My favorite cookbooks- Part 1

I must admit that I am a cookbook junkie. I love to look through them for new ideas, to salivate over the pictures, and to find some inspiration when I get in a culinary rut. However, of all the cookbooks I have (there must be more than 50), there are relatively few that I go back to again and again. Whether you are just setting up a household and want to know what to look for or you are an experienced cook just looking for something new to cook for your family, I can give you a few tips I go by.

The Joy of Cooking is a great first cookbook that includes the basics of cooking techniques, simple and more complex recipes. It is a cookbook that is appropriate for home cooks at almost any level and can grow as you become more and more experienced and more and more adventurous. The copy I got when my children were young (and there were fewer of them) was from our neighbors (and great friends) Pat and Kathy Micken who had an extra copy. When I got it, it had a light blue cloth cover that has since fallen off, but you can easily tell that there are great recipes inside just by looking at the pages. It violates one of my cardinal rules about not liking any cookbooks without pictures, but as you can see from this picture of my well-used copy, that has not been an obstacle!

The first cookbook I got as a gift was when I was first married was A Treasury of Great Recipes by Vincent and Mary Price (for you Generation X-ers, you will remember Vincent Price as the narrator of Michael Jackson's Thriller video!) It is a great cookbook and I often use recipes from it since it includes recipes from great restaurants in Vincent and his wife's travels around the world. It also has a lot of sentimental value since it was a gift from my in-laws.

One of the cookbooks that really encouraged me to play with food was a cookbook by a chef at a restaurant in New England that we visited many years ago when my sister-in-law's husband was stationed there. The restaurant was called The Blue Strawberry and the chef, James Haller, did not believe in conventional recipes, and encouraged you to cook by combining and experimenting flavors. We ate in his restaurant once (we were young marrieds with a baby and had to save every penny to pay for our dinner) and it was incredible. I checked on James Haller to prep for this post and while I could not tell if the Blue Strawberry Restaurant was still operating, I see that James Haller is a prostate cancer survivor and has written several more cookbooks including two that are geared toward helping seriously ill patients eat well (What to Eat When You Don't Feel Like Eating and What To Eat ) Looks to me like Chef Haller is still breaking new ground! To tell the truth, my copy of this cookbook was loaned to someone (if only I could remember who?) and I never got it back, but I am including it here because it imparted a fun philosophy of food to me that I have made a part of my everyday culinary life.

As I said, I don't normally use cookbooks without pictures, but the America's Best Recipes cookbooks are an exception, mainly because the recipes have all been tested and are the "best of the best" of the cookbooks from Junior Leagues and church groups around the country. I have never made a recipe from here that wasn't great. It is a great resource fow when you have to make something for a pot-luck. If I took a picture of the inside of these books you could see the spots and stuck pages that tell you they are well-used.

This is by no means my full collection, but I did want to give a picture of some of the cookbooks that I use everyday and that help me whenever I want to play with food. Let me know some of your favorites and I will be sharing more in future posts.

The Dowds Give Thanks

After all the shopping (about ten trips to about 5 stores), the preparing ( about 6 hours even before I put the turkey in the oven), the cleaning, and the planning, Thanksgiving is finally here. This is the time I really wish there was such a thing as smell-o-vision because then you could smell the roast turkey and stuffing that is permeating my entire house. I spoke in my last post about Thanksgiving menu so here is ours:

Roast Turkey (brined and cooked a la Alton Brown's Romancing the Bird)
Virginia Dowd's Sausage Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes (in all their carbohydrate laden glory) and Gravy
Traditional Green Bean Casserole
Sheila's Corn Pudding
No-Knead Light Rolls (from a very old copy of the Joy of Cooking)
Homemade (for me) and Canned(for my husband) cranberry sauce
Pumpkin Bourbon Pie (I use this recipe but add 1/2 tsp extra pumpkin pie spice, 3 tablespoons good bourbon, and my secret ingredient- a couple of shakes, to taste, of chipotle chili powder)
Pecan Pie
Libby's Pumpkin Roll

Virginia Dowd's Sausage Stuffing

This recipe was handed down from my mother-in-law, and is a treasured family recipe. So now I guess you are part of the family, too.

