Cooking: Cooking for Beginners

Kitchen Literacy takes us from an eighteenth-century garden to today's sleek supermarket aisles, and eventually to farmer's markets that are now enjoying a resurgence. As the distance between farm and table grew, we went from knowing particular places and specific stories behind our foods' origins to instead relying on advertisers' claims. Though the hidden costs of modern meals can be high, Vileisis shows that greater understanding can lead consumers to healthier and more sustainable choices.

Helps you begin cooking with confidence, even if you barely know how to boil water. 112 simple and tasty favorites. Includes how-to photos for every recipe, advice on kitchen equipment, a reference to cooking terms, food storage tips, and cooking times and nutrition information.

Whether it's a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, maple-cured bacon sizzling hot from the pan, you know when food tastes good to you. But you may not know why you love some foods and can't tolerate others. You'll learn how your individual biology, genetics, and brain create a personal experience of everything you taste--and how you can make the most of it. Stuckey also provides experiments in which you can discover your unique "taster type" and learn why you react instinctively to certain foods. You'll find ways to improve your ability to discern flavors, detect ingredients, and devise taste combinations in your own kitchen for delectable results.

Fresh herbs offer a healthy and delicious way to spice up any meal, but growing and cooking with these delectable plants are endeavors fraught with uncertainty. What herbs will grow year-round on my kitchen windowsill? What foods complement rosemary? Which part of a lemongrass plant has the best flavor? Can I really eat the geraniums growing in my flower bed? This indispensable guide takes the guesswork out of using herbs in the garden and in the kitchen by providing detailed information for cultivating a wide variety of herbs, along with easy-to-follow recipes that will surely impress even the most discerning palate.

Presents the 10 foods that should be on your plate, including the scientific research on why they will make you healthier and easy-to-follow recipes to savor them at every meal. Each chapter will be devoted to a new food from the list -- cinnamon, beets, quinoa, nuts, wild salmon, berries, tomatoes, spinach, avocado, cabbage and some honorable mentions, including pomegranate, turmeric, Sicilian wine and more -- which have been proven to help prevent early onset of aging, cancer, or general fatigue, among other health benefits.