I don't mind cooking for one, when I did it, it was fine. But I have to admit that I didn't make anything really elaborate.

I also don't mind microwaves and right now miss one, we have no room in our tiny kitchen for one. But I am sure that if we found the space then we would have one.

I actually cook for two - half of what I make always is reserved for lunch the next day. That said, I'm with Sarah in that I don't make anything elaborate but I do try and shop organic and have quality meat and veggies. Solo, simple eating shouldn't equal boring.

I make fantastic meals for one all the time. Sunday night it was a homemade olive and tomato sauce with scallops pasta and tonight it was homemade fettuccine alfredo with shrimp. I find that making great meals for myself is a nice way to take care of myself, and that includes not just making dishes but also plating them -- I regularly fan fruit slices or place parsley sprigs on my plate. :)

yeah, i'm a big leftover queen, so i do make big things for myself. if i find myself home on a saturday night, i'll splurge a little and make something fancy.

I love the chance to cook for me, but I suspect that's because most of the time I'm cooking for many (& being cooked for by many).

I cook for only myself about 1/2 the time. (The other half my boyfriend comes over, I eat out, or I go to my parents.) I think the best part about cooking for 1 is I feel I can experiment without forcing anyone else to eat my duds and I can eat whatever I feel like.

I don't mind cooking for one - not always anything terribly elaborate, but I like to eat real food and that doesn't come in a bag from Jack in the Box. (Though there's nothing wrong with pizza or takeout Chinese when that strikes your fancy!)

I guess I'm alone on not liking to cook for just myself. I guess I've just gotten used to having my boyfriend do the dishes after I cook, becasue clean-up is one of the major reasons I hate cooking for just myself.

I wish there were more cookbooks for one.
I'm not a great cook so without a recipe - I'm stuck.

I hate cooking for one. When I do it, I make huge amounts so I can have leftovers.

Currently I live with a roommate who eats like a bird, and a very picky toddler. So it often feels like I'm still cooking for one (since the young man is pretty faithful to his pbj, cereal, and pizza diet). But the roommate does often clean up, bless her heart!

And I'm totally pro-microwave.

I never cooked for myself when I lived in NY--I had such bad kitchens that it wasn't worth the back pain (from chopping on a table) and cleaning time. It just seemed more efficient to get takeout or make scrambled eggs. Now that I'm married and have a bigger kitchen I find that the nights I *am* alone I still make myself really simple things, but nicely. My husband hates eggs, I'll often make fancy scrambled eggs or just fried eggs for dinner.

My boyfriend travels more than he's home, so it's lots of dinners for one here. I have the chance to make things he doesn't like that I do. And I take the leftovers to work for lunch, since there's no microwave to be had in this apartment to heat things up.

You should absolutely have a microwave poll, I'd like to see where it ends up. The only time I use it is for a quick defrost.

As for cooking for one, I love it. I VERY rarely eat leftovers - the only things better the next day are sauces and [some] soups. I hate leftovers. And, I live alone. I buy pre-made pizza doughs, and make little grandma, white, or pesto pizzas from time to time. I will buy a single serving of chicken, but make the full recipe of whatever goes with it, and use it on other things that week.(&c...)

It opens me up to more experimentation, which makes me that much more confident and prepared when I do end up throwing a dinner party for six in my tiny apt.

I love to cook for myself. Preparing a meal is a great way to relax and switch gears after work. Most of the time, I savor the experience: I light candles and play music and eat at the table. Still, sometimes takeout eaten on the couch in front of the TV really hits the spot!

I love to cook for myself, but I lack the ability to cook in small portions. I'm used to cooking for large numbers of people, so I still wind up making far too much.

The microwave is a necessary evil in my kitchen. I rarely use it for cooking foods, but I use it often to reheat leftovers.

I cook for myself, sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate. Mostly local and organic. But sometimes I just heat up some Morningstar chik'n nuggets in the oven and eat those with a cold beer and a handful of raw carrots.

I'm not anti-microwave, but I don't own one. I rarely miss it.

Now that my son is grown and (mostly) gone, I usually cook just for myself. I enjoy it most of the time. Depending on what I'm making, I may end up with leftovers (I always make the max quantity my rice steamer will hold) that I can use for lunch or another dinner. Cleanup isn't such an issue for me - I keep a container of soapy water and a sponge on the back of the sink, a quick wash and rinse, and into the dish drainer.

I did buy a new microwave when my last one died, but I'm wondering why... I only seem to use it to heat water (for tea or instant flavored coffee) and my son uses it for popcorn or to heat leftovers. I doubt I'll replace this one.

I fell really sad for that woman. Someone should send Helen Gurley Brown over to smack her about the head with a wet mackeral, stat.