1 pound pork sausage
1 stick butter
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
2-4 tbsp chopped parsley
3-4 cups chicken stock (I take the turkey neck, gizzard,onion, celery and carrots and begin boiling stock for the stuffing and gravy, but you could use boxed or canned if you'd rather)
1 bag of herb seasoned stuffing
2 eggs, beaten
Poultry seasoning
Ground sage
Salt (start with 2 teaspoons and add till it tastes right)
Pepper to taste
Giblets from turkey (liver and heart) - If you don't like giblets don't use them but you miss an extra layer of flavor in your stuffing.
2 heels of white bread

Melt butter in pan and begin browning sausage, breaking up as you work. Add onions and celery and giblets and saute slowly until vegetables are translucent, giblets are browned and all pink is gone from sausage. Put stuffing mix in a large bowl. Pour sauteed veggies and meat in bowl with stuffing mix and stir together. Add two cups of stock and stir, then add beaten eggs. Add salt, pepper,and other seasonings. I start with a teaspoon each of poultry seasoning and sage (but I really love sage!). Add chopped parsley. Add more stock until stuffing is moist but not soggy. Adjust seasonings to taste (make sure to use a clean fork each time you (or anyone else) tastes). I stuff my stuffing into the bird and cover the large cavity with two white bread heels (Once the turkey is done, this "turkey bread" is a prized morsel in our house!) Follow Alton Brown's instructions for cooking the turkey - it works for me!

Sheila's Corn Pudding

This recipe is a slight revision of one of two fabulous recipes(I'll provide the other in a future post!) I got from Sheila who used to work with me at Jefferson Lab, a nuclear physics lab, with an international workforce. It was published in our Recipes of Jefferson Lab cookbook, and is now part of our Thanksgiving. It is so sweet, it could almost be a dessert and is great as a side with barbecued pork too.

1 can creamed corn
1 pint heavy cream
2 cups defrosted frozen corn or fresh corn kernels(I love lots of corn in mine)
4 large eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla
4 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 stick butter cut into pats
fresh or grated nutmeg

Grease a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. In a bowl mix creamed corn, beaten eggs, sugar, corn kernels, and vanilla. Dissolve cornstarch in heavy cream and mix into other ingredients. Grate fresh nutmeg on the top and put pats of butter on the top. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 45-60 minute until center is set and stir at least twice during baking for a smoother result.

It's all over now except the clean up (at least two dishwashers full!). The turkey stock is simmering on the stove, with that fabulous turkey smell spreading throughout the house. One by one the kids have left for the evening, and I have a minute to stop and take a long, deep breath (and get off my feet for the first time today!) I miss the noise, the back and forth banter at the dinner table, the funny (and in some cases, embarrassing) stories the kids exchanged at the evening table, the laughter, the love. And I am truly thankful.

Thanksgiving menu and other dilemmas

Each year there comes the time when each of us (those cooking, not those who are going to be guests of other cooks) has to buckle down and decide what to have for Thanksgiving dinner. What we decide has to do not only with what we remember as children but the memories we want to create for our family and friends. Shall we do the same things we remember form our childhood? Our grandmother's pumpkin pie? Our mother-in-law's stuffing? Green bean casserole? The sweet potatoes covered with toasted marshmallows? Or do we want to Martha Stewart-ize our holiday with honey-roasted chipotle-smoked turkey(not a real recipe), sweet potato souffle and fennel with sauteed cabbage. Not that I don't admire Martha Stewart. I give her props for building an empire after her divorce and giving new meaning to "Don't get mad, get even." She has great ideas and has encouraged a whole generation to gentility in entertaining. I often look to her books, magazine or shows for inspiration. My challenge (and yours) is to take our inspiration not only from culinary mavens like Martha, Julia Child, and the Barefoot Contessa, but to look to your own heritage and family history to build a menu that will arouse fond memories of the past and make new memories and establish traditions for the future.

There are some things that you family has to have for Thanksgiving - it might be the roast turkey, or the ham with pineapple rings and cloves, Aunt Edna's sweet potatoes or your Mom's apple pie. Our nation and families are changing. You could have a vegetarian at your Thanksgiving table. Your new son-in-law could be from Korea, or your daughter's friend from college could come from from Cuba, or Ethiopia, or Spain. You might have adopted children from Russia or Guatemala or China or have foster children from the black community. I think you get my point. Just as the first Thanksgiving was a melding of the Pilgrim's English culture and the Native Americans who were here, our own family Thanksgiving should model the heritage of our families, it members and the members of our extended families. Your menu is you family' s chance to celebrate all that is good about it, and to be thankful for the heritage and the food that you share at your Thanksgiving table. And isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about?

Note: The family pictured is not my own. How should you know? There is no music playing, or a football game on television. No one is arguing or sulking, or yelling. There is no dancing, or loud belches, or spilled anything in this picture. And would I have it any other way? Absolutely not.

