RSincere

The suggestions all sound good. I think I'll go with the lasagne idea because I have made it before, albeit the kind where you buy a jar of pasta sauce and layer it with ricotta cheese, mozzarella, and dried noodles. Anyway, I'll do that because I can put it together on Saturday. I'm thinking of trying the from-scratch recipe from "How to Cook Everything" except I'll buy fresh pasta instead of making it because I have a horrible touch with all things dough, and this is not the time to be setting myself up for failure. The recipe uses fresh pasta, 3 cups of Bolognese sauce from another recipe in the book, Parmesan cheese, and bechamel sauce. I'm a little nervous about the bechamel. I read the recipe and it sounds like something I tried to make once that basically turned into paste. What if I substituted a layer of sliced fresh mozzarella? I've always wanted to try fresh mozzarella. Does anyone have any nifty lasagne recipes? I'm not trying to be fancy for them anymore, it's for me, to have fun making a great lasagne not assembled from jars and packages. I will do the salad with vinaigrette, bread from the one bakery in town (there is no expensive part of town in Baraboo, WI ) and purchase a dessert as well; there is a restaurant in town that is known for their fresh pies. About dealing with them personally, I wish we could all drink some nice wine but I'm on too many meds, and I think his dad is a recovering alcoholic. I'm so nervous because the last time I even talked to them (we've only had 2 conversations ever) my husband's stepmom told me she knew I was a deadbeat because her sources told her I had been fired from "X" company. I could not convince the woman that I had never even worked at X company. After that, they didn't show at the wedding even though we held it up for 20 minutes waiting for them...and for a few years after that, when I sent them Christmas gifts, she returned them to us! The third and final year I sent a gift that was purely something I wanted. I'm trying hard not to dwell on the past, but I just have no clue why on earth they want to come here, and what on earth I'm supposed to talk to them about. Not to mention the hostess thing is freaking me out. We don't have enough table chairs. I don't have nice dishes, I don't know the proper drinks to have on hand...one diet cola, one regular cola, lemonade, milk? We don't drink milk, should I buy some? I don't know the etiquette of appetizers, should I have them on the table before the meal, with some little plates? And let's not even talk about my dishes and glasses...and do I serve the lasagne in the pan I cooked it in? I'd almost have to, right? Or do I dish it on separate plates? Do I serve the salad and then bring out the lasagne? Or can I plop it all down on the table at once? Speaking of which, what the hell should I put on the salad anyway? Oh, boy, I think I'm getting a little too worked up about this. Could I pretend to be a caterer, make the lasagne the day before, leave a note for my husband telling him how to cook it, and leave for the state park for the day? I mean, he's the one who told them they could come without consulting me. I'm sure they're more interested in seeing him, and maybe spending some time with our 7-year-old son--they've only seen him 2 or 3 times anyway.

From "Say Anything," Joan Cusack to John Cusack:

reesek, about that red wine vinegar and white wine vinegar, I had to go to Walmart for some lettuce and I checked that section. ALL the wine vinegars were under $2.00, the same price the Reese wine vinegar was. There was a Holland Hill, and another brand I can't remember. Should I be looking at a specialty market? Is there a brand you can recommend--nothing too extravagant, just maybe the lowest priced one that won't wreck my food. About my husband, he's one of those people who just sees food as a calorie delivery system. I could feed him the frittata or the Frito pie, he'd eat his portion in about 2.5 seconds with the same appreciation; that is, if it's edible, he doesn't really care how it tastes. He's no fun because I'm still oooooh-ing and ahhhhh-ing and doing the happy dance about my first bite, and he's already finished eating. I was a vegetarian for 14 years, and when we got married, even though he wasn't vegetarian, he never asked for any kind of meat--he just ate whatever I cooked because he just.didn't.care. It's weird. The good thing is, he's eaten a lot of my kitchen disasters that I couldn't bear to eat, so we don't waste much food. Now, I need help! My in-laws--who hate me and who haven't seen me since BEFORE the wedding, 10 years ago--invited themselves over for the day on Sunday. I told him I would cook them a nice meal but he would have to do the entertaining. What do I make? I was really tempted by a recipe "Leg of Young Goat" because I thought maybe if I served that they'd never come back. I would like to impress them, though. I have never entertained, really, not "formally." I really need to know what to make, something I won't screw up. That rules out chicken on the bone because I have yet to cook that properly. Does anyone have anything foolproof, maybe an entree and one vegetable or salad, and any suggestions for a make-ahead dessert? I can go grocery shopping on Friday so it doesn't have to be a pantry challenge. Thank you in advance to anyone who is willing to help. I don't want to give these people any more ammunition, they are vicious.

