I started cooking in the mid 70's when my daughter was born - usually on my nights off - since I worked swing shifts. My chidren grew up tolerating Dad's dinners. Mom was good for comfort foods - honey baked chicken, meatloaf, tuna noodle casserole, etc. Some of these came from the recipe box of her mom, Anna Refnes Gaston. My wife also makes excellent pancakes, waffles, and cookies. After our "nest" gradually emptied - Paul and Sarah came and went for a decade - and with my wife working many evenings, I started cooking often since I would frequently get home first. When friends come over - often for Game Nights - or for potlucks, frequently I prepare the food. I enjoy cooking and even find it relaxing after a long day at work.

Often I have less than a hour to get dinner ready. The key is to figure out what to have for dinner early in the day. I generally do the shopping. I try to keep a well stocked pantry, fridge and freezer. We have a open air produce market a block away, though it closes in the winter months. I like trying new things - so sometimes when I get ideas from my books or magazines for something, so I will get the things I need, couple of days ahead. Sometimes I will happen upon something - like fresh fish or something on sale, etc. Sometimes I will just poke around what we have on hand. It is generally a good idea to know what's for dinner or whose cooking the morning before. Then when I get home, I can start right in.

In the Spring of 2007, I started a Kitchen Journal. In it, usually two weeks to a page, I've recorded what I've cooked (mainly for dinner) sometimes with notes as to where I found the recipe, or variations I made to the recipe. There is one 8 month gap in 2009 where I seldom cooked due to my work schedule. I also record our eating out. Sometimes I've filled a past week's entries at the same time, with a bit of head scratching. But having the journal is useful. I can look back through for ideas for dinner. I can look back to find where a recipe was. It also reveals our trends in eating.

In addition to this page, Eldrbarry's Cook Book Pages also has:

• Going "Green": Eating more Leafy Greens - Resources on The Mediterranean Diet, Tasty Vegetarian foods, Growing your own Greens, and Organic Produce in the Everett, Wa. Area
• Cuisines in America: Links and Resources
• Food Revolutions and a History of the Grocery Industry in the Northwest

Here are some of my favorite cookbooks and why..... and coming soon, some of our family's favorite recipes.

First of all, every kitchen needs a "bible" - a book that you can turn to when you have questions on what or how to prepare something.
• Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook is our "bible" for cooking - a wedding present and probably one of our kitchen mainstays - our copy is now bound with duct tape.

• The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer and Marion Becker. Probably one of the best know cook books in the U.S. Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking by Jane Mendelson tells how the book came to be one of the most popular cook books.

• How to Cook Everything: 2,000 Simple Recipes for Great Food by Mark Bittman is one I don't have, but probably a good choice for a today's fledging home cook.

• Jamie Oliver (AKA The Naked Chef) had a recent Food Revolution Show on ABC - a challenge to get back to the kitchen and prepare healthier foods from Scatch. A British TV Chef, he campaigns against the use of processed foods in national schools, and wants to change unhealthy diets and poor cooking habits for better ones across the United Kingdom and the United States by teaching the basics of cooking. His motto is "Cook something today . . . Then Pass it on". Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals is one of his nine cookbooks.

Then there are the books that inspired us to better and healthy eating...

• The book that inspired us in the 70's was More with Less A cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre which I brought home from the RPCES Synod Meetings in Grand Rapids in 1976. Five Hundred recipes from Mennonite kitchens that tell us how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources. Plenty of plain, good recipes using normal ingredients that you would typically have on hand in your kitchen to prepare from scratch nutritious meals that are cost effective and delicious. Lots of our family's favorites came from this book. Probably a must-have!!

• The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters. Her philosophy: buy local, high quality ingredients, and cook them simply. She then proceeds to give very explicit directions on how to cook things. What makes her recipes unique are the variations that she provides for each, and she does a very good job of explaining where you should improvise and where you should not. For more on Alice Waters, see below.

• How to Cook without a Book by Pam Anderson. This book teaches you all sorts of technigues for preparing dishes based on available ingredients and simple cooking techniques with plenty of flexibility to use what you have on hand. Each chapter consists of a simple technique, basic recipe, variations, key points and a little mnemonic device used to recall the technique. Such as Steam - Saute, Pan Sauces, etc. This is another Must Have!!

