When I have the extra time, I really enjoy cooking. No, I don’t mean whipping up a box of macaroni and cheese and thawing out a veggie burger (although that is very yummy!); I mean truly creating a meal from the ground up. This winter, my favorites have been soups, finally nailing a good veggie “meatloaf” recipe, Eggplant Parmesan and various sides with cooked, fresh vegetables.

I’ve even become one of those people that has trouble sharing or recreating a recipe due to acquiring the skill to simply throw things together in a pot or bowl and having the dish turn out fabulously. I didn’t secretly sneak in classes with one of Food Network’s Iron Chefs, but I have learned to heavily lean on one fail-safe trick. It’s actually a HUGE tenet of Hell’s Kitchen’s Chef Gordon Ramsay. What is this big recipe-changing secret?

Taste what you’re cooking.

Yep, it’s that simple! Think about it; when things go wrong with a dish on Hell’s Kitchen, other than a slew of expletives, what is one of the first things Chef Ramsay shouts out to the various chefs? “TASTE IT!!!” The dish is usually either totally inedible or missing some vital ingredient, both of which could have been discovered and remedied by simply tasting the dish. Instead that person usually ends up kicked out of the kitchen and eventually off the show. You can get away without tasting when making boxed mashed potatoes or some other prepackaged food, but when you’re creating a dish from scratch, how can you possibly know it’s been seasoned properly or has been cooked just right without tasting it? Simply put, you can’t. You have to monitor the taste of the dish to make sure it’s just so when you finally serve it.

The same thing goes for social media. (See what I did there?) Social media is just that,social. You can’t post a blog or something on Twitter and just walk away; it’s about interacting and becoming involved in the discussion. Are people commenting on your content, sharing your content, is it even getting any views? If the answers to these questions aren’t familiar to you, what are you doing with your social media content, and even more importantly, why are you doing it? In this day and age, social media provides a direct line to your publics and clients that’s never been available before. Grab this opportunity by the horns and become involved in the discussion, rather than halfway trying it and getting kicked out of the kitchen.