I personally love to cook but lately I been wanting to try to cook new things. suggestions? mainly right now for the last two weeks I want to make cajun stuff liek Gumbo, Etouffee and Jambalaya but don't have any recipes. any suggestions on where to go to find good recipes?

My specialties are manily soup dishes and noodles (includes pasta + sauce).

I keep most of my meat dishes very simple. Salt, pepper, herbs to taste, and usually some combo of soy sauce / rice wine / sake to flavor a bit (for chicken / steak). I'm pretty adept at making simple party food (mostly stuff you'd see in pot lucks, but with an Asian twist) as well.

However, I FAIL at baking. =/ 1) I don't like too many sweets. 2) Baking requires enough ingredients to make enough food for 4 or more. I simply do not have that many mouths to feed most of the time (although a couple of my boyfriend's friends getting together can eat like there's no tomorrow).

I can not cook save for desserts. However, I am trying to learn because I want Western food, and the only way I am going to get it (short from going to McDonalds or KFC which gets old after a while) is to make it myself.

I cook a lot of different kinds of vegetables for the most part, but I'm also good for chicken and seafood dishes - I can cook drunken chicken, for example, or Singaporean chili crab.

I've never cooked beef. Ironically, I am currently talking with researchers about doing a project with how consumers cook beef and E. coli O157:H7 in the beef - if that project gets the go-ahead, I'm going to have to learn to cook ground beef as part of my preparation for my research!

I cook ^_^

I have actually combined Asian and Italian and made it work really well.

Basically a Chicken Teriyaki gnocchi with veggies. It turned out really good.

but aside from that theres Spaghetti (YAY) and I'm experimenting trying to combine asian and non-asian foods

hmmm, if you count throwing some meat on a grill and waiting as cooking then yes, I cook. I'd like to cook more elaborate dishes other than grilled meat but I just don't like the prospective time investment. I'd rather just grill my meat and get on with it (that and currently at my dorm I don't have the tools and I'm too poor to fork over money for them)

I LOVE to cook. It's very satisfying, and it's a lot cheaper than going out and buying pre-made food. I'm just not sure if I'm a GOOD cook, though.

I took a few home-ec classes in my high school days, so I learned a lot of the basics then, and I watch my mom cook a lot too. Coupled that with watching Food Network, and you got a person who's very familiar with cooking <3

I'm studying abroad right now, but I haven't been cooking a lot here unfortunately. It's probably because I'm living with three other people, and the kitchen is TINY. Plus, they're a bit messy and leave dishes dirty for a while, so it's hard to find a time when the pots and pans aren't in the sink =/

Wow. I'd never would have expected this in THIS forum. Baking tips to the best chicken recipes? Haha! Not that I'm saying its bad or anything, just .. unexpected : D I'll keep some of those tips in mind too : )

Hmm....The only thing I can cook is like, real good tomato fried rice and like, perfect sunny-sideup eggs. The perfect bachelor's meal. Plus like, umm, fried sausages on the side with some prawn crackers as well. YUM ;)

Fatties need to know how to cook good, rich, delicious foods. I've honed my skills based on what the number of women in the past have taught me.

I'm pretty okay at traditional Armenian dishes, I have the French shit down (sauce, sauce, sauce), and the American stuff is pretty straight-forward.

These days, I don't usually have time to go home and make dinner though. In the winter, I often cook dinner for my father and I, if I have time. But since I am at the office until 5 or whatever, it leaves me little room to feed hungry men for 6pm.

I LOVE cooking roasts, stews, and crock-pot sorts of conglomerations. I am not, however, too adventurous when it comes to new stuff.

When I say "new stuff," I don't mean new recipes. I mean things that get a little out of the traditional lines of thinking.

My sister made some absolutely wretched coffee bean, semi-sweet chocolate, beer-drowned chili for us this past spring. It was revolting. And she had spent SO much money making it. It was supposed to be Mexican or something. Maybe she fucked it up.

I have a huge box of recipes my mother (the best cook ever) gave me. They're of course not the average recipe - more of a "dash" here and a "dash" there kind of thing. We're not much use when it comes to measuring exacts.

I cook plenty. My grandma had a pantry for a closet space once and that was pretty awesome imho, its a shame that its a dying trend. But really now, there's tons of stuff you can choose from in the pantry that easily make a dish period.

