Cooking Tips

1. Simple conversions for metric to standard can be done online.  
2. The Internet is a great resource for recipes and tips.
3. Buy a good cookbook that has all the basics, like Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Garden or any basics book.
4. Watch cooking shows to learn tips.  Watch people cook.
5. Wash your hands with hot water and soap after dealing with meat.  Clean anything that raw chicken or poultry has touched especially well to avoid salmonella.
6. Make sure your chicken or poultry is white all the way through.  If it is pink, it is not done.
7. If meat smells bad, it's bad.  Do not eat it!  Throw it away. 
8. If you are not going to use meat that day or the next, freeze it.  Put it in a good sealed bag to avoid freezer burner.  Meat will last months in your freezer, versus a few days in your fridge.  
9. Once you defrost meat you have to cook it; meat goes bad when it is defrosted and refroze raw. 
10. Be adventurous, you don't have to stick to the recipe exactly.  Experiment, that's how you learn and find what you like and don't like. 

Here are some links for easy recipes:
http://www.seventeen.com/college/freshman/recipes-for-college-students - has 20 good recipes
health.iupui.edu/docs/SALC%20Cookbook.pdf - Found this great cookbook you can download, made for College Students
http://www.studentcook.co.uk/CookingBasicsCategory.html - I liked this site a lot, has a great overall list of basic tips of cooking.

My favorite cooking websites:
http://allrecipes.com/ - I especially love the comment section where people say what works and doesn't, how they've changed the recipe, etc. 
www.cooks.com
www.foodnetwork.com