Looking for cooking

[serenissima]

I'm looking for an LJ community about easy cooking, for people like me who can stir-fry onions or bake a chicken breast with salt & pepper on it but haven't gotten much more advanced than that. I want to broaden my repertoire. The communities I've peeked at tonight all look very low-traffic (some even seem to be abandoned), with the notable exception of cooking, which looks so busy it'd overwhelm me. Besides, the recipes discussed in cooking look a little too involved for me.

There are a few communities that are supposed to be targeted for college students, or for small budgets, etc. meal_help sounds ideal from the description, but there are only three posts in it and four people watching it. I guess if any others are interested, we could stage a sort of takeover....

So. Any thoughts or recommendations?

Comments

[pulplit.livejournal.com]

No one's responded huh?

Well.

It's not an LJ community, but Rachel Ray's cookbook (or she maybe has a few new) has some really great stuff that's totally easy to make.

[breimh.livejournal.com]

Staging a takeover would be interesting to see happen. It doesn't occur very often, though.

What sort of meals do you like, though? Once you mention that, it's easier for Purr and I to swap recipes with you.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I like so many things :)

I am accustomed to cooking stir-frys. If confronted with a piece of meat, I'll slice it up and stir-fry it with chopped vegetables. With fish, sometimes I cook it in a pan on the stove, sometimes I bake it. Steak gets broiled in the oven. Chicken breasts with the bone, or chicken legs, get baked in the oven. But I'm more comfortable stir-frying than baking because I can see what's going on.

I don't have a good feel for how much seasoning to use and I often end up not using enough (better than too much, I figure). Mainly I use salt, black pepper, garlic powder, Lawry's season salt, and soy sauce. I like using freshly minced garlic, but lately it seems I don't cook frequently enough and the garlic cloves just dry out in the refrigerator, and then I have to throw them out. Also I use fresh ginger sometimes. Oh, and I have a bottle of black bean sauce (Chinese, not Mexican) and a jar of oyster sauce. The black bean sauce totally made my beef & zucchini stir-fry from last week -- without it, the dish would have been boring.

I'm not very familiar with herbs. I know basil, dill, parsley, and rosemary, but other than a dash of dried basil every once in a while, I don't cook with them because I don't know how to fit them in. Rosemary usually seems too sweet. Oregano makes me think of pizza. All those are in my cupboard because of Chris. He used them sometimes.