Hi, sparrowgrass. Don't worry, my mom beat you to it. About a month ago she read me the riot act because she found out I dumped my meat grease down the garbage disposal. I always figured if I ran a ton of hot water at the same time, it would go through. No problems yet. But she told me about how she did that, and clogged the drain, and had to call the college janitor (she was living on campus) and he poured lye down the drain...and it reacted with the meat grease and made soap in her pipe! I now do the strainer over a coffee can. But I have to use the strainer, any other way I lose food. Today for lunch: frittata with roasted tomatoes and Parmesan cheese! Doesn't that sound fancy? I had to throw away one of my tomatoes because it was punctured and got moldy. So I followed Mark Bittman's directions to seed and roast the other three. When they were done I peeled off the skins and broke the tomato part up with my fingers, and drained well. Then I used his frittata recipe (which includes 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese), adding the tomatoes right before I dumped the egg stuff in the pan. It was good and turned out very pretty, even looked pink in spots. I should have used more salt, maybe a touch more pepper, a little less oil, and should have cooked it about 2 minutes more in the oven. I have been thinking about what I am trying to accomplish here, and I think that cooking without a recipe isn't my main goal, even though it's very freeing to know these techniques and know if I want to braise something, I don't have to look up a specific recipe for "Braised ________" (whatever meat I'm wanting to braise). My main goal is trying to learn what you all did for me, and that is, look at what I have available and think of something I could make out of it. That is a challenge for me, as I get really overwhelmed and confused sometimes when I try to think of something I can make, even though my pantry doesn't seem challenging at all to you. I'm so stuck in the rut of, pick 10 recipes out of a cookbook and buy exactly those ingredients and that's all you get for the next two weeks. Sometimes I get burned by a bad cookbook, and halfway through I have all these ingredients from abandoned recipes, and no clue what to do with them! Also, I can only pick out 3 or so recipes with perishable ingredients, because by the end of the 2 weeks, my mushrooms or scallions or whatever will be gross and I can't make the planned recipe. Plus I need to get a sense for how to put a meal togther. I did read the ECGI course on that but while I understood the basic concepts--keep the same ethnicity/type of cuisine, use complimentary flavors, don't overdo any one type of food (i.e. cream and cheese in every dish)--it was very difficult for me to translate it to everyday life, and I don't think I really was able to internalize it. I like malawry's suggestion of reading menus in my cookbooks to get some real-life examples. I'd love to just go to the store every Friday and buy what looks good or what's on special and figure out something to make out of it. That's my goal.

reesek, this cracks me up. I just followed the 1/3 cup and 1/3 cup from a recipe I found on the web. I had no idea it was supposed to be only a couple of tablespoons of sauce per person. My husband (5'9" 128 lbs) doused his fish and rice like gravy and ate it all. I didn't use quite so much on my plate, because I still wasn't sure about the vinegar, but it was definitely more than a few tablespoons. However, I have had the experience of being on Atkins for 8 straight months, so I could probably eat "Butter Soup" and not blink an eye. Now that I'm not on Atkins, I should probably take your advice and not use so much butter sauce! Well, there was some left over. Question: The recipes I looked up called for "white wine vinegar." I have both white wine vinegar and red wine vinegar, but it's Reese brand. That's about the cheapest brand there is. I used to use the Reese cooking wines too until I found out that you're supposed to use real wine and sherry. Is the Reese wine vinegar gross as well, does anyone know? I haven't even opened the bottles but I'm afraid to use them for fear they will wreck my food. hillvalley, you're too funny. Here's a "recipe" I used to make: put 8 oz. Frito-Lay chips in an 8x8 pan. Pour canned chili over. Sprinkle with chopped onions. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar cheese. Bake until heated through and cheese is melted. Hee!

