Jessica Seinfeld - The Cant Cook Book: Recipes for the Absolutely Terrified!

The thing Ive found with Cant Cooks is they almost always grew up in a kitchen where there was a lot of stress around cooking and food. If you never had a person around you in the kitchen who was encouraging, helpful, and clearI want to be that person for you. You can start fresh here. No judging, no embarrassment, in fact, Im going to personally guarantee you some fun while youre learning this new skill. I think one of the biggest reasons people never face cooking is that mistakes along the way are particularly exposed. When you burn something horribly, its there on the plate for everybody to laugh at.

When you fall learning to ice-skate, you can quickly get back up and hopefully nobody even knows it happened. Remember when you were little, that look on your mothers face when you gave her that mud pie you made? She loved it just because you made it for her. With this book, I guarantee you are going to make things that will taste better than that, but the feelings going to be the same. You know that feeling when you hit the bulls-eye with that perfect birthday gift for someone you love? Cooking can feel like that. Most beginner cookbooks do not address the number one problem of the Cant Cookfear. The idea that a person with no cooking experience can pick up a cookbook and just follow the instructions successfully is a crock.

Ive heard from so many Cant Cooks who have tried a recipe only to find halfway through theres a tricky technique, some weird foreign words, and some pre-preparation that nobody mentioned. And thats when the panic hits. To avoid all of this, every recipe were going to do together has clearly defined Dont Panic instructions. This book has more than one hundred photographed recipes, written specifically for people with less than zero experience in a kitchen. If the only cooking youve done is stirring a spoon in a cup of coffee, you will be able to do these. But if you are still feeling worried, the How-to section will show you basic techniques such as chopping garlic and slicing an onion.

To take you a step or two further, there are links to videos of me showing you exactly How-to. You can watch them by logging on to .) Even though I believe cooking can be a simple skill, it gives you back so much more. When someone looks up at you after a bite of something youve made and says, Hey! This is really good! youll have a certain kind of inside smile thats like nothing else.

But not for long, my friend. Youre already showing some potential. Of course, in any new learning experience, there are setbacks. The fun thing about cooking is that sometimes those setbacks can lead to unintended but surprisingly good results. Believe it or not, cooking can even feel relaxing and spontaneousbut that comes in time, once you are comfortable. Leading up to that point means messing up once in a while.

So dont let inevitable mistakes scare you. If you have a dog, he may end up loving this new hobby of yours. So lets get you up and running. One of the first things were going to undertake is turning your kitchen into a place where you enjoy working. You will learn what everything looks like and what it does. Your kitchen will be stocked with a few simple items and ingredients you will love using.

I will set you up with a starting routine that is exactly the same every time, no matter what you are cooking. Youll feel organized, calm, and ready for anything. This is the essence of being a Can Cook. In the next few pages, there are lots of photos, along with simple lists of the equipment and ingredients youll need. This detailed guide will organize you, educate you, and keep your fear at bay. I will help you establish a routine before you even start getting into the recipes.

Utilizing certain pots and pans, easily found ingredients, and a consistent setup will make things predictable. Every time you think about cooking something, you will actually know where to begin. The How-to section will break it way down for you with step-by-step photos that will help give you the skills and confidence to jump-start your cooking life. The How-to videos make things crystal clear. If you are still wondering if you can do this, let me tell you, the recipes that follow have been vetted, debugged, and lab-tested by some of the clumsiest, most useless individuals Ive ever met (yes, Jerry, Im talking about you) and they still worked. So lets get going.

Get the old newspapers and magazines out of the oven, drag that wedding gift pot set out of the basement, clear out that drawer full of takeout menus from the 80s. And fire up the pilot lightwere going in.