Need a source of good, basic recipes to expand my cooking repertoire...

[Anonymous]

I am not a great cook and have a handful of meals I prepare for the family. I'm looking to add a few new ones to the mix...can someone give me some advice on cookbooks or websites that can help?

I have two kids and not a ton of time after work to cook, so recipes that involve the slow-cooker or other make-ahead techniques would be paticularly helpful. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I love allrecipes.com and use it all the time. People post recipes and other people rate them. You can do a search based on ingredients you have at home, or type of dish you want to make. You can also save favourite recipes so you can go back to them later. I've found lots and lots of great recipes on the site!

[Anonymous]

This won't help with make ahead but my most used cookbook is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (he's the Minimalist in the New York Times). It's a fantastic resource for times when you have chicken but don't know what to do with it or have a random vegetable and don't know exactly how to cook it. And it has tons of explanation for everything which is good for the novice cook.

[Anonymous]

pp here. . .people also write comments on the recipes on allrecipes so if anyone made changes to the recipe, they will say how they changed it so you can do the same if you want to.

[Anonymous]

I like Gina De Laurentiis for easy and good-tasting recipes. It's Italian-leaning but her cookbooks have meats, veggies, soups, etc., not just pasta dishes. Everything is fairly easy to prepare and most have simple ingredient lists. Her cookbooks are a good size, too - big enough to offer variety but not so thick as to be overwhelming.

[Anonymous]

http://simplyrecipes.com/

I just made some beef stroganoff from that site. They have GREAT basic recipes (and some fancier ones, too). Lots and lots of stuff, all organized by type of dish (main, soup, salad, cuisine type, etc). And I have found them to be consistently excellent, whereas allrecipes is hit-or-miss (sorry PPs!) -- nobody on there rates anything below a 4-star, and some of the recipes are just not good

[Anonymous]

I recommend this book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933615486/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=093618454X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=03JDXJYYP7ABH2QB2G0A

It goes over lots of basic dishes along with recommendations for certain widely-available brands of ingredients over others... and a decent amount of explanation of the why's behind why a recipe is written a certain way. It also has photos. Personally, I just find it hard to get inspired to cook with books that don't have photos.

For slow-cooker recipes though, I'd just go online and google for them and look at ratings for those recipes.

[Anonymous]

I love the hell out of Smitten Kitchen: www.smittenkitchen.com

However, she sometimes does complicated recipes, too, along with simple ones. Her creamed spinach is better than a steakhouse's! And her photos are to die for...

[Anonymous]

I love the Six O'Clock Scramble cookbook and happily so do my picky kids. I finally caved and subscribed to the online service, it comes with recipes for every week (there is a database if you want to sub some out or have eating restrictions) plus a grocery shopping list, BLISS! If you want to check it out for free, libraries often have a copy. I also liked that the recipes are organized seasonally. The recipes are healthy and quick, the time estimates are great, you can do super quick ones on busy nights.

[Anonymous]

I like Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook. I've tried a few recipes from this book and they all tasted great. In fact, I'm cooking one as we speak.

I'm also a big fan of Cook's Illustrated. Their recipes can take a long time to prepare, but they do have a 30 minute recipe book (can't remember the exact title) which cuts down the prep and cooking time considerably. I also really like Nigella Lawson for ideas rather than recipes. Her idea of adding a slug of Marsala has really improved the flavor of some of my dishes. She also has a book of quick recipes. I think it's called Nigella Bites, though I may be wrong.

[Anonymous]

Try the blog goodbetterbestfood.blogspot.com

It is written by a friend of mine and she offers simply and healthy recipes.

Also has a Facebook page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This won't help with make ahead but my most used cookbook is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (he's the Minimalist in the New York Times). It's a fantastic resource for times when you have chicken but don't know what to do with it or have a random vegetable and don't know exactly how to cook it. And it has tons of explanation for everything which is good for the novice cook.

I agree--this is my old standby. And there's an iPad version, which is supposed to be amazing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the hell out of Smitten Kitchen: www.smittenkitchen.com

However, she sometimes does complicated recipes, too, along with simple ones. Her creamed spinach is better than a steakhouse's! And her photos are to die for...

Yes! Everything I've ever made from her site has been excellent. She really tests and refines all of the recipes she posts.

[Anonymous]

Everyday Food magazine from Martha Stewart is good. Their recipes tend to be fairly quick and healthy. They also have a PBS show, so you can find them on the Martha Stewart website and PBS.com. I know they have cookbooks, but I haven't checked them out yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This won't help with make ahead but my most used cookbook is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman (he's the Minimalist in the New York Times). It's a fantastic resource for times when you have chicken but don't know what to do with it or have a random vegetable and don't know exactly how to cook it. And it has tons of explanation for everything which is good for the novice cook.

Totally agree with this. His instructions are very clear. There are a number of different versions of this book, including a short one with just the basics. I'm a pretty good cook but I still use this all the time. His pork chop recipe is delicious and easy.