| Clumsy in the kitchen, that's me. It doesn't stop me | | | | is an understatement. |
| from compulsively watching the cooking channel, | | | | The reason I've never been able to improve my |
| though. I watch, and look at the chefs going through | | | | cooking skills is lack of time. We just won't mention |
| their paces, thinking it should be easy. That is until I | | | | all that time spent in front of the cooking channel, |
| get the ingredient list and try and do it myself. It | | | | since that's dreaming after all. The fact of the matter |
| seems that there is always something missing, a | | | | is that the reason I didn't cook more often or more |
| secret to these restaurant style recipes. Maybe I | | | | complicated things was that I had convinced myself |
| haven't got the right tool, or I can't get that magic | | | | that it would be hard. It isn't, I just had poor |
| ingredient at the supermarket. Then, I think about it | | | | instructions and wild expectations of the tools and |
| some more; what I am really after is something | | | | skills required. |
| more familiar, like from a restaurant close by. Why | | | | A month ago I came across a recipe book called |
| don't they ever seem to cook those recipes? Well, | | | | "America's Most Wanted Recipes". It turned out to |
| of course, if you could cook them at home you | | | | be a book with a whole heap of chain restaurant |
| wouldn't need to go out. | | | | recipes in it. Since it was a download, and relatively |
| The chain restaurants all have their own signature | | | | cheap, I added it to my collection. At least it wasn't |
| dishes, and the way they are prepared is shrouded in | | | | gathering dust on the shelf like most of my other |
| secrecy. If you were to ask the people who work in | | | | cookbooks. I got curious and scanned through it. I |
| the kitchens, they'd tell you that they don't even | | | | was surprised at what I saw. The recipes looked |
| know what the ingredients of the secret sauce is, | | | | easy enough. There wasn't anything fancy about |
| because it comes ready prepared. The owners don't | | | | most of them...and then I tried Applebee's Babyback |
| want to give the game away. | | | | Ribs. |
| Given that, you'd think that the recipes were hard to | | | | I think I may have to revise my three favorite |
| prepare, and in fact that is exactly what I thought. | | | | recipes. It was easy. I was wrong and cooking is |
| They'd need some obscure ingredient, or even | | | | easy, especially the secret restaurant recipes. Even I |
| worse, something not available in the supermarket. | | | | managed to do it! If you want a great cookbook, |
| And then, of course, there is the whole assembly to | | | | give "America's Most Wanted Recipes" a go, and you |
| think of. I fully admit to my friends that I have three | | | | won't be disappointed, even if you are like me and |
| favorite recipes: Add boiling water; heat in microwave | | | | clumsy in the kitchen. |
| or heat in oven. To say my cooking skills are lacking | | | | |