I was taught to cook at a young age and have loved it ever since. I meet people all the time in college who don't know how to cook other than ramen, grilled cheese, water, etc... And I find it crazy that people don't know how to make their own foods. The creation of food is a beautiful art that everyone can taste.

My girlfriend and I love to cook dinners and try new foods together. I'd say it's our favorite hobby. We hop on Pinterest and search for food that we think we'd enjoy. Then we just buy the ingredients we need and go home and cook it up.

I have no research on this, but I think that people are afraid to try and cook. I could be completely wrong, but that's a theory. Cooking is not too complicated; it's mostly heating up pots and pans and putting food in them and turning it over or mixing it before it burns. If the recipe states to do something that I don't know how to do, I go on youtube.com and search how to do it.

I even went through a phase where I would binge-watch Gordon Ramsay demonstration videos. It really inspired me to get in the kitchen and try to do what he did. I know he gets mixed reviews based off of his T.V. shows, but he is an excellent teacher.

Watching him makes me appreciate food more and more.
The one motive behind cooking is getting to taste your work. It's rewarding to spend sometimes over an hour on a meal, working hard to make sure that everything is cooked to perfection and finally getting to sit down and see if everything lives up to the test.

There is not another feeling quite like it.

The next best feeling to that is when other people get to taste your creations and love it. Watching people's faces when they take a bite of your food and tell you how great it is is amazing.

Another great thing about cooking your own meals is that you save a bunch of money. One time, my friends and I made stuffed chicken parmesan for 5 people. The total cost of the ingredients we needed came to around $45. That comes to $9 a person. If we had gone out to eat at Olive Garden, the chicken parmesan would have cost about $15 a person.

When you're cooking, you decide what you get to eat. Have you ever been craving something but not be able to get it because no establishments around you don't have it? Of course, you have; we've all been through it. You can say goodbye to those days.

The worst thing that could happen is that you burn the food, mess up the recipe, or just don't like it. When you don't follow the recipe and don't realize it, it makes for a great story later.