Love is a feeling and an action that keeps people connected and committed to one another. However, you can love your spouse without loving everything about them, because everyone has their flaws. A marriage consists of two people who accept each other as they are, even with all of their imperfections. For example, saying “I love my wife, but she cannot cook”, is acknowledging an imperfection that you see in your wife.
Imperfections give you an opportunity to grow, learn and even gain a new skill. You can use this opportunity to work together with your wife to help her improve her cooking skills.
Follow the tips below to learn how to approach imperfections in your marriage as a team. Our resources page has additional information along with our Marriage Repair Handbook.
5 Tips to Improve Her Cooking Skills
Tip #1: Learning the Basics
First, help her learn the basics. Your wife should start familiarizing herself with her own kitchen. She should learn how to use her own appliances, dishes, utensils, spices and seasonings. Her first lesson is to learn how to cook at the proper temperature.
There are different temperature settings on the stove that your wife can use. She can start by bringing foods to a boil or a simmer using the stove. For starter dishes, your wife can try boiling eggs, rice or pasta and then reducing to a simmer to practice boiling and simmering.
Next, she can try baking a potato or roasting some vegetables. She’ll have the chance to chop, season and cook the vegetables in the oven. Cooking vegetables are a simple way to improve cooking skills. It’s a great starting point for beginners, and if your wife needs more practice, a hands-on cooking class might also be a good idea.
Tip #2: Taking a Cooking Class
You can plan a fun date night at a hands-on cooking class. This will give you an opportunity to spend quality time with your wife and improve her cooking skills while enjoying a nice meal. A cooking class will also introduce you to different cuisines and provide you with expert instruction for a collaborative cooking experience.
During the cooking class, you can experience different cuisines such as French, Thai or Latin American cuisines. You can take the knowledge that you both gain from the class and implement those lessons when you cook dinner at home.
Tip #3: Cooking Dinner at Home
The meals that you learned from the cooking class you can cook those same meals at home with your wife. You can also find a recipe of your favorite meal and follow along on your own, or you can attend a virtual cooking class right from your own kitchen. Cooking at home will help your wife become more comfortable in her own kitchen.
She can get comfortable using her own appliances, dishes, utensils, spices and seasonings. The more comfortable she becomes in her kitchen, the more her cooking skills will improve. For simple meal ideas for dinner, your wife can cook chicken, rice, pasta, potatoes or mixed vegetables. If you need more dinner ideas, your wife can use cookbooks to find a variety of simple and quick recipes.
Tip #4: Exploring Cookbooks
Browse through several cookbooks with your wife to find one that has meals you’ll both enjoy. Read through the recipes to find different ways to cook different types of food. Some recipes call for ingredients to be peeled or sliced while other ingredients are boiled or sautéed.
The variety in the recipes will help your wife learn different techniques and learn which techniques work best for her. Challenge yourselves to complete all of the recipes from the cookbook that you choose. This way, your wife will experience cooking an array of meals that will take her cooking skills to the next level.
Tip #5: Improving Constantly
The great thing about cooking is that you can keep trying again and again. If you make a mistake, you can learn how to improve it the next time. Each time you cook a meal, you’ll learn something new that will enhance your skills. Once you’ve mastered a recipe, there’s always another recipe to try.
As your wife’s confidence grows, she can even begin to create her own recipes. Just remember, the only way your wife can improve her cooking skills is for her to keep learning. Our resources page has additional information along with our Marriage Repair Handbook.