How did you come up with that?!

I have been cooking, basically, since I was tall enough to reach the kitchen table and old enough to handle a wooden spoon.  In high school, I began throwing dinner parties for my friends and regularly brought baked goods for the staff of The Eagle's Eye, our school's newspaper.  Typically, when I walked in with food containers, no one asked what was inside; the response was simply someone shouting, "Erin food," then a swarm of staff members grabbing handfuls of cookies or brownies.  Throughout my cooking years, meaning high school on, a frequent question I have been asked upon the reveal of lunchtime leftovers or sampling of baked goods is, "How did you come up with that?"  Many are baffled when I tell them I did not use a recipe, but was simply inspired by ingredients I found in my refrigerator, or in recent cases, my garden.  "But how do you know what goes together," some ask.  My response is just that I try it.  Sometimes my creations don't turn out the way they're envisioned, and in rare cases don't turn out at all.  The point is that in the kitchen, as in many situations, you don't know unless you try.  As you experiment with flavors and recipes, you determine which flavors you like and how they work together.  Once you know that, it's easy to look in your fridge and/ or pantry and whip something up, knowing that it will taste good.  Still a bit hesitant to step into the laboratory?  Here are a few tips and tricks to get you started.

1) ALWAYS TASTE WHILE YOU'RE COOKING!  This has got to be, by far, the area where bad cooks fall short.  If you aren't willing to taste your own cooking, what makes you think your family or whomever you're serving will be?  Tasting allows you to know if you do, in fact need to add salt and pepper or some other seasoning.  Let your taste buds determine your next move, not the recipe.  If you watch cooks like Giada DeLaurentiis or Ina Garten, they always taste as they go even though they have made the same recipes for years.  This is because no two cooking experiences are exactly alike.  Sometimes you might need more salt.  Sometimes more salt will make your dish inedible.  Don't make your loved ones be your guinea pigs.

2) When in doubt, try a pinch of salt and pepper.  If you taste you food and feel something's missing, try those two first.  If that doesn't fix it, and you have a specific seasoning in mind, go for it.  Remember, to use small doses, though.  You can always add more, but you can't take it away.

3) Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper are the way to go when cooking.  Save table salt for baking.  Kosher salt produces a more satisfying texture, especially when used on meats. Freshly ground pepper simply produces a fresher flavor.  It can also be used for creating texture since you can adjust the tension in the grinder.

4) Garlic powder is NOT the same as garlic salt.  

5) Do you like sliced onions in your salads, but your family doesn't enjoy the strong, pungent flavor?  Try slicing them then soaking them in vinegar (any kind will work; I like to use sherry vinegar) for a few minutes before adding them to your salad.  The vinegar takes away that initial punch while leaving the enjoyable aspects of the onion flavor.  

6) Fresh is almost ALWAYS better!  Better tasting and better for you, that is.  When it's fresh, you know exactly what's going in to your dish, and how much.  The only canned items I use regularly are tomatoes for sauces and some pasta dishes and black beans.  When I buy canned tomatoes, I only buy those that are in their own juice and water with not salt added.  Same goes for beans, water and no salt.  Similarly, I avoid mixes, especially those packets of seasoning, at all costs.  In the end, it's less expensive to just buy the seasonings individually and mix them together yourself.  The packets tend to add unnecessary preservatives, texture additives, and salt. 

*When purchasing spices, it always costs more to buy in jars.  Invest in some spice jars, then buy your spices separately.  The best prices I have found for loose spices are at Cost Plus World Market.

While I was growing up, about once a week we'd have a "clean out the fridge" night.  Usually that just meant reheating leftovers- nothing exciting.  On night, however, my mom mixed together a slew of ingredients and whipped up a magical dish we later titled, "The Stuff."  One of the downsides to successfully "winging it" in the kitchen is that you don't always remember all the ingredients/ amounts of ingredients, so we have continued to recreate "The Stuff" to the best of our ability, but it'll never be exactly the same as the first time.  Feel free to use the (rough) recipe below, then look in your fridge and see what "stuff" you can create!

The Stuff 

*Since Trader Joe's was our grocery store of choice, all of these items came from and can be found there.

1 T. olive oil

1 container diced pancetta

1 cup-ish asiago cheese blend (TJ's has a 4-chees blend containing asiago, parmesan, mozzarella, and some other similar cheese) 

1 can diced tomatoes

2-4 chopped basil leaves

1-2 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic), diced

Small pasta such as bowtie, penne, or macaroni 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, in preparation for your pasta.  

In a skillet, heat the olive oil until it can be easily moved around the pan and is smoking a little.  Add the pancetta, stirring and cooking until all bits are crispy.  Let the pancetta drain on a paper towel.  Saute the garlic in the pan for a minute or so, then add the can of tomatoes with their juices.  Add in the basil, and allow the flavors to marry for a few minutes.

As soon as the water boils, add in your pasta and cooked according to box directions for "al dente."  *If you cook beyond al dente, your pasta will end up being mushy once you mix it with the sauce.  

Drain the pasta and toss in with the tomato mixture. Mix in the pancetta, then pour the mixture into a greased baking dish. Stir in the cheese until evenly combined, then sprinkle some extra cheese on the top.

Bake until cheese is golden and bubbly, then serve!

We typically served this with a tossed salad with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Sometimes we added grilled chicken and sauteed zucchini.