A New 'New Year's' Resolution

So, it's the middle of January and your New Year's resolution hasn't quite worked out as planned.  If it helps you any, mine hasn't worked out so well either.  The way I look at it, everyday is a new day and a chance to start over. 

If your New Year's resolution was to shed a few pounds and that hasn't happened, all is not lost.  There are still over 300 days left in the year.  You have time to restart your resolution.  Studies show that if you want a healthier life, start by cooking.  According to some researchers, if we want to make progress on reducing the rates of obesity, we need to cook at home. 

Cooking seems to have gotten a bad rap.  We don't have time.  It's too much work.  What I want to know is when cooking good food became drudgery.  I even hear people brag about their inability to cook.  They wear it like a badge of honor. 

If you want to cook and you are dazed about where to start, here are a few suggestions.

• You won't go from ruining everything to gourmet meals overnight.  Kind of like Rome wasn't built in a day.  I've learned that cooking is a process or journey.  You get better by practicing and learning from your mistakes.  Ask any good cook and they will tell you about a whole slew of their mistakes. 
• You may want to begin your cooking journey by using websites. They are free.  Be careful, not all websites have tested recipes.  Here are a few that I have tried. 
• Eating Well - Good for those trying to become healthier.  I do find their recipes tend to be slightly bland.  You may need to increase the spices.
• Cooking Light - Good for those trying to become healthier.  Recipes tend to be somewhat flavorful.
• Rachael Ray - I am not a Racheal Ray fan.  However, she has done a great job of getting younger people to cook.  And I am for anything that gets anyone into the kitchen to cook.  I don't find that most of her recipes are very flavorful, but they are a place to start.   
• Everyday Food Magazine and website - This is a Martha Stewart magazine.  They do an excellent job of laying out the recipes (with pictures).  I generally find that the recipes are easy.
• Most commodity boards (potato, dry beans, dairy, beef) have recipes.  Sometimes their recipes start with convenience products, so be careful, especially with sodium.
• When you are strolling through the supermarket, look around the produce section to see if they have a recipe stand.  Most major grocery stores have a website with recipes.
• Start with recipes that contain ingredients that you recognize.  As you build your repertoire, play around with different ingredients and spices.  Most spice companies (McCormick, Spice Islands) have website that will help you learn to use spices.
• Lastly, have fun.  Know that you will make mistakes.  You will learn from them and become a better and healthier cook.

If you want to start cooking tomorrow, here is a rotisserie chicken recipe that can get you through today.  As I have said before, I love rotisserie chicken.  There are even rotisserie chicken cookbooks.  Using a rotisserie chicken may not be legimate cooking, but it is a place to start.  Your grocery deli or salad bar is a good place to pick up a few extras, like olives and artichokes.

• Day 1 - Serve the chicken with a side dish or salad.
• Day 2 - Cut the chicken up and use in a chef salad.
• Day 3 - Keep the bones!  Keep the liquid at the bottom of the container!  These are loaded with flavor.  Put the bones and the liquid in a saucepan and cover with water.  Cook for about one hour.  Strain.  Use this broth as a base for soup, to cook rice or couscous.

Improvisational Cooking

I have been hearing several new terms lately, no-recipe recipe, cooking without a book and lastly, improvisational cooking. The January issue of Southern Living magazine even has recipes that everyone should know ‘by heart’. There is a cookbook titled, The Improvisational Cook and one titled How to Cook without a Book. If it helps any, I purchased How to Cook Without a Book and I actually like it.

I got to thinking about what these terms really mean. All these terms are really nothing new. Our grandmothers did it all the time. As a matter of fact, most of them did not own a cookbook. All they knew was to cook ‘by heart’. It now seems that some people believe that if there is no recipe, they can’t cook. Why not, your grandmother did it and she had less sophisticated ingredients and equipment than you have. Here is my rule of thumb. You only need a recipe if you are making pastries or cakes or baked products. These are formulations and the ingredients are there for a reason. That is, they have a function that affects the overall quality of the final product. For dishes like soups, pot roasts, mashed potatoes, you don't need a recipe. A recipe is really someone’s idea of what a dish should taste like. What you want to put in your dish is entirely up to you.

I am really into this improvisational cooking. Preparing dinner at 6:00pm when I am tired and hungry is no time to hunt for a recipe. So, here is how I do it.

1. Stock the pantry for cooking, not for a recipe. When you run out of an ingredient, purchase it soon. A well stocked pantry allows you to cook a meal without last minute trips to the grocery store.
2. Stop measuring ingredients. Learn to cook by taste and feel of the dish. You are not trying to make the most superb dish; you are trying to get dinner on the table quickly.
3. Trust your instincts.
4. Practice. We get better at things that we practice. Cooking is no different.
5. Read recipes. That may sound dumb. I read a lot of recipes. However, I mostly read for ideas, not for exact recipes. Reading recipes helps you to understand what ingredients go together and in what proportions.

I am taking the liberty of including one of my favorite no recipe dishes. Please feel free to make changes.

No Recipe Sweet Potatoes

1. Bake enough sweet potatoes to make about 2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes. If you like, bake extra, they freeze extremely well. I like to bake my sweet potatoes because I think they taste better.

2. Take about 2 cups of mashed potatoes and add the following ingredients, about 2 tablespoons butter, 1 to 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, 2 tablespoons brown sugar and ¼ cup light coconut milk. Mix ingredients and serve. Sweet potatoes can also be made ahead and refrigerated. Reheat when ready to serve.

 3. This recipe makes about 4 – ½ cup servings.

As you can tell, this is not an exact recipe. If you don’t have an ingredient or you don’t like an ingredient, leave it out and keep on cooking. Other options for sweet potatoes are canned crushed pineapple, chopped pecans, cinnamon, and maple syrup in place of the brown sugar. I even have a friend who will sometimes use an overripe banana.