Years ago, my mom and I — separately and coincidentally —  decided to embark on a self-taught culinary education. As we began to pool our budding knowledge during lengthy phone conversations, one of us would eventually wish we could go back in time to teach ourselves what we know now. We considered building a time machine, but then we thought writing a blog to share our newfound skills was a way better idea, so…

Welcome to The Weal Meal, a mother-daughter blog of home cookery. Here we post everything we have learned — and are still discovering — about food and cooking. What you will find here are our own kitchen-tested recipes as well as tips and tricks for the home cook that will take your meals from “just OK” to “Wow, this is really good!” This blog is for anyone striving to build confidence in the kitchen and be a better home cook.

H. Weal
I’ve been immersed in a “ready-to-eat” food culture all my life, so for a long time, I thought cooking from scratch was hopelessly complicated and that I had no aptitude for it. But in 2008 I decided to give it a shot anyway, to set a healthy table for my family and to live by the principles of responsible eating that I’ve come to admire. I’ve been surprised and delighted by how satisfying it is to cook from scratch and began compiling a recipe collection to record my successes.

When I began organizing the collection, I noticed I often had multiple recipes for the same dish. In trying to consolidate them, I discovered that if I just kept the similarities and discarded the differences, I often hit upon a “no frills” version of the dish that was just as delicious as the original versions and often easier to make. I started rewriting all my recipes this way. Through my trial and error, I’m hoping I can show you that recipes are guidelines, not rules!

L. Weal
I had two rules for family dinners when my daughter was young: No sodas with meals and no frozen dinners.  I cooked basic American fare: spaghetti and meatballs, stuffed peppers, baked chicken. The goal was nutritionally balanced, fast, tasty, in that order… but sometimes I didn’t quite make it to “tasty”.  My poor family happily suffered through sloppy omelets and chewy, overcooked pork chops and steaks.  The popularity of TV cooking shows in recent years sparked an interest in cooking I honestly didn’t know I had, and it’s been fun!  If a recipe doesn’t turn out quite right, I don’t fret about it. I just dump it out, figure out where I went wrong, try again, and if all is well, it goes up here on The Weal Meal.  When Hayley asked me to collaborate with her in this endeavor, I was thrilled and excited to share what I’ve learned — and what I’m still learning, which is basically this:  You don’t have to be a Top Chef to cook and eat well.  Take your time, be a little adventurous, and most of all, have fun with it.

Happy Eating!

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Please Note

• All comments are moderated. Praise and constructive feedback is appreciated. Please stay on topic and be specific. Anything else will not be published.

• Recipes are periodically updated (without notice).