If she'd just like to sell recipes, not food, there are a few potential markets, many newspapers and magazines offer a recipe column, some grocery stores provide free recipe cards as a service to customers, and a growing number of internet sites will pay for contributions. She can contact editors, webmasters, and managers of publications and/or stores to find out what each would pay.



Also, many people assemble small photocopied recipe books that they sell through classified advertisements; you've probably seen ads that said something like "15 high fibre recipes for 5 quid". I have read in various writers' magazines that this is surprisingly lucrative as many people like to buy these for the "personal touch". I have never tried it myself though.

If your mother would like to sell food to restaurants and shops, she needs to get a license. This will involve a government inspection of her kitchen and probably some renovations, as saleable food has to be prepared with a much higher level of hygiene than home cooking. Yes, they would likely buy the food; many smaller restaurants and pubs are thrilled to buy home-cooked meat pies, fruit tarts etc that they don't have the time or staff to prepare themselves. Another potential avenue is local shopkeepers. Butchers, in particular, are often willing to sell home-cooked bottles of soup, stew, and other dishes.

Many of them will even have licensed kitchen facilities onsite; your mother could offer to come in a few mornings a week, turn some of the butchers' odds and ends into high-priced merchandise, and take a percentage of sales. The best approach here is probably to ask shopkeepers who already are familiar with her whether they'd be interested. This is an informal business offer and a resume might "put off" someone who wasn't interested in hiring at that time. Also, she might wish to distribute some bite-sized free samples when approaching pubs, butchers, small shops etc. This is standard practice in the catering industry.

Microwaves do not harm users as long as the rays are closed in the trunk. But the door must not leak and if the oven is out of order, never try to repair it yourself. There are detectors notifying the leaking. The only influence of microwave is heating water or moist material, food, because of frictions of the molecules. The food warms from inside. If the microwave operates too long of a time, the food becomes stiff, dry and tasteless. Therefore you must discover the right time which depends on many factors, like the strenght od the rays and density of the food.

Do not be afraid of the microwave, I use it almost 25 years and am still healthy. In the Middle ages the sailors believe that the garlic bring misfortune and disaster. Therefore it was forbiden to use it in the ships. The punishment was whipping. Today we all eat garlic which is considered to be a healthy spice. There are several sites that have current information on new technologies in cooking. Go to any food service council and see what you can find on that website or just go around that sites and see where it lands you.

I'm in the market for some new cookware too and have been doing quite a bit of research. Teflon is a marvelous invention that makes cooking sticky foods so much easier. However, if it is scratched, the teflon can be a problem with leeching into food. Therefore, once a pan is damaged it should not be used. With that said, I still think Teflon has a place in the kitchen. The key is using appropriate utensils with them to prevent the scratching. I use Teflon coated fry pans in my own kitchen and replace them if there are any signs of scratching, my sons and husband don't always use the right utensils, but that's another story.

As far as cookware gose you can always get magazines that do all kinds of test on the the new cookware things that come out or you could go on line and look that them from there and ask questions about any of the things that you see. Don't forget to ask you family and friends what they think about some of the cookware products. Who knows? One of them might end up having the one cookware item that you were thinking about trying out. They are a good hands on person to get some information on the item.