Cooking by Numbers

Have you ever opened the door of your fridge, stared blankly at all the piles of food, shook your head, and ended up ordering pizza because you just weren't able to figure out what to cook? I have that problem way too often, mostly because I'm a tad bit lazy in the kitchen and because I'm not really that creative a cook.

Cooking by Numbers is a recipe site that has some great potential to solve that problem. The idea behind the site is simple: they have a list of the most common stuff people often have in their kitchen, and you tick off all the ingredients you have, or the ingredients you want to use. Then, you'll be presented with recipes based on your choices, sorted by the number of required ingredients you already have.

Because of this sorting system, the first recipes you'll get require only one or two different ingredients, so they're no-brainers, such as fried eggs or a cup of coffee. Some people may find this rather irritating, but I actually like it when they show even those recipes that should be obvious. First of all, I'm not really that experienced a cook yet, so what is obvious for someone else, might be a new discovery for me. Second, my brain often refuses to come up with ideas that are no-brainers, so sometimes it's good for me to be reminded of something obvious I overlooked. Besides, you can just skip those simple recipes if you don't like them.

Overall, this particular web site has a nice, simple approach to presenting their recipes, and it's especially useful for people who are running out of cooking ideas. Because they also list some very simple recipes, the site is very useful for inexperienced cooks as well. The list of ingredients could be a bit longer, though, because at the moment, it only covers the very common essentials.

Take time to sharpen your ax!

There once was a woodsman who had a new ax. The first day he was able to chop down twenty trees in only 8 hours. On subsequent days, however, although he worked just as long and hard, he found he was chopping down fewer and fewer trees.

One evening he was discussing this problem with a friend and the friend suggested, "Why don't you sharpen your ax?" The woodsman replied sadly, "I'm too busy. If I stop to sharpen the ax I won't get today's quota of trees chopped down."

I like this little story, mostly because I'm way too much like that woodsman. Actually, I can be a lot worse than this. In many cases, I actually realize the dull ax is the root of my problems, but if the process of sharpening my ax is a tad bit on the tedious side, I will decide I'll put up with "one more" long work day, and after that, "some other day," I'll sharpen the ax. Because this "some other day" never comes, I will actually go to great lengths in order to avoid the tedious task of sharpening my ax. I'll rather spend the whole day chopping down one tree than take the time to sharpen my ax.

I realize this is very irrational and it'll have to change, but like everything in this world, it's easier said than done. Well, at least I recognize my problem. That's the first baby step towards victory, right?