I consider myself a decent, but not spectacular, "home cook". Thus, I am sometimes quite surprised when people around me are so amazed that I actually "cooked" the savory smelling left-over’s in my lunch, or the highly popular offering on the pot-luck table. Many will say with various degrees of pride or shame: "I don’t cook".
In further discussion I sometimes learn what that means.
I don’t cook at all – I eat 99% of my meals out, and the rest is a bowl of cold cereal at home
I don’t exactly "cook" – I zap things in the microwave or put packaged foil pans in the oven
I cook a little bit – I boil some pasta and pour a bottle of sauce on it, or grill some beef patties and bake a potato.
For some of the people that "don’t cook" there is no interest in ever doing so. Food is something that is a daily requirement like flossing teeth. That’s perfectly OK – there are things I feel the same way about.
For too many, though, the reason they "don’t cook" is they think they "don’t know how". This diary is for them.
There are a lot of serious "foodies" on this site. Amazing recipes. Esoteric ethnic cuisines. Not so easy-peasy perfect pie crusts or breads. That can be intimidating. I will be sharing some approaches, and sources of information, that I have found helpful in reaching the level of a "decent, but not spectacular", home cook. I hope the more expert practitioners will chime in with their own tips and suggestions. More so, I hope the less confident will feel very free to express their questions.
Recipes
For people who "don’t cook", the recipe seems to actually be one of the most intimidating and off-putting elements of the whole process. People seem to be afraid to do it "wrong". Quit imagining your mother-in-law (or HS home-ec teacher) standing over your shoulder judging the absolute accuracy of every move you make. Relax – think of some recipes as "suggestions" or "guidelines".
A basic cook shouldn’t mess with recipes for baked goods – cookies, cakes, breads. There is a particular chemistry involved in these that isn’t at all forgiving (although I’ll be sharing an easy, fun and flexible cookie recipe later). On the other hand, other dishes such as meat loaf, or stew, or spaghetti sauce or salads (just to name a few) are absolutely wide-open play-grounds of experimentation.
There are really only two rules to follow:
The first time you make a recipe try to stay very close to the actual ingredients and methods. This will give you a better idea of what you might want to change next time. Maybe it is too salty or not spicy enough for you. Maybe the recipe, as written, has too many onions for your taste; or not enough sauce, or maybe next time you’d like to replace the mushrooms your kids hate with some zucchini.
Don’t try a new recipe – or mess with a recipe you have tested – when you are serving others; whether a dinner party at home or a pot-luck at church. Experiments are great, but you (and your long-suffering family) need to be the guinea pigs.
Here is an example of a very simple recipe you can "play" with.
(by the way, a "teaspoon" measure is most often indicated with a lower case t (tsp), while a "tablespoon" is noted with and upper case T (Tbsp)
Tabouli
½ cup of bulgur wheat
¾ cup of boiling water
½ tsp salt
2 tsp oil
1 ½ Tbsp lemon juice
½ cup minced parsley
2 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
Soak the bulgur wheat in the boiling water for 30 minutes.
Add the parsley and diced tomatoes
Mix the salt, olive oil and lemon juice and then mix with the wheat and veggies. Add pepper to taste and combine it all.
(Maybe next time you’d want to throw in some fresh mint or chopped cucumber with the seds removed? Some would like to have a lot more parsley.)
Mexican Corn Salad
Replace the bulgur wheat and water with a 15 oz. can of corn
Replace the salt, oil and lemon juice with 2 Tbsp of bottled dressing - Catalina or your favorite vinaigrette
Replace the parsley with chopped fresh cilantro
Keep the tomatoes
(Maybe next time you will want to play with some peppers?)
Asian Rice Salad
Replace the wheat and water with 1 ½ cups of cooked rice
Replace the salt, oil, and lemon juice with 2 Tbsp of a bottled Asian sesame/soy dressing
Replace the parsley with ¼ cup (or 2 Tbsp) chopped green onions
Replace the tomatoes with ½ cup chopped snow peas
(hmmm. Would some chopped fresh broccoli go good in here?)
My chosen web-site for recipes is Recipezaar.There are many other recipe sites out there, and I encourage commenters to add their recommendations.
There are a number of things I like about the ‘zaar.
One is its organization and search systems. You can build a search on all kinds of criteria. Here are
five recipes using search selections of "simple" "main dishes" for "beginner cooks" using "pears". (one of them might give me a good idea about what to do with that pear in the fridge that is past its prime). Other kinds of search categories are for cuisine (Mexican, Indian, Portuguese, and many, many more); special diets; and preparation equipment (out-door grill, oven, crock pot).
Like other such sites, Recipezaar allows users to rate and comment on recipes.
There are forums for discussions about kitchen gadgets, requests for help (why did my cake fall? What can I serve my vegan mother in law who is coming to visit?) and even some topic threads that have nothing to do with cooking. Just like DKos it is a little community, where people care about each other in many ways other than the official site "purpose".
You can register for free, but I find the annual $24.95 membership well worth it. If nothing else, it blocks the pop-up ads. But it also allows me to "bookmark" my recipes and organize them into my own defined "cook books". I have several books – one for recipes I might want to try sometime, one for those I use often and trust, and a recent one with dishes good for diabetics that I used for my Dad. While I don’t use these tools, paid members can also save and organize menus, and build shopping lists of the needed ingredients.
I did promise a cookie recipe that is safe to play with. It is for Pudding Cookies, where you can use instant pudding mix in any flavor – chocolate, lemon, butterscotch. You can also add chips or nuts. This one has only four ingredients:
1 cup Bisquick type baking mix
1 3 ½ ounce package instant pudding
1 large egg
¼ cup oil
Mix all the ingredients, roll into balls, and put on a cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes (until cookies are just browning on the edges)
I don’t care for the taste of Bisquick, so the recipe I keep in my ‘zaar cookbook is a little different, using flour and baking powder; as well as a cup of sugar for a sweeter, less oily cookie.
There are other ways you can "play" in the kitchen; with substitutions, measurement equivalence, and especially spices and seasonings. However, that started looking like a whole other diary. So ek hornbeck graciously agreed to let me post a Part II tomorrow. See you then, I hope!