Cool, congrats! I remember really loving to cook when I was that age too. What's your favorite thing to make? I think mine was hotdogs.

You don't have to stop liking it when you get older. I don't always enjoy cooking the meals I eat daily, but I like smoking briskets or making woodfire-baked pizzas. If you had told the 12-year-old me that I'd prefer my own barbecue to many of the restaurants in my area, I wouldn't have believed it. You've taken the first step on a great path. Don't assume you can't or won't enjoy it in 25 years.

Well, i guess sense i only really no how to make one thing, accept i no how to use the toaster oven, but i'm not sure if that's cooking, so i guess mack and cheese. But the thing is, there not going to teach me everything i want to cook so like, do you just half to find cooking recipes on the internet, and just do it that way and just implement the skills that i have?. then then another thing, how are you supposed to no wen it's like, about to boil over. sense we can't see it, my teacher said just useing seeing AI or what ever it's called might have forgot, and sometimes on the box or bag or what ever it has instructions and it will tell me that. and just cook it for how long it says and set a timer for that amount of minits. but i don't no if that's the best way, aa i guess ile learn.

No one is going to pack your stuff and put you on the porch and leave finding everything else up to you.  Moving out usually takes a couple months and you stay where you are until it's done.  I don't know what country you're in, but apartments usually come with a stove at least, usually also an oven.  Induction cooktops are nice but you'll probably have something else already.

Handling boiling over is pretty easy.  Things don't boil over unless you overfill the pot.  You just get a bigger pot than you'd otherwise need and don't worry about it.  In practice, though, most recipes don't call for boiling like that.  In general boiling over means that the food was ruined anyway, so if things have gone as wrong as that you had an issue a long time before then.

You really have to go out of your way to make something boil over.  Fill the pot over 3/4th of the way up then set the stove to high then entirely don't pay attention once it reaches a rolling boil and you can manage it.  But in general pots aren't just sitting there going "muhahaha time to boil over" on you.

Seeing AI's barcode scanner can give you directions sometimes.  Instacart will have directions in it sometimes.  When the box says "add this much water, cook at that temperature for this long" then yes, that's the best way.

Most people who talk about cooking don't mean box from the store, add milk.  That's probably where everyone starts these days, but when I cook (as opposed to just eating whatever) it's usually entirely fresh ingredients.  There is very little you can do differently when it's the sort of stuff with directions on the box, and to be honest the sort of stuff with directions on the box isn't usually that great anyway.  It saves  a lot of time, and I will confess that my freezer gets lots of premade dinners these days.  But fresh is always way better.

Yes, you go on the internet for recipes.  You should be learning some basic skills like measuring, stirring, chopping, and cleanup.  Combining those in various ways is how you get most basic to intermediate recipes.  A fully home-made cake without using a cake mix is measuring something like 10 to 15 ingredients into a couple bowls, then mixing them together as described in the recipe to the consistency the recipe describes.  A potato salad is boiling some potatoes, cutting them into pieces, and adding a bunch of mayonnaise and some other stuff.  You can do an entire Christmas dinner with just the skills I've mentioned, some directions from the internet, an oven, and a bit of practice.

If you want some easy recipes, anything pasta is usually really simple.  You want a pot with a colander insert.  It looks like a big tall pot with a strainer inside.  You boil the water, add noodles, wait for time on the box, lift the insert out, add sauce.  Making various pasta sauces is trivially easy but involves a lot of hot liquids, so until you're ready for that you can just buy it in jars.  Here's a simple Alfredo to give you some idea what's involved there.

Something super easy yet impressive is doing a roast.  I like to brine mine, though I don't have a recipe for that handy because I do it by taste.  But making a marinade or brine is super super easy and 100% safe, then you just pop it in the oven for a while depending how big it is.

Adding a few things here. I really like these kinds of threads as I think they're very positive ways in which this forum makes a difference in people's lives.

Camlorn gives you a lot of good information. Like, a *lot*. If you can save what he wrote in a text file somehow, it'd be helpful for you to read and reread over the next few years, even if a lot is over your head. It's probably not what you need right now, as a 12-year-old. No offense, Austin.

Cooking is complicated. It can also be simple. Please don't let all these details make you feel like it's hard.

