Mendocino Press - The Cookbook for Teens: The Easy Teen Cookbook with 74 Fun & Delicious Recipes to Try

Copyright 2014 by Mendocino Press, Berkeley, California

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ISBN Print 978-1-62315-361-8 | eBook 978-1-62315-362-5

Introduction

Y oure getting oldera definite perk that means more opportunities, but also more responsibility. Youre learning new skills as you make more mistakes. (Its impossible to do one without the other.) One of these days in the not-so-distant future, you will be living on your own (and, in doing so, will gain a much deeper appreciation of your parents ever did for you). Along with learning how to choose the right wat r temperature for the washing machine when doing your laundry (hot wash? cold rinse?), and replacing the toilet paper when it runs out, you will also be largely responsible for cooking and keeping yourself fed. Waiting until youre on your own and its midnight and your stomach is rumbling isnt the best time to open a cookbook for the first time. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but it can also create some burnedand terrible tastingfood. Not to mention an even louder and emptier stomach.

While youre still living at home, where your family will forgive you if you mess up a recipe and will make sure you dont starve, why not learn the basics of cooking? In case you havent already guessed, thats what this book is for. It has been written to help you learn what you need to fend off hunger, and even impress your family and friends in the process.

In these chapters, you will learn how to read a recipe. Youll find out about basic cooking techniques, how to plan a meal from the first course through the last, what to keep in your kitchen cupboards and refrigerator, and how to turn a recipe into a shopping list. Youll even discover how to navigate the grocery store, shop for bargains, and know when to say yesor noto buying organic. You will learn that a pastry brush is not for painting portraits of chefs, and that theres a difference between 1 cup nuts, chopped and 1 cup chopped nuts.

Best of all, you will realize that cooking, for the most part, is simpler than you thought, and certainly way more fun. Want a bonus? How about a little peace of mind? With the lessons you find in this book, you will not only be able to defeat your own hungerbefore and after school, on the way out the door to work, in the middle of an all-night study session, or while relaxing on weekendsbut youll also be able to impress a girlfriend/ boyfriend, bribe your parents, or please your friends. No more showing up at parties without something to contribute. No more scrambling for something other than a sealed jar of olives when unexpected company stops by. No more opening the refrigerator door ten times in a row just to close it again because you couldnt find anything good to eat.

Youve got it coveredyou know how to cook!

PART ONE

Cooking Basics

CHAPTER ONE

Youre the Chef

So many types of foodyet so little time! If youre going to take charge in the kitchen, dont be surprised if you feel exhilarated, enthusiastic, powerfuland completely intimidated. Where to start? What to make first? How to choose?

All of those questions are normal, and there is no single correct answer. What you decide to make first depends on your personal preferences. Are you more interested in cooking or baking? What kinds of foods do you like to eat? What are some of your familys favorite dishes? All of these questions need to be taken into consideration when choosing what to make.

One piece of advice is true throughout, however: Start simple. If you wanted to race bicycles professionally one day, you wouldnt start out by trying out for the Tour de France, one of the hardest bike races in the world. You would start by riding in your neighborhood, learning new skills and tricks where its safe to practice, and if you messed up, a video of it wouldnt end up online in a matter of minutes. The same is true with cooking. Start simple, and then build your skills as you get more familiar with measuring, mixing, and preparing.

As you delve into the world of cooking, you will first need to learn how to read a recipe. While it can seem like they are written in some kind of foreign language, recipes actually are pretty easy to understand once you learn the basics.

Lets look at some of the terms that might be confusing. Some of them refer to cooking methods, while others are general terms typically used in many recipe directions. Look through this list. The terms in bold are ones that will be explained in further detail within the chapters.