More hacks and tips!

- Pay attention to the fact that just because you removed food from the heat source, doesn't mean it'll stop cooking immediately. Cooking with heat is a chemical reaction, and it requires both heat-energy and time. This is the biggest part of cooking effectively with the microwave (which can add energy to food a lot faster than the food can "handle". if you nuke something at 700-800W or higher, try giving it at least as much time "off" as you spent putting energy into it. The heat's already there, the food just doesn't know yet what hit it). But it also goes for cooking pasta, rice, eggs or meat. Generally you can cook many things until they're not-quite-done, let them rest, and they'll be perfect. If you cook them until done, they'll often end up overcooked. Err on the side of undercooked with a slight "bite". Definitely for vegetables and pasta, but if you're not scared and know what you're doing, also meat and eggs.

- Presentation matters. Sure if you're just feeding yourself, who cares. But if you can manage in any way, make your food look nice. There's a huge psychological component to taste and flavour, and it's just a fact that nice-looking food just tastes better. If you don't believe me, try blue food-colouring on anything, and see if you finish your plate.

- On a similar note, slice stuff finely. Get a good knife. If your ingredients are larger than half a spoon, ask yourself why. This is not a hard rule, if there's a good reason forget I said anything. Broccoli gets mushy if sliced too finely and many meats just need their shape. Shape is important. I mean stuff like onions, paprika (bell pepper), tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, etc. Makes for more comfortable eating.

- TASTY MEALS usually have a balanced combination of all the basic flavours: sweet, salt, sour and bitter. While preparing food, taste it, and spend a moment tasting which of the flavours is not sufficiently present. Add a bit more of some ingredient that prominently has that particular flavour. Bitter can be hard to find. Try spices. This is especially important for salads, dressings or sauces.

- Some fresh ingredients don't need to be refrigerated. This of course depends on the climate where you live. Paprika, tomatoes, onions, garlic. Eggs in NL keep fine outside the fridge, but I heard in the US they wash off some protective layer or something.

- If your (dried) spices smell or taste like sawdust, throw them away. Also try to get basic spices, and mix them yourself. Check out the ingredient-list on sauce or spice-mixes you like (for instance, teriyaki sauce = oil + salty soy sauce + garlic + ginger + black pepper + rice vinegar + something sweet, honey, sugar or molasses syrup + MSG. use stick blender and a glass jar. taste. adjust flavour balance. then marinate your salmon in it, or something)

- Get a couple of different vinegars: wine, apple cider, rice, and blank vinegar. The last one can also be used for cleaning (blank vinegar is basically water + acetic acid, which both evaporate, meaning it shouldn't smell like vinegar when dry). IMO, balsamic vinegar is overrated and usually has a lot of "extra ingredients" (unless it's a really nice one, aged in a barrel, try/hint getting those as a present or something :P). You also need lemon juice and possibly lime. Try using wine sometimes, it's not quite as sour, but can add amazing flavour. Red or white wines go into different types of dishes. If you use the "wrong" kind, it usually still works, but won't be as good as it could be.

- Keep a supply of basic ingredients that are versatile in many dishes: onions, shallots, garlic, black pepper (from a grinder please), many different spices, sweet soy sauce (ketjap manis), salty soy sauce, honey, mustard, ketchup, MSG (yeah really, just a pinch sometimes is excellent), eggs, rice, pasta (fusilli is the only one you need, goes with all types of pasta dishes--yes the shape matters, think surface area + chunk size), worcestershiresauce (vegetarians: contains anchovy), frozen spinach or kale, corn starch (always dissolve in cold water first), flour, concentrated tomato paste. You almost never really need "kosher" salt, but pay attention to the amounts "kosher" flakes are different than small grained tablesalt.

I think that's all I have to say on the subject. (Ha!)