Perhaps I'm glamorizing my memories of being a single girl cooking for herself but I loved it. I could cook whatever I wanted and no one was there to make comments. I could eat elbow macaroni with butter & salsa five days in a row and no one had to know.
She needs more imagination and more confidence in herself.

I find cooking for one just as enjoyable as cooking for others -- the process itself is relaxing, and sometimes it's more relaxed to not have to be on, conversant, ready with the next course or drinks, etc., etc.

Dominique Browning has been on a depressing spiral for quite some time now -- her recent editorial on global warming, while quite accurate, was a major downer and an odd intoduction to the next 100 pages of fabulous things you must have in your home.

Off topic but in this issue of H & G on page 176, a beautiful home in Connecticut is featured, it is from the landscape designer's perspective and the organic garden she planted is amazing and inspiring!

My boyfriend recently started a job where he works a few nights a week, and I am loving cooking for myself again. I love that I can have nothing but pureed white beans and a pile of garlicky broccoli raab and a glass of wine for dinner with no one batting an eye. Or popcorn.

When we were doing the long-distance relationship thing, I cooked all kinds of fancy, involved meals for myself. I have to say that my cooking skills improved greatly while I did so - there was much more room for experimentation when I didn't have to worry about who else might be disappointed by dinner. I tried all kinds of "weird" vegetables, different techniques, and seasoning combinations, and sometimes it didn't work out and I got takeout instead. But I found a lot of things that I really love now, and I'm working on introducing him to them as well ("Tonight, meet Orangette's hashed brussel sprouts!").

wow, i haven't looked at H&G for some time, but that editorial sounds awful. it also sounds as though "girls" needn't bother cooking when there are no men around. hello, it's 2007?

like laura dot, i enjoy cooking for one because i can make whatever i want. and as several others have said, when i cook for one i make simple but good food and sometimes i plan on taking leftovers for lunch. i'm just one of those people who prefers homemade food almost all the time, and i get really bored with sandwiches and salads for lunch.

i'd like a microwave poll, too!

I cook for my husband and daughter (as many times a week) as I can. I cook for the people I love family, friends, or just me. I learned to cook on my own and that was no easy task - many a burnt or overcooked/undercooked meal. But I learned. My budget at the time was limited and take out was outta of the question especially while raising my daughter after a messy divorce. I used cooking as a way to destress and as a way to not depend on others ie. no goin home to mom!
I encourage moms and dads to get their lil ones in that kitchen as early as possible and let them share in making a meal. Teaching kids to cook at an early age allows them to appreciate the time, dedication, and labor of love that's put into every dish. Food is a celebration of love - my culture prides itself on it's food. For Browning and the others - cook because you want to - but don't (not) do it because you find it time consuming or annoying or view it as a spectator sport :) PS we'd all be malnutritioned and undernourished if we actually waited for a significant other to cook for.

I actually welcome the opportunity to cook for just myself (though that might change when my bf goes on tour this summer). It gives me the chance to make the dishes that my boyfriend dislikes, or splurge on expensive ingredients.

A few years ago, I did a simple guide to cooking for one for eGullet Culinary Institute. It really reminded me of the pleasures of cooking for myself after years of dispensing advice on how to cook for large dinner parties.

For starter, there are certain dishes that you just have to make yourself because the recipes are so personal. There is a reason why your grandmother's gumbo is better than anything you can get in a restaurant.

Then, there is the whole wellness aspects to it too! Both physical and mental. Many people say cooking relaxes them (I am one of them). As a food writer, it also gives me the opportunity to be play with unusual flavor combinations and ingredients. If I screw up? Hey, no one is there to tell.

The following from the Times Celia Barbour epitomizes what's fun about "cooking" for one:

By CELIA BARBOUR
Published: August 23, 2006

PEACHES vex me. For weeks, I have been trying to figure out why.

In July and August, when peaches make their annual rosy appearance at the Union Square Greenmarket, I always stop to admire them. I'm a sucker for a pretty peach, and wind up wanting to take home one, and then another, and another. And no sooner do I tear myself away from vendor A's peaches than I behold vendor B's, which are really stunning and ''tree-ripened'' to boot, and determine that it is necessary to have some of those, too.

I come to my senses only after I have purchased 15 peaches.

As anyone who shops the Greenmarket knows, you can learn a lot from the farmers there (though not, sadly, self-restraint). But the things you learn aren't always what they seem. For example: tree-ripening matters -- so much that the owners of Terhune Orchards go to great lengths to prop up the limbs of the peach trees with two-by-fours so that they can support the mounting weight of the fruit a few days longer without being ripped from the limbs. Judging by their peaches, it makes a difference, sort of. A tree-ripened Red Haven peach will be as good as a Red Haven can be, which is very, very good, but not quite as good as a John Boy.

Variety trumps ripeness, in other words, as long as the fruit isn't green when picked. So why are there no signs indicating peach varieties at the Greenmarket? The labels read simply ''yellow'' or ''white.'' It's as if apples were marked ''green-skinned'' or ''red-skinned'' and nothing more.

