Creating a simple cookbook for dh to follow when baby arrives- suggestions please!

[whizzyrocket]

Hey there,

As the title suggests I'm putting together a cookery book so that my husband has a few recipes he can follow to make easy nutritious meals for us when our baby arrives (due Nov)... he's a sweet intelligent chap but all his culinary knowledge has been picked up in the year we've been married so far.

So! What would you put in the book? Do you have any recipes you'd like to donate? What disasters should I advise him to avoid?

He knows to always use different boards and knives for veg and meat, can barbeque almost anything and can poach an egg, but he himself says that's about it! He cooked me a cake for my birthday (the first he'd ever baked) and managed to make a pyrex jug explode! Goodness knows!

Another vote here for the basics of a good soup. Quick, easy, filling and great for using up whatever you have to hand. Once you can do one well, you can pretty much do them all.

(Oh and for the record I always have fresh ginger in my kitchen - but then I am a bit of a ginger addict )

you could try a kids cookery book, I know the idea sounds a bit funny, but I had one as a kid, and it explained everything even the most basic things as kids really are starting from scratch. With that book i could cook independently without needing much help from my mum. I can't remember the name of the book or even if it's still in print, but it had great really simple recipes in.
It might be a good idea to get your DH to practise out the recipes before the birth, so you are in a fit state to answer his questions, or even cooking together might be a great idea if he's got time. I'm veggy so am probably not the best person to give recipe ideas, but simple stuff like baked potatoes, macoroni cheese etc might be a good idea.

Why to people persist in maintaining the fiction that cooking is some arcane complex skill? Actually, I know why. Men do it so they aren't't ever asked to cook anything and wome do it because they like the idea of "being in charge" of the kitchen and they like saying "-ah, bless, he's completely clueless, he'd live on pizza if 8 wasn't here"

Whizzyrocket, if this thread isn't actually stealth research, give hima copy of Delia Smith and let him get on with it. He can fly a plane- he can certainly follow the instructions to make pasta sauce.

Or,if he's got an IPhone, get the Jamie's 30 Minute Menus App.

I would suggest buying him one of the many cookbooks around at the moment which are aimed at students. They tend to feature simple recipes with fewer ingredients, and clear instructions.

Don't treat him like an extra DC! Let him sort it out himself. I hope that you are not going to be the same with the baby and become the 'expert' telling him what to do and not letting him be equal parent.
If he wants a simple recipe all he need to do is go to bbc good food recipes here and in the search put in what he wants to use e.g. chicken and the recipes are rated-choose easy. I would expect an 8yr old to be able to use it so expect he could manage!

Hmm, fastforward a few years and the op will be here with 3 under 5s moaning about how her dh does nothing at home. I think traditional setup with no kids and woman not working is all lovely and twee but not quite so romantic when you're knackered, not slept properly for 10 years and your dh still "can't" put the bins out.
NB: my comments are backed up by other threads where it has been observed by mumsnetters that the above situation often results from the op's current situation.

Ds has been able to cook for a couple of years now and often makes meals for teh family (he is 15 now), dd is 7 and can make a cake/biscuits etc by following simple recipes with no help apart from the oven. If she can I am sure a grown man could.

send him into the kitchen and see how he does with a recipe book - he can ask if he needs help

try one of the stews from ministry of food - he can go to the shops and get the ingredients you don't have

I agree that what you are doing is rather patronising and he is an adult and is obviously able to work out what a tablespoon is - although he may have to ask

My dh is useless at cooking because the only thing his mum cooked was birds eye crispy chicken. I absolutely second the ministry of food book. My dh started using it when I was pregnant rather than waiting for baby. He started off with basics like chilli etc with me sitting there to answer questions but a few weeks in he surprised me with a three course meal including the chicken and Parma ham thing. He made the evolution potato salad and even now three years on he can make it from memory now.

Once my dd arrived, my mum came to stay and one Sunday I lost it, cried and said I appreciate the help but could she go home as I'd had enough. She had to leave dh with a raw but prepped roast chicken dinner. He took over and it was better than any roast I've had. Get the ministry book!

Start him doing the cooking one day a week, when you're around and can help with specific questions. Also / alternatively get him doing the prep while you do your "standard" meals so he can look over your shoulder, (and perhaps takes notes if he's that way inclined) then the next time you do it you can prep while he cooks.

Assuming you have a decent selection of cookbooks then he is perfectly capable of flipping through them and seeing what looks nice - or deciding that what he'd really like to cook/eat is curry, or boeuf bourgignon or whatever - at which point he can google or buy a suitable book.

One of the nice things about a domestic partnership is that you each develop your own cooking repertoire - I wouldn't attempt to recreate DHs curries, and he quails at the thought of pies or lasagne.

One last thing - I would recommend Nigel Slater's 30 minute Cook or Real Fast Food for good quick easy man-friendly recipes - much less poncy than Jamie IMO.

delia, how to cook too tbh.

A good cottage/shepherd's pie (not too dissimilar to the other mince recipes) also a good one.

My hubby likes to make pizza and really that isn't difficult - he wouldn't do it if it was, but it lets him get rid of the stresses of the day on a piece of dough and he always feels proud of himself making it from scratch. You can freeze part baked bases and chuck anything in the fridge on top of it for a really quick meal.

How to poach a piece of fish and how to cook a chicken stir fry... can't go wrong!

HTH

My children have been able to cook a implement family meal since they were about 8.

I suspect, as I said before, that we are being used as research material for some ghastly cutesy Christmas book called something like "Home Alone Dad".

Simple. Not sure what an implement meal is.

If you're teaching him the White cheesy sauce for lasagne topping, tell him to chuck in some extra cheese, pour over cooked broccoli and leeks, bake in the oven til browned on top and there you have a nommy cheesy veg bake which goes with just about anything!

When I met Mr Inferior, he couldn't cook. Which I found thoroughly bizarre.

He is now rather an accomplished cook. I think he's mainly used my Nigel Slater cookbooks. But really, it's been up to him. What with him being an otherwise competent adult and all.

It's not rocket science, cooking, ffs. Like Seeker says.

Has anybody suggested Delia Smith's How to Boil an Egg yet?

I would recommend Delia as well plus BBC Good Food online and I have the Family Meal Planner book (published by BBC Good Food)which is great ,Ds1 (17) who is learning to cook has made quite a lot of the recipes in there with little or no assistance ,he is particularly good at the Chicken Biriyani!

Rachel Allan is also user friendly.

My big tip would be get a slow cooker ,removes time pressure,and seems to appeal to men ,rather like barbecuing IYSWIM

Some harsh comments here. When I left Twat#1, I had to write him a manual and bought him a learn to cook book. My point is not that he was an abusive wanker (he was) but that food preparation isn't inborn knowledge. He didn't know the 'chemistry' stuff about how various ingredients behave when heated and so on - for eg, flour will blend with cold liquid but not hot; why you do a roast in the order you do; that milk and egg curdle unless you stir them, and so on. He became a really good cook later on.

I can recommend "Why do women shack up with blokes who have not learned to cook their own dinner?", it's at www.pathetic.com