Your toaster oven cooking absolutely is cooking. When I need an oven, unless I'm cooking something large like keeping a turkey warm after smoking or warming a brisket, I only use a very large toaster oven. It keeps my kitchen cooler, and uses way less energy. My toaster oven is big enough to cook a frozen pizza which, if you have the right shapes of pans, is also big enough to bake brownies, cookies, and other small pastries. You can get large toaster ovens that can prepare full meals for one, and the skills you already have are probably sufficient to operate those. It isn't hard to cook for yourself. You need to learn more than you know now, but not a whole lot.

Happy to talk about more. What else do you want to know?

Camlorn, so the apartment furnishings do change based on country.In  Turkey, the typical run of the mill apartment is without furniture or apliences of any kind. The general understanding is you will bring your own. Furnished apartments with apliences have a really significant price premium, and are only available in areas with students and such.

Yeah I thought cooking was super hard and complicated until a few years ago as well, and I still don't cook very much yet, but honestly, allot of it is just being willing to try, willing to mess up some times and willing to put in the time.
Plus, the great thing about the internet is that if a recipe seems too hard, you can just look for another one that isn't as complicated, and if that works, build up from their if you feel comfortable.  And the same goes for ingredients; you'd be amazed at all the replacements you can make if you don't have something, and it almost always tastes just fine.

As you cook more, you will discover ways to make things faster and easier for you so that it isn't such a pain.  For instance, I try never to cook while hungry as it makes me impatient and prone to making mistakes.  I also pre measure my spices and put them in a small container before hand, as I often panic when measuring under time pressure.  I've also started prepping meats and vegetables the night before if possible, so that my prep work and cooking isn't on the same day.  That way I'm not already annoyed and tired when the harder parts happen.

I also had to get over some fears, like touching things in a frying pan to check them for doneness, or being faster with a large knife, or causing a mess, or making small timing or measurement mistakes, or using unfamiliar ingredients, and I've still never seriously hurt my self or damaged anything, just little bangs and scrapes here and there.

Now I'm thinking about investing in a food processor to help with prep, and I've started listening to podcasts while doing dishes, so that now it doesn't feel so boring.  Learning over time how to plan ahead and use better tools and methods to make things you struggle with less of a problem really helps with the efficiency.

Like I said it all sounds complicated and difficult, and it can be, but if you do it enough and push your self a bit, it soon becomes almost second nature.

@9
We cook nothing but fresh vegetables, beans, pulses ETC. I have to say, comparing now to what things used to be like, and adding in my less-than-amazing sense of smell, it's much easier to tell when veg is going off. Plus, it shouldn't get a chance, 5 a day and all that.

@1
I'm so so so glad you're getting into cooking!! There's far too many people living off takeaways, and plastic foods in plastic packaging. When you get round to your scrambled egg, try a bit of orange zest and a tiny bit of horse radish sauce in it. I'm talking a half teaspoon of the sauce (it's hot if you're not used to it).

Also, let's not forget that stews, curries, chillies, shepherd's and cottage pies are all massively easy. We did a Scottish-style vegan mince and tatties last night, and it was far better than either of us expected it to be. Also just bought a vacuum-packed kilo block of white sesame seeds so we can make our own tahini. That, plus some chick peas from a can simmered in their own water for about half an hour makes the best humus ever. Oh yeah, a bit of lemon juice too.

Just enjoy what you're doing mate. Honestly, there's nothing quite like home cooking. Nothing says "I'm a pro in the know" like a fresh pot of something awesome cooking away in your kitchen.

And I'm 31, and still loving cooking: I think your idea of what fun cooking is just changes as you get older. It only really goes away if you have nobody to share the love with.

I agree, I'll definitely be saving some of this information. Thanks everybody. I'm relying on my college meal plan to feed me right now, which is fine, but at the same time now is a great opportunity for me to learn how to prepare some stuff without the risk of going too terribly hungry if I mess it up lol. These tips and advice are pretty great. Probably the most complicated thing I've ever cooked is eggs over medium... but I kinda cheated and used my air fryer, which for me was one heck of a lot easier than a skillet. I always tend to break the yolk or never get the timing right on flipping when I'm doing it on the stove. But all I had to do here was grease a bowl, crack an egg in there, season salt it, put it in the air fryer, and get it going at 325 or so. Depending on how I want it cooked, I leave it in there for 7 to 9 minutes, but I start checking at 7 to see if it's where I want it. Suits me fine for times when I don't want my dining hall's rubbery scrambled eggs haha.