Cooking - Valley Cottage,NY

This is a really broad question, so it's hard to answer. I would suggest you get a cookbook from the library and flip through it to get some ideas. (You can do it online too, but I find having something to sit down with and hold helps me, plus it's easier in the kitchen unless you want to print out a recipe.) Once a week try a new recipe with your family. Different kinds of meals are good for different lifestyles, too. I make a lot of one dish things I can throw in the oven on week nights, but we like more elaborate meals on the weekend.

I think Rachel Ray's cookbooks are good starters, I have 365 no repeats. Her recipes are all 30-minutes or less (but when you are first starting it will take you longer) and the ingredients aren't hard to find or exotic. I like that she will often take a technique and do 3-4 different things with it. Like mac n cheese, just change up the veggies you add and the kind of cheese you use and you have a new dish, but you didn't need to learn anything new. You can also check our some of her recipes on foodnetwork.com Just for starters here are a few of her recipes that are staples in our house:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/mexican-me...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/macaroni-a...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bbq-chicke... (I skip the slaw)

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bolognese-...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/butternut-...

1 mom found this helpful

the best thing to do it get on allrecipes.com and start out with simple recipes to build your confidence. get a crock pot....those make things a lot simpler.

1 mom found this helpful

I stink, too! Lol There is a great cookbook called "Saving Dinner" by Leanne Ely. Not only does she provide easy, diverse recipes, the author also provides your weekly grocery list! Good luck.

Hiya B.,
Same boat as you - looking forward to your answers.
One thing is: 'dropped eggs on toast'. Aka, poached eggs.

boil water in a pan or fry pan. when it is boiling, reduce it so it is just bubbling (not rolling boil).

crack your eggs in, careful of shells (of course!)

let them cook approxmiately 4 minutes (for soft or runny yolks), or a little longer for more firm ones.

you need a slotted spoon to scoop them out (or you can use a solid spoon, just put them in a bowl so you can strain off excess water.)

I enjoy them with a little salt and melted butter.

you can add: hollandaise sauce (I use packets according to directions, but simply organic has the best tasting stuff around. better than knorr's).

top it on bacon and it is amazing.

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how do you do your beans? I'd really like to know, because in a can they are soft and yummy and mine are more crunchy. yummy too but want that smooth texture of no crunch sometimes!

simple! best stir fry of all has 2 ingredients:

peppers & tomatoes. Clean your peppers. Just wash the outside of your tomatoes. slice them up. put them in frypan on low. They will smell amazing after a few minutes. My sons eat them before they hit the plate!

You can top them on crackers or anything. They make a good dip, make a good side dish, we've had them as main dish, too. The key I think is not seeding or taking out liquid from tomato.

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crock chicken:

wash your chicken (or do whatever you're comfortable with). I use organic chicken - it tastes WAY better than anything else.

fill crock 1/2 way with water. Put it on low (unless you have a really slow, slow cooker, then put it on high.) if you have a 1/2 day, or put it on high until it boils then put it on low for an hour.

Use everything! The skin is full of vitamins too. use broth for cooking (I freeze in 1cup increments but you can freeze it for a single soup recipe too!)

the meat will fall off bone - I put it on top of things like the stir fry above.

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spanish rice

soak your rice and beans 3 days, rinsing daily just once.

this will give you more nutrition in your dish!

hugs, the baby is up,
M.

Get a crock pot if you don't have one. In my opinion it is a lifesaver for bad cooks and also for good cooks who are busy - like all of us are!

I have dinner going in mine right now - it is a pot roast. SOOO easy - 3 lb hunk of beef shoulder salted and peppered. Can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 1/2 cups of beef broth. chopped onions, carrots and celery (not fine chop, just a quick cut). Crockpot on high for 4 hrs or low for 8 hrs. If the juice is too thin, add a little flour and put it in a pot to make gravy. You can add potatoes if you like for a side starch or serve with rice or whatever. I'll be serving mine with couscous. YUM!

You can make alot of dishes in the slow cooker. Good luck!!!

try turkey veal pork meatloaf recipes , whole chicken in oven better yet buy a crock pot look up recipes on line all you do is throw in ingredints and forget about it for 4 to 5 hrs , or a bbq grill

Hi B.
I was the same way when I first had kids. My mom and sister can cook anything. I started getting cook books, only the ones with pictures!! I would find something that looked good, made sure the ingredients were relatively easy and followed it. I can say now 20 something years later. I CAN COOK! I can walk into the kitchen and see what we have and throw something together that tastes good!
Make it simple, make it fast and MAKE IT GOOD! If a recipe takes longer than 30 minutes, I won't do it. I like start to finish 30 minutes. Unless of course it's a roast but the time I took to get it going was under 10 minutes.
Easy peesy recipes that we LOVE and the kids LOVE:
French Bread Pizza - Loaf of bread, pizza sauce, lunch meats and cheeses.
Taco Tuesday - Taco meat - can use turkey, all the sides - beans, lettuce cilantro, cheese, taco shells or tostadas(the flat ones)
Tortilla Wraps - any left over meat, lettuce, cheese, large tortillas
Chicken W/tomatoes - cut up Chicken pieces I use thighs, large can diced tomatoes, 1 onion, 1 clove garlic, 1 TB dried basil spice. Place chicken in a large pan (like a cake pan) sprayed with pam, cover chicken with cut up onion and garlic and can of tomatoes, sprinkle basil spice and Salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Serve over egg noodles. Add a veggie as a side.
Hamburger Helper - My version - Hamburger meat, can use turkey, 1 box of macaroni. Cook meat adding 1 TB of onion and garlic poweder. Salt and Pepper to taste. In a seperate pan cook macaroni- prepare as on the package, then mix with cooked meat. Add a veggie as a side.
Good Luck
D.