  This author continues to be a favorite of mine: The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great offers a sensible weight loss strategy - that we have combined with the Flat Belly (or Mediterranean) Diet effectively. She wrote The Perfect Recipe which got her a James Beard Award, The Perfect recipe for having People Over and CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day

• Julia Child and James Beard are two well known cook book writers. Their attitudes towards cooking are a part of their popularity. Julia Child was dedicated to simply good cooking - taking ordinary everyday ingredients and with a bit of love and imagination turning them into something appealing.She is also currently well known because of the movie with Meryl Streep enthusiastically playing the TV chef which was based on a blog turned into the book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell. What Julia Child was to French cooking, James Beard was to American - he had a lifetime of experience with an emphasis on lightness, freshness, flexibility and surprise. I have books by both, haven't used them much, but need to get into them more. Here are a couple that might be useful for novice cooks: James Beard's Simple Foods and Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking. For more elaborate sampling of their cookery try The New James Beard or From Julia Child's Kitchen

• Our copy of Farm Journal Country Cookbook (Now out of print) is quite stained and worn. It has been used a lot.

The Stir Fry Stage - Learning Cooking with a Cleaver and Wok....
In the early 80's, watching Wok with Yan, a TV show with Canadian Chef Stephen Yan inspired me to learn Stir Fry. (His books are now out of print.) It taught me how to "stir fry": i.e. how to cut veggies with a cleaver, mix up a sauce with tapioca starch, cook in a wok. Stir Fry with fresh veggies, a little meat and a tasty sauce over rice continues to frequently grace our table. I have a copy of The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller. Martin Yan (No relation to Stephen, but a former employee) has a PBS show Yan can Cook and Sunkist has some of his hints.

Emeril Green is our current favorite cooking show.
• Celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse on Emeril Green takes people shopping in a Whole Food Market for fresh ingredients while explaining the benefits of organic, locally grown and seasonal produce, and then he cooks these up into a healthy meal; similar ingredients can be found at Sno-Isle Natural Foods where my wife works. Planetgreen.discovery.com has Emeril's "Green" recipes. His newest book is Farm to Fork: Cooking Local, Cooking Fresh. Many more of his recipes seen on Food Network's Emeril Live are on Emeril's Web Site

Making Soups or Stews for dinner along with some bread or muffins began in the 80's.

I have the art of soup down to where often I don't use a recipe. The key is first a good broth, and adding ingredients and seasonings for a variety of flavors which will improve the next day as they meld together. Stews begin with braising - simmering the meat in a little liquid, then gradually adding vegetables and seasonings. I have a number of Soup and Stew Recipes soon to linked to this page.

• The New York Times Bread & Soup Cookbook by Yvonne Tarr (Now out of print) and The Best Soups in the World by Clifford A. Wright reveal that soup is universal. Soup seems to give writers time for interesting books. An Exaltation of Soups: The Soul-Satisfying Story of Soup As Told in More Than 100 Recipes, by Patrica Solley has all kinds of lore, The Soup Peddler's Slow and Difficult Soups: Recipes and Reveries by David Ansel is the memior of a bicycle soup peddler in Texas, and Soup: A Way of Life by Barbara Kafka is described as "a book that opens the senses to the world." Twelve Months of Monastery Soups by Brother Antoine D'Avila-Latourrette offers seasonal recipes. Knack: Make It Easy's Soup Classics by Linda Johnson Larsen is an excellent book designed for visual learners with lots of useful information and ideas for soups.

• For my daughter's wedding(s) reception, I prepared a page of Hungarian Recipe Links and a Page of Hungarian Recipes for the potluck reception.

Breads go right alongside soup or stew.

Sunset Bread Cookbook is now out of print, but I've worn out two copies. as is the Dover book: The Bread Tray by Louis DeGouy is an older book, but I use it. Recently we have shown an interest in using whole grains more. King Arthur Whole Grain Baking is a good book!

Usually there is isn't time to make bread, but muffins are great, for breakfast or alongside dinner ...

The Complete Muffin Cookbook: The Ultimate Guide To Making Great Muffins by Gloria Ambrosia and The Ultimate Muffin Book: More Than 600 Recipes for Sweet and Savory Muffins by Bruce Weinstein 500 Best Muffin Recipes by Esther Brody and The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Muffins by Beth Hensperger also look good.