Okay, tilapia tonight. I'd like to say how I cooked it and if anyone can chime in to tell me what I could have done better, I would love it! I kind of blended laurel's and malawry's suggestions. I looked up "beurre blanc" from malawry's post and added the ginger/garlic/scallion idea from laurel. This is what I did. I think I bastardized the beurre blanc, but it was good anyway. Put all in a pan: one chopped shallot, 2 chopped scallions, 2 inches of ginger chopped, a big chopped garlic clove, with 1/3 cup rice vinegar and 1/3 cup dry sherry and a splash of soy sauce. Let it boil and reduce for a while, until it was about 1/3 cup of liquid and chopped stuff. Turned the heat to low and whisked in 1-1/2 sticks butter, one Tbsp at a time. I tasted it and freaked out, because the vinegar taste hit me really hard and I thought it would be terrible! Strained it anyway and hoped for the best. Meanwhile, seasoned the tilapia with salt and pepper, brushed it lightly with evoo and broiled 6 minutes like it says on the bag. Also meanwhile, I cooked jasmine rice in water, soy sauce, and sherry. When it was done I threw in a handful of frozen peas and let it steam! At the end, put rice/peas on the plate with fish, and poured the sauce over. It was really good and didn't have that scary vinegar POW it had when I tasted it on the stovetop. I did notice that I didn't really taste the ginger or garlic, and I think it was a waste to use the scallions like that because I don't think they added anything. Maybe I should have put them on top of the dish at the end instead? The sweet crisp peas really complimented the rich sauce and the texture of the fish and rice. I did undercook some of the fish and had to put my plate in the microwave for 45 seconds but that was the only big mistake. Enough rice/peas leftover to try fried rice for lunch tomorrow!

First success! (Well, I did screw something up, read on.) I made chili without a recipe. Don't laugh, it's a big deal. I poured a little olive oil in a pan, chopped an onion and 3 cloves of garlic and cooked them a while. Then threw in my pound of ground chuck. Ooops, it was still frozen in the middle so that took longer than it should have. I did remember to salt it and add pepper from my new toy...I mean, pepper mill. I now use the preground pepper from the generic container to keep my cats out of the garbage. To drain the meat, I have to pour it through a strainer set on a coffee can because I lose meat down the drain any other way. Then 2 cans diced tomatoes with mild chiles (originally for "Cuban Picadillo"), a can of stewed tomatoes, about 1/2 cup mild salsa that was languishing in my fridge, 1/2 salsa jar of water, and 1/3 cup dry sherry, 1-1/2 tbsp chili powder, 1 tbsp cumin, a few shakes of red pepper flakes. I don't like too much heat. Here's where I went a little wrong. I have been trying to teach myself how to taste food and figure out what it needs. So I tasted it. Too tomatoey. I add more salt. Still too bland. Add more chili powder. Still too bland. Add more cumin. Too bland. Add a ton of red pepper flakes. Nope. Add a ton of salt. A tiny bit better. Dump in some Louisiana Hot Sauce. Hmmmm, still too bland. And on and on until I finally decided to try it after it had cooked for a while. I did so, added a bunch of salt, and it was just right! Hooray! Then I eat a bowl, and boy, is it hotter than I expected! What happened? Still edible and, I think, quite good. I was debating whether to mention this. I have gotten several positive comments about my pantry. That cracks me up because the reason I have such a well-stocked pantry is I have OCD and hoarding food is one of my "things." In Feb-April, I had over 100 lbs of meat in my chest freezer but I was cooking beans every day because "I might need the meat for something." I got over that, but that's why I still have so much meat. I have a hard time passing something in the grocery store if I think I "might" need it. That is why I have coconut milk and canned artichoke hearts, etc. The funny thing is, of course, the way I cook, I wouldn't use it unless I had a recipe calling for it in the first place, in which case it would be in my grocery list anyway. Just wanted to throw that in there, because I think it's funny that the one correct thing I do in the kitchen is a result of being a little wacko!

Well, it's a challenge to me. Otherwise I wouldn't be asking! Now I'm having a hard time even deciding what to make today! I might start off easy with the chili for lunch, and try to make something else from the list for dinner, maybe the fish.

