Let’s continue our Rookie Cook lessons with 106 – Herbs and spices.

Basil – beans, eggs, fish, pasta, pesto, poultry, soups, stews, rice, tomatoes and vegetables such as zucchini and eggplant.

Chives – cheese, creamy soups, eggs, herb butters potatoes, salads, stir fries.

Coriander – Asian cooking, curries, salads, salsas.

Dill – fish, pickled cucumbers, potatoes, salads.

Marjoram – chicken, fish, omelets, seafood, soups and stews.

Oregano - beans, herb butter, salad dressings, soups, tomato-based sauces, vinegars.

Parsley – chicken, egg dishes, fish, pasta, salads, soups, vegetables.

Rosemary –  breads, meat (especially lamb), potatoes, tomato-based sauces.

Sage - breads, chowder, fish, pork.

Thyme - meat such as veal and lamb, soups, stews, tomato-based sauces.

During my quest to learn more about spices and herbs, I’ve discovered a website that has a spices primer. You can learn more about various spices by clicking on the links on the right side of the website.

Do you have tips and tricks to share with me and readers about the usage of spices? Do you have a special blend you came up with and love to use here, there and everywhere? Don’t be shy, share with us your spices and herbs experiments in comments below!

I looked for a way to increase my fruit and dairy intake easily and was pointed by a few friends in the direction of smoothies.

Let’s continue our Rookie Cook lessons with 105 – Smoothies.

Lucky for me, smoothies are extremely easy to make. Actually, the longest and most complicated part of the recipe is the cleaning of my smoothie maker!

The first time I made smoothies, I tried to follow a recipe given to me by a friend. However, over the years, I’ve learned not to follow smoothie recipes at all. I use instinct and what’s available in the fridge/freezer. It actually helped me clean out the refrigerator a few times when all was left in there were things like milk, yogurt and frozen fruits.

One of my favorite smoothie is made of a cup of plain yogurt, a banana, about a cup of frozen raspberries, 2 tablespoons or so of peanut butter and a cup of orange juice. It tastes like peanut butter and jam toasts with bananas on top … yummy!

To make smoothies, I mostly use yogurt, milk, soy milk and/or juice mixed with frozen fruits. Personally, I stay away from anything tofu related as I don’t enjoy the taste — somehow I can still taste it even if I try to hide it as much as possible in the recipe.

Do you like to drink smoothies? What are your favorite ones? Is there a trick you know that would definitely hide the smell and taste of tofu in the smoothie? Share your recipes with us below.

Let’s continue our Rookie Cook lessons with 105 – Storage of vegetables.

As it was the case for fruits, it’s nearly impossible for me to list how to store every type of vegetable available in our groceries. Therefore, I picked five for which I’ve found interesting storing information.

Asparagus – Asparagus should never be washed before storing. The best way to keep asparagus fresh as longer as possible is to trim the ends, put them in a jar with about an inch of water, cover with a plastic bag, then store in the fridge.

Carrots - You can keep carrots up to four weeks in the vegetable section of your refrigerator. If they are in a bag, ensure that there are perforations in the bag because, otherwise, the carrots could start to spoil. Carrots should not be placed next to apples, pears or potatoes because they let ethylene out as they ripen, which would give a bitter taste to the carrots.

Celery - This vegetable can be kept up to a week in the refrigerator if placed in a bag with perforations or put in a moist cloth.

Mushrooms – It is best to partially cover fresh mushrooms and place them in the refrigerator crisper. Many sources state that storing mushrooms in paper bags is the best way to store them. You can also freeze or can mushrooms. If you want to learn more about freezing of mushrooms, Michigan State University has a detailed page on the process.

Potatoes – Potatoes should be placed directly in the vegetable section of the fridge with a moist cloth on top. By doing so, you’ll be able to keep your potatoes for up to four weeks. Potatoes can also be stored in a dry, dark and cool storage area.

As you can see, most fruits can be put in the refrigerator or the freezer. To learn more about storage of vegetables, a quick Google search will provide your with hundreds of tips and tricks. You can also check the book suggestions below.

Let’s continue our Rookie Cook lessons with 104 – Storage of fruit.

It’s nearly impossible for me to list how to store every type of fruit available in our groceries nowadays. Therefore, I picked seven for which I’ve found interesting storing information.

Apples – Apples can be kept a few weeks in the fruit section of the refrigerator. To keep apples even longer, you can place them in a cold and moist dark room.

Bananas – Bananas should be kept on the counter and not in the refrigerator. Did you know that you can also put bananas in the freezer? To do so, place them, with peel intact, in a freezer bag (such as Ziploc). These bananas will be ideal for cakes, muffins, purées or shakes.

Kiwis - If you buy kiwis that are still a bit hard to the touch, they can be kept for up to three weeks in the fridge.

Oranges – They can be kept for about a week at room temperature and up to three weeks in the fruit section of your refrigerator.

Pineapples - If the fruit’s skin is hard and green, keep it on the counter at room temperature for a day or two so that the skin goes from green to gold. When diced, pineapple can be kept in the fridge for a few days as long as it is covered by liquid such as pineapple juice and put in an airtight container.

Raspberries – When put in the fridge, raspberries can be kept for two days. They can also be frozen.

Strawberries – It’s better to eat strawberries as soon as possible as they are very fragile. It is best to keep them in the vegetable section of your refrigerator. When placed there, strawberries can be kept for about a week. One source states that if you put sugar on the strawberries before putting them in your fridge, you’ll be able to keep them for longer than a week. Strawberries can be frozen.

As you can see, most fruits can be put in the refrigerator or the freezer. To learn more about storage of fruit, a quick Google search will provide your with hundreds of tips and tricks. You can also check the book suggestions below.

