I am a dirty, dirty liar.

This was a recipe that I had attempted to write several months back.  And failed.   I think it was the pumpkin bread recipes that threw me for a loop.  Most other quickbreads follow the same general recipe, but canned pumpkin throws things off a little.  Anyway, I don't believe I've ever seen a universal quickbread recipe, which is silly, because there ought to be one.  Somewhere.

This really should be tested a dozen times before going in the cookbook, but that's just not going to happen.

This evening's apple bread came out a bit (burp) gooey.  But oh so good.

Banana Bread, Apple Bread, Zucchini Bread, etc.

“Quick bread” is a fluffy sort of bread or cake that uses baking powder or baking soda to quickly make the batter “rise” or puff up as it cooks, as opposed to the yeast in regular bread, which takes a much longer time to generate the gas that makes the bread rise. Banana bread, apple cake, and zucchini bread are just a few of the quick breads that all follow the same basic recipe. These breads can be eaten as a dessert, or for breakfast.

This makes enough to fill one 8 x 4 inch loaf pan. These are the “dry” ingredients:

1 ¼ cup whole wheat flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon, or any other Pumpkin Pie spice (1.05)

These are the “wet” ingredients:

1 egg

1 cup brown or white sugar

1/3 cup oil or melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 ½ cup chopped, grated, or mashed fruit

Optional ingredients:

½ cup of chopped nuts or chopped dried fruit

If making banana bread, squishy over-ripe bananas are ideal – bananas that are so brown nobody would eat them. You can save such bananas in the freezer until you have time to cook banana bread. Apples can be peeled and diced into small pieces, or, more conveniently, can be grated, skin and all, just like zucchini. You can also use this recipe to make pumpkin bread, using fresh, grated pumpkin. Or, use ½ of a 15-ounce can of pumpkin. Other unusual fruits or vegetables may work as well. Try an interesting combination, such as pineapple and beet!

Start by preheating the oven to 325 degrees. Rub butter or oil inside of the loaf pan, and then sprinkle the greased surface with flour.

In a mixing bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients, mixing thoroughly. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Then pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture, and stir just until the batter is almost free of dry lumps. Then stop mixing! The finished product will not be as good if you stir too much.

Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake it at once. The bread will need to cook for about 70 minutes. Stick a sharp knife (or toothpick) into the bread to see if it is done: the knife will come out clean when the inside of the bread is fully cooked.

Home-Made Larabar

This is the last recipe, I SWEAR!

This is also one of the few recipes that I made up entirely myself.  Er, that is, after I read the ingredients on a few Larabars. . .  But I was more recently inspired to try this idea because yesterday Whole Foods had a version of this to taste at their Thanksgiving booth.  Their date balls were so loaded with cocoa powder that they tasted like chocolate truffles.

I just made my very first batch of this stuff, and holy cow, this is going to be a staple in our house.

Date Nut Treats, i.e. Date Nut Energy Bars

Dates are so full of sugar that they are practically candy all by themselves. But even better, when chopped up, they turn into a wonderful sticky mess that can be used to bind together all sorts of delicious things. The best part is that the results can either be served up as fancy cookies, or eaten as a snack in place of a pre-packaged energy bar – because, after all, it's fruit and nuts! Pricy commercial versions of this, such as Larabars, are sold at high-end grocery stores.

A food processor would be useful if you wish to make large quantities of date nut treats. However, it's quick and easy to make in small batches with nothing more than a cutting board and a chef's knife. And since no actual cooking is required, it's a fun recipe to make with small children.

Dates

nuts

(optional) chocolate chips, raisins or other dried fruit

(optional) peanut butter, almond butter, or other nut butter

(optional) additional nuts

(optional) Pumpkin Pie spices (1.05), or other spices or flavors that go well with sweet things, such as cardamom, mint, or vanilla

(optional) baking cocoa, powdered sugar, white or brown sugar, or powdered hot chocolate mix

Chop up equal quantities of dates and nuts. When the dates are minced enough that they stick to every surface, use your (very clean!) hands to squish the nuts and the dates together. Continue to chop the mixture if you prefer a more smooth texture.

Add any optional dried fruit, chocolate chips, and/or additional nuts that you like, and work them into the gooey mass. You may want to chop these things a bit if they are large – but you can chop the mass of gooey stuff if you decide the lumps are too large after adding them. For more nutty goodness, add spoonfuls of nut butter. If you want chocolatey balls, you can knead baking cocoa into the mix. Dates plus baking cocoa make a lovely dark chocolate flavor without the need for any additional added sugar.

