1. I've always like the idea of cooking, but rarely got around to it. Then I had kids. Now that I need to provide a good healthy meal every night and it's harder to eat out, I had enough incentive to get over the hump of novice cook. Once I got a bit more skill, it got easier and a lot more enjoyable.
I find the physical, analog, informal nature of cooking helps balance my otherwise too-logical, too-digital life. I love working on my technique. Chopping vegetables is my Zen activity.
2. My wife and I try to do a weekly meal plan so we can do most of the shopping on the weekend. In practice, we often forget. Fortunately, we live really close to a few grocery stores, so quick frequent trips aren't too bad.
During the week, we tend to do easy stuff (breakfast for dinner, grilled cheese, burgers, burritos, etc.) since time is limited between I getting home from work and the kids going to bed. We do bigger cooking or try new recipes on the weekend and often have friends and family over.
3. This summer I've done a lot of grilling. I'm still learning, so I tend to iterate on a small number of areas instead of trying lots of everything. Grilled whole chicken, breakfast, burgers, salmon, and steak are our go-tos. I make a decent bibimbap but it's a lot of prep work. We aren't very adventurous because we have young kids, but they do enjoy eggs en cocotte and some other random stuff. I make the best croque madame I've ever had.
4. No. My wife and I did a Whole 30 a while back, but usually we just try to eat something from all of the food groups. The Whole 30 was generally awful, but it did get me to realize that carbs have a net negative on my diet, so I try to reduce those now -- less baked goods and desserts mainly.
5. Take notes. I learn a lot every time I try a recipe, but I don't make the same thing ten nights in a row. If I don't write down what I learned, I won't remember when I make it again two months later. So, now, I keep notes for each recipe I do. I have the recipe (with my latest revisions) and then a series of "lab notes" describing what I did each time, how it came out, and what adjustments I should make.
This has been hugely helpful. I have a handful of things now that I feel are "mine" and are much better than the original recipe I found. Seriously, my grilled "thirded" chicken is off the hook.
Some other basic but really good advice:
- Mise en place! Clean and organize before you start putting stuff on the fire!
- Put a wet paper towel under your cutting board.
- Keep your knife sharp and work on your technique.
- There are youtube videos for everything. I can cube an entire watermelon in < 2 minutes now and my diced onions could be used as a measuring tool.