I believe that everybody should know how to cook for themselves and spend time preparing their own food. This makes more conscious of what we eat, and where we go when we go out.

It's not as hard as people say it is. You've just got to get in there and do it. Here are some ideas to get your head around if you're still unsure.

Think. A lot.

Before cooking, read a recipe. Three times. Picture each step in your mind. Is it clear? Do you understand everything that was written down? Getting this clear in your mind is the fastest way to cooking cleanly and calmly. Think some more. If you're a bit more experienced, start asking why you do this step or that. Learn the REASON for something to be on a recipe.

Between meals, read. Everything. Read cookbooks like romance novels. Find bloggers that eat food you like and read what they say. Find forums and ask questions. Learn what goes on behind cooking. If your mind is primed, you'll rapidly move from clumsy to adept behind a stove.

You don't need a lot to get cooking - a pot or a pan, perhaps, and a couple of knives - but there are some basics to keep in mind.

Sharp knives are your friend. So much of making a meal happens before anything gets hot. A sharp knife makes all the preparation go twice as fast and four times as pleasantly.

You will get cuts and nicks. That's okay. I keep band-aids in the kitchen just in case. A sharp knife will make that an inconvenience; a dull knife is much more likely to cut you, and it HURTS. Keep them sharp for safety.

As you learn to cook, you'll learn that you don't have to have an expensive pan necessarily to cook, but you do need to know how it heats up - does it get hot spots, does it heat evenly - and how to move things on and off a flame to manage the heat. Don't worry; you'll get the hang of it.

Fresh. Local. These things do matter. Food that's been preserved, or transported long distances, or is just plain old tastes... well, just plain old.

Learn the seasons in your area. Find out when peas are fresh, and eat the hell out of them when that happens. The rest of the year, wait for that magic time to happen again.

When you have great ingredients, you really don't have to do a lot to them to make them taste amazing.

Give someone a fish, and you feed them for a day. Teach someone to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime.

Look, recipes are useful. They're instructions and blueprints for making a dish. That's great.

To really be comfortable cooking, learn good technique. Learn how to sear and sauté. Learn how to peel and chop, dice, and mince vegetables. Learn how to make soup, and you can make a soup with whatever you have at hand.

By focusing on technique, you'll learn a set of skills that apply to ANY recipe. By learning a recipe alone, you're limited to that one dish. Push the boundaries.

Finally, and above all else, don't forget to have FUN.

Look, relax about it. We put food on a pedastal and make celebrities out of chefs. But it doesn't mean that we have to be the next great thing in the kitchen to make good food.

Put your heart into it. Try something new. If it's bad, don't do it again. If it's really bad, get take out. We all have misadventures as well as successes. That's the fun part of it!