So I was talking with Julie last night and the subject of the blog came up. Besides indicating that she enjoyed reading it, she suggested from time to time I add recipes or cooking tips, complete with illustrated pictures. (Julie missed that in the March 7th blog I snuck in a recipe). Anyway, you may regret encouraging my blogging, but I thought that it was a great idea.Recognizing that my daughters are indeed their mother's daughters, I knew that I should probably begin with some basics. (Brian, you can skip this first lesson).I thought that I should start withthat most important skill - boiling water!
It is an important discussion and is beset with complexities that you may not recognize until you become more experienced in and around the kitchen. (That's the room with the stove in it.)
One of the first choices is at what temperature water should you begin with. The basic kitchen thermometer is an essential tool ( how else are you gonna know when the water's hot enough?) The classic debate is whether you should run the water tap until the water is really hot and then put it into the pan, or to start with room temperature water. 
Environmental concerns complicate the answer as well as the mechanical construction of your home. If you heat your water with an electric water heater and have an electric stove, you are screwed. If you heat your water with a gas hot water heater and have a gas stove to boot, it then really doesn't matter if you start with hot or cold water. It is only in the event that you have a gas hot water heater and an electric stove that it makes any sense to run the tap until the water heats up..... but then there is the issue of wasting precious water. Hmmm. See it really gets complicated.
Most cooks just use tap water and have the stove heat it to boiling. But alas into what should the water be placed? Again you are faced with choices.
The pans come in different sizes for a reason. A size for every task. For today's discussion we will have three hypothetical menus: 1) hard boiled egg; 2) brown rice; and 3) pasta. We will focus on menu selection on another day, and I cannot foresee the possibility of those three items ever being on the same menu.
Lets tackle the hard boiled egg first.
.
It would make sense to use the small pan from an ecological point of view, as less water will be required. But alas, how much water.
Here is where the ordinary handy ruler comes into play. You will learn as the classes proceed, that there are many ordinary household items that also have great utility in the kitchen.
So:
....by measuring the egg, you will notice that you would need one and one half inches of water to cover the egg. However, the boiling process will lessen the volume of water in the pan, so it is suggested that you begin with at least two inches of water.
As you become more experienced in the kitchen you will find that you no longer need to use the ruler and can simply put some water in the pan and boil the damn egg.
Preparing brown rice involves a higher level of skill.
The hardware selection is fairly self evident - the medium sized pan will do:
(You can begin to appreciate why there are all those different sized pans in the kitchen now can't you!)
But with rice, the volume of water becomes important. This involves combining several new skills: 1) reading the instruction on the back of the box (a recipe)
and 2) measuring the appropriate amount of water to place in the pan.
So turn around the box and by golly there are some instructions! Here the amount of water is actually important because rice has a limited capacity to absorb water - too much water and you have to do take-out again; too little water and you won't eat rice anymore.
.
This is a handy tool for determining how much water to place in the pan. It is a measuring cup. They come in different sizes to make it even easier to perform this task. So you measure the rice, measure the water and bring to a boil. See boiling comes in to play all the time in cooking!Lets proceed to the final menu item - pasta
Pasta requires the really big pan. But here you don't need to actually measure the water. ( Its complicated, I know. Sometimes you measure, sometimes you don't. Relax, you will pick it up with practice.) 
Just fill it up, bring to a boil and throw in the pasta.There we go, that's just about all you need to know about boiling water. And today you've learned three different items that require boiling water as part of their preparation. See how useful learning to boil water is.Just a final pointer. Don't think that you are done when you see some bubbles breaking the surface in the pan. That's not really boiling.
You want to see lots and lots and lots of bubbles!
This is boiling water!
Practice and enjoy.
