1 . How to Bake Absolutely Anything

If you’ve never baked before, this guide will explain the basic foundations of baking, offer tips for baking specific food groups, and suggest a few recipes to get you started baking.     1    

Read the whole recipe before you start.

We’ve all gotten half-way through a recipe only to find we don’t have any buttermilk. Plus, a quick read can help you prepare for what’s ahead, particularly if there are any techniques with which you’re not familiar.

Use butter at the right temperature.

    2     It is the right consistency for creaming with sugar. Biscuit and pie pastry recipes call for ice-cold butter in order to create the flakiest layers. If your butter isn’t the correct temperature, your bakes won’t mix up the way they should.

    3    

When it comes to baking, it’s always preferable to measure your ingredients by weight rather than volume. This ensures you get exactly the right proportions. It may not be critical for something simple like a pan of cake, but it’s important with picky baked items, such as macarons.

Freeze cookie dough.

We know how tempting it is to get your cookies in the oven the second you’re done mixing up your dough.     4     And it prevents cookies from spreading too much. Do not skip this step!

Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Always let your cakes, cupcakes, and cookies cool completely before frosting them. If they are too warm, the frosting will slide right off the top of your cake or melt and dip in.     5     If you don’t have one, take the cover off your ironing board and use the board as a cooling shelf.

Today I tried cooking a simple dish (一道简单的菜) myself. I like eating fried tomatoes with eggs (西红柿炒蛋), and I thought it must to be easy to cook. My mom told me how to preparing it. First I cut the tomatoes into pieces but put them aside (把…放一边). Next I break the eggs into a bowl (碗) and beat them quickly with chopsticks (用筷子搅拌). After that I pour (倒) oil into a pan (平底锅) and turned off the stove (炉子). I waited patiently until the oil was hot. Then I put the tomato and the beaten eggs into pan together. “Not that way,” my mom tried to stop us but failed. He was right. It didn’t turn out as I had wished (结果不是我想的那样).

6 . Everyone knows that fish is good for health.     1     But it seems that many people don’t cook fish at home. Americans eat only about fifteen pounds of fish per person per year, but we eat twice as much fish in restaurants as at home. Buying, storing, and cooking fish isn’t difficult.     2    This text is about how to buy and cook fish in an easy way.

    3     Fresh fish should smell sweet: you should feel that you’re standing at the ocean’s edge. Any fishy or strong smell means the fish isn’t fresh.     4    When you have bought a fish and arrive home, you’d better store the fish in the refrigerator if you don’t cook it immediately, but fresh fish should be stored in your fridge for only a day or two. Frozen fish isn’t as tasty as the fresh one.

There are many common methods used to cook fish.     5    First, clean it and season it with your choice of spices. Put the whole fish on a plate and steam it in a steam pot for 8 to 10 minutes if it weighs about one pound. (A larger one will take more time.) Then, it’s ready to serve.

7 . Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid is used to grilling guests on the sofa every morning, but she is cooking up a storm in her latest role — showing families how to prepare delicious and nutritious meals on a tight budget.

In Save Money: Good Food, she visits a different home each week and offers top tips on how to reduce food waste with the help of chef Matt Tebbutt, while she is preparing recipes for under £5 per family a day. And the Good Morning Britain presenter says she’s been able to put a lot of what she’s leant into practice in her own home, preparing meals for sons, Sam, 14, Finn, 13, and Jack, 11.

“We love Mexican churros, so I buy them on my phone from my local Mexican takeaway restaurant,” she explains. “I pay £5 for a portion (一份), but Matt makes them for 26p a portion, because they are flour, water, sugar and oil. Everybody can buy takeaway food, but sometimes we’re not aware how cheaply we can make this food ourselves.”

The eight-part series (系列节目), Save Money: Good Food, follows in the footsteps of ITV’s Save Money: Good Health, which gave viewers advice on how to get value from the vast range of health products on the market.

With food our biggest weekly household expense, Susanna and Matt spend time with a different family each week. In tonight’s Easter special they come to the aid of a family in need of some delicious inspiration on a budget. The team transforms the family’s long weekend of celebration with less expensive but still tasty recipes.

8 . My poor mother would be the first to tell you that having a food scientist for a daughter was not always easy.

One weekend visit home, I stood in her kitchen and surveyed her food preparation techniques.

“You know,” I said, "there's no nutrition left when you overcook the vegetables like that"

She smiled at me patiently and said, “Oh, my! It's a miracle that after all these years, my kids even survived at all!”.

Survived we did. Mom's meals were simple but well-balanced. My sisters and I grew up with a variety of food on our family table. When it came to vegetables, we ate almost everything- from green chilies to turnip greens.

On school mornings, Mom switched on our bedroom light to silently tell us it was time to get up. Then she'd rush to the kitchen to make a nourishing breakfast we'd eat before heading out of the door. I didn't understand why Mom was always so busy until I had a child myself.

Mom went back to work when I was in high school, no longer a housewife, so I was often the first one home. She LOVED it when I took the initiative to prepare a meal. One day, after I'd finished homework and taken care of the dogs and horses, I decided to try a recipe from one of Mom's cookbooks.

It wasn't a perfect meat. But when she got home and saw the table set and dinner ready, she was so happy. That was an enjoyable moment for me.

Now I understand that food is only one way we receive nutrition. We also need soul food, and my mom did a good job with that. She taught me humility, thankfulness and unconditional love.

I hope I could cook a meal for her this year, I'd even try not to overcook the vegetables.

Last week, our class organized a cooking show to improve students living skills. We were told to learn to cook a dish or share the experience with classmates. That evening when I turned to Mom for help. She suggested making steamed fish since it was easy for her to cook. Under Mom’s carefully guidance, I succeeded. My father recorded whole process at the same time. My parent praised me for the wonderful color and smell of the dish. Seeing them enjoy it, I feel overjoyed. The next day, I shared my cooking experience with the class meeting, as well as the happiness gaining from cooking for families.