The White House Eggnog

I woke up this morning and realized that it is Thanksgiving week. I started this blog to encourage people to make memories with food and then I drop out of my blog for 3 of the most critical days. I have been fighting a flu and so even thinking about food has not been high on my list (toast, Coke, crackers... not exactly culinary highlights) However, as I have said previously, any occasion at the Dowd house is cause for a party and so you can imagine the countdown to Thanksgiving is a veritable festival.

For us, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the holiday season and certain things must be done. First, the cornucopia must come out and be filled with gourds, little pumpkins and other fruits and vegetables. We started with a wicker one years ago but as it got a bit grody, we found a wire decorative one and so that is now the official cornucopia. It represents the plenty that comes with harvest time (even if now our harvest comes from the Kroger or Harris Teeter) and I highly recommend it to get into the Thanksgiving mood. If you don't have a cornucopia, you can just use a nice basket. Of course, the house needs to be cleaned... including the oven, in preparation for the orgy of cooking to come. Then there is the selection of the bird. We always have to go to at least two stores to find the best bird,and then determine where we can get the best buy on the best bird. My husband says its the closest he gets to being the hunter-gatherer therefore it is part of our tradition. The other thing we have to do each year is buy the cotton string to truss the bird. Each year we buy a new roll of cotton string, but the week before Thanksgiving we can never find it. It has found its way out to the garage, into a crabbing bucket, or God knows where, so off we go to the Ace Hardware to get a new ball of cotton string, and you know what? Next year we won't be able to find this one either!

The real kick-off to the holiday season that has to happen this week, and that I am now going to share with you is the making of the "White House" eggnog. I warned you that many of my recipes have their own story and to get the recipe you have to listen to the story, so here goes. For years and years, my only experience with eggnog came from a cardboard carton, and I was no fan. My sister in law had a party and served a homemade eggnog that she said was from the White House recipe (at the time she had connections that made this believable) and it was incredible. They should not even allow the stuff in the cartons to be called eggnog when compared to this concoction. She would not give away the recipe, but I worked with several recipes and techniques until I got the desired result. I guarantee you that this is absolutely the best eggnog ever, and if you make it for your Christmas party or open house, it will be a hit. Then you can send your friends to this blog to get the recipe themselves. I know it sounds complicated, but don't skip steps or take shortcuts or it won't turn out as well. Some things are worth the trouble. And the calories.

Dowd "White House" Eggnog

12 eggs, separated (I use pasteurized eggs so I don't have to worry about the dangers of raw eggs)

1 lb confectioner's sugar

2 cups bourbon (nothing from the cheap bottom shelf of the ABC store)

2 cups rum (See above tip)

1 quart heavy cream

1 quart half and half

Freshly grated nutmeg

Beat egg yolks until light in color and slowly beat in the confectioner's sugar. Very slowly, beat in one cup of bourbon and 1 cup of rum. Once liquors are incorporated, let this mixture to stand at least an hour before continuing. This will help get rid of the "eggy" taste.

Next beat in the remainder of the liquor and one quart of half and half, and then refrigerate for at least three hours.

Next beat the egg whites until stiff and beat the whipping cream to soft peaks (This will take longer with the pateurized eggs, but add 1/4 tsp cream of tarter and keep whipping-it will happen ). Fold egg whites into egg yolk-sugar and liquor mixture until incorporated fully, then fold in whipped cream thoroughly. Grate nutmeg over the top.

I store mine in large plastic pitchers with lids so that each time, you can shake up the eggnog to make sure everything is well incorporated. Makes about 1 gallon eggnog.

The foodies on Food Network

Food Network has made cooking fashionable even for men. It is like a lesson and entertainment in one and there is something for everyone. My husband, for whom cooking is more of a spectator sport loves to watch and often calls me to tell me what shows and recipes to look up (remind me to tell you why I would never make a recipe he gave me without looking it up.) The following is a collection of our favorite foodies and observations.

Alton Brown and Good Eats is my husbands absolute favorite. He is a nerdy guy who gives you the science behind cooking well, but you are as much entertained as educated. I sometimes get a bit frustrated because when I am looking for a good recipe, I just want to know the recipe not the why of how it works, but it is a very interesting show. His Romancing the Bird episode is great for making your Thanksgiving turkey. Everything he cooks is really good eats!

