Wow, is Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything great. Highly recommended.

I have been doing a lot of cooking. I never cooked before we moved back to Silicon Valley. Well, I may have put one or two things in the oven, but usually they came in tin trays—mix stuff myself? are you kidding? My mom never let me near the kitchen (still doesn’t, in her house). I still have to check The Joy Of Cooking every time I want to make a soft-boiled egg. What we did in Los Angeles was get a lot of delivery and go out to eat a lot. Periodically Darin would cook. It was all pretty easy.

Then in June 2003 we moved.

Darin was no longer at home come mealtimes—he was coming in from the office, which around 6pm adds 20 or 30 minutes to when he’s actually home. The kids are at the age where going out is way more hassle than it’s worth. And I can’t get delivery (mostly because no one delivers) or go out to eat all the time, the way we used to. We don’t have the money any more, for one thing. (That’s the funny sort of thing that happens when your mortgage doubles.)

So I’ve been cooking.

I started small, using extremely basic recipes. I’m sure Darin started to be afraid of coming home to yet another meal of baked fish & spaetzle & roasted asparagus, but I knew how to cook those things. I’ve added new things here and there. I’m not by any stretch of the imagination planning on opening my own bistro or anything, but I have gotten high praise indeed for many of my dishes from Darin and my brothers-in-law and our friend Rob, foodies all who seem to enjoy the dinners I put together.

And how did I accomplish this?
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