Welcome to Just One Cook, the blog

Hi!

First, thanks to my niece Lisa for suggesting that I start a blog to share my recipe experiments. It should be easier for more of my friends to look at and share with their friends.

I called it Just One Cook because that's what I am. I'm certainly not a trained chef; the last cooking class I took was in junior high. And the "One" part is a signal that most of the time, I'm cooking for one person. That can be hard to do, and there are almost always some leftovers; I try to be creative with leftovers, but I certainly don't like making a recipe that serves eight people and having to deal with that. I do like taking some meals to work and am not opposed to putting some meals in the freezer to reheat later, although really I prefer freshly cooked food every day. Who doesn't?

My idea here is to simply to share recipes that work for me. That means for the most part that they are not terribly complicated, don't take a lot of time, don't take a lot of equipment and don't require a trip to an exotic food store. Most of the recipes I come up with will be based on ingredients that I always keep on hand (i.e., staples), augmented with whatever I happen to have on hand (i.e., things I need to use up before they turn to compost), augmented with a couple of things I just bought (usually the protein part and some fresh produce).

I won't be copying any out of books or the Internet, but rather what I've come up with on my own. Of course, some of the things I prepare are inspired by meals I've eaten or recipes I've read or even seen on TV, but as I am genetically incapable of following a recipe exactly, these are my own "riffs" and definitely my commentary!

Instead of starting with a list of ingredients, I'm including them in the narrative but trying to make it easy to pick them out if you are doing a quick scan to see what is involved. I'm also trying to mention what I would substitute if I didn't happen to have a particular thing on hand. You will notice that I'm big on substitutions. I like to play with my food!

As I get into this, I plan to add elements such as basic equipment needs, what I mean by "ingredients I always keep on hand," and even "things I've learned the hard way."