Rachael Ray is one of my favorites, although I am worried that she may be approaching over exposure ( fate that overcame FN's Emeril LaGasse). She is perky and her 30 Minute Meals is a blessing to working women everywhere. The premise of her show is that in the time you could go to KFC, you can make a real meal from scratch. I use her recipes all the time and they always turn out.

Fairly new to FN, this show is very good with great ideas, focused on easy foods that are great for casual entertaining. This is another one of my husband's favorites.

Crank up Sweet Home Alabama, pour yourself some sweet tea and you will be ready for Paula Deen. Watching her show is like getting a cooking lesson from your Grandma, only way more fun. Her manner and style are just great (she reminds me of my neighbor Renee, whom I love!) Her recipes are not for dieters, they focus on contemporary and traditional southern favorites. I hope I can grow to be half as comfortable in my skin as Paula Deen is in hers. You go girl!

Sandra Lee is growing on both my husband and me. She is like a working woman's Martha Stewart , without the prison record. Semi-Homemade shows you how to make a great occasion using shortcuts (mixes, etc.) that make it easier to do something fabulous given most of us don't have unlimited time and money. Her meals always feature a "tablescape" in keeping with her theme. A woman after my own heart, Sandra always includes a great cocktail with her menu.. and God knows in our busy world we can always use a great cocktail recipe.

Check out the "foodies" and find your own favorites!

How to pick beef (and I don't mean at a singles bar)

One of the hardest things to do for a beginning cook, especially on a budget, is selecting meat. It is no fun to spend a lot of time planning and making a meal only to have the meat be tough or stringy or chewy. This is your chance to benefit from my years of experience in buying meat, what cuts are good for what dishes and how to save money on meat at the supermarket.

Ground Beef - There are several cuts of beef that are affordable but delicious. Of course one of the most versatile cuts of beef is ground beef. It can form the basis for a great chili or lasagna, a family meatloaf, Sloppy Joes, tacos or make a great hamburger. Usually you will see ground beef, ground chuck or ground round. Ground chuck is good for most recipes that call for ground beef and if you get 80/20 (80% lean to 20% fat) you will have a burger that is moist but not greasy. Here is my recipe for a great hamburger:

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch Burgers
Mix 1 tbsp of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (dry) into each pound of hamburger.
Make into patties , season with pepper and grill or broil.
Serve with mayonnaise mixed crumbled blue cheese. Great either on or without a bun.

Steaks - Steaks are a very popular meal whether it is a ribeye for a backyard barbecue or a filet mignon for a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Filet mignon or beef tenderloin is the most tender and most expensive cut. I normally buy a whole tenderloin when my local Harris Teeter has it on sale (last time it was featured it was $8.88/lb). Rib eye and New York strip steaks are both very good for grilling or broiling, but can be expensive if you are feeding a crowd. If you are on a budget, a good steak to broil that can feed several people and has a great flavor is a flank steak. When I buy mine at Costco, I take them out of the package, sprinkle both sides with unflavored meat tenderizer, and put in Ziploc freezer bags to freeze for when I need them. That way while they are defrosting the tenderizer has a chance to work.

Easy Workday Flank Steak

1 defrosted pre-tenderized flank steak
Seasoning mix (You can use Montreal steak; Six Pepper Blend, Garlic Pepper blend, or any other blend you like)
1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

Put the steak on a broiler pan. Sprinkle with seasoning mix and drizzle with olive oil
Broil 2-3 inches from top of oven, watching closely. After top is brown and sizzling(5-10 minutes), flip over, season and oil other side, and broil till this side is lightly brown. Remove from oven and put on cutting board or platter and let rest for 10 minutes. Slice thinly across the grain. Serve with Blue cheese mayonnaise (above) or guacamole.

Roasts

Beef roasts are great whether you are looking for an elegant family meal or a casual dinner that can serve a crowd. For a special meal, a rib roast or tenderloin cannot be beat, but for most of us, it is not an every day dish. You often see eye of round roasts that are inexpensive, but they are really not ideal for roasting since they do not have much fat and can turn out dry and tough. Chuck or pot roast can be very good especially cooked in a crockpot. This is one of my favorite ways to fix pot roast in the crockpot.

Smothered Pot Roast

1 large onion, cut in chunks
1 3-4 lb chuck roast
1 can Contadina tomato paste (I like the one with roasted garlic)
2 beef boullion cubes
2 cups hearty red wine

Place onions on the bottom of crockpot. Sprinkle meat tenderizer on both sides of meat and lay on onions in pot. Spread tomato paste on meat. Dissolve cubes in wine and pour over meat. Cover and cook in crockpot on low for 8-9 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes, buttered noodles, or rice. Serves 4-6

Hopefully this post will help you answer when someone asks ,"Where's the beef?"

