Cooking with Monika
Magnolia Charm’s Tip of the Day
When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste.
Cooking and baking, for some, are therapeutic. For me, cooking, not so much baking, is a chore I dreaded almost more than anything. I consider myself a decent cook, but my schedule and living in the house with two of the biggest food critics, Gordon Ramsey (Jae) and Jay Rayner (Erick), have zapped away any joy I once found in cooking. I often find myself stressing about what to cook that will please everybody, adding variety to our weekly menu, and the actual amount of time it will take to prepare the meal when I forget to take the meat out of the freezer. At one point, it came down to more dining out and less cooking for convenience and peace of mind.
In an attempt to eat healthier and lose my quarantine 15, I reached out to Monika Byrd McGhee, co-owner of Magnolia Charm Baking Company. Monika is a premier chef specializing in cakes and desserts. While this is her first love, she also has experience as a personal chef and caterer. Her company offers live baking workshops, private 1:1 lessons, and pre-recorded cooking classes for people like me, who want to love cooking and learn to cook new recipes that will not disappoint.
During the initial consultation, I asked Chef Monika several burning cooking questions, from how to find inspiration to cook, ways to decrease the amount of time I spend in the kitchen, to quick recipes I can prepare during the summer?
Chef Monika shared the following tips to increase my cooking inspiration and help me feel motivated in the kitchen.
Invest in time-saving cooking gadgets: Purchase kitchen gadgets such as crock pots, air fryers, and instant pots that can be used to create quick meal solutions.
Plan Ahead: Create a weekly menu, including dishes you want to prepare. Use your menu to make your grocery list. This way you will have all ingredients needed. Also, it saves time if you wash and chop veggies for each cooking day ahead of time. You can store veggies in the refrigerator or freezer as needed.
Keep A Recipe Journal: When you find meals that make everyone happy, record them in your journal and how they were prepared. Be sure to include if you made substitutions or added more of one ingredient than another. Once you have enough recipes, you can start alternating them every other week.
My consultation with Chef Monika was incredible. Afterward, I was motivated to get in the kitchen and try out some new recipes, like sausage casserole for breakfast and cilantro lime chicken with red roasted potatoes dinner. Gordon Ramsey and Jay Rayner, I meant Jae and Erick were not disappointed.
