I get a lot more angst out of trying a new recipe these days than a ratio I’ve not tried or experimenting with one I have tried.

Mike is right that this does not come naturally to me and right now I just need a firm hand that says get this, get that because cooking is still a chore in many ways. I know it is hard for non-cooks to see where I am coming from. I have had many cooks tell me what a relaxing happy place the kitchen is, but for me it is not. I am proud of the progress I have made but it is still a battle every day. Hopefully eventually it will just be a skirmish.

I would gladly take food blog recommendations. I am not a foodie by any means so a lot of food blogs have complicated or exotic ingredients or complicated prep (again try to look at it from a non-cook perspective). I like simple down home food but god love the Pioneer Woman she cooks with lots and lots of cream, butter and cheese. I like those things too but when I’m trying to eat healthier it can’t be an every day resource.

I have come to accept (sadly) that there isn’t a magic cookbook or blog out there for me and I’m just going to have to sift through a lot of stuff to find what works for me.

Anyway, enough backstory. Thank you Mike!

Ah, exemplary for Dutch food… Er, unkind folks would say that Dutch cuisine is an oxymoron. Traditional Dutch is heavy peasant food. The soups are good, particularly in Winter, e.g. snert (Google it), but all else is best approached with caution. Modern Dutch I think shows the influence of Indonesian cooking, but I leave that to Martin to do, which he just does without a recipe book.

@Geoff – I seem to recall a blog post or two where you prepared the trifle for a party (or I’m making that up). Thanks for sharing! I’m curious – what would you call out as exemplary for Dutch food or food writing?

@Mom – Funny, I have our old copy of that on the bookshelf at home. I’ll have to pull it down and give it another read, now that I actually cook. (I haven’t read from it in years.)

“Alice’s Restaurant Cookbook” by Alice May Brock is aimed as much as setting the cook free as it is teaching the cook to cook. I know you are thinking, “it was published soooo long ago.” But you can still get it as a used book.

I would add to this: Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. Ratio, Ratio, Ratio. I make all of my pie crusts and cakes and cookies from scratch (still experimenting) and it doesn’t ever occur to me to do otherwise these days. It takes the fear out of baking. Screw recipes!

I’d also recommend that your friend start following some food blogs. I like ones that have regular recipes but I also like the ones that are more along the lines of “I got this ingredient and was wondering, what should I do with it, so I threw some stuff together and it was good.” Those have really helped me get out of the mindset of following recipes and more into the mindset of, “here are foods that might taste good together, let’s do stuff with those.” It’s helped me get a lot more creative.