Cookbooks

One of the best investments ANYONE can make is a good basic classic cookbook. The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, Betty Crocker Cookbook, Martha Stewart Classics, The Joy of Cooking, basically any good cookbook by a reputable source with a great test kitchen.

Making basics at home rather than falling back on store-bought pre-made versions cuts tons of preservatives out of your diet and gives you control over the amount of sugar, salt and fats and oils in your food.

You want a good source for basic cooking information and well-tested recipes for classic dishes. Classic cookbooks will not only have a plethora of great recipes, but it will also have great advice and cooking tips, as well as conversion and substitution charts. These books are often written for a wide audience, so recipe difficulty varies from beginner to pro.

You'll find recipes for everything from Thanksgiving dinner to simple snacks to imbibeables. And these recipes are a great starting point if you like to experiment in the kitchen. You can't make a creative new pizza combo if you don't have a good crust.

As easy as it is to find recipes online, it's best to have at least one good source of cooking information. Many online recipes haven't been run through the rigors of a professional test kitchen that The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook recipes have been. Just because something worked in soccermom1963's kitchen and she posted it online, it doesn't mean that she can write the recipe in a clear and concise way that professional chefs and recipe authors do. She might have skipped an important step when publishing her recipe.

When you're setting up your kitchen, take a swing by your local book store and pick up a copy of a great basic classic cookbook, you won't be sorry.

Cooking for One

It sounds so sad, cooking for one. But, it's a lot less sad than McDonald's for one. (Not exactly knocking the golden arches, but I know I'm not exactly in the best mood when I sit down to a giant bag of Mickey Dees.) But I know I feel best when I sit down to a home cooked meal and a favorite show. If I have enough energy left I might even do the dishes, but that's a pretty big might.

When you live alone, food can be a big problem. You either have to make a recipe that serves 4 to 6 people or microwave a Lean Cuisine... again. Left overs aren't so bad, but it sucks when you have to eat the same thing for a week just because you're alone.

Fresh veggies are a great place to start with single-serve portions because you can buy the just the amount you need and prepare them as desired. Bagged frozen veggies are next best option.

The Hungry Girl cookbooks have great single serve recipes for everything from breakfast to dessert, but they use a lot of processed products in their recipes to cut down the calorie count. Real eggs and be used in place of the fake egg and so on, but that will increase the calories that are listed for each recipe.

Breakfast food is a great option for single-serve cooking, but they are often carb and fat heavy. Which is why cooking it single-serve is great, because you have the treat one day and aren't left with it sitting around.

Cooking for yourself can be hard, but it's one of the best things you can do for your body. Having complete control of everything that you ingest is step one to becoming a healthier person.

Eggcellent

Lately, I've been on an omelet kick. It started with the "Julie & Julie" trailer, and got worse and worse as I read "My Life In France" and "Julie and Julia," and started watching Julia Child's "The French Chef" episodes on pbs.com.

Eggs are great, because they're one of the few things you can enjoy fresh everyday in a flash. Almost everything you else you make begins with one big recipe, and you're forced to microwave the rest until you can't handle rubbery chicken anymore. But eggs are fresh every time you make them. And they can be different each time, too. Add some mushrooms and swiss cheese in an omelet one day and some green peppers, turkey and cheddar to scrabbled eggs the next. They're different every time!

Eggs are also a great source of protein. Yolks have been accused of having too much cholesterol, so I'll add one or two to my three-egg omelet, it adds the yellow color, but cuts down on the un-healthy part of the egg.

Eggs are really hard to screw up, start with scrambled and work your way up. I'm trying to flip my French-style omelets in the air yet, some days they come out great, other days I have quite the mess to clean up on my oven, but its all part of the learning curve. I might even try Julia's bean trick to practice!

Eggs, the perfect single-girl food!

In defense of butter

Butter is one of those divine gifts from nature that cannot be duplicated, no matter how much we try. There's been this war against butter for as long as I can remember (which is going on 24 years) and long past that. Humans have tried to recreate the goodness of butter in margarine and shortening, naming products "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter" and the like, but there is no way to duplicate it's wonderful properties.

What is margarine or Crisco, anyway? Can you make it in your kitchen? Nope, didn't think so! To make butter you milk a cow, let the milk sit and the cream rise, skim the cream off the milk, shake the cream until the fat clumps together and forms butter. It's that simple! Of course, most of us don't have a milch cow in their backyard, but the same results come from a store-bought carton of heavy whipping cream. Margarine and Crisco take some sort of scientific process to make.

As for a spread, the new butters that have been blended with (natural) canola oil or olive oil are great and smooth and natural.

I say fuck calorie count for natural food. Our health problems haven't spread out of no where, and part of the problem is all of this food product we eat. Fake, low-calorie food can't hold a candle to natural veggies and fruit and pasta and meat and dairy. Just watch your portions and enjoy REAL food... including BUTTER!