As I continue my journey of self discovery through cooking, I uncovered something interesting about myself.

I need to learn how to chill out.

As a goal-oriented person, I like to challenge myself. My decision to make two relatively complicated dishes on the same day — and for the first time — with only about four hours of cooking time, turned a fun afternoon into my own stressful episode of “Chopped.”

Earlier in the week, I decided to make a kale salad, baked ziti and tiramisu from scratch for my family. As a novice chef, I didn’t even know what ziti pasta looked like.

The baked ziti and kale salad went off without a hitch, but I struggled with the tiramisu. With time running out, I accidently broke an egg yoke in the egg whites I had been separating. I was starting to stress out because I had promised my family tiramisu and I was running out of time. In the midst of all the chaos in the kitchen, I lost perspective.

Tiramisu

I stepped back and regrouped. After a few minutes, I opted to make the tiramisu the following day.

The next day, while eating a generous portion of tiramisu with my lovely wife, I made a vow to stay focused and appreciate the opportunity to cook.

Each meal may not turn out perfect, and there will be a few disastrous dishes along the way, but the challenge to be a chef keeps the journey interesting.

After submitting my proposed menu for tonight’s dinner, my family wanted to make two small changes.

The first request was to use a different baked ziti recipe. The new recipe from the Food Channel sounds like it will taste better and is easier to make. I let the opportunity to learn how to grill vegetables get in the way of a better baked ziti recipe.

The second change is a slight alteration of Giada De Laurentiis’ tiramisu recipe. My wife’s tried-and-true recipe switches out two teaspoons of rum in Giada’s recipe for 1/4 cup amaretto liquor.

Let the cooking begin.

Before I get started, I have to confess that I am not a cook. I am food warmer with expertise in microwaving frozen food.

The thought of being a culinarian is a little overwhelming, so as a journalist, I wanted to share my journey to become a chef with friends, family and anyone else who may want to join the conversation.

The goal is to create a dialogue you might have while preparing food for dinner with friends, so please add your thoughts and comments. Most of the talk will be about food and a little about everything else.

I should also mention that other than eating fish, I am a vegetarian. I know there are a lot of interesting meat sauces and lamb dishes out there, but I will keep my kitchen in the kill-free zone.

I have already started immersing myself in TV cooking shows, cookbooks and online cooking classes. I also signed up for a knife skills class at a local cooking school.

Now all I have to do is learn how to cook.