Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics: Learning to Cook with Confidence

this should be your first cookbook, or if you already have others, well, don't let the title fool you. It has great recipes, with pictures for each of them and detailed instructions. I have over 50 cookbooks and if I had to choose just one, well it would be this one.Simple recipes, "the basics" including a a chapter where it teaches you how to make a traditional thanksgiving dinner. Let me tell you that I did it this november 28th and guess what? It turned out to be great! My family couldn't belive I've done everything by myself. And it wasn't such a big effort 'cause it teaches you how to organize every single thing. I love this book!!

Finally a true beginner's cookbook which deserves a permanent place in your kitchen. Betty Crocker's answer to customer requests for a beginner's cookbook is "Cooking Basics, Learning to Cook With Confidence".This book features a nice variety of recipes including Italian Pasta Salad, Creamy Chicken and Dumplings, and Orange-Glazed Pork Chops. For entertaining there's Quick Guacamole, Tiramisu, and Strawberry Smoothies. It even shows you how to prepare an American Thanksgiving dinner from start to finish including appetizers and dessert.Each recipe includes a full color photograph, nutritional information, and helpful tips pertaining to the dish's ingredients. Substitutions are discussed and there are suggestions to help keep the dish low fat.What I found most impressive were the informational chapters on everything from kitchen utensils to classy centerpieces. So in addition to the fabulous recipes, the book contains handy information covering all areas of cooking and the kitchen.This cookbook can take a college coed living on their own for the first time up and through the marriage years for it demonstrates cooking basics such as the proper way to cut an onion or how to cook an omelet, yet teaches the art of preparing Shrimp Scampi or Pesto Sauce. For all these reasons, I highly recommend this cookbook.

I bought this book for two reasons: (1) the pages are spiral-bound, making it easy to refer to while cooking, and (2) it assumes you are a beginner and therefore know nothing.I've just begun life in my first apartment. This book has told me what supplies I need for my kitchen, how to fix great meals, and even some helpful safety tips (like getting a plastic cutting board so juices from raw meat don't soak in). My favorites thus far: pork chops with apple, pasta primavera, and chicken with orange glaze. The chicken and dumplings are up for tomorrow night!

I have this cookbook and I love it. I recently moved in on my own and this tells me how to do everthing. I didn't even know how to cook a baked potato and this book told me how. It is the perfect gift for a college student or someone on their own for the first time. The recipes are simply and very easy to follow. I highly recommend it to anyone.