Keeping House : Cooking

While I was growing up it was typically my father who did all the cooking, when I became old enough to cook it was my father who came to me to try and teach me. Unfortunately I lacked the patience and interest to absorb much. If I have a nice recipe I can make wonderful chocolate cakes from scratch, but I am completely lost when it comes to "real food" seasoning.

I think part of my reluctance to learn how to cook had to do with not wanting to end up "just a housewife." Somehow I failed to realize that everyone should have at least some basic cooking skills, and now that I am actually in a position to happily accept my current housewife status, I figure it's time to start cooking!

Tools in my kitchen that I feel are very important

When we first got our own place, we were somewhat lacking in cookware. But I really didn't know what I needed. Some pots? Some pans? Um, a mixer thingy? The following is a list of kitchen tools I found very helpful. None are very expensive, and it's easy to "buy them as you go" so to speak.

• 3 pots, small, medium and large sizes
• A 9x13inch baking pan
• An 8x8 inch baking pan
• A cookie sheet (or two!)
• Hand held mixer
• Spatula
• Rolling pin
• Toaster or toaster oven (I prefer a toaster oven)
• At least one large, sharp knife
• Strainer
• A mixing bowl (or two, I have two of different sizes)
• Cutting board
• Simple hand-held cheese shredder

Foods I keep stocked in my kitchen

• Milk - I don't drink much milk, but there are all sorts of recipes that ask for some, so I just buy a small amount every 2 weeks or so
• Flour - I never really had this around, but it's great for making tortillas, biscuits, all sorts of things. You can store it in the freezer if you don't think you'll use it much.
• Baking soda
• Baking powder
• Sugar
• Pasta - always good for a quick, inexpensive meal
• Jar of tomato sauce - Until I get good at making my own, I just buy stuff from the grocery store, I go with more expensive ones rather than sweet prego and ragu, yuck!
• Sour Cream - Somehow I go through a lot of this, on tacos, on baked potatoes...
• Sharp cheddar block - Cheese is tastey when you use a hand held cheese shredder, for tacos, nachos, baked potatoes, veggies
• Parmesan block - shred this with hand-held shredder, very good on pasta (romano cheese too if you happen to like that, I don't)
• Salt
• Vegetable oil
• Eggs - they keep for a while, if you don't think you'll use many you can buy them 6 at a time
• Lettuce and tomato - a wonderful, and inexpensive way to "dress up" any sandwich, also good for quick salads
• Broccoli - good just steamed with rice, or with baked potatoes, or in salads...
• Potatoes - these are very inexpensive (usually around $3 for a 5 pound bag), they keep for a while, and are great for all sorts of things, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, potato salad...
• French fries - I tend to buy these by the prepackaged bag in the grocery store, nice addition to lots of quick means (fish sticks, burgers)
• Burgers - Whether it's veggie burgers (my favorite are Boca) or ground beef/turkey, this is a quick and easy meal.
• Bread crumbs - good for easy chicken coating, or my favorite, coating eggplant for eggplant parmesan
• Garlic powder - for garlic bread, and any other things you might want to add garlic to