Anyone Can Cook

     I am happy to say that in today's society more and more people are realizing the exciting and gratifying experience that is cooking.  It is an unfortunate truth, however, that for every culinary success story, there are dozens of people who take one look at a cookbook and exclaim "I can't do it!"  They promptly turn away and never lay a finger on that book again, only cooking things that come in boxes with the instructions written on the back (add water, stir to combine, cook for 18-20 minutes, let set for 5 minutes, serve.)  Or, perhaps, they go on the adventureous side and cook things THEIR way.  Either way, more often than not, produces meals that would be ashamed to show their faces to the light of day.  These people end up putting themselves, not to mention their families, through unimaginable torture.  
     The simple truth is, these people don't have the patience to learn.  They won't allow themselves to make a single mistake; and if they do make a mistake, which they invariably do, they exclaim "I can't do it" and stop any efforts to explore the culinary world further.  It's rather pitiful, isn't it?
     What these culinary younglings don't realize is that, with the right equipment, the right technique, and some patience, anyone, even a 17-year old high school student (that's me), can cook.
     Over the next few weeks, it will be my mission to demonstrate this to you.  I won't beat you over the head with recipes, but I won't bore you with milions of details either.  Instead, I'll provide you with all of the information you need to cook a simply magnificent meal.  Hopefully, you'll be so entertained that you won't even know you're learning.

all recipes credited to Alton Brown