Cooking: It Ain’t Rocket Science

If you can read, you can cook! “Cooking: It Ain’t Rocket Science” takes you behind the kitchen counter and teaches you how to master sophisticated recipes, using a ridiculously easy step-by-step method. Series One: Baking: Desserts, Pastry & Bread demystifies dough, introduces new and exciting desserts and makes you and your culinary creations the star.

Work with ingredients you can pronounce, products available in most towns, and there’s no need to apply for a passport to shop for exotic items to stock your shelves. “Cooking: It Ain’t Rocket Science” deconstructs complicated recipes, pulls them apart and shows you how to put them back together again, logically and easily.

WHY ANOTHER COOKBOOK SERIES?

Why am I writing this book? Because a long time ago I discovered that cooking was cheaper than therapy, and believe me, I’ve been down that road!

It all started when I was a newly married 22-year-old. I walked into a supermarket and wandered around totally ignorant of what ingredients I needed to make a meal. I didn’t know a rump roast from a porterhouse steak, or a macaron from a macaroon.

I worked up the guts to ask another shopper for advice. When I confessed that I didn’t know how to cook, she looked at me as only a Jewish mother could, rolled her eyes as only a Jewish mother could, and simply said: “If you can read, you can cook.”

I started reading. The only cookbook I had was the “Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery,” which my mother had collected for me in the local grocery store. This little treasure started me on my cooking journey, and through the years I’ve graduated from that to Mary Berry, Michel Roux, Sr and Jr., Martha Stewart, Rosso and Lukins, James Martin, and at the top of my list, Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” Julia is my muse. She sits on my shoulder whenever I’m in the kitchen and guides me.

“Cooking: It Ain’t Rocket Science” is designed to make cooking any portion of your meal foolproof.

Our goal:

• To encourage the rookie.

• To enlighten the home cook who’s finally found a reason to take the cashmere sweaters out of the oven and to use the appliance for more than storage.

• To teach you how to explore recipes without the stress of impending doom or having to learn another language.

• To accept as delicious anything new that comes out of your kitchen. To take the complexity out of cooking by using simple language.

• To turn recipes into logical step-by-step processes.

AND A FINAL HINT: Read the recipes twice! Surprises aren’t welcomed in the kitchen, especially for a rookie cook. But you won’t be a rookie for long.

The result: happiness and pride on a plate.

Now, put on an apron, tuck a dish towel into the waist, turn on a favorite CD, pour a glass of wine and enter the land of serenity. When you emerge from your haze, a magnificent new dish will be ready to eat, and you’ll marvel at how easy it was. You may even have some wine left over to serve with your delicious meal!

Enjoy the adventure!