I puzzle over things like this mainly to distract myself from the bigger peach problem that I must confront when I get home. Because think about it: What does a peach need from a cook like me? Nothing. I cannot improve upon it, try as I might. A ripe peach is an improbable fusion of extravagant juice, delicate perfume and tender, buttery flesh. The moment I try to cook with it, the peach becomes more ordinary.

Not that this stops me from bringing all my culinary ambitions to bear upon the poor fruit. After all, with 15 peaches turning up in my kitchen a couple of times a week, I'd better have some good ideas up my sleeve. And I do. I make classic dishes like peach ice cream and peach cobbler. I add peach slices to a green salad, along with tomato, torn mint or basil, and include Champagne vinegar in the dressing.

I also make a peach-butterscotch sauce that I dreamed up recently to impress my children, whose love for me, though unwavering, I am nonetheless constantly trying to cement with food. The result was delectable. We ate the sauce straight from the pot. We ate it from the serving dish. And we ate what was left for dessert that night, poured over Ronnybrook vanilla ice cream with chewy gingersnaps from Hawthorne Valley on the side. My children's adoration of me was unaffected by the butterscotch, but their energy level definitely got a boost from all the sugar.

But the best thing I've ever done with a peach isn't something I'd serve to company, or even to my family. It falls into a category of things I think of as single-girl food, since it reminds me of the quirky indulgences that brightened my days before my husband came into my life.

On a Saturday morning not long ago, my husband took our three children upstate, leaving me alone in the city. At the Greenmarket, I bit into a peach, and it was heaven. Like a revelation, this idea came to me: I would create a simple ode to the peach, using flavors that would offset it, but not alter it. I jogged over to Tonjes Farm Dairy, where I had just sampled some lovely fromage blanc, then to Rock Hill Bakehouse for a loaf of pane bello. From there, I went to Tremblay Apiaries and bought Russian olive honey; it has a bit of heat, like honey liqueur. Purchases in hand, I rode the elevator upstairs and entered the remarkable quiet of our empty apartment. I set everything out on the dining table.

First, I spread the fromage blanc on the bread, then sprinkled a bit of damp gray sea salt over it. With a little paring knife, I cut a peach into slim slices and laid them carefully on top. Then I dipped an old baby spoon into the honey and let it drizzle onto the peach slices.

I took a bite. Perfect. I sat back, content. The peach and I were at peace at last.

Butterscotch Peaches
Time: 1 hour

6 medium or 5 large ripe peaches
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon honey
Pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
Vanilla ice cream
Almond biscotti, gingersnaps or other cookies.

1. Fill a large bowl with ice and water, and set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place peaches in boiling water for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to ice water. When cool, drain and pat dry.
2. Working over a bowl to catch the juice, peel skins from peaches, squeezing as much juice as possible from the skins. Slice each peach into 10 to 12 slices, and set aside with juice; discard skin and pits.
3. In medium skillet over low heat, melt butter. Raise heat to medium-high and cook butter until it foams, subsides, foams again and begins to brown. As soon as butter is nut-brown, add the peaches with juices. Sauté 2 to 3 minutes, then place skillet over low heat to keep warm.
4. In medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine cream, sugar, honey and salt. Place over low heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is completely melted. Raise heat to medium and let boil without stirring until it turns a rich golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes. (Because of honey and cream it will appear to turn pale brown before it has caramelized; wait until it has darkened noticeably, thickened and reduced before proceeding.) Carefully pour contents of skillet into saucepan; it will boil and spatter; stir to combine. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Add vanilla or other flavoring. Serve warm or at room temperature over ice cream, with cookies on the side.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

E.I.F., I'd love to hear suggestions about how to involve my 3 year old in cooking. I would love love love to spark a love for cooking in him, as well as the expectation of helping Mom in the kitchen. Currently he "washes dishes" which is basically all about splashing in the sink and getting water all over the entire kitchen. I also let him stir when there's something to stir. What else can he do?

I'm a single guy. It's quite easy even for the busiest schedule. Cook everything for the week on Sunday!

If money is less of an object, one can buy single portions of various sizes from the butcher counter at Whole Foods, Draeger's, Central Market or higher end grocers. If one is on a budget, he or she can buy the cellophane packs of meat, divide up the portions to cook for the week, then freeze the rest. Vegetables are even easier. Cut and chop into single servings, steam (or boil), season and pack. Dairy is a no brainer. Single servings of yogurt, cheese, milk, etc. are readily available.

Those Glad and Ziploc containers are cheap and readily available eveywhere! It's not cheaper than eating out for fast food, but it tastes way better!

