Finding Good Tasty Food

I am not a professional chef. I am not a recipe writer. I am not a professional critic. What I am is a wife and mother to a husband and three hungry young boys. Caring for my family is my full-time job and it is very important to me. I enjoy trying new recipes and getting out of our eating routine. I try to feed my family nutritious meals most of the time, but we do enjoy splurging from time to time and having our desserts too.

I am a big fan of cookbooks, cooking shows, cooking blogs and browsing through recipes. As I look through and try new recipes and cookbooks I will share them here. I will rate them in various categories based on my and my families responses to each.

1. I will time myself from beginning to end to see how long the recipes take and if they match any projected time frame.
2. I will evaluate how many servings are provided based on the recipe size and how well it serves my family.
3. I will evaluate how costly the ingredients were and if the taste warranted any extra costs.
4. The overall taste of the dish and enjoyment by myself and members of my family.
5. How the leftovers taste, can this meal be served again?
6. Will we add this recipe to our family's regular dinner rotation?

I also have a set of ground rules that I plan to stick to as I go through this process. Once in a while, I may have to deviate but will say so if I do.

1. I will try at least one recipe from each section of the cookbooks. This should give a good sample of the recipes in each book.
2. I will follow all the directions as closely as possible for each recipe. However, I will not be purchasing any new kitchen equipment just for a cookbook direction unless it was planned anyway.
3. I will stick as closely as possible to using the ingredients listed in the cookbook without having to go to specialty stores or ordering ingredients online.


I am hoping that this will help me find new meals for my whole family to enjoy on a regular basis. Please read come along with me on this journey and let me know what your favorite recipes are. Which cookbook should I try next?