Mary-Lane Kamberg - The I Dont Know How To Cook Book: 300 Great Recipes You Cant Mess Up!

Avon, Massachusetts

For my daughters, Rebekka and Johanna

My gratitude to the Kansas City Writers Group

Welcome to the kitchen! If you like to eat but think you cant cook, this book is for you. If you can read, you can make these dishes. Simply follow the easy directions.

The I Dont Know How to Cook Book is not a teaching workbook. The instructions dont use any fancy cooking terms that might scare you away. (You can look them up in the Glossary of Cooking Terms in Appendix B if you need to understand traditional cookbooks.) Instead, youll create the dishes you want to eat without taking a cooking class.

For this third edition I focused on one question: If I couldnt cook but wanted to learn, which common foods could I try with the highest chance for success? I wanted to provide recipes so tasty and easy to make that new cooks would enjoy positive cooking experiences. The biggest change in this edition is the emphasis on healthy dishes. I tried to give new cooks something different to do with fruits and vegetables rather than just eating them plain. Youll find such new dishes as Watermelon-Raspberry Salad, Avocado-Cucumber Salad, Peas with Mint Butter, and Garlic Green Beans with Pecans.

But youll find that I didnt ignore snacks and sweets. In : Desserts, I included new recipes for such standards as Toll House Cookies, Lemon Bars, and Carrot Cake (with Cream Cheese Frosting), along with No-Bake Cheesecake and the best cookies in the world: Oatmeal Chocolate Chip. The cinnamon in this recipe makes these cookies irresistible!

In some cases I replaced old recipes with better ones. For example, Salmon Patties is gone, and Salmon-Potato Patties with Lemon-Basil Sauce stands in its place. Likewise, Beef Stroganoff replaces the less exciting Beef and Noodles from the second edition. I added some standard items like Pancakes the Old-Fashioned Way, Biscuits and Sausage Gravy, Baked Ham, Baked Beans, and Pan-Fried Chicken that should have been in earlier editions but were somehow overlooked. In : Soups and Stews youll find the old standards Ham and Beans and French Onion Soup, along with the new and tasty Cheeseburger Soup with an unusual texture provided by shredded lettuce. (Its really good!)

Moving on from the basics, youll find some fancy (but still easy!) recipes for French Toast Casserole, Layered Spinach Salad, Apple-Glazed Pork Chops, and Gorgonzola and SageStuffed Chicken Breasts, to name a few. In short, theres enough variety in this new edition to make The I Dont Know How to Cook Book the only cookbook youll need to get started in the kitchen.

All recipes in this cookbookeven those marked hardwere chosen because theyre easy to make. The hard ones might use less common ingredients or take more steps than those marked easy or medium. Trust me, theyre still easy! The dishes are grouped according to difficulty within each chapter and are identified by these symbols:

Easy: E

Medium: M

Hard: H

In addition, vegetarian recipes are identified with v after the recipe title.

Try the recipes marked easy first to ease into the cooking game. After that, challenge yourself with those marked medium and hard. Youll gain cooking skills while you build your recipe stockpile, along with your confidence. I hope that after you succeed with some of these dishes, youll venture out on your own culinary journey.

Enjoy!

1. Before you begin, read the recipe all the way through. Assemble all ingredients. (The ingredients in TheI Dont Know How to Cook Book are listed in the order of their appearance in the directions. If you like order, you can line them up in a rowbut you dont have to!)

2. Always wash your hands before and after handling food, especially raw meats and poultry, which may contain harmful bacteria that proper cooking kills.

3. Ovens and microwaves vary, so many recipes give a range of cooking times. In recipes that give a range of cooking times, such as 15 to 20 minutes, check the food after the first time listed. If the dish is not done, return to the heat source for the additional time.

4. No recipe is carved in stone. After you try a recipe for the first time, make notes to yourself in the cookbooks margin. Note cooking times for your oven or microwave, as well as measurements you would like to adjust to your personal taste.

5. Sometimes youll want to prepare fewer or more servings of a recipe. All you have to do is a little math. You can double a recipe by multiplying the measurement of each ingredient by two. You can cut a recipe in half by dividing the measurement of each ingredient by two. But be careful. Cooking times may varyespecially in microwaves that need more time to cook larger quantities of food. If youre doubling a recipe, do not double the cooking time. Cook it according to directions, but be aware that you may need a little more cooking time. The reverse may be true when cooking smaller amounts.

6. Plan menus. Eat different types of foods so you get a variety of nutrients. If youre new to meal planning, follow the school lunch menu, which often appears in local papers. Qualified dietitians plan the menus. Do what they do.

7. Nothing will dampen your enthusiasm for cooking more than a kitchen full of dirty pots, pans, and utensils when the food is done. Whenever possible, clean as you go. When you are finished with a pot, measuring cup, or mixing bowl, wash it while youre waiting for noodles to boil or during baking times. You can let the cooking utensils drip dry, or, if youre really a neat freak, you can dry them and put them away. (Nah!)

Bon Apptit!