I must confess that the hard part about writing a cook book (beside the fact that I'm not the best writer) is MEASUREMENTS! I have never used measurements in my cooking before. I eyeball everything personally and taste as I go along. Even trying family recipes is hard... For example, I call my sweet grandmother and ask her for one of her recipes thinking "in order to get her EXACT recipe, I need EXACT measurements." She has never used measuring cups or measuring spoons, so the conversation usually goes like this:
Me: How much do I use?
Grandma: about this much (showing with her hand).
Me: How much is that exactly?
Grandma: use your handful, but a little less.
Not very helpful as you can imagine! Her hanful and my handful will give different measurements. The same goes with her techniques - there's no timing perse. She suggests you watch it, stir it, and so forth until you have the desired look. "Will that be 15 minutes or an hour?" My aunts have been so blessed to live near her to actually see how she does her magic in the kitchen. And I have been taking advantage of this opportunity by calling them to get the information I need. Oh trust me, one recipe that I was supposed to watch, stir, smell, etc., took about 2 hours BUT so worth it.
The more challenging part about measurements (in my household) is of course when I ask my husband for his opinion on the level of salt, pepper, etc. He and I seem to have different tastes recently! Perhaps I shoud stop using him as my guinea pig. The idea is to get the recipes tried out and tested enough so the flavors are appealing to everyone, not just the members of my household.
That being said, I am still learning when it comes to measurements. I do hope that you will try the recipes I post and send some feedback :)
