I don’t know if anyone here has been through this… but I eat a lot of fast food because I have a fear of using anything to cook, if it’s for me to make something like bread and butter, that’s fine, it’s just a fork that I need, but when it comes to using a furnace or those kind of things, I just have a fear I might mess up somehow and start a fire or something… I know it sounds stupid but it’s a nightmare I have in my head for some reason =/, I thought I’d try getting over it so I could cook my own meals and get more healthy but thar’s a barrier stopping me… can anyone who has been through this give me any advice on it?
Yea, it sounds like OP has a fear of starting a fire so I would take a few steps to mitigate that fear. If there are other fears holding you back, make a check list to address those as well.
Have a plan for if a fire starts. Have a fire extinguisher nearby, and check it once a year to make sure it’s still good. You can use water to put out most things, but if the oil in the pan is on fire, do not use water. Use either a for extinguisher rated for oil fires, or smother with baking soda or cover with a non glass lid.
As part of being ready for a fire, know it’s not a big deal unless it’s spreading outside of the stove area. Aka, don’t panic, follow your plan to put it out and move on.
Start with food that you really can’t burn, then move onto actually cooking things in a pan. For any recipe, just Google it or watch a video on how to do it. Make some rice in a pot of water, hard boiled eggs, soups etc. From there start with fried eggs, pastas, pan fried fish or chicken, and any other simple dish you might need to use a pan for.
It’s also useful to know it’s fairly hard to start a fire while cooking in a pan, unless you leave things unattended or if you have a lot of oil overheat. There will usually be lots of smoke before something bursts into flames, so you’ll have time to stop it before it burns.
In response primarily to #4: Yeah, I’ve done a lot of cooking but I’ve never actually started a fire. As long as you’re not being wildly negligent or deep frying something the risk of burning something is very very low.