Expression Engine Channel/Category Setup

Expression Engine Channel/Category Setup

I'm trying to work out EE, and how best to build my site structure.
Inspiration from saveur.com - the recipes menu.
Mini sitemap for this section as follows.
Homepage
Recipes - landing page
Course - post category - landing page
Breakfast - post subcategories - landing page
Brunch
Lunch
Mains
Deserts
Appetizers
Ingredients
Eggs
Chicken
Avacado
Fish
Can anyone explain to me the basic idea of Expression Engine
channel/categories/entries, because I think I'm missing something. Take
the following URL
/recipes/course/breakfast/scrambled-eggs
Recipes is the channel, with a Channel URL saved. 404 page.
Course and breakfast are both categories - landing pages that will never
have content published to, but will list an index of content from their
child pages. Both segments return 404. Even when Category URL's are saved
The only segment that is active is the entry itself - scrambled-eggs.
If anyone can shed some light on this, I'd be very greatful.