I’ve always loved cooking. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of helping my mom cook dinner or bake cookies. By the time I was 11 or 12, I was making spaghetti and bean burritos on my own. By my late teens, I had the basics of cooking down. When I left home, I wanted to expand my cooking repertoire and lucky for me, I worked at a bookstore where I could buy bargain cookbook for under $2. I bought several fancy books that were simply too hard. When I would look through the recipes, I wouldn’t understand the directions (what’s a bain marie?) or I wouldn’t know what the ingredients were or where to find them (What are kaffir lime leaves?). Luck for me, I stumbled on a great cookbook that was perfect for my cooking skills and allowed me to make meals that were not too hard, but looked impressive and tasted delicious! What is this wonderful book? Better Homes and Gardens America’s Best-Loved Community Recipes Volume II. I later purchased volume I and still continue to use both cookbooks frequently. They have step-by-step instructions, pictures of every dish, and recipes from all categories. I believe they are out of print, but I just checked amazon.com and they are still available for purchase. After using these cookbooks and several other intermediate level recipe books, I was eventually able to tackle the difficult books as well!
