If you’re making a lot of your own dishes instead of eating out at restaurants and fast food places, you’re on the right track to a healthier life. However, it also takes time to prepare good meals and you’ll want to be sure that you’re using the best ingredients and making things that everyone can enjoy. Otherwise, a lot of the good food you make could end up going to waste. No one wants that to happen, but it can be hard to avoid if the people you’re cooking for don’t share your love of specific recipes.

Many people also shy away from cooking with alcohol, because they’re worried about making friends and family members drunk. In reality, that’s not likely to happen. The alcohol usually cooks away, leaving only the flavoring behind. Just make sure you don’t sample the alcohol too much and then run out to get more ingredients, or you could end up with a Tennessee DUI. That would spoil your dinner party of other gathering quite quickly, and it’s something you’ll want to avoid. The long-term ramifications of it can go much further than a ruined dinner.

As for actually using alcohol in recipes, a lot of them call for cooking sherry. Others call for wine, and you can’t forget beer-battered fish. Many people marinate their burgers in beer before they grill them, too, so there’s certainly a place for alcohol to be used in the kitchen. Just use it sparingly, cook things thoroughly so just the flavor of the alcohol remains, and don’t take too many samples from the bottle while you’re cooking. Following those simple rules should let you try a lot of different recipes that you and your family can enjoy when you sit down to dinner together and talk about your day.