You all know I love and adore the recipes over at Pioneer Woman Cooks. Her low calorie low fat delicious recipes are definitely special! But one cannot cook like that every day without having to make an appointment for a triple bypass. I’m sure they get away with it as they are serious ranchers and do a lot more physical exercise than I do!

But what about those days when you find you only have one pound of butter and all of PW’s recipes call for two pounds?

Well, if you’re like me, you fall back on the old staples. The ones my mom taught me how to make both when I was growing up and since I’ve been married. Seeing as I weigh about 50 pounds more than when I got married, I’m obviously eating well! Of course, my mom’s “recipes” don’t come with measurements. It’s sort of a “add this until it looks right, stir until it’s thick enough, it’s done when it tastes right” kinda thing. That’s really hard to translate sometimes!

I’ve found another great resource. Start Cooking! Kathy Maister has put together a series of videos on the most basic of cooking skills. From cutting an onion, to separating an egg, to how to boil an egg!

From there she goes on to use these techniques to create easy recipes (always linking back to the basics just in case you forgot how to do something). My all time favorite of hers is the stuffed mushroom video. YUMM! I did modify a bit–I used italian sausage instead of bacon, but that was just personal preference. Here is her version with bacon. There is no picture of mine with sausage because they were gone too quickly!

Her videos are fun to watch and cleverly put together. I think you’ll like them even if you are an experienced cook.

She also has a blog that is updated daily with more recipes and also basic information. For example, there was recently a post about different types of salad greens. I’m a person that sticks with the basics–iceberg and green leaf–so it was very informative to read about the other types of “lettuce” out there. In fact, it encouraged me to start putting Boston Bibb lettuce in my salads and it’s very good! There was also an informative post about pressure cookers. I have one. I’ve had it for 10 years. I’ve used it once. I’m trying to get the guts up to use it now that I’ve read how wonderful they are!

A recent post, How to Make Eggplant Parmesan, looks good. It not only includes the recipe, but helpful information about eggplant. Did you know you had to “sweat” the bitterness out of an eggplant? Me neither! I never really thought I’d cook eggplant, but now I want to try! Doesn’t it look delicious?

This recipe for Roasted Asparagus with Garlic Sauce taught me a new (and in my humble opinion better) way to cook asparagus. I always had such trouble keeping my asparagus from getting mushy. I love the roasted taste too! The sauce, eh, it was just alright for me, man. But I’m fine with just plain asparagus! I did adapt this once. I sprinkled some soy sauce and sesame seeds on it! But Kathy taught me the basics of roasting asparagus so adapting was easy!

And this recipe, Fish Fingers, YUMMY! It really makes Gorton’s fish sticks taste nasty! The Gorton fisherman could learn a thing or two from Kathy! Seriously, which one would you rather eat? This one…..

Or this one???


Mary, check this out this posting. I think we could really make our Smoothie addicts happy! Although if I made Smoothie #11 for Nick, he may disown me as a mother!

For a full list of recipes on her site (both in blog and video form) click here.
(All images, except for the nasty fish stick one, are used with permission by Start Cooking.)

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