I became single 2 years ago, and for a while I was too depressed to cook for myself.. after 5 years of cooking for 2, it was difficult. Also, I'm an occasional personal chef, and I find that when I have clients, I get lazy for myself. But I had also become an omnivore, and he stayed veg, so I found the bright side - experimenting cooking meat! As I now work for a beautiful new Whole Foods, I find myself cooking quite elaborate meals even more often. I'm about to pick up a client again, and I hope I can stay inspired to cook the bounty of springtime both for them and myself!

Just like the commercial says..."because I'm worth it!"...it took me a long time to discover the joy of cooking for myself but the more I build my skills and recipes the more I enjoy it and the more I like cooking for other people too! I am always looking for good single recipes...share if you have them and I will too! Oh, Williams Sonoma has a good cook book, I think it is titled Cooking for One. Bon Apetite everyone.

I have lived in my apartment for almost 2 years... I don't have a single outlet in the WHOLE kitchen... (well I do... But it's where the fridge and oven are plugged in)... With that said... I don't have a microwave, and I havn't missed one... I have to actually COOK everything I eat with a pan... or in the oven.... The first couple months sucked... but I got use to it... And I now actually enjoy cooking... Cooking for 2 or more is alot of fun and always gives you more options on what to cook, but I enjoy cooking even if it's just for me... The only thing I hate... THE DISHES!!!

mjoe~I hope that A.T. Kitchen can suggest cookbooks for parents and their kids. I'd also be thrilled if they can include recipes that you can involve children of all ages!
Your lil guy seems to be involved in the kitchen already and that's great! Right now washing dishes is fun! But in a few years he may not think so! Which is fine I'd rather prepare/ make a meal instead of washing dishes!
Cooking can be a great teaching tool. Learning to wash hands before or during preparing food. Identifying the names of vegetables and fruits as well as colors. Let him rinse the veggies and fruit, with your help, and toss them into a bowl. Tell him he is helping you make a salad. Kids get so excited knowing they created something you will actually eat with them. If you bake let him roll out a small piece of dough show him how to mold it and then bake it. My daughter started with frosting cupcakes and cookies - wow! what a mess! But great memories started here in the kitchen! She now calls the moments she remembers as tradition. Take advantage of the holidays - Halloween (carving a pumpkin) it's messy but kids love the sticky mess inside. Make pumpkin seeds by risning the seeds you remove and baking them.
Hope this can motivate you to start! BTW it's going to be messy but I can guarantee you well worth it! Good luck!

One aspect of cooking for one is that you need to shop carefully and often since you don't want things to spoil.

When I lived in europe most people shopped on a daily basis for small amounts of food for that day and next days meals, even some with large families to feed.

I do most of my produce, meat/fish shopping in the various San Francisco Chinatowns and see the same habits with the chinese community.

SO I love to cook for myself for this reason. It keeps me active in my community and connected with what goes into my body. I don't miss the fact that if I had more mouths to feed I could do the mega shopping once a week.

I also dont mind cooking extra food and bringing to lunch,but instead I use left offers as ingredients into the days lunch or dinner. For instance if I barbque some fish that might become a sandwich or crumbled over a slad wih some boiled egg etc. Also when I am preparing a meal I set aside ingrediants for the next meal. Like when making a pasta i will set aside some of the grilled onions to go on a sandwich thenext day.

So yes, since I live alone, I love cooking for myself and especialy cooking WELL for myself.

Not to say I don't love cooking for others...especially opening a bottle of wine and sharing the cooking experience with everyone in the kitchen.

Cooking for one? Like I have a choice...;^}

Wow--could Dominique Browning's column be any more depressing? Is she remotely aware of how bleak she's made her inner life sound? Or have we fallen through a time warp back to 1957 and I've been too busy rescuing stray cats to notice?

That said, I don't like cooking for myself, but then again I don't enjoy cooking in the first place. Cooking is a chore I'd rather avoid altogether. But eating out all the time gets expensive, and since I have dietary restrictions (no soy, wheat, or corn!) it's easier for me to cook my own dinners.

While I hate to cook, I love eating well-prepared food. So I stick to simple dishes that I can do well, that require very little prep and cleanup--stir fries, egg dishes, roasted or broiled meats and fish, soups and stews. I make a point of using fresh ingredients, trying new things, and experimenting with different combinations of flavors.

I own a microwave, but almost never use it--maybe once or twice a month, at most. It's ancient, and when it finally dies I doubt I'll bother replacing it. If I didn't have a convenient spot for it, I probably would have given it away long ago.

I don't, won't, cook for just me. I don't like it. I'll reheat something I've made a batch of, but I don't like to cook from scratch for just me to eat.

i love cooking for one, i get to try new recipes or jsut throw crap together and not worry about what anyone else thinks of it.

When I was single I hated cooking for myself. It's expensive and wasteful. I don't see the point in cooking a meal only to have to eat it for the rest of the week.