Gotta Know Online

This post is courtesy of Trent Hamm of The Simple Dollar. He has some great advice for anyone who wants to start cooking or improve their cooking skills.

I love cooking at home.

I used to hate cooking at home, though. I was awful at it. I burnt things. I messed up scrambled eggs beyond all recognition.

But over time, I got better at it. I started figuring out lots of little things that made the entire process smoother and made my results much better without necessarily improving my skills.

Now, I vastly prefer what I make in my own kitchen over what I can get at most restaurants. What I make at home is tastier, usually healthier, and quite a bit cheaper, too.

Along the way, I’ve picked up lots of little techniques for making home cooking much easier and faster. Here are ten that really changed things for me.

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I love to make things with hamburger meat.  Hamburger is cheap and easy to cook with.  Chili is just one of the many, many recipes you can make with hamburger.  Chili is great because you can start with a simple recipe and make it your own.  Besides, I’m a native Texan and we love our chili!  Here’s my Mom’s chili recipe.

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Looking for an easy, filling meal you can make with the hamburger in your freezer?  One super easy meal is chili.  Chili is great because you can cook it for dinner and warm up the left-overs for lunch the next day.  So, it’s not just an easy meal, it’s a money saver!

Here is an easy chili recipe that anyone can make.

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There are a few food items that all households should keep in the cabinets or fridge.  These are the items that are commonly called for in recipes or items that are eaten frequently.  Often, you will hear these foods referred to as “staples”.  As long as you have these food items on hand, you will be able to cook almost any boxed meal out there.

Milk and Bread: Two Staples

Milk

Eggs

Bread

Oil

Butter or Margarine

Salt and Pepper

Sugar

In addition to these “staples”, I suggest every household also keeps the following foods in stock:

Frozen chicken – Baked chicken is insanely easy to make.  As long as the chicken is dethawed the night before, you have a simple dinner.

Hamburger meat – I love my hamburger meat.  Most of the meals I cook involve hamburger meat.  It’s relatively inexpensive and extremely versatile.

Apples and Bananas – These serve as quick and healthy snacks.  You can also create some easy (and not so healthy) deserts with these fruits.

Canned vegetables – Nuke these vegetables in the microwave for 1 minutes and you have a quick side dish to go along with your easy baked chicken.

Do you have any suggestions for this list?  Leave a comment with your list of “must have food staples”.

Skillet or Frying Pan?

Do you know the difference between a skillet and a frying pan?  Okay, that was a trick question.  It’s the same thing.

That always confused me until I stumbled across two articles on RecipeTips.com.  In the first article, they’ve listed every type of pot or pan you will ever run across (and many you won’t.)  The second article from RecipeTips.com outlines bakeware.

So, why do you gotta know about pots and pans?  If you want to learn how to cook, you gotta understand basic cooking gear.

These are information heavy articles, so don’t get overwhelmed with all the details.  They are great references to bookmark.  Next time you read a recipe that mentions cookware you aren’t familiar with, just pop over to RecipeTips.com and look it up.

My personal favorite from this list is the Chestnut Pan.  People actually own a pan that is only used while singing a Christmas carole.  Who knew?

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