So, if you're like me and you're used to the game mechanics of "Visit this NPC to raise this stat" or "Go to this place and perform this activity to raise this other stat" then the system can seem kinda weird, but as long as you play through the main story and do the girl's stories, you'll find your stats increasing as per story interactions either directly (as in "task completed, stat point gained) or by unlocking said interaction/location. So just go through the story normally and you'll find these opportunities (some of them, like Charisma and Physical, are *technically* available from the start or near the start, at least for the first few advancements). Looking at the stat scroll, they have little hints about how to get you started. I'll try to give non-spoiler info on it here for you :)
Charisma: Go to the bar in the morning and look around to find books, eventually you'll need to perform tasks for an NPC to raise it further (this is obvious and hard to miss so long as you keep visiting the bar in the morning).
Martial: Eventually you unlock the ability to visit a certain family member of yours, that'll deal with your Martial path pretty much in its entirety.
Insight: Once you unlock the ability to use the train station, use it and go to the Lake.
Magical: Go to the outskirts and start exploring, eventually you'll find somebody interesting...
Physical: Also outskirts, I hear working on a farm is pretty hard work. Once that's that, it might help to find somebody really strong to help you (requires advancement of story, it becomes pretty obvious once the character opens up).
In terms of recipes, unless I missed something, you only actually get ONE recipe in Act 3 just naturally (it depends on the meal you picked on Day 1, idk if the effect varies per food but I did salad and it's a pretty darn good recipe), but by exploring a certain district I know of at least one other recipe you can discover. Before Act III, I don't even think recipes are a thing.
Hope this helps you, friendo! ^-^