8 Kitchen Commandments

 Food

8 Kitchen Commandments

When it comes to cooking and eating great, healthy food, you don't need a whole lot: a few sturdy pots and pans and a handful of reliable kitchen staples. You can spend all the cash you want on outfitting your kitchen with the finest equipment and fanciest ingredients known to man, but meals don't cook themselves.

We're all about honest, simple food. And we're not afraid to use the real ingredients delicious food demands. Read our 8 Kitchen Commandments to follow the rules that we followed in creating our new best-selling book: Cook This, Not That. These simple rules will make your home-cooked meals delicious and healthy - what more could you ask for?

Season to taste

Very few of the recipes in Cook This, Not That have specific measurements for salt and pepper for a reason: Your mouth is more accurate than a measuring spoon. Taste and adjust as early and often as possible.

Make friends

Theoretically, you could shop for an entire week's worth of groceries without ever interacting with a store worker. But there's a reason we talk to butchers, bakers, and cheesemongers when we shop: They know their stuff. A great fish- monger will tell you how to cook that snapper fillet, and a friendly butcher will save that last cut of prime beef for his favorite custom- ers. What's that? Your supermarket doesn't have butchers and cheese- mongers? Find a new place to shop.

Turn off the GPS

Recipes aren't immutable laws or edicts handed down from on high by the culinary gods. They're basic road maps, and sometimes the best part of the journey is getting lost and finding your way back.

Adapt at will

Ingredients aren't set in stone. If you have a bag of unused mushrooms in the fridge but the recipe calls for eggplant, chances are the 'shrooms will do just fine. Don't want to spend $3 on a bunch of celery just to use a single rib? Omit it. You like pork chops more than chicken breast? Switch it. The point is, if you understand the basic techniques and have an idea of what tastes good together, the possibility for creation in the kitchen is infinite.

Shop like an Italian grandma

They are brilliant cooks not just because it's in their blood, but because they believe it's their fundamental right to take home the best apple, the best wedge of cheese, and the best fillet of fish every time they step into the store. Inspect fruit and vegetables carefully, ask workers when certain cuts of meat came in, and ask if you can taste new cheeses and deli meats before buying.

Join the farm team

Supermarket produce isn't so super compared with what's at a farmers' market, where the pickings are often organic and always fresh, seasonal, and local. (Go to ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets/ map.htm for a state-by-state list of more than 5,700 farmers' markets.) Not only does eating food close to the source taste better, it's likely fresher, and since certain nutrient levels in produce tend to deplete over time, that means it's likely healthier, too.

Shop with the seasons

In the golden age of the American supermarket, Chilean tomatoes and South African asparagus are an arm's length away when our soil is still blanketed in snow. Sure, sometimes you just need a tomato, but there are three persuasive reasons to shop in season: It's cheaper, it tastes better, and it's better for you (and the planet).

Treat yourself

Not just when it comes to calories (which is indeed important) but also with the quality of food you buy. Americans spend less of their income on food than any other country in the world, so adding a few dollars to your food budget in order to secure omega-3-rich grass-fed steaks or glistening wild Alaskan salmon fillets is money well spent. If it's something that will help you look, feel, and function better, isn't it worth it to spend a few extra bucks for the best?