I find myself preferring the more staple dishes than outrageous creations of artistic/exciting new flavors (AVOID). I stick with the basics that I know and came to love for so much. And that is... potatoes, potatoes, potatoes. Its a czech staple for so long and everyone in my family is pretty much into potatoes.

But I can cook awesome breakfast dishes like I'm a chef already. Its pretty easy if you ask me. Dinner dishes definitely takes a lot of time to prepare and to cook simultaneously, too often its not worth the effort, unless you plan on leftovers. The ultimate homemade dinner dish for me is rolls, chicken, greens, potatoes, and another vegetable. I also love foreign dinner dishes, mexican, italian, american, and hmm... french? I also love sea food, its a shame that Jimmy doesn't as much. However, he loves chinese food, which I actually avoid. I wouldn't touch bait food either.

Lunch dishes just varies very often. I love grilled cheese sandwiches and my husband love italian subs that he whips up. And lately, I'm loving salads.

ANNDDD I can cook MEAN desserts that could make you cry. I'm not even fucking kidding. I can bake a 3 layer cake with icing in between and that would make my aunt all fucking envious. LMAO. I had made jello, pudding, fudge, brownies, caramel apples on a stick, cupcakes, muffins, biscuits, crescents, cinnamon french toast, cinnamon rolls, bundt, angel food, layer cakes, cookies (OMG TONS of cookies, in fact my cookies are often the highlights of our store's bake sale fundraisers), popsicles, even homemade ice cream once. I haven't made a good pie though. Pies are delicious don't get me wrong! Its just the damn crust/icing that gives me trouble. I prefer cold pies anyway.

Crockpot/casserole dishes/outdoor grilling is still new to me though. I like the idea of casserole/crockpot dishes sometimes, but I'm a stickler for "side" dishes as just being as SIDES for the taste. ;) Grilling meats are indeed awesome, and I had loved bqing them.

But yeah, I got plenty of cook books here and usually I have plenty of time to cook, but too often Jimmy and I'd end up having take out or eating out. Problem is our work schedules just clash too often.

Basically that's what i do for a living . Cook. not quite as well $$$ like the head chef but not bad pay.

I've been to culinary school and finished that. been a cook for almost 9 years!

Cooking is a big hassle for sure. That's why there's tons and tons of eating out options.

The best thing to do is have the right knives[made in Japan or Germany are best]!

A kitchen island [or table]. And an assortment of kitchen machines [ like the big bling of mixer from Kitchen Aide and the like].

There's all these cooking stuff on TV. I used to watch Iron Chef a lot.

Another pro is the smell of foods, the better the smell most likey the better the taste.

One other thing is to prep foods right. let's say chix breasts. have it in a mixture overnight [like white wine, garlic etc] and by the time you grill it the aroma and then the flavor will hit the spot.
Pork roast in the oven is a blast. same with roast beef.

I cook everyday, but don't particularly enjoy it. But I like eating healthy and saving money, so I do it. I hate following recipes (partly because I'm extremely picky) and instead add ingredients I think go well or like instead of what the recipe originally called for. Which is probably why I'm not great at baking. I just got a stockpot for christmas, so that'll maybe be fun.

I like cheese.

I bake, I broil and anything else in between. I'm just that good.

I cook as much as possible. Usually I cook stuff like Pasta, Lasagna, Steak... things like that. I also make amazing meatballs.

I cook a mighty mean spaghetti and meatballs and dark chocolate brownies all from Scratch!

On campus, cooking is hard, especially if your roomates haven't learned the concept of ''cleanness''.

When I'm home, I cook pretty well when I have proper instructions. Chicken, beef, pork, muffins... I can be wed :p

I love baking. I make a really good white chocolate amaretto cheesecake.

A typical North American turkey dinner (turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, vegetables) is probably one of the easiest meals I can do and impress people with--I guess a lot of people figure it's a lot of work or that guys generally can't do much more than carve the bird, but I really don't find it hard to do and get things tasting good--doesn't seem to be much that can go wrong. I've starting baking dinner rolls too sometimes, but that adds to the prep time.

I can cook just about anything, and if I have not cooked a certain dish before, I learn it very quickly.