We all have to eat, right? So it stands to reason that we all ought to learn to cook. I’m thoroughly scandalized by how many young women don’t know how to cook. Being butch is no excuse for not being able to cook. Lee Lynch, along with Nel Ward, Sue Hardesty and Marion Moir wrote the book, literally, on butches cooking. It’s called the butch cook book. I will confess that I haven’t read the book yet. But Lee is darling and sexy and you should go buy her book. In any event, reader reviews say it’s great. Between the Lines wrote a review of it with a sample recipe, so go over and check it out.

There isn’t a femme equivalent book that I could find. Perhaps that’s because it’s assumed that all femmes learn how to cook from their mothers. Ha. I learned how to cook by getting my first apartment and needing to eat something besides take out food. The Butch Cookbook is okay for femmes to read, too!
One cookbook and one source for recipes isn’t enough for anyone, no matter how sexy the author of the cookbook, so I probably ought to give you some other options, too.

A big part of learning to cook is gaining confidence in your abilities. A good way to do that is to start simple. My first cookbook was The I Hate to Cook Book: More Than 180 Quick and Easy Recipes: Fun to Read, Simple to Use (CBD77750C, D777CB). There were yummy, simple recipes that you could make even if you had never set foot in a kitchen before.

There are great websites out there that have recipes that are simple to follow and will help you gain confidence. For example, you can look at companies whose products you use as a starting point. Of course all of the recipes feature that company’s products but the recipes are simple and easy for a beginner to follow.

  • Kraft Foods. You can sign up to get their enewsletter and their print magazine, both free. I get them both and they are very good.
  • Stonyfield Farms is an organic yogurt company with excellent smoothie recipes, among other things.
  • Swanson Broth has yummy soup recipes. Using cannned broth is a great way for a beginning cook to make homemade soup. In fact, I’ve been cooking for years and I still do. I just like it better than homemade, which is practically a sacrilege among cooks.
  • Delmonte is also a favorite. I’ve been making variations on a dish of theirs for years. I took their recipe, adapted it to suit me, then modified it further by taking it from chili to beans and rice. We’ll talk about that in future posts.

Once you make a few things successfully, you’ll start to feel more confident in experimenting or trying more difficult recipes.I’ll add recipes every now and again, too. What recipes do you want? Leave me a comment and let me know!