USEFUL WEBSITES

There is an overwhelming number of food blogs, and many of them are very good. These are a few I have found to be especially helpful. Many of the recipes on this blog come from these sources:

1. Cook's Country / America's Test Kitchen / Cook's Illustrated (all the same people, just three different websites). I'm not exaggerating when I say I feel like these people taught me how to cook. I certainly learned a lot from family members as well, but as far as my own day-to-day learning and recipe experimentation, most of what I know comes from these cooks. They are a group of professionally trained chefs that test and re-test thousands of recipes until they come up with the "perfect" version. The best part about their recipes is that they are incredibly well-written, very thorough, very easy to understand, and designed specifically for the home cook. They have two PBS TV shows that air every Saturday afternoon (America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country) and the recipes from the current season are free. Fair warning: the rest of the recipes require a paid yearly subscription. Worth every dime! I subscribe to the Cook's Country and Cook's Illustrated websites. You can try anything on the website out for free for two weeks to see if you like it. I own several of their cookbooks as well.

They have a free "How to Cook" section of their website that is very helpful and I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.cookscountry.com/how-to-cook/. 

They also have equipment reviews of common and not-so-common cooking gadgets and tools that I have used more times than I can count when looking to purchase new things.

2. The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Ree Drummond is a city-girl-turned-country-mother-of-four and her recipes are great. Her portion sizes are enormous, so be forewarned about that. Every recipe is accompanied by step-by-step photos that take out the "Is that was this is supposed to look like?" questions that inevitably arise when trying new recipes out. Her recipes are very down-home and crowd-pleasing.

3. Our Best Bites. A couple of LDS girls collaborate on this site and have a little bit of everything from main dishes to sides to desserts to even party and craft ideas. I haven't used their recipes super extensively but what I have tried, I have liked. They are largely quick and easy and kid-friendly.

4. Mel's Kitchen Cafe. Many of her recipes come from the America's Test Kitchen people so that immediately drew me to her, and she also has many she came up with herself. They are easy to make and very crowd-pleasing. The website has two quick-link buttons that link you to her make-ahead recipes and her 30-minute recipes, both of which she is adding to all the time.

5. Pinterest. More recipes than you could ever possibly cook through, but it will make you want to try.