Betty Crocker Basics: Learning to Cook with Confidence

I have a dozen cookbooks, none of which I use.  They sit on the shelf and taunt me, month after month.  Every once in a while I pick one up and try to find something that looks good, only to put the book back on the shelf in frustration.  Then one day, it finally dawned on me why I don’t use them.  It’s not because I don’t want to cook, it’s because the books are too complicated for me.  I don’t know what a lot of the cooking terminology means so I end up not using the recipe.  It’s frustrating to get halfway through a recipe and realize that I don’t know how to “fold” something or “sauté” it.  

So I decided to begin my cooking education with the basics.  Enter my new find: the Betty Crocker Basics: How to Cook with Confidence Cookbook.  

Sounds pretty easy doesn’t it?  That’s kind of the point actually, as it’s a very basic cookbook.  Here’s an example: the other day I was trying a recipe that required onions.  This book actually illustrates how to cut the onion!!  I know some of you are reading this and thinking, “who doesn’t know how to cut an onion?”  Let me assure you that this was no ordinary onion – it was a green onion!  I never knew whether you were supposed to stop cutting at a certain point or if you were to include the whole thing, leafy part and all, so having it explained to me was exactly what I needed.

Betty Crocker Basics is also easy to use – it’s divided into sections that include main dishes, snacks and desserts, and even a chapter on “beyond the basics” which discusses everything from cooking terms to understanding restaurant menus.  

Another thing about this book that is so great is that each recipe is illustrated.  It’s hard for me to cook something without seeing it first.  Not only that, but it’s nice to see how the end product is supposed to look.  If my turkey is gray and is supposed to be white, I know I’ve done something wrong.  Also, the recipes are fairly simply without using a lot of fancy ingredients.  

The beginning section of the book includes information about pans, pots and other equipment that is essential for a functional kitchen.  There’s also a section that illustrates various techniques such as how to measure ingredients, seed a jalapeno chili, peel a kiwifruit, or separate eggs (that one I actually knew).

But the best part, the number one reason I selected this cookbook, is that each recipe includes the nutritional information associated with that dish.  We’re talking calories, fat grams, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein.  Now that’s impressive!

My goal is to use this book to help me become a “cook.”  I really feel the need to do something different – recently I’ve gotten into a routine that consists of eating baked potatoes, grilled shrimp, and rice and that’s about it.  I need to make some changes, if nothing else so that my poor husband doesn’t have to have frozen dinners every night.    And I figure that the only way I’m going to learn how to cook is to start by using baby steps and learn as I go.  So I’m going to try new recipes each week and post it here in case any of you can use some help.  And if you have any suggestions, I welcome those too.  Just remember to keep them simple because in my kitchen, it’s all about the basics! 

(Images courtesy of Amazon)