Recently I got a bread machine. They are almost too easy to use, but take some planning ahead.
• Bread Machine Magic, Revised Edition: 138 Exciting Recipes Created Especially for Use in All Types of Bread Machines and More Bread Machine Magic by Linda Rehberg
• Bread Machine Magic.com and Bread-Maker.net

The Cooking Magazines have provided plenty of inspiration and new ideas. . .
• Sunset: The magazine for western Living has travel, gardening, home and recipe ideas - we have subscribed for thirty years. Besides the Bread book, I've used books on Vegetables, Casseroles, and Mexican cooking - most of these are out of print, a in collection: Sunset Cookbook Classics: 8 Cookbooks in 1 Volume. They have The Sunset Cookbook: Fresh, Flavorful Recipes for the Way You Cook Today coming in October, 2010. Sunset Quick, Light, And Healthy

• Cooking Light Magazine has provided inspiration since 2000 - and I have the Annual Recipes Volumes 2001-2010. The Best of Cooking Light: Over 500 of Our All-Time Greatest Recipes Several new recipes were tried every month. Gradual evolution in healthier living and eating is a part of this magazine
  Sunset and Cooking Light recipes can be searched on My Recipes. Com

• Cuisine at Home - all of their books are are good - lots of inspiration and the recipes are quick and easy.

  Other magazines include Cooks Illustrated and Food & Wine and Fine Cooking and edibleSEATTLE and Bon Apetit

The Salads stage started recently.

• For my Son's wedding rehearsal party I prepared a Salads Booklet.
• Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein is full of good information, as is Raising the Salad Bar: Beyond Leafy Greens--Inventive Salads with Beans, Whole Grains, Pasta, Chicken, and More by Catherine Walthers - either can make salads a mainstay of your cuisine. As well as his soups book, Brother Antoine D'Avila-Latourrette has Twelve Months of Monastery Salads with seasonal recipes and Sacred Feasts: From a Monastery Kitchen a book on celebrations.

And some New Trends in Cooking at the McWilliams'
Italian Cooking and Pasta
• On Top of Spaghetti by Johanne Killeen and George German has lots of good pasta recipes
• Ciao Italia Slow and Easy: Casseroles, Braises, Lasagne, and Stews from an Italian Kitchen by Mary Ann Esposito, a PBS TV show chef, who has a whole series of Italian style cook books.
• Scott Conant's New Italian Cooking and Bold Italian and
• Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition Barbara Lynch

The Mediterranean Diet - (Prevention Magazine's version The Flat Belly Diet is what we used.) And yes, it's working, combined with walking 2-3 miles a day. We have both taken off about 15 pounds in a month!

See my Going Green for our "personal food revolution" via The Mediterranean Diet; Leafy Greens and Vegetarian Cook Books; and Growing Our Own Greens

Other books of interest:
• The Wycliffe International Cookbook is a useful book I gave my daughter when she was an International Messengers missionary in Hungary, it was especially helpful in offering substitutions for ingredients not available there.
• Gourmet Game Night by Cynthia Nins
• Urban Pantry: Tips and Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable and Seasonal Kitchen by Amy Pennington is a practical guide for country and city folk who want to make better use of their kitchen, garden, and time. Amy Pennington offers great tips on shopping, food storage, canning, and gardening, along with creative recipes and lots of helpful explanations of ingredients and technique.
• The Locavore's Handbook The Busy Persons Guide to Eating Local on a Budget by Leda Meredith is a very practical book by an urban dweller that might help you in implimenting local foods into your diet.
• A Twist of the Wrist: Quick Flavorful Meals with Ingredients from Jars, Cans, Bags, and Boxes by Nancy Silverton. Aims to simplify meal preparation through use of canned and boxed ingredients without resorting to the worst of processed foods.
• Super Natural Cooking: Five Delicious Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Foods into Your Cooking by Heidi Swanson. Using the "natural foods" now widely available in co-ops and supermarkets, this book shows to become confident in a "whole-foods kitchen" by experimenting with alternative flours, fats, grains, sweeteners, and more. See also her Super Natural Every Day: Well-loved Recipes from My Natural Foods Kitchen .
• Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry by Laura Krissoff. Fresh and new ways to preserve nature’s bounty throughout the year.

• All about Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens
• Best Slow and Easy Recipes: More than 250 Foolproof, Flavor-Packed Roasts, Stews, and Braises that let the Oven Do the Work by Cook's Illustrated
• Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets by Deborah Madison.

• Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman will show you how cooking with ratios can unchain you from recipes. He is also the author of The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen and Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques and 100 Recipes
• The Food Substitutions Bible: More Than 6,500 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment and Techniques and Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Solutions by David Joachim
• The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs Definately the better book of combining ingredients and their flavors! (Definitely better than the Thesaurus below.)
• Herbs & Spices: The Cook's Reference by Jill Norman
• Jekka's Herb Cookbook by Jekka McVicar has 250 recipes using her top 50 herbs.
• The Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium of Pairings, Recipes and Ideas for the Creative Cook by Niki Segnit. Uncovers the essential flavors of food, and organizes them into 160 basic ingredients. This book is also full of quirky observations, practical information (hundreds of recipes are embedded in the narrative) and more than a few good jokes.