Finally, pinch off marble-sized quantities of the mixture, roll into balls, and roll these balls in baking cocoa, powdered sugar, white or brown sugar, or powdered hot chocolate mix. This will prevent the balls from sticking together. Baking cocoa is the most healthful option if you are trying to minimize the sugar in your treats.

Alternatively, squash the mixture flat onto a cutting board, and cut it into bars. You can then dust them with the optional powder, or not, as you like. Then if you want portable treats for lunchboxes, you can wrap the bars individually in parchment paper.

Store these treats in the refrigerator for up to a week, or for longer in the freezer.

Feature Creep

"Feature Creep" is what we call it in the games industry when additional stuff stealthily makes its way into the schedule, in a naughty way.  I have been puting my foot down on feature creep in the cookbook in order to reach my October milestone; but since I gave up on NaNoWriMo, I have a little time to put back features that I was forced to exclude.  So, the grand finale for the meat section:

Corned Beef

This recipe is in two parts. Part 1, Brining the Meat, is instructions on how to turn a beef brisket into brined, raw corned beef. Part 2, Cooking Corned Beef, is how to cook the raw corned beef, whether you brined it yourself or bought it already soaking in brine.

Corned Beef Part 1: Brining a Beef Brisket

Corned beef is an inexpensive cut of meat, beef brisket, which is then soaked in salty water, called brine. Historically, beef was “corned” in order to preserve it and ship it without refrigeration. The word “corn” is an old word for grains of salt.

Corned beef brine also historically used saltpeter as an ingredient. Saltpeter is a chemical used in the making of gunpowder, and it is not particularly good for you. Because we have no need to preserve meat for months in a barrel without refrigeration, this recipe does not include saltpeter. Saltpeter adds no flavor to the meat. Aside from preserving the meat, the only other thing it does is cause the meat to have an odd pink color. Without the saltpeter, your corned beef will be gray. This is just fine.

You will need the following:

1 beef brisket

2 quarts water

1 cup salt

To this, you can add any number of different spices. The following is just one possibility. If you don't have everything on this list, don't worry about it! And if you happen to have ground spices instead of whole, you can use that instead.

1 tsp whole peppercorns

½ tsp whole cloves

8 bay leaves, crumbled

1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces

½ tsp allspice berries

1 tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp ground ginger

And have on hand:

2 trays of ice

1 2-gallon ziploc bag, or a 2-gallon plastic container (preferably with a lid), or a glass or enamel container large enough to hold the meat and the brine.

In a pot on the stove, heat the water, salt, and spices, stirring until the salt dissolves. Add the ice to the water to cool it. This is your brine. If necessary, refrigerate the brine in order to chill it. Then put the meat into the brining container, and pour in as much of the brine as will fit. Try to completely submerge the meat in the brine; but if it doesn't fit entirely, you can turn it over occasionally over the next ten days.

Now put the container in the refrigerator. The meat needs to soak in the brine for about ten days to get that proper corned-beef flavor, but you can pull it out a few days sooner or a few days later. If the beef isn't entirely submerged in the brine, turn it over every few days. This is a handy recipe for feeding visiting relatives, because you can get it ready a week in advance, and then there it is, on hand, and ready to cook at your convenience.

Corned Beef Part 2: Boiled Dinner

“Boiled Dinner” is a New England meal consisting of boiled corned beef, and potato, carrots, and cabbage, all cooked in the corned beef cooking water. You can use this with a corned beef that you have brined yourself, or you can use a raw corned beef from the grocery store.

As an aside, you can boil a corned beef without the vegetables – but why waste that delicious cooking water? At the very least, you should save the cooking water in the refrigerator to cook some vegetables in later. The cooking water from corned beef imparts an amazingly delicious flavor on cabbage.

1 raw corned beef

1 cabbage (or less, if it's a really big one)

a few potatoes

a few carrots (or rutabaga, parsnip, or turnip)

an onion or two

Rinse the corned beef thoroughly and discard the brine. Then put the beef in a large pot, and cover it with water by about an inch. Bring this to a boil over high heat; then reduce the heat to low, put the lid on, and let the pot simmer for 2 ½ to 3 hours, or until the meat is “fork tender”. Remove the corned beef from the pot and slice it thinly against the grain.

Now, have those vegetables ready to go into the pot. The root vegetables should be scrubbed and cut into bite-sized pieces. Peel the onion and cut it into quarters. Cut the cabbage into wedges. (You can stick toothpicks through the cabbage wedges to keep them together.) These all go into the corned beef water, and get boiled until they are tender.

Then return the sliced corned beef to the pot, and serve it up like a soup or a stew. And be sure to save that leftover corned beef for sandwiches!

More Coffee, Please. . .

