Fun with Cooking--Updated

For a change of pace, how about a post on food and cooking? I love to cook--I just am not all that crazy about the clean-up afterwards. That's part of it, though, so I muddle through.

Mostly what I am going to do is direct you to some websites that will give you all kinds of free resources to help you practice your culinary skills and learn a little history and science while you're at it.

First up, one of the most interesting websites I've ever seen is The Food Timeline. It starts at the beginning, far B.C., and lists foods, books, and recipes. You can click on any of the items and it will take you to a web page with details on that food--the history, the industry, or etc. It's fascinating and will keep you occupied forever!

Next up is Spice Advice, a site that has all kinds of resources for spicing up your meals. There is an encyclopedia, recipes, and history links. There's also a spice usage page. This is a great site for experimenting with different flavors to add to your dining experiences.

There are many sites posting recipes and you may be familiar with at least some of them, but here is an assortment for those times when you want something different to fix, or you are looking for an old favorite that you can't find your recipe for: Veggie Recipes, Recipe Hound, RecipeZaar, RecipeLand, RecipeSource Mix Recipes, RecipeSource's main page, and AllRecipes. At these types of sites, you can do searches, have your own recipe box, look for ethnic recipes or diet recipes--all kinds of things. There are many more sites, too, but these will get you started.

If you are a vegetarian or just interested in finding new ways to prepare fruits and vegetables, here are some sites to give you a hand: Vegetarian Resource Group, Vegetarian Times, Vegetarians in Paradise (they've got a great chart page for cooking beans, legumes, and grains here), International Vegetarian Union recipes, and Think Vegetables. Also, there's the Veggie Recipes site I linked above, but I don't know that it is a vegetarian site, in case that's of concern to you.

Let's see--what else do I have? Oh, yes. Medieval cooking. Try A Boke of Gode Cookery. There's lots of history and interesting information there, plus updated recipes for preparing in today's kitchens.

How about World Recipes for finding things to try from all over the world? Or you can try your hand at cheesemaking here. Oh, and here's a Gift & Mix Recipe Index. Here is Christy's Once a Month Cooking page and a powdered milk recipe page where you can try your hand at yogurt making. Robbie's Recipes has copycat recipes, mix recipes, making fancy napkin folds and lots more. Many food companies have websites with recipes or you can Google for something specific.

Your whole family can get involved in learning about food and nutrition and trying new recipes. I've seen recipes for kids to make at some of the megasites, too.

There! I've done my part to keep you all out of mischief and well-fed to boot!

Edited to add: Cook's Thesaurus (an encyclopedia of both food and equipment), Cheese Guide, Fine Cooking, The Worldwide Gourmet, Epicurious, Cooks.com, cooksrecipes, cookingvillage, Soyfoods, and Hillbilly Housewife.