NEVER cook anything UNcovered on your stovepot, unless you're just boiling water, cooking pasta or sautéing. Excessive aeration kills nutrients. Flavor, too, escapes in the steam.

NEVER throw out the water in the bottom of the pan you just used for steaming vegetables or fish or chicken breasts. Save it! It's perfect soup stock - just let it cool, put into a freezer container, label it for future use: free nutrients and flavor.

NEVER eat poultry skin. The vast majority of FAT in chicken, turkey, game hens, birds of any kind lies just beneath the skin.. Beef, of course, you can easily eat around the fat and gristle.

NEVER eat anything deep-fried or fried. Grilling is better, less messy.

NEVER cook black pepper into a dish, add it toward the end otherwise it tends to add a bitter flavor rather than the desired piquancy.

NEVER put oil into a cold (unheated) wok or saute pan. That will guarantee food sticking. Wait till the pan is heated up, put your oil in, back it down to cooking temperature.

Old Chinese proverb:
"Hot pan, cold oil, food no stick.'"