Being back home with family has allowed me to be a coffee addict again.  My parents drink it morning and afternoon, and they upgraded to a maching the grinds the beans right before brewing.  Afternoon coffee has fueled my night-time writing.  I am so spoiled right now.  Next week, I'll be switching back to decaf.  It'll be messy.  There may be tears.

I lost my cookbook momentum with the arrival of my sister and my adorable little nephews.  For the three days of weekend, there was a katamari ball of sticky little boys rolling about the house.  I got to tell my sister about the cookbook project, and I cooked a little for her.  To my delight, she had never eaten barley as a rice substitute, and even more to my delight, she liked it so much that she asked how to cook it.  No higher form of flattery can come from my sister.

I also won over my mother with some pink veggie balls.  My mother likes her slabs of meat.  She is a genius with gravy.  What she taught me was the foundation for this book.  But she frequently declines to venture outside of her comfort zone.  She ate these bizzare balls, though, even though they were vegetarian, and even though they contained lots of beet.  And she liked them.  Woot!

My sister's family left behind a little viral gift, so I've spent the past days dealing with a sick baby instead of writing.  And Saturday's flight is looming large.  Time to put it into high gear.

Anyway, before the loss of momentum, I was churning through the book, cross-referencing the recipes, and filling in the gaps that were unearthed in the process.  The following are a couple of the new additions, and some sections which were heavily reworked an/or filled out.

13.11 Croutons

Croutons are small bits of bread that go on top of salad. Croutons are another way that you can use up leftover stale bread, but you can also make them with fresh bread.

There are any number of ways to make croutons. You can cut or tear buttered toast into small pieces. You can cut or tear fresh bread, and then bake or broil it on a cookie sheet. You can even stir-fry cubes of bread in a little butter or oil. Croutons can be seasoned with salt, pepper, and spice mixes. You can even use chunks of bread in a salad without toasting them at all.

5.11 Fruit

Technically, since they are a part of a plant, all fruits are vegetables. But sweet fruit that require no cooking tend to be put into their own category. Fruits low in calories. Sweet fruits are high in sugar, but are also high in fiber, which slows the body's absorption of the sugar. This makes fruit an ideal snack food. Whole fruit stacks up especially well against fruit juice, because a large glass of fruit juice contains all of the sugar of several pieces of fruit, and none (or negligibly little of) the fiber.

Some fruits will continue to ripen after they are picked. These fruits may be kept at room temperature until they are ready to eat. Once they are ripe, they can be moved into the refrigerator to store for a few more days at peak ripeness – with some exceptions. These fruits can be left to ripen on the counter:

Avocado

Papaya

Banana (Do not refrigerate – the fruit will turn black!)

Cantaloupe

Honeydew melons

Mangoes

Nectarines

Peaches

Pears

Plums

Tomatoes (Tomatoes can be refrigerated, but their flavor will diminish.)

To hasten ripening, fruit can be left in a paper bag on the counter. To further hasten ripening, put a banana in the bag.

The following fruits stop ripening when they are picked, and should be put in the refrigerator at once:

Apples (Apples can be stored for months in the refrigerator, so stock up when they are in season!)

Blueberries (You can also wash and then freeze blueberries, if you intend to cook with them.)

Cherries

Cranberries (You can also wash and then freeze cranberries, if you intend to cook with them.)

Grapes

Raspberries (You can also wash and then freeze raspberries, if you intend to cook with them.)

Strawberries

Tangerines

Watermelons

Oranges

Lemons

Limes

Blackberries (You can also wash and then freeze blackberries, if you intend to cook with them.)

Apples and berries are good fruits to stock up on while they are in season, because apples can be refrigerated for months at a time, and berries can be frozen for use in Berry Sauce (15.12), Smoothies (2.02), Pancakes (2.06), Oatmeal (2.04), or other recipes such as pies or jelly.

Dried fruit is just as good for you as fresh fruit, and has the advantage of a long shelf-life. Try dried fruit in Grains with Nuts, Seeds, or Dried Fruit (6.05); or for breakfast, in Yogurt (2.01), Smoothie (2.02), Cold Cereal (2.03), or Oatmeal (2.04). Dried fruit is also great in desserts like Fruity Bread Pudding (16.06), Energy Bars (16.02), and Oatmeal Cookies (16.01). Fresh fruit works well in most of these recipes, too.

3.00 Store-Bought Bread

Bread has many uses beyond the sandwich. In addition to fresh bread, stale bread also has many uses, from French toast to breadcrumbs. This section gives examples of recipes which call for store-bought bread as the main ingredient. Other bread recipes can be found elsewhere in this book: Dessert Bread Pudding (16.05), Breakfast Bread Pudding (2.07), and Cinnamon Toast (16.03), French Toast (2.08), and Croutons (13.11).

