I’m old school and rely on Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything. (There’s a vegetarian version too!) The recipes are simple, he talks about the history of foods and how best to prep stuff ahead of time, and lists of staples to keep around the house so you can always make a tasty meal.

I love rice vinegar! I started making bento box recipes for lunch and there’s a lot of rice vinegar action. http://justbento.com/recipes

Thanks, man! It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when the purple starts to fade out of the yellow-orange base. I’ve only ever done blues/blue-green and magentas and reds before, soooo...

I watched the doc “In Search of General Tso” and became obsessed with making this recipe. For omnivores, sub chicken for the tofu. I usually use chickpeas. The sauce is good, sticky and sweet :)

That’s a basic misunderstanding of the science behind hair chemicals on their part: if a perm is timed and neutralized correctly the bonds that give hair its new curlier shape are altered forever. You can only get it to loosen up a bit by conditioning right away because there are always a few weaker bonds still there…

(ok, now I am officially stalking you. Sorry!)

No problem! Another super easy thing is just melting butter in a saucepan and adding garlic and herbs. Quick, easy, and you can do it in the pasta pot after draining!

I see you are grilling proteins! I have a SUPER easy marinade for poultry or fish.

I will look up Thug Kitchen, thanks!

Do you know anyone who has had it done successfully? I would LOVE if this worked because then I will do it for sure.

I genuinely think Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is a cookbook every person should own. But it’s kinda pricey and it has a website!

I love Thug Kitchen for sauces, and I also get a lot of ideas from Vegetarian Times (my partner isn’t veg, so we use the same sauce and cook our protein separately. Usually though, I just type my ingredients into google and pick from the recipes that pop up.

In my opinion, sauce can be pretty easy. If you cook your meat in a skillet, especially if you season said meat before cooking, you can “deglaze” the pan by adding liquid to make a sauce. I usually make pan gravy (whisk 1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter with 1 tablespoon flour until smooth, whisk in 1 cup of milk…

Check your local school system’s continuing ed calendar for cooking classes. Also, sometimes Williams-Sonoma will have cooking classes, sometimes they offer sauces.

If you can afford it, I love Blue Apron. It has really reinvigorated my cooking, and it is fun to cook with Mr. Smuttins, who is a bit better than me! There are so many new things to try - dried limes, pickled Meyer lemons, specially made lamb sausages, spice blends - it makes me so excited to get my mail!

Look to see if there are beginner’s classes at any sort of culinary institution out there. I did a pair of 6-week culinary courses for beginners, and I was amazed at how much I learned. Like, even stupid stuff that you think you wouldn’t need, like an entire 3-hour course on how to properly hold a chef’s knife. Really…

Try googling “homemade sauces” or something like that.

I am, but we’ve been shorthanded at work, so no time to do anything.

Oh! This reminds me about a problem I always encounter with sauces that I do attempt. They never thicken up, they stay watery, always. Is this flour related? I think I’ve tried corn starch and flour in the past. Or is the temperature part really important here?

Any advice for good, simple cooking tutorials? I realized I eat the same 3-4 things over and over again. I’m not actually sick of any of it but I realized I should probably expand my skills a bit. I only recently realized how few things I can cook considering how long I’ve been on my own!