Hey B. I will post my mac n cheese recipe on tomorrow. I have to dig it out.

okay, it's time to step out of your box & just do it!

Honestly & seriously....that is what cooking is all about. A true cook can just grab a few ingredients, throw it all together, & end up with something edible. It does not take a rocket scientist to do this. Nor does it take proper instruction either.

I am not belittling you. I am not making fun of you. Cooking is truly that simple. The key lies in believing in yourself, & your presentation of yourself thru your own method of cooking.

The simplest way to begin is to pick your meat.....then your "flavor of the day" - whether you want Italian, American, etc....& then really think about what works with that. For example, since you know how to make stewed chicken & rice.....then you can take that same stewed chicken (with just salt/pepper/onion/garlic) + chicken broth + noodles, rice, or dumplings.....& you have another round of meals! It can be chicken risotto (rice) with cooked vegies.....it can be chicken noodle soup with some cooked vegies in it....or it can be chicken & dumplings. One cooked chicken can = a huge variety of meals based on different ethnicities! You can even throw that stewed chicken into some BBQ sauce & serve it on buns!

Looking over the other dishes you say you can cook....I'm not sure what the cutlets are....?chicken?beef. If they're Spanish-flavored, then cut the spice & add some other spices. For example, with beef you can add Italian seasonings or caraway. For chicken, you can add Italian or even lemon pepper &/or rosemary. A lot of the dishes you already cook can be altered thru spice....or change the chicken to shrimp! Lots of options :).

Another example would be your Spanish spaghetti....not sure what it is. BUT just omit the spices....add Italian spices, some canned diced Italian tomatoes, some Parmesan cheese....& either some ground beef, chicken chunks, or even ground turkey = Italian or americanized spaghetti. If you switch out the spaghetti noodles & use any other type of noodle....you've instantly changed your dish. Throw a little cottage cheese into the red sauced noodles, top it with shredded mozzarella, & you have fake lasagna!

Cooking is truly that easy. 90% of my meals are freshly-prepared, but I do have a few prepackaged items which I enjoy: Zatarains Dirty Rice, Red Beans & Rice, & pretty much anything else in their line. I use canned Italian tomatoes, Velveeta (which I hate, but my family loves), & a lot of fresh & frozen vegies. Once a month, we make a 45min drive (we live in a small town) to a butcher shop we love. The meat is wonderfully fresh & is worth the drive. I do have to supplement with local store meat occasionally.

I love to cook, both of my parents taught me as a child. My trademark is that I rarely follow a recipe! My family jokes that I never make a dish the same twice in a row....& that is true. Sometimes it's a curse, but usually it's a blessing..... Please, please feel free to contact me personally. I love sharing recipes!

Does he like soul food? I can tell you how to make soulfood. And even ethnic soulfood like good cajun and carribean. Gumbo, jamballaya, red beans and rice, jerk chicken. I don't cook Mexican food, but tons of tex-mex. I can tell 1,000 ways to cook raw chicken. Message me if you want to know how to do any of that. Also, there are a lot of websites that you can go to

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections...

try googling 5 ingrediant recipies or if you think of something you like at a restraunt, google that dish. For instance type in simple fettucine alfredo. You will get a great easy recipe.

The way to learn to cook is to look in cookbooks (or online now!) and just make new things. Try making one new dinner a week - whatever sounds yummy to you. Follow the directions and you will be fine! I remember when I did not know how to cook hardly anything and someone gave me the Moosewood cookbook and I looked up a recipe for a quiche and made it. I was so proud of that! Trying to cook new exotic foods kind of became my hobby and the more different foods I made the more I learned. I just followed the recipes. Now everyone says I am a great cook and I can just make stuff up a lot of the time bc I usually can figure out what ingredients will taste good together. You can also get great ideas from magazines like Better Homes and Gardens and Sunset. Our local library has every single magazine it seems so I just love checking them out sometimes.

Get a cook book that explains cooking. A pinch is what you get when you put your thumb and index finger in a spice and bring your thumb and index fingers together in a pinch. That's why its called a "pinch".

Allrecipes.com is an excellent website.

Most families have 6 or 7 recipes thay cook over and over again, so you are in the ball park. If you want to try some things others are using, go to estate sales and look through their cook books. The ones with dirty or smudged pages are the ones that family liked. Buy the cook book and when you get home, tear or cut out those pages and throw the rest of the cook book away.

Good luck to you and yours.

McCormick makes spice packets that have all the spices you need (except maybe some salt or pepper) and lists all the ingredients and directions. They are typically easy to make and good. Several are chicken recipes and at least two can be construed as "ethnic".

You can do things like chili with a variety of meats and adjust to your family's tastes. Let them add sour cream or cheese. Jiff cornbread mix is usually fast, good, and easy. If some don't like beans, warm them on the side.

It's harder to find these days, but if you can get your hands on a San Giorgio manacotti recipe, that's a good, filling dish. Barilla still makes the shells.

Also go to allrecipes.com for dinner ideas.

Also, for those picky eaters - get them involved. Make dinners a family thing vs just one person trying to please the masses. The girls might enjoy making their own pizzas if you buy the ingredients, for example.

what's really helped me be a better cook is to get everything ready before I start cooking. I have everything measured, chopped, or whatever and sitting on the counter waiting to go in at the right time. I also highlight important steps in the recipe so i dont just skip them if i get rushed. i also use a timer. I started with simple recipes and now am quite confident even with intermediate recipes. i like allrecipes.com and epicurious.com good luck!