Most breads are made from wheat flour. Wheat flour comes in two varieties: white, and whole wheat. White flour and whole wheat flour are made from the same plant, but in white flour, the outer portion of the grain has been stripped off. This gives white flour a longer shelf life, but unfortunately also removes more than half of the nutrients that are found in whole wheat. So, white bread contains a lot of empty calories. Use whole wheat bread when possible.

One slice of sandwich bread torn or cut up makes roughly one cup. One loaf of sandwich bread will usually have16 or more slices, not including the heels. One slice of bread (or one hamburger or one hotdog bun) makes between ¼ and ½ cup of bread crumbs.

3.01 Storing Bread, and Keeping Bread Fresh

Bread gets stale when it is exposed to the air, so the best way to prevent bread from getting stale is to keep it sealed in a plastic bag. It is fine to keep bread stored at room temperature. However, sealed bread will get moldy after a few days or a week. If you aren't likely to eat the whole loaf in time, you can store it in the refrigerator.

Did you know that sliced bread freezes nicely? Buy more than you need when it’s on sale, and put the extra away in the freezer. Frozen slices can be thawed in the microwave, or put directly into the toaster. Frozen bread must be thawed by heating it, however. Bread thawed in the refrigerator or on the counter will likely be ruined by the ice crystals that then melt and get the bread wet.

3.02 Making Stale Bread On Purpose

Many recipes call for stale bread: Croutons (13.11), French Toast (2.08), Dessert Bread Pudding (16.05), Bread Crumbs (3.03), Stuffing (3.07), etc. To make stale bread, leave slices of bread on the counter overnight without any sort of airtight covering. You can put them in a paper bag if you prefer.

To make stale bread in a hurry, put the bread on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour.

If your recipe calls for cubes or torn-up pieces of stale bread, you may find that it is easier to cut or tear the bread before it has gone stale.

Stale bread can be frozen until you need it. This is particularly useful for Thanksgiving stuffing, which is a hassle to make if you leave the bread-chopping until the last minute. Save up heels of bread as you finish eating loaves of bread, dice them at once, and store them in a bag in the freezer. Then when you need them, the stale chopped bread will be ready to grab and use. You can toss them right into your recipe without thawing.

3.03 Bread Crumbs

Bread crumbs are an ingredient used in various recipes, such as “breaded” meats, and in Balls, Patties, and Loaves (12.00). If you don't want to buy bread crumbs,you can make your own by crumbling or chopping stale or toasted bread.

Some kinds of bread make better bread crumbs than others. Ironically, the easiest bread to make bread crumbs from is exactly the sort that you wouldn't want to eat any other way: cheap, mass-produced white bread. Whole grain breads and artisanal breads have a tendency to become rock-hard when stale. These can be grated to produce bread crumbs, but white bread becomes so delicate that it can be crushed into crumbs in your hands.

One slice of bread (or one hamburger or one hotdog bun) makes between ¼ and ½ cup of bread crumbs.

6.00 Whole Grains

Far too much of the typical Western diet is made up of “refined” grains. Refined grains are grains which have had the outer portion of the seed-hull removed. This makes the result white: white bread (made from wheat) and white rice being the most common. Traditionally, this was done to make the grain and flour last longer on the shelf. Whole grains go rancid faster. However, most of the nutrients and most of the fiber are contained in the brown outer layer of the grain. The “white” versions are pure carbohydrates, which are high in calories, and which break down into sugars quickly during digestion.

Whole wheat flour and brown rice are far superior foods. And there are quite a few other whole grains that are just as good for you: barley, oats, rye, wheat berries, and millet are just some of the grains available. Whole grains should be stored in the freezer if you don't plan on cooking them within a few weeks of purchase.

Whole grain flours are used in any number of recipes, but this section deals with whole boiled grains. For recipes that use flour, see Pancakes (2.06), Gravy (15.02), and Oatmeal Cookies (16.01). See Pasta (14.00) for recipes that use pasta made from whole wheat.

Lastly, if you prefer the taste of white rice, you can use the recipes here to cook white rice, too.

15.14 Cream Sauce

This sauce is the primary ingredient in Fettuccini Alfredo (14.03), but it can also be used as a sauce for meat or fish, or with Creamy Grains (6.06). Use this sauce in moderation, because it is high in calories and fat!

2 tbsp butter

1 cup cream

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Nutmeg to taste

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the cream, turn up the heat a little, and boil, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes. This will thicken the sauce. Stir in the cheese. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.

