Joi's Food Safety Tips For Home Cooks

1. Absolutely DO NOT cross contaminate the utensils and cutting boards. This means DO NOT chop vegetables on the same cutting board that you used to prep chicken, seafood, or other meats with. You can make yourself and anyone you're cooking for sick by doing this. Either use a different cutting board for the meat or thoroughly wash the board after using the meat before prepping the vegetables. Same rules apply to the utensils you use to cut, chop, and mix to prep food and sauces. Don't use the same knife you used to chop beef to cut vegetables right afterwards. Use a different knife for the vegetables or thoroughly wash the knife you used before using it on vegetables. This rule also includes forks and spoons used to mix raw meat or eggs.

2. When you need to mix ingredients by hand, its best to use food safe gloves. They're easy to find in place like Walmart or Amazon. This rule applies to recipes that require you mix meat and seasonings together like meatballs and pot-stickers as well as salads and pickling recipes like kimchi and kale salad.

3. If you're not sure how to cook or prep a certain vegetable or meat its okay to consult google or this page. Better safe than undercooked, overcooked, or burned from ignorance while cooking.

4. One thing that I learned from researching different ways to cook chicken, I found out that it isn't necessary to wash chicken to prepare it. Any bacteria it has will be eliminated when fully cooked and rinsing chicken just puts the bacteria in your kitchen sink. If your chicken is wet from its juices in it's packaging, just pat the chicken dry with paper towels then go on about your prep for your recipe(s).

5. Remember that its okay to be creative and put your own spin on dishes as well as experiment! Have fun with the cooking process and don't be afraid to ask for feedback. Cooking, like all art is a constant work in progress and everything can always be improved. Also, there are different levels of difficulty in cooking depending on the recipes/dishes and its okay to cook at whatever pace, knowledge you have, or mood you're in. As a self taught home cook, I want cooking to be a fun and tasty learning experience for other home cooks like myself.