Successful Cooking

JoAnna's Ten Commandments of Successful Cooking

A few minutes spent before you start cooking will save you hours in the kitchen. The best use of your time, energy, and money is not only reading these suggestions for conquering the kitchen but also applying them to your daily cooking.

1. Read the entire recipe from start to finish and be sure you understand the process involved. Check that you have all the equipment you will need before you begin.

2. Check the ingredient list and be sure you have everything and in the amounts required. Keep cooking sprays handy--while they're not listed as ingredients, I use them all the time (just a quick squirt!).

3. Set out all the ingredients and equipment needed to prepare the recipe on the counter near you before you start. Remember that old saying, A stitch in time saves nine. It applies in the kitchen, too.

4. Do as much advance preparation as possible before actually cooking. Chop, cut, grate, or do whatever is needed to prepare the ingredients and have them ready before you start to mix. Turn the oven on at least 10 minutes before putting food in to bake, to allow the oven to preheat to the proper temperature.

5. Use a kitchen timer to tell you when the cooking or baking time is up. Because stove temperatures vary slightly by manufacturer, you may want to set your timer for 5 minutes less than the suggested time just to prevent overcooking. Check the progress of your dish at that time, then decide if you need the additional minutes or not.

6. Measure carefully. Use glass measures for liquids and metal or plastic cups for dry ingredients. My recipes are based on standard measurements. Unless I tell you a scant or full cup, measure the cup level.

7. For best results, follow the recipe instructions exactly. Feel free to substitute ingredients that don't tamper with the basic chemistry of the recipe, but be sure to leave key ingredients alone. For example, you could substitute sugar-free instant chocolate pudding for sugar-free butterscotch pudding, but if you used a 6-serving package when a 4-serving package was listed in the ingredients, or you used instant when cook-and-serve is required, you won't get the right result.

8. Clean up as you go. It is much easier to wash a few items at a time than to face a whole counter of dirty dishes later. The same is true for spills on the counter or floor.

9. Be careful about doubling or halving a recipe. Though many recipes can be altered successfully to serve more or fewer people, many cannot. This is especially true when it comes to spices and liquids. If you try to double a recipe that calls for one teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice, for example, and you double teh spice, you may end up with too-spicy taste. I usually suggest increasing spices or liquid by 1 1/2 times when doubling a recipe. If it taste a little bland to you, you can increase the spice to 1 3/4 times the original amount the next time you prepare the dish. Remember: you can always add more, but you can't atke it out after it's been stirred in.

     The same is true with liquid ingredients. If you wanted to triple a recipe like my Macho Burritos because you were planning to serve a crowd, you might think you should use three times as much of every ingredient. Don't, or you could end up with Burrito Soup! The original recipe calls for 1 3/4 cup of chunky tomato sauce, so I'd suggest using 3 1/2 cups of sauce when you triple the recipe (or 2 3/4 cups if you double it). You'll still have a good-tasting dish that won't run all over the plate.

10. Write your reactions next to each recipe once you've served it. 

     Yes, that's right, I'm giving you permission to write in this book. It's yours, after all. Ask yourself: Did I have to add another half teaspoon of chili seasoning to please my family, who like to live on the spicier side of the street? You may even want to rate the recipe on a scale of 1 star to 4 stars, depending on what you thought of it. (Four stars would be the top rating--and I hope you'll feel that way about many of my recipes.) Jotting down your comments while they are fresh in your mind will help you personalize the recipe to your own taste the next time you prepare it.

This is such a simple way to keep track of everything that goes into my mouth as well as my husband's. I made the Taco Casserole the other night and did my husband ever flip over it! He wanted seconds and thirds!

--K.S., IA