So many awesome ideas, I could probably eat until two Fridays from now. I forgot to mention I also have bacon and eggs! But I already know how to fry an egg, I was hoping to continue learning to cook the other stuff. So I'm drooling over all your suggestions. Honestly, I want to learn to make all of it so far. reesek, Apparently it's a tribute to a recipe from the Silver Palate cookbook. It calls for red wine vinaigrette, olive salad (or blend green olives and capers), garlic, oregano, bay leaves, pitted prunes, chicken tenders, brown sugar, and white wine. I dunno. I was trying to force myself to be more adventurous. I grew up eating tater tot hot dish. My mom won't even use an onion or garlic if a recipe calls for it, she substitutes onion flakes and garlic powder. So you see how far I have come already. I've tried capers, asparagus, chard, balsamic vinegar, and homemade salad dressing for the first time, all in the past two weeks! Chili sounds good, I have several recipes for that. I do have chili powder, cumin, and red pepper flakes. That's a great suggestion! I wouldn't even have to ask for directions. Indian--VERY interesting idea. I made curried potatoes/peas in my vegetarian days, but it was orange and green and mushy and I just couldn't eat more than a few bites. I'd love to know how to make good curry. I have curry powder, turmeric, cumin, and some saffron still sealed in a pouch that I bought several years ago. I'd also LOVE to hear your take on how I could make risotto. I have the arborio rice but have been afraid to attempt it. Seems so many things I try to make just don't turn out like I'd hoped, and I get discouraged! Tarragon chicken salad? Could you tell me what's in that? (Yeah, tarragon and chicken, I know, what else? ) I know chicken strips aren't that great, but I have yet to successfully cook chicken on the bone. Either it's really, really dry, or it's raw in the middle, and I've even had it turn out soggy. I have those legs and thighs--and they're still together, horrors--but have yet to get up the courage to try to cook them again. It sounds like you and Malawry know the same pork butt recipe. I would be very interested in it because I bought those oranges just to eat, but their membranes are really hard to chew through and they aren't very sweet! I would need a little more direction--Malawry said "braise," I didn't know you could braise something that huge. Do I use a roasting pan in the oven? Or my big Crock-Pot? mags, the cottage pie sounds yummy and I'm printing it out, but I am very excited about the turnip recipe. Malawry, I love how you put meals together. That is something I struggle with a lot. I spent years searching out casserole and one-dish meal recipes and that's all I have eaten, with few exceptions, for the past 10 years. Unless I make, say, a flank steak, then that's it. Meat. Dig in! If you're lucky, I'll thaw out some green beans! laurel, thanks for the article. I checked it out. Your recipe sounds really good. hillvalley, the pasta sauce sounds good, kind of like one I tried from "How to Cook Everything," and I liked it very much. I am going to try the pea soup, what seasonings would be good? Anna N, thanks for reading along! You all have no idea how excited I am about cooking something without getting out my 1/2 teaspoons and following a recipe word-for-word. Thank you so much!

This has happened to me three separate times at three different restaurants in Wisconsin (granted, not the most expensive restaurants). I order a burger or steak and the waiter asks me how I want it, and I say "rare" and they tell me they are only allowed to do medium or above, or it's their policy not to serve rare meat. Why even ask me how I want it? If it has to be cooked that long then I'd rather have something else. Actually, thinking about it, it's kind of scary...do they know something about their meat that I don't?