When I was a child, my mother used to make delicious homemade spaghetti sauce. I have fond memories of helping her prepare the ingredients and watch over the pot while it cooked. Unfortunately, she never wrote her recipe on a piece of paper so I am unable to reproduce it.

Being the rookie cook that I am, I never ventured on replicating my mother’s recipe. However, I decided to take on the challenge of making primavera spaghetti sauce (aka vegetarian spaghetti sauce) a few months ago after I bought Kilo Cardio, a book that not only gives you tips about training, motivation when dieting, and eating well, but also offers weekly menus/recipes (for one person), etc.

Making this recipe ended up being an adventure, especially because I thought I had all the ingredients but really didn’t. Luckily, the sauce ended up tasting good nonetheless! It’s just a little bit too … liquidy!

Let’s continue our Rookie Cook lessons with 103 – Making primavera spaghetti sauce.

The recipe, which appears on page 45 of Kilo Cardio, requires the following ingredients:

• ¼ cup of olive oil
• 2 onions, minced
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 green peppers, minced
• 2 red peppers, minced
• 3 cups of mushrooms, sliced
• 5 cups of tomato juice
• 2 table spoons of tomato paste
• 28 oz of braised tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• salt, pepper and thyme to taste

I had everything but the 5 cups of tomato juice, the tomato paste and the braised tomatoes. Well, to be exact, I had 2 cups of tomato juice and 14 oz of braised tomatoes. Of course, being the rookie cook that I am, I started mincing the veggies before I noticed that I had a tomato emergency! And, at the time I decided to try the recipe out, the grocery store was closed. Solution: Improvise! I ended up putting in 2 cups of V8 juice, 1 cup of water, skip the tomato paste and add a few diced tomatoes in the lot.

The preparation is pretty simple:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and brown the onions, garlic, peppers and mushrooms.
2. Add the tomato juice, tomato paste, braised tomatoes and the seasonings. Let simmer for about one hour.

I had loads of fun making this recipe, especially since I had to improvise and didn’t know how the sauce would turn out. The preparation was easy enough for me to follow. The primavera sauce I ended up with was, as I mentioned, a bit too liquidy but it still tastes great. On the plus side, this spaghetti sauce can be frozen.

This adventure in spaghetti sauce making taught me to always ensure I have the needed ingredients before I start prepping the food for a recipe but that improvising can not only be fun but turn out good!

Note that Kilo Cardio is currently only offered in French. I have no idea if they will ever have it translated but considering the success it had when it came out, it wouldn’t surprise me if they do translate it into English down the road.

Let’s begin our Rookie Cook lessons with 102 – Cooking over-easy eggs without having to flip them over.

Here are the steps to follow based on The ‘I Don’t Know How to Cook’ Book:

1. Melt the butter (or alternative) in a frying pan over medium heat. When melted, crack the egg into the frying pan.
2. For “over easy,” let cook until the white is almost done. As the egg cooks, spoon hot fat from the frying pan on top of the egg. The top will cook, but you won’t risk breaking the yolk during the flipping process.

Sadly, the end product, at least for me, was not what I was looking for. I want my over-easy egg to have its yolk intact so *I* can break it when it’s on my plate. What I got instead was a greasy egg with part of the yolk cooked that looked nothing like what a usual over-easy egg looks like. I was quite disappointed. It didn’t taste bad but the fact that I had to spoon hot fat on top of the egg made it taste even more like butter. And with part of the yolk cooked, I didn’t have the joy of breaking the yolk in the plate to dip my toast into it.

I haven’t tried this tip a second time because I was too disappointed with the end results. So, I didn’t pass lesson 102 yet and I haven’t bought the right pan and spatula to flip the eggs properly.

Do you have a tip I could try to make over-easy eggs without flipping them? Have you tried the tip I mentioned in this post? If so, what results did you get? Share your experiences and tips with us by commenting below. You may help me pass this critical lesson!

Before any cooking can take place, it’s important to get set up. This step requires gathering basic ingredients and accessories. Let’s begin our Rookie Cook lessons with 101 – Getting Set Up.

Books and websites do not all agree with the basic ingredients and accessories needed to learn how to cook. Below are the items I ensured I had before embarking on my cooking learning experience.

Basic Ingredients

• Baking powder
• Butter, unsalted
• Cornflour
• Eggs
• Flour
• Fruits, dried, frozen
• Honey
• Milk
• Noodles
• Nuts, unsalted
• Oils, olive, sesame, vegetable
• Pasta
• Rice
• Soy sauce
• Spices/Herbs (I actually bought one of those spice racks that comes with bottles already filled with the basic spices)
• Sugar, brown, white
• Tabasco sauce
• Tomatoes, paste, diced, whole in cans
• Vegetables, cans, frozen
• Vinegars, white wine, red wine, brown, balsamic
• Worcestershire sauce
• Yeast
  

Accessories

• Aluminum foil
• Baking dish
• Blender
• Casserole dish
• Colander
• Cutting board
• Food processor
  
• Frying pan
• Grater
• Knives
• Ladle
• Large metal spoon
• Measuring spoons and cups
• Mixing bowls
• Muffin pan
• Parchment paper
• Peeler
• Rectangular pan
• Rolling pin
• Round cake pan
• Saucepans
• Spatulas
• Timer
• Tongs
• Wax paper
• Whisk
• Wooden spoon

You may wonder why I chose the following ingredients and accessories? Simple, since I don’t know much about cooking, I went with what was suggested in a book titled “Cooking: A Common Sense Guide” and with suggestions from some of Martha Stewart’s publications. Of course, before trying a recipe out, I ensure I have all the ingredients.

If you see items missing from my list that are a must in any novice cook kitchen, let us know by commenting below.