Always read through a recipe completely and make sure you have all ingredients on-hand before starting to prepare and cook.

Serving size tells you how many people the recipe will serve, or for baked goods like cookies, how many dozen the recipe should make.

Become familiar with measurements, like tablespoons and cups, to better understand the ingredients list.

Directions are sometimes included within the list of ingredients. For example "1 onion, chopped" would mean you would need to chop the onion before adding it to the recipe.