Whenever you can, always use fresh garlic, basil, parsley, etc... only use dry stuff when you have to.
Agreed, but you may need a bit more when using fresh as opposed to dried, because dried herbs are more concentrated. I prefer fresh any day, though.
Personally, when I drain my pasta, I add a tablespoon of butter for every pound and mix it in before finishing off pasta with the tomato sauce.
Here I disagree. You want the pasta to absorb the sauce. Coating with oil or butter prevents that. And never rinse your pasta after it's cooked for the same reason -- the sauce is less likely to stick to it.
A great way to get rid of fryer oil is to wait a day for oil to completely cool off. Drain into disposable plastic containers and freeze them until garbage day.
If you used a lot of oil (for say, deep frying), and didn't burn the oil, you can strain it (coffee filters work well) into a jar with a tight lid and it should keep in a cupboard for a long time. I have 2 qts of oil from the last time I used my deep fryer (last summer lol), and the oil is still good (not rancid). A year may be pushing it, but it'll be good if you plan to use it within a few months. I probably would only re-use it once or twice, though.
Speaking of deep frying with oil, don't use olive oil. Canola and/or peanut oil are best because they have a higher smoke point.
If you really want to cook better, watch the pros on TV as often as you can. Even cooking competitions: I watch almost all of them (except the baking shows).
Search for recipes online.
http://www.foodnetwork.com tells you what level of expertise one should have for each recipe. I also like
http://allrecipes.com/ that has user-submitted recipes with voting. But I don't think I've ever followed a recipe 100% -- don't be afraid to doctor it up a bit. Experiment and enjoy!
lol
