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I happen to love cooking and so does my wife. She loves it a bit more than I do.

I don’t know many people or couples that would say that they love to cook. But for me cooking is a great way to affordably eat great food. When you first start cooking, you suck at it (just like anything else). Over time though you get better, and start to experiment a lot more. You also develop a sense for what your favorite dishes are, and memorize how to shop, prepare and make them with very little fuss. For example, my favorite dishes are a pasta Bolognese sauce, chicken parmigiana, butternut squash soup and any kind of steak.

I’m also a Geek, and as such the kitchen provides for a lot of geeky outlets. I love Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table. I go almost as often as I drop into the Apple store. When my wife and I got married we pretty much built our dream kitchen arsenal (through the registry and post wedding purchases).

I read a blog post today by 37signals (How Cook's Illustrated thrives while others are dying) that reminded me why I got into cooking and how we’ve managed to learn to cook a lot of different dishes with ease: Cook’s Illustrated and The Best Recipe (this is the only cookbook you need). They provide simple and illustrative instructions on how to shop and prepare a meal, from Thanksgiving dinner to making pasta and rice.

I was first introduced to Cook’s Illustrated when I got my first All-Clad LTD pan (I now have a full collection). I immediately fell in love. This was a magazine that was published by Cooking Geeks. There is no advertising, and lots of product reviews, recipes and tips. The best part about their recipes is that they literally cook and try dozens of things to find out the best way to do anything.

• They will cook 20 turkey’s to figure out if you should brine, how much salt you should use, how long you should cook, at what temperature, if you need to rotate the bird and of course what kind of bird to buy.
• They will try 20 different kinds of Olive Oils to find the best and most reasonably priced olive oil
• They will try 20 different wood spoons to find the best one

They allow me to go to the supermarket, or the cooking store and literally buy the best product in the category. Which peppercorns should you buy? Cracked or whole? They tell you this. They are experts.

They also have syndicated in a bunch of ways:

• Cook’s Illustrated Magazine
• Online Website with a yearly subscription
• America’s Test Kitchen show on PBS
• A huge array of cook books.

My father who is as close to a gourmet chef as anyone I’ve met loves his Cook’s Illustrated magazine and also subscribes to the online site.

So, if you’re a Geek and you find yourself eating out most of the time, you should consider learning to Cook. It’s got tremendous benefits for your health and is a great way to unwind and get your brain to focus on other things.

Find a great grocery store (like Whole Foods) or a Farmer’s Market and enjoy buying great quality ingredients and making a fantastic meal for you or your family that will cost less than eating out. If you like doing this, then invest in some quality cooking gadgets (Pots & Pans, Knives, Utensils, Appliances). There is a whole world of geekiness outside of electronics .