Split Peas and Lentils

Yet another forgotten recipe.  I haven't really tested this, but it's so simple, it should work just fine.

7.10 Split Pea Soup or Lentil Soup

It will take upwards of an hour to cook this soup, but you can largely leave it unattended. There are many possible variations, with and without meat. This recipe is a good opportunity to try out different spice mixes. Add milk or other liquid when you reheat the leftovers.

2 onions, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

1 pound (about 2 cups) split peas or lentils

½ tsp salt

pepper to taste

5 cups water or broth

(optional) chopped greens, carrots, or other vegetables

(optional) cooked meats, or ham

(optional) spices of any sort! Try Turkish or French Four Spice (1.05)

Over medium heat, saute the onion until transparent. Add the peas or lentils, and the liquid. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover. Stir periodically for about 30 minutes, tasting occasionally. When the beans start to get soft, add salt and pepper to taste.

You can eat the soup when the beans are soft but still retaining their shape, or you may continue to cook until they are reduced to delicious mush. You can hurry along the beans to the mush state if you like by using a potato masher, or by running the soup a bit at a time through a blender.

After mashing the beans, add any optionals you like, and continue to cook until the optionals are heated through to your liking. Add more water a half-cup at a time if the soup is looking too thick.

Finally finished the Salsa recipe

13.10 Salsa, i.e. Bruschetta

A salsa is just a finely-chopped salad with a spicy dressing. You can use it as a topping on any number of dishes: salads, eggs, meats, grains, beans, bread, etc. By the same token, bruschetta (or more accurately, the topping which goes on bruschetta) is really just a salsa with olive oil instead of hot pepper. You can use it on anything.

Salsa can be primarily tomato, but it can also be corn. Or, for that matter, it can be made out of peaches, or mango, or apple. There really aren’t any rules.

Salsa can be used to dip tortilla chips in, of course, but it can also be served over salad greens, over meat, on toast, or eaten with a spoon. Toss some salsa with some cold cooked grains (recipe #) and you’ve just invented a whole new salad. It’s up to you.

1 chopped tomato (or 1 cob of corn)

1 minced clove of garlic, or dried garlic to taste

½ small onion, minced; or a stalk or two of green onion, minced; or dried onion to taste

hot pepper to taste, or 2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Mopping Up Overlooked Bits

Oops, I never did finish writing about bread crumbs and stale bread. . .

I need to double-check that bread crumb measurement.

Making Stale Bread On Purpose

Many recipes call for stale bread: croutons, French Toast #, Bread Pudding #, Bread Crumbs #, Stuffing #, etc. To make stale bread, leave slices of bread on the counter overnight without any sort of airtight covering. You can put them in a paper bag if you prefer.

To make stale bread in a hurry, put the bread on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour.

If your recipe calls for cubes or torn-up pieces of stale bread, you may find that it is easier to cut or tear the bread before it has gone stale.

Stale bread can be frozen until you need it. This is particularly useful for Thanksgiving stuffing, which is a hassle to make if you leave the bread chopping until the last minute. Save up heels of bread as you finish eating loaves of bread, and collect them, diced and stale, in a bag in the freezer. Then when you need them, they will be ready to grab and use. You can toss them right into your recipe without thawing them.

Bread Crumbs

Bread crumbs are an ingredient used in various recipes, such as “breaded” meats, and in Balls, Patties, and Loaves #. If you don't want to buy them,you can make your own by crumbling or chopping stale or toasted bread.

Some kinds of bread make better bread crumbs than others. Ironically, the easiest bread to make bread crumbs from is exactly the sort that you wouldn't want to eat any other way: cheap, mass-produced white bread. Whole grain breads and artisanal breads have a tendency to become rock-hard when stale. These, of course, can be grated to produce bread crumbs, but white bread becomes so delicate that it can be crushed into crumbs in your hands.

One slice of bread (or one hamburger or one hotdog bun) makes about a half cup of bread crumbs.

Just. . .one. . .more. . .

. . .or two more. . .

I swear, these are the LAST recipes going into this cookbook.

Beef and Barley Soup

This recipe is great if you have a chunk of tough stew meat in your freezer. You don't have to thaw the meat – just put it right in the pot. The recipe will take about 50 minutes to cook, if you use barley, but most of that time you can leave the soup unattended.

You can use any meat for this that you like, really, and you can substitute any other type of grain. The exact ingredients and measurements are entirely up to you.

Uncooked barley, or other grain

stew meat of any sort, fresh or frozen

beef or vegetable stock

(optional) chopped vegetables, such as beet, onion, carrot, or greens

salt and pepper to taste

(optional) other spices, such as Parisian Bonnes Herbes or Greek #