On Sun, 06 Feb 2005 17:35:53 -0500, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>jem wrote:
>
>> Sorry, it actually was a feeble attempt at humor. As a single guy for
>> most of my adult life I can appreciate the difficulty of cooking for
>> one. My solution was always "embrace leftovers".
>
>Leftovers? Yech.

Not necessarily. I'm a single woman, and I batch cook on weekends.
Soups and stews designed to be freezable all go into the freezer for
consumption at later dates. Stir-frys hold quite nicely for
consumption during the week over noodles or rice. Risottos make
fantastic lunches along with a green salad, as do fritattas, lasange,
and any pasta sauce over pasta.

That would be embracing leftovers deliberately, yeah, and I always
have something ready for friends who drop by.

>Ok, there are some leftover things things that are good. I like roasted
>chicken and beef cold or reheated, especially in gravy. I have made up some
>sort of curries for left over lamb. I have no use for leftover pork. Some
>things are even better as leftovers than the first time round, like good
>stews. My old coworker was a bachelor and he cooked more roasts than my wife
>and I do. He roast for himself every sunday night, and then he has leftovers
>more most of the rest of the week.

Sound cooking policy. Do that myself with a chicken. Cook once, hot
dinner one night, lovely chicken and tomato sandwiches the rest of the
week.

So, in answer to the original poster's question, no, I can't think of
a cookbook specifically designed for a single guy with minimal cooking
experience. _However_ a good basic cookbook that explains why you want
to do things a certain way, food handling guidelines and some flavour
combinations will do you wonders. What food types are you interested
in? If you are eating a vegetarian diet, you're going to need more
nutritional information that one with meat. Eat lots of veggies,
that's a given, and you'll want something with good recipes for that.
I'm partial to Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" in
that department. Her recipes are nutritionally balanced, use fats in
an appropriate manner (not too little, and not too much) and have
variation suggestions. I'm currently drooling after "Cookwise", as my
former room-mate's copy was a goldmine about why some recipes work and
why others don't. The Fanny Farmer Cookbook or Joy of Cooking should
be in everyone's kitchen, as they both explainbasic principles, have
"know you ingredients" sections and have lots of basic recipes that
allow you to deal with anything from beans to deer to kolhrabi. Add
in another recipe book with an emphasis on quick and easy
combinations, preferably one with an emphasis on heartsmart cooking
and you should be set up nicely.

It's a lot of work to cook for one person in ratio to the results.
That's why batch cooking is so useful.