7 Things I've Learned From Watching
Rachael Ray
By Wendy
Wallace
I have to confess, up until a few years ago, I
knew nothing about cooking. I owned two pots, a cookie sheet and a toaster.
The main staples of my diet were Chinese food, pasta, pizza, burgers and
Cool Ranch Doritos.
Late one night, completely by chance, I happened
to come across an episode of Rachael Ray’s show 30-Minute Meals
on the Food Network. From that night on, my life changed. I began to finally
understand and form an appreciation for cooking.
After watching hundreds of episodes of the show
(including multiple re-runs), this is what I have learned from watching
Rachael Ray:
1. Soup does not take all day to make.
Who knew you could make soup in less than an hour?
I thought homemade soup took six or more hours to make. I was pleasantly
surprised to learn you can add vegetables, meat and spices to ready-made
stock and there you have a soup!
2. Olive oil makes everything taste good.
I always thought of olive oil as a delicacy and
never used it. But since watching Rachael Ray, I put olive oil (or as she
calls it, “EVOO”) on everything. From dipping bread in it to coating chicken
breasts to drizzling olive oil over frozen French fries before putting
them in the oven, olive oil has awakened me to how good food is supposed
to taste.
3. Homemade pasta sauce and salsa can actually
taste better than store-bought.
At first, I couldn’t believe making pasta sauce
or salsa could be easy to make let alone taste as good as the jars I bought.
When I first made salsa, it took less than ten minutes. It was exactly
as spicy as I wanted it to be and it was much thicker than what I was used
to. It was the first time I ever made something I liked more ready-made.
On several shows, Rachael Ray claimed homemade
pasta sauce was better because it was cheaper and you could make it any
way you wanted to. Like soup, I thought making pasta sauce would be a long,
drawn-out process. It wasn’t! I took Rachael’s advice and added parsley
to a can of crushed tomatoes and got creative with the other ingredients
I added. It always turns out surprisingly well.
4. The little details make all the difference.
There are tips Rachael repeats that are drilled
into my memory:
-“Need it twice, chop it once.”
-Squeeze a lemon turned upright so the seeds don’t
get into dish you are making.
-Wash herbs after you get them home and wrap them
in a paper towel.
-Have a garbage bowl handy.
-Heat your pan first so, “…it’s waiting for you
and not the other way around.”
-Always use a separate, plastic cutting board for
meat.
5. There are a million ways to make a burger.
Rachael has turned making burgers into an art form.
For me, a burger used to be made up of a beef patty, cheese, lettuce and
ketchup all in a bun. Now, I’m making turkey, tuna and lamb burgers topped
with cheeses and vegetables I would have never envisioned on a burger (like
spinach). For me, it’s not just about getting creative with a familiar
food that won me over. It’s being able to take a typical takeout dish and
make it my own that I have grown to love.
6. “Take a little help from the store where
you can get it.”
I used to think of cooking as an all or nothing
task. Either you worked with all fresh food and made dishes completely
from scratch or you heated up completely processed food. Rachael Ray taught
me you can compromise. You can use things like frozen or canned vegetables,
pre-made biscuit and cake mixes and stocks. The trick is to add spices
or herbs to give the processed food its own, unique taste.
7. If you cook healthy, you can eat more.
When I started experimenting with Rachael’s recipes,
I was surprised at how at easy it was to start eating more vegetables.
It was nice to be able to have a second helping of Ginger and Lemon Steamed
Vegetables and not feel guilty about it as I would when I’d have
another piece of pizza. Not only that, but I started to crave fresh, healthy
food. I can now understand why she has such a passion for food and why,
for Rachael Ray, eating is such an enjoyable thing.
With a never-ending list of interests and a great
deal of experience and knowledge, Wendy Wallace is an intuitive counselor
offering sessions which combine psychic reading, life coaching and counseling
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