Family at Dinner, ca. 1942 (photo by John Collier, courtesy of Library of Congress)

Home cooking is gaining in popularity as American families look to cut down on the amount they spend on restaurant meals. Cooking shouldn’t be just another chore, like mopping floors. Preparing meals at home can be a fun way to bring family and friends together. The nice thing about having friends and family over for dinner is that you can socialize after the meal without having to leave a restaurant and make your way somewhere else. Mix in some specialty foods and you can serve a meal to remember!

Experiment with Recipes

You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to serve meals that will wow your guests, just keep it simple. Use fresh ingredients from a farmers market and good quality oils and vinegars. Look up some recipes and view them as guidelines rather than rigid commands to follow. Play around with the ingredients and spices. Eliminate and/or add some to create a dish that you find delicious and doesn’t eat up a lot of your time. You can use ingredients like tapenades and ambrosias as side dishes to add to the variety of flavors in a meal with little effort. Buy a good chutney to a make a plate of bread and artisanal cheese more memorable. Applewood smoked hams and smoked pheasant are full of flavor and can be simply warmed or served at room temperature.

We think you’ll find that creating a dish at least as satisfying as your last restaurant meal is not so great a challenge. We’ve also found that cooking classes are not only a good place to pick up culinary tips, but they’re a heck of a lot of fun as we mix with fellow home cooks.

Cook at Home for Good Health

Then there are the health aspects. Cooking at home lets you choose ingredients that are full of nutrients and free of pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. Kids are more ready to eat healthier foods when they were the ones who added them to a dish or salad. Families who dine together suffer less obesity. Eating isn’t only about getting the calories and nutrients you need to stay alive. Sharing an enjoyable meal together is a bonding experience that draws families and friends closer together. Serving great food to people you care about is a terrific way to lift your own spirits.

Pots & Pans

If you’re ready to step up the time you spend in the kitchen you might want to check out what’s new in pots and pans. Manufacturers have been busy of late and some of their new offerings are pretty impressive. For one thing you can now cook without undue worry about your food sticking or the reputed dangers of Teflon. Harold McGee of the New York Times has just taken a thoughful look at a number of these new products and authored a fine piece on his findings.

If you’d like to read Mr. McGee’s article in the New York Times go to: What’s Hot, What’s Not, in Pots and Pans

To purchase some especially fine olive oils, vinegars, tapenades, ambrosias, chutneys, artisanal cheeses, applewood smoked hams and smoked pheasant go to:

1. Oils & Vinegars

2. Ambrosias, Tapenades & Pickled Vegetables

3. Jams, Jellies, Chutneys, Fruit Butters & Fruit Sauces

4. Artisanal & Crafted Cheeses

5. Ham

6. Applewood Smoked Whole Pheasant