Cooking with the Help of the Internet

Thanksgiving is the right time to bring this up ... The Internet has made cooking easier than ever! Those who are young may not be able to imagine it, but there was a time when you could only get recipes in a book, from a friend or relative, or on TV.

Now you can find a million recipes for just about anything via your favorite search engine. And if you need to see things done first hand (as I often do) you can search YouTube. I can't tell you how wonderful this all is!

This past year I started cooking with a wok again. I tried my hand at it when I was young and foolish and failed miserably. But with the help of an ebook and lots of YouTube help, I managed to do it right this time! I can't tell you how thrilled I am! And if there were any special ingredients that my local markets didn't supply, I can find them on Amazon. I bought my wok through them.

With the holidays coming up, I've also decided to go back to baking my own bread. Nothing beats the taste of fresh baked bread. And it makes a great hostess gift! I have an old bread making machine and a collection of old recipes that I put together in the dark ages before YouTube. I'm struggling with the quick rising yeast as there isn't much available in my neighborhood. But I know I can order from King Arthur. They have a lot of interesting flours and reliable yeasts.

My one great love, though, is sourdough. I'm going to try my hand at making my own starter next week with a recipe I found online. I used to love sourdough because the natural yeasts are a lot more forgiving than the commercial stuff, even though they do take longer to work. Some of the commercial yeasts I've tried over the years made me wonder how anyone ever got into making bread at all.

Wish me luck! And have a Great Thanksgiving!!!