One of the most important things you'll need for stress-free Hands-Off cooking is a good oven thermometer. Most ovens vary a bit from the temperature on the dial or read-out, especially older ovens. To make sure that yours is accurate, purchase an oven thermometer and check it before you use the oven to see how it matches up with the temperature you need. Keep in mind that convection ovens circulate the hot air more efficiently, and can be 25 to 50 degrees higher than the temperature that you set.

If your oven is consistently 25 degrees higher than what you set it at, just keep that in mind and set the dial 25 degrees lower to compensate. Then you can really walk away from the oven while your food cooks and not worry that it will burn before your timer goes off.

Start with one that's not too expensive and move up as you use your oven more or need the temperature to be extremely accurate, as for pastry work.

This past Tuesday in San Francisco, I did the first of the Tuesday market chef demos, which will be held every other week through the summer. Using lots of produce available now in the market, I demonstrated Enchiladas Suizas with chicken and spinach and a creamy tomato sauce and Indian-flavored Dal (lentil stew) with market tomatoes and chard. The dal recipe calls for "crushed ginger from a jar" in my book, but that day I used fresh ginger since one of the farmers had it for sale.

Coincidentally, a reader from Omaha, NE, sent me an email asking what "ginger from a jar" was. It's a great product that comes in small jars like those that hold minced or crushed garlic. I often find both the ginger and garlic products in my produce section at Safeway or other large markets. Even Trader Joe's now has crushed garlic in a jar, although I prefer the minced product. But ginger in a jar is a great thing to have on hand. It retains its flavor well and the peeling and getting rid of the fibrous strands are already done.

However, if you have fresh ginger root, you can peel it (use the tip of a spoon to just take off the papery skin) and cut it into 1-inch chunks. Freeze them in a resealable bag and then grate them directly from the freezer using a Microplane or rasp grater. That way, the root won't get dried out or moldy, as it sometimes does in the fridge when you keep it for too long.

Recently in the Sacramento News & Review, my friend Kate Washington asked me which cookbooks (of the hundreds that I have) do I use the most? My answers were off the top of my head, but it turns out that I was pretty accurate. When I came home, I looked through the shelves to which were the most thumbed. Here was my reply to Kate, and then I'll add on a couple more that I think are indispensable.

1. "Joy of Cooking, for basics.” [Note that I have three different editions!]

2. “Lately, I’ve been using The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking) a lot again--I’ve always loved that one. [I have an original, well-stained copy.] I use the Apple and Cheddar Souffle, though lately I’ve been putting blue cheese in it, because it’s my favorite cheese in the world. I reworked the recipe to make Apple-Cheddar Quiche for my cookbook, with attribution.”

3. “What else? Madhur Jaffrey Indian Cooking. We make the Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seed and Spicy Green Beans at least once every two weeks. That book is how I started learning to cook Indian food.”

4. “Rick Bayless, Mexico One Plate At A Time. I make his mole sauce by the double batch, to put some of it in the freezer.”

PLUS: I use the Food Lover's Companion practically daily, although it's not a cookbook. Instead, it's a great compendium of food terms and ingredients for those times when I don't know the definition of a palacsinta (thin Hungarian crepe) or how to spell muffaletta.

I also love Susan Purdy's book A Piece of Cake, for no-fail baking recipes. It's out of print now, but re-released as The Perfect Cake: 150 cakes for Every taste and Occasion. Do yourself a favor and put her Anna's Swedish Butter Cake on regular rotation.

Have you heard of ChefsLine? It's a great online resource for home cooks. You can call a chef directly and ask food and cooking questions, sign up for a video or a class by podcast (just download it to your mp3 player), or learn how to cook like the rat in the new movie Ratatouille!

I'm one of the consulting chefs, and you can read my profile and see my menu suggestions for a great outdoor party or picnic. I'm developing a 30-minute class in Hands-Off techniques now that should be available soon. You'll learn neat tricks like cooking the pasta and sauce together for Meatballs and Marinara, and making a flavor-packed Thai Beef Curry without standing over the stove.

Or, you can book a one-on-one consultation with me by clicking the green "Schedule One-on-One" button on my profile. There's also a link to my Tandoorish Chicken--a great oven-baked chicken dish flavored with yogurt and Indian spices. It's great hot or cold.

Check it out--and tell them I sent you.