265,800 served

Many people have encouraged me over the years to write a cookbook, but in exploring the incredible food blogs out there like Obsession with Food, Amateur Gourmet, and Kitchen Chick, I was beginning to wonder "What am I doing here, writing my own food blog?". That is, until I started to calculate how many people I have cooked for. Discounting all the cooking I did before I left home (which believe me, was all very experimental!), I calculated that over the last 30 years I have served at least 265,800 people meals! Some chefs of small bistros and exclusive restaurants have probably not cooked as much. I have made croissants from scratch (never again, my kitchen looked like a cocaine dealer's, with white powder (flour) covering almost every surface), cooked meals of bison, goat and duckling, have cooked (and eaten) sweetbreads, and know how to cook fish that even non-fish-eaters will devour. I make eggrolls and steamed dumplings from scratch, and can cook (if you can call it that) sashimi. I can make French onion soup, South African Bobotie, Buss-up-shut (a flat bread) from Trinidad, great American hamburgers and the best damn eggnog you've ever tasted.

Maybe even more important than these accomplishments is that I have raised 6 children, one of whom himself has become a chef, who have a healthy and adventurous attitude toward food. All of them enjoy cooking and I count them among my first "play with food" converts. I have cooked countless meals of comfort food from meat loaf to macaroni and cheese that attracted not only my own kids but their friends, their coworkers, my coworkers, and countless neighbors and friends.

I know what I do well. I create a warm and welcoming atmosphere in my home, with food as a central player.
I use food as a celebration, as a way to share time and company with those close to my family. Actually, our friends have often said that we Dowds could make a party out of anything, and actually, I am proud of that.
Unlike most high-profile chefs, I have experience feeding a family of 8 on $50 a week (thank God those days are over!), can stretch a ham or a roast for 3 meals without making my children groan,and I can cook to suit a diabetic, someone on the Atkins diet, or a fussy toddler. Two hundred sixty five thousand eight hundred down and I'm looking forward to my next three or four hundred thousand.

I also know what I am not good at. My mom is a great pie crust maker, but unfortunately I didn't inherit that talent, so I give in to refrigerated dough. My Grandmother McKinney was an incredible bread baker, but my talents there are limited as well. I am a professional chef who just doesn't get paid with money. I get paid in smiles, and hugs, in handshakes, laughter and fellowship, and sometimes even compliments. Hmm...now that I think of it, maybe some of those other food bloggers should be worried.

Fricken' chicken

I had thought I would bring you along slowly, building up a basis for playing with food before I started including recipes, but I was inspired because tonight I had to make Fricken' Chicken for my husband, and I thought what better way to illustrate how food becomes part of our family life (maybe too much!)

This recipe definitely had a nicer name when we saw it on a Food Network special before the Super Bowl. It is like a boneless buffalo wing only, if you can believe it, more habit-forming. I made it for my family and then
the nightmare began. For about the next 6 weeks every time I asked my husband what he wanted for dinner, he would say, "How about that buffalo chicken recipe?" (I then stopped asking!) After about the fifth (or fiftieth) time, I finally had had enough and answered, " I am not making that fricken' chicken again!" Thus the name. I am giving you a recipe that should feed 3 people, but I am telling you, you should be prepared to double or triple this recipe... And I apologize up front because I know a similar moment is coming for you!

Fricken' Chicken

5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1-2 inch chunks (I use these because they are cheaper and more flavorful, but you could use breasts)
~2/3 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 tsp paprika
2 cups canola oil

1/2 stick of butter
1 cup hot sauce (I use Texas Pete, but you can use whichever is your favorite)

Pour oil into saucepan or deep fry pan and heat till a bread cube sizzles with bubbles around. Mix flour with salt, herbs and spices, and put in a quart size ziploc bag and shake to mix. In batches, shake the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour and set on a plate (I use paper) until they are all done. In batches, fry the chicken pieces
until golden brown turning in the oil as necessary. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Meanwhile, melt the butter in the microwave and stir in hot sauce. Add the drained chicken pieces to the sauce. Set down on the table and get out of the way!!

I serve this with a simple wedge of iceberg lettuce with finely chopped tomato, blue cheese dressing and crumbled bacon. It is a nice alternative to the usual celery sticks.

A shopping list saves time and money!

