week to try and if we have time on the weekend we like to try a more complicated and complex recipe. A few dishes that we have tried and LOVED are Chicken Friccassee (from the Comfort Food Book), Whole Roasted Chicken with Butternut Squash Soup (from Bouchon), and Coq au Vin (a Pinterest recipe).

Dishes won’t always turn out and messes will be made, but it can be such a fun way to spend time together whether it is with friends, family, or roomates!

Any favorite cookbooks and recipes you would recommend?