Allrecipes.com My Favorite!

This is my all-time favorite website for looking for recipes. You can type in a key word, or you can click on the link at the top that says "Ingredients" and look for recipes with the ingredients you have, and even ones that you don't want. But remember less, is more, the less keywords you put the more recipes your search will give you. Too specific might not give you any recipes at all.

This website has other features if you're a member too, you can save the recipes you like in your "Recipes box", add pictures of your own; or even review the recipe. But my favorite part of all is being able to read the reviews, this part is available to you whether you are a member or not. Reading the reviews gives you great ideas on what worked for people in the recipe and what didn't, or even tricks that they used to make the whole cooking process much easier. Whenever reading the reviews however make sure you read more than one. There's no accounting for taste, so balance out a 5 star review with a 1 star review, because chances are you will want to know what both of these people had to say, even if they might not share your same tastes.

Good luck, and happy cooking!

Don't let the recipe be the boss

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about good cooking is that it follows the recipe word for word. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Good cooking is about making the recipe yours, adding the spices you like to enjoy, and substituting ingredients and their amounts depending on your tastes and what you have in the kitchen.

For example, here's the inspirational recipe for my Italian hummus:

1 cup non-fat cottage cheese

1 (15.5 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained

1 bunch fresh basil, chopped

1 pint grape tomatoes, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Italian-Hummus/Detail.aspx

The comments for the recipe said that it was too watery and more like a soup, and that it had too much basil. I wouldn't know if these are true or not, for I just took inspiration from the combination of ingredients and started adding things together until I came up with my own recipe. Even in my recipe the measurements are just an approximation, you have to add or subtract what tastes right to YOU. Here's my version again so you can compare them:

1 can cannellini beans
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves (loosely packed)
1/3 cup of canned tomatoes
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
2 tablespoons of sour cream (or more to taste)
1 garlic clove
Olive oil
Water
Salt and pepper

One simple substitution for this recipe, was the sour cream for the cottage cheese. We didn't have cottage cheese, and that wasn't going to stop us, so we decided sour cream would taste better anyways. We also added canned tomatoes instead of grape tomatoes, fresh ingredients are great, but we're on a college budget here, so let's get real.

Conclusion: A cook using recipes is like an architect using blueprints, it's a guide but the building is not set in stone yet. Use your creative freedom. Remember, cooking is an art.