Shopping. It is a necessary part of playing with food, but is often the first stumbling block for aspiring cooks, whether they are just starting out or have been cooking for years. Shopping for food takes money and time - something many of us have way too little of. I can share some tips that might help make shopping for food less of a chore.

My first bit of advice is to sit down each week and decide what you want to cook for your main meals. I know this sounds like a drag, but it saves stress and money. First, take stock of what you have in your fridge and freezer that you should use in the coming week. Look in your pantry to see what staples you might be running low on. This will help shape what you make in the coming week and identify what you need on your shopping list. Believe me, this will save time and money later. Now for the fun part. I usually sit down with cooking magazines, my favorite cookbooks, and my computer and decide roughly what I want for dinner for the next week. When I say roughly, I mean I decide on whether I am having flank steak, chicken thighs, ground beef, fish fillets, whatever I have in my freezer or intend to get. I don't usually make something new every night -that takes exploring with food and makes it more of a chore. Since I work a full time job and have six children (only 3 are still home), it is nice to come home and make some of the old standards, but try to set aside at least one night a week when you try something new.
It keeps you from getting into a rut (Monday-hamburgers, Tuesday-chicken pot pie, Wednesday-Vegetable soup....).

I know this seems like a pain to do all this work before shopping but remember we are saving time and money in the week ahead. There is nothing worse for someone who has worked all day than to come home and have to decide, "What's for dinner?" If your family is anything like mine-in this situation they only know what they don't want, which is whatever I suggest. It takes time when you would really rather decompress at the end of the day. Then once you decide on something, do you have everything you need. An even worse, you will have to get back in your car and go get something...now it's 7 o'clock before you even get started with dinner! That is what having a menu and a shopping list does for you. It removes some of that stress. And if you get home and decide you don't want the chili that you planned for this evening, you have a week's worth of meals to choose from... and if you used your shopping list, you already have all the ingredients!

Since you are obviously computer-savvy, there are lots of computer programs that help with meal planning and then generate a shopping list for you. MasterCook, http://www.valusoft.com/products/mastercook.html is one that I have used that has its own electronic cookbook, allows you to save your own recipes, allows you to change the proportions of your recipes to suit your family size and generates a shopping list from your menus. There are also a number of grocery stores that provide a shopping list option. Harris Teeter http://www.harristeeter.com/ and Kroger http://www.kroger.com/homepage/index.htm, also allow you to create a shopping list.

So take inventory, grab your cookbooks and make a list. A little time spent now will definitely save time and stress during your work week.

A mom encouraging you to play with food!

I am starting this blog because I see that, in general, people are afraid of food. Food is seen as bad- it makes you fat, it has carcinogens, it makes you break out, it clogs your arteries, it gives you gas. Good food is expensive, it is hard to cook, cooking causes anxiety, recipes are rigid, it takes too much time... All of these things are just not true!

This blog is dedicated to encouraging the young, the old, the experienced cook and the novice, even those who rely on Pizza Hut and Hamburger Helper to make it through the week to get out of their comfort zone. Don't be afraid. Stretch your culinary muscles, even if you don't think you have any. Playing with food is fun and it should be fun for not only those who eat it but those who cook it.

Don't believe me? Close your eyes. Think back. So many of your best memories are associated with food. The smell of a Thanksgiving turkey, your first candy apple, the taste of a bowl of chili on a winter evening. For me, it is the memory of my grandmother's applesauce cake baking in big heavy cast-iron bundt pans. Food is a way to make memories, to bond with friends or people you want to be friends with. As a nation we have gotten away from the family table and the fun that it brings. Cooking a meal is a chore, not an adventure. It's time for a change, and that is what I hope to do.

I will start by pointing to two of the most useful places for anyone who wants to explore food, Epicurious at http://www.epicurious.com/ , and Food Network at http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Epicurious has an incredible searchable recipe file that you can search by name, by ingredient, or other keywords. Recipes there are rated by forks with 1 the lowest and 4 the highest. But the best thing for cooks that want to have fun with food is that there is a place at the end of each recipe for comments. You can hear from people who have made the dish if it is good, if it is difficult and time-consuming, and even what substitutions can be made. I use this site all the time. Can't think of another thing to do with chicken? Search by ingredient and you will get a wealth of ideas to choose from. It is a great resource for novice or experienced cooks. Food Network also has a recipe index searchable by the cooking show, or by title or ingredient. These recipes are also rated, but there are no comments and reviews.
Check them out and you will take the first step to really having fun with food.