To Cook or Not to Cook?

So over the past few years I have only dabbled in cooking. When I say dabbling I mean I would under-cook chicken and cook steak until it was medium burnt.. There were some upsides to my dabbling, like with making chicken wings and producing a mighty fine Chicken Marsala. Those occasional wins were good and kept me trying but I really excelled during the holiday cooking when I got to make a turkey or ham and some sides. Those meals were a lot of fun to plan, prep, and execute. It felt like a perfectly timed orchestral movement once the "plan" was set into motion. The Turkey would be put in a brine and soak over night then it would be prepped early the next morning an popped into the oven for hours. While waiting I would prepare all of the fixings and inevitably the timers would count down to 0 and it would be time to eat. This meal was an accomplishment that produced immediate rewards (followed by over eating and sleepiness). Needless to say it made me want to cook more and more, to produce something delicious from a smattering of seemingly unrelated items. Is was hooked!

The search began for resources to put into use creating the next meal. I started where I think a lot of budding  home cooks start, All Recipes! This site is great and jam packed with so many recipes that there is no way you could try them all in your lifetime. I joined the site and tried many of its features, I especially liked the the shopping list creator and meal planner.

Here are two of the recipes My family and I liked the most:

Easy Tuscan Chicken

Chicken Pot Pie

Although I only posted two here I have tried upwards of 20 from this site with very degrees of success. But I would say most of them came out pretty nice and made for tasty meals!

Finding time tested and family approved recipes for meals can be daunting but having a resource like All Recipes to peruse before taking the plunge is a great tool to have in the shed. Just remember to be picky and look for the recipes that you think are going to be the most successful for your situation and above all when you cook something and it turns out to be awful don't give up just try something different next time. As of today 8/19/2013 at 8:54 CST there are  to choose from!