Mini Cooking Courses Instead of Slavishly Following Recipes

Recipes are a dime a dozen on the Internet, but my Mini Cooking Courses take a very different approach. Originally conceived as a hardcopy workbook in a spiral binding so it would lay flat, I decided instead to share it on the Internet - printing costs, you know.

I've always found cooking courses fun and welcome the opportunity to share these experiences with you. There might be an E-book available some day.

Until they established their own "nests" my daughters (and even granddaughters now - see Sophia's garlic sauce recipe) were hardly interested in the business of meal planning, now they want cooking tips so I get phone calls that start with "What do I do with this piece of...?"

You'll probably want a carbohydrate to round out a nutritional dinner, and one of the most useful webpages I've found for fixing that most versatile one, rice, can be found at The First Time Cook. Rice can be mighty tricky, and Carol provides a veritable treatise on which varieties give the best results.

Oddly enough, my sons always liked to cook - the eldest even signed up for a cake decorating class at school in eighth grade. When we asked him "Why cakes?" he explained that that was where all the girls were after classes.

How the Formula Method works:

Step One: Choose a dinner entree from List One with its Preparation Style and its Sauce

Step Two: Turn to List Two to the Preparation Style and collect the ingredients

Step Three: Turn to List Three and find the Sauce Style and collect the ingredients

Step Four: Consult List Four, the carbohydrate suggestions chart (potato, pasta, rice, or bread)

Step Five: Choose a vegetable suggested from the list of veggies

Step Six: Consult Charts for notes on temperature and handling, get out your instant read thermometer

Now put the meal together

What to fix for dinner?

Seldom is the issue "what recipe to choose?" Usually, it is more like:


What's languishing in the fridge or the freezer?

Answers the question "I'm plumb out of ideas. What can I possibly fix that's different from last week?"

What seasonings and/or sauces do I want to use up? Even your dried herbs and spices have a lifetime.

Have we had at least two servings of fish this week?

Grab a Mini Cooking Courses Marinade or Rub First