Questions that don't deserve their own thread

Can anybody tell me the best way to clean my cookware/dishware? I've tried using a dishwasher and I've tried hand-washing/drying but the glass lids on my pans, my plates and bowls ( which are also glass/clear ) always remain spotty with what I believe to be soap residue.

Acid cleans everything in my experience. So I just wipe everything with vinegar before/after cleaning. Oh and they have special products for water stains in dishwasher, rinse aid

Thanks mate. Cheers.

How should I cook the cow heart I just bought on an impulse?

Clean it then dry with paper towel. That's how I do my glassware. Otherwise you get spots.

So, I have some cookbooks here(from my mother) and I'd like to learn how to cook. But my question is if I follow such books will I learn how to cook or just how to follow those recipes? I want to be good at cooking, anything I want without following a recipe, know exactly why doing this to ingredient x makes it be y, knife skills, basic cooking skills and what more, not just how to open a cookbook and follow its recipe,. So, will these books help me at this or at least getting the basics down?

You and I seem to be starting from the same place. I've been living on my own for years but am finally tired of pre-packaged foods. In addition to this prices of ingredients to cook for myself have become low enough to where cooking a single portion ( or a few extra portions to eat later in the week ) is less expensive than the pre-packaged foods such as Stoufers.

My first attempt at cooking will be a chicken cacciatore from the booklet that came with my Crock-Pot. It had a lot of unspecific things ( didn't specify the type of pasta(s) to use, etc. ( a lot of the recipes in that book are like that ) but as I go through and make mistakes I know I'll learn.

Cooking is a process of trail and error. I learned from a few previous attempts, the most humerous being my grilling steaks for my but forgetting to plan sides, salads, etc. leaving a those I was cooking for in a bit of a panic. They made the sides as I almost destroyed the steaks trying to check if they were done and we wound up having a great meal with only the smallest of the steaks being over-cooked ( but not burnt). Take comfort in the fact our screw-ups will make us better cooks if we learn. What we don't know we can come and ask Veeky Forums, something I had to do a few months ago durring my first time cooking chicken only to realize I had no clue to telling when it was cooked.

I've never cooked cow heart but I cook chicken hearts constantly, had cow heart at a restaurant awhile back and they taste pretty similar. Trim off the excess fat, soak it in water for a little bit as you would any other organ, and stir fry it with a nearly American amount of garlic butter. Then just add some rice to that shit and fry it up all together. Of course this is assuming you're cutting it up small, since chicken hearts are bite size.

I doubt I helped but hey fuck, I tried.

Just jump right in, it really doesn't matter where. It's a practical skill so the more you do it, the better you'll get. There are some aspects that are more information than practice, like various techniques and terms but that will come later, much later.

Start with chicken fried rice. Just make some nice chicken fried rice and figure it out from there.

You want to learn more techniques than recipes, once you know technique then you'll be able to make anything easily. Jamie Oliver's youtube has a lot of technique videos, like how to cut shit and make a roux and that kind of basic stuff. Goodluck to you.