Rsincere - i have that bittman book - and it's great. i think his process for adding new things to a recipe is a really great way to figure out what flavors go together. i think the dinner doctor should go on sabbatical. seriously - tell us what you have around and we can help you make meals that are much tastier, probably less expensive and genuinely homemade. if you save the dinty moore and soup packets - you can turn to them in emergency situations for meals. edited to add: dinner last night was 6 gross waffle fries, and too much bud light. shhh I hope you really meant that, because I'm screwed for the rest of the week. I stubbornly kept cooking my preplanned recipes from that cookbook, but after a beef stroganoff that tasted like onion dip, and turkey hash that tasted like prison food, I gave up! The two recipes I had left were "Mock Chicken Marbella," so I have a pound of chicken breast strips, and "Cuban Picadillo" which called for a pound of ground beef round but I have chuck. For my pantry, I have most spices and staples, along with fresh basil, parsley, tarragon, and thyme. I have canned vegetable stock and tomato sauce/diced tomatoes/tomato paste. I have a ton of garlic and a knob of ginger and 3 shallots and 3 onions and two scallions and four tomatoes and two turnips and a bag of Yukon Gold and some baby red potatoes and some oranges and a lemon. I have an open bottle of red wine and also dry sherry. I don't have milk or cream but I have powdered dry milk and butter and a cup of sour cream. I have vinegars and seasonings like soy sauce and worcestershire. I have tortillas and frozen green beans and frozen peas. I have frozen shredded mozzarella, cheddar, Parmesan. I have arborio rice, jasmine rice, converted rice, and many different kinds of pasta. For plain meat in the freezer besides what I mentioned above, I have 12 oz. tilapia filets, a slab of mystery meat, a round steak, some chicken thighs/legs, some kind of pork butt roast thing, 2 lbs stew meat, 2 lbs chicken breast strips, and I have about every kind of dried bean they have at Walmart. I also have $7 to last until Friday, but this should be plenty to eat. Anyone care to help me with my pantry challenge? If this is hijacking the thread, feel free to PM me!

spend the day eating nothing but cheetos and chocolate OR, for PMS, Ben & Jerry's choc chip cookie dough.

NeroW, you crack me up. Toliver and mags, you are right, the cookbook is "The Dinner Doctor." I bought it because I was reading a message board where they were making fun of Sandra Lee. Someone on the board mentioned that the Dinner Doctor lady took the same kind of concept, but did it much better than SL does. I bought the book thinking it was more along the lines of Rachael Ray, meaning that the processed foods would be canned tomatoes, canned beans, pre-shredded cheese, pre-shredded cabbage, tortillas, stuff like that. I am trying to learn to cook from scratch. However, because of a disability, I go through weeks where I will not cook at all. During those weeks, I get very tired of peanut butter on toast, and I am trying to learn of fresh and healthy things that I might be up to making at those times. I am just so sick of and grossed out by processed food at this point. Even Cheetos have lost their appeal, as I have had too many "dinners" where that's all I ate because that's all I had available. (Sacrilege!) It wasn't until I brought the Dinner Doctor book home when I saw the recipes involving canned soup and dried onion dip and the like. I was disappointed, because I have all sorts of cookbooks like that and I'm trying to get away from that and learn how to cook real, healthy food. She does have quite a few recipes that aren't bad, but I definitely hit on two bad ones in a row! I am not experienced enough to look at a recipe for peanut sauce that includes red wine vinaigrette and say, "That doesn't look right." I had never even tasted red wine vinaigrette before. I had to make it to realize it was terrible. On the other hand, I did know that it was stupid to brown stew meat and onion, add broth and turnips and carrots and red wine, cook it, and then thicken it with Dinty Moore! mags, I will check out that Minimalist book. That sounds like something I could use. I did buy his book "How to Cook Everything" and I'm actually reading it cover to cover right now. My next two-week menu will probably be all recipes from that. I also went to the library yesterday and checked out a cookbook by the same person who wrote the Silver Palate, I think it's called Good Food or something like that. Sorry for rambling. Today I made a recipe from the Dinner Doctor that was good. It was a mixture of black beans, salsa, corn, bell pepper, canned tomatoes, and cumin, layered with tortillas and cheese and then baked.

Hmmm...there was 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, 3 Tbsp sherry, 2 tsp sugar, and 2 Tbsp cornstarch. It was all nicely mixed when I poured it in, a tan color. It didn't stay that way! RSincere-- How long did you let it cook out once you added the cornstarch? Cornstarch needs to cook out (at at least a near-boil) for about a minute. I cooked it for several minutes, adding water, trying to thin it out. It wasn't boiling during those several minutes. Just sitting there in brown gooey lumps. mags, don't say that about that cookbook! I just bought it and I wrote in it so now I won't even get much for it on eBay. And the worst of it is, I do my menus 2 weeks in advance, and I pick out 10 recipes to try for the next 2 weeks. All my 10 recipes are from this book, and I have all the ingredients for these specific recipes. Five more to go before I can switch to a better cookbook. I did a beef stew recipe from the same book tonight. It had the basic stew ingredients, turnips, carrots, etc. but the recipe called for using a can of beef stew like Dinty Moore to thicken up the stew, if that makes any sense. I didn't do that, instead I used another can of broth and some extra flour and let it cook longer. It wasn't very thick so I dumped a few handfuls of mashed potato flakes in it. It actually turned out okay.

I'd like to try something I saw on Food Network--a poached egg on a salad, also mentioned upthread. Is there a traditional way to make this salad? I'm still somewhat recipe-dependent.

Well, crap. I do now have two jars of capers in my fridge. One says "Capers" and it's the big ones that aren't really round, and the other says "Nonpareil capers" and it's the little round ones that look like gallstones. They are both by the same company--Roland, I think--and both jars were $1.29. Now, I have these Vlasic pepper stacker things and it says it's roasted red pepper strips. They are in liquid that includes corn syrup, though. The jar says to put them on sandwiches. Am I right that this isn't what I should use when the recipe calls for jarred roasted red peppers? By the way, I live in a small town in Wisconsin, the "best" grocery store here being Super Walmart. I am finding more things when I go to a larger grocery store in Madison.

Thanks, mags. Maybe it's just a bad recipe. I'm starting to wonder about that cookbook anyway. Today I made sesame peanut noodles out of the same book (Dinner Doctor) and the peanut sauce was vile. I have made much better peanut sauce than that, wish I knew what cookbook I got the good recipe from. This recipe called for a cup of bottled red wine vinaigrette. I followed the recipe, and the sauce was disgusting, too sweet and vinegary, so I added more peanut butter and more salt but it never did get very good. I might check out that book you mentioned. I wasn't specifically looking to cook Chinese food, I was just trying out this new cookbook and that was one of the recipes I picked. Susan in FL, that food looks so good!

I will never again... Buy fresh sausage with chunks of apple in it from the butcher, leave it in a plastic bag in my fridge for a week, then cook and (attempt to) eat it. Take a Jennie-O turkey roast out of my chest freezer in the garage, set it on a shelf as I put the rest of the stuff back in the freezer, and then leave it on the shelf, in the middle of summer. Four days later..."What died in here?" Eat large amounts of raw broccoli and cauliflower...30 minutes later, I had myself convinced I was having a heart attack, and was debating going to the hospital. As to what was truly ailing me, you'll have to use your imagination. I didn't know.

Hmmm...there was 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, 3 Tbsp sherry, 2 tsp sugar, and 2 Tbsp cornstarch. It was all nicely mixed when I poured it in, a tan color. It didn't stay that way!

Thanks, NeroW! Today I made "Chinese Chicken" from The Dinner Doctor cookbook. It didn't turn out very well. The chicken breast pieces marinate in a soy sauce, sherry, sugar, water, cornstarch combination. Then you remove the chicken from the marinade, and brown it. That part was okay. But then the recipe said to dump the marinade in the pan, then turn the heat to medium low, and cook until it thickens. Well, I dumped the marinade in and it instantly turned into gross, thick, gobs of brown goo with little whitish specks in it. I turned the heat down right away and added some water and tried to make the sauce look like sauce, and it improved a little bit, but it never did turn into a nice sauce. It was a little too strong as well. If I would have remembered to taste it before serving, I would have known to add even more water. On the plus side, it was edible! Also, I made Jasmine rice with instructions off of the Internet, but I added soy sauce, chicken base, and sherry to the water. That made me nervous because I was improvising, but it turned out pretty well!

But when you do it that way, how do you keep it from getting really overcooked on the outside and still flat-out raw in the middle? I like my meat really rare, but burnt on the outside and cold in the middle is not what I'm aiming for. That happened to me when I tried to do them like Sara Moulton did on TV, really thick. See, this is why I need to be here. I'm glad you told me this. I do love caramelized onions, I will check out that thread because I don't think I've ever done them right. NEXT QUESTIONS: Any tips on simmering? This sounds stupid, but whenever I have a recipe that says something like "cover and simmer for 20 minutes," I groan. I can't seem to find that space between the liquid just steaming but not bubbling, and a full-on boil. I end up varying between the two states for 20 minutes and hoping that does the trick. I do have a gas stovetop so I can't use the electric burner excuse. My next situation: I used a fork to pierce open the plastic on a container of raw chicken. The fork didn't go into the chicken, but of course the plastic had chicken germs on it or whatever. I went to the sink, turned on the water, and rinsed the fork briefly. Then I absentmindedly used that same fork to stir up a jar of chicken base! The base is kept refrigerated. Do I have to throw away that whole jar? I had just gotten it from Sam's Club. Thank you again, to all who are patient enough to help me with this stuff. I do read a lot and research on my own, if not, my questions would fill pages and pages! It's so wonderful to have experienced people to talk to.

From my Atkins days, I remember that wine is one carb per ounce. For lunch: made a tomato sauce from How To Cook Everything that included three fresh tomatoes, evoo, fresh basil, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper. It is supposed to go on fettucine according to the recipe, but I used spaghetti. Very good, but not very filling. I had leftovers for supper.

Thanks for the responses. I didn't know about the smaller capers. I will look for those the next time I go grocery shopping. About the mystery meat, it's not that it's unidentifiable as meat, it's just that I am not good at figuring out what a cut is supposed to look like, and I can't remember what I bought. From now on, I'll label everything! I'm torn between braising it and throwing it out. It's at least a couple of months old. I just buy the regular ground chuck from my butcher, it's $1.69/lb. I'm assuming that's a pretty high fat content. I think I'm trying to flip it too often. When I put chopped onions in it, maybe I should mince them or grate them? Maybe my chopped pieces are too big? I will try the "ball" trick. I don't have a well-seasoned skillet; I have a hodgepodge of scratched up teflon frying (?) pans from thrift stores and some of my mom's old pots and pans from the '70s. I have learned that I need to use oil I only opened the wine yesterday, so there is still time to freeze it. Thanks again, everyone, for your help.

Hey all, I already introduced myself a little bit in the "What's for Dinner" thread, so here I'll just say that I've been teaching myself to cook for the past 10 years or so, but only cooking meat for the past 2 years. I started with the sub-Sandra Lee style 10 years ago (eccchhhh) and now I'm going through the book "How to Cook Everything" and trying lots of recipes from there. I am very much a slave to a recipe, I am not naturally talented at cooking like most of you seem to be. I have some questions that I haven't found the answer to--it would be great to get some guidance! 1. I tried capers for the first time yesterday. When a recipe calls for 1 tsp. capers, it seems like exactly one caper would fit in a teaspoon. I'm supposed to chop it, right? I mean, duh. But when I do that, it gets kind of pasty and won't "sprinkle" on the top of the food, and you don't taste it. 2. I have a slab of mystery meat in my freezer. It is in a Ziploc baggie, looks to be about a pound to a pound and a quarter. Whatever it is, I wouldn't have paid more than $3/pound for it, and it was most likely on the low end of $2/pound, because I rarely if ever pay more for meat. I don't think it's sirloin, I had some sirloins in another part of the freezer and it doesn't look like those. Any suggestions on how to cook it so as not to waste it? 3. I can't drink alcohol. I opened a bottle of red wine for a pan sauce last night. I only used 3/4 cup. I know you can put it in the fridge, but how fast do I have to use it now? I mean, this bottle will last me a loooooong time, given that most recipes I have call for 1/4 cup here and there. I have read that you can freeze wine in cooking portions, is that true? 4. Why do my hamburgers fall apart in the pan, so I have to serve loose-meat sandwiches? I would like to be able to flavor them. As of now I buy the pre-formed patties, those turn out okay if not a little too well-done. I know I have more questions, but I'll try to annoy y'all in small doses. Thank you!

Lunch: Chicken Piccata from the Dinner Doctor cookbook, with roasted baby red potatoes and these tiny green peppers from one of my container garden plants--they smell and taste like regular green peppers (well, they're better) but they only get to be about four inches long and twice as wide as a jalapeno, then they turn orange. Anyway. Supper: Filet Mignon with red wine sauce from the How to Cook Everything cookbook (except that the meat came with a piece of bacon wrapped around it) on a bed of steamed spinach. I salted the spinach too much and the meat was still raw in spots, but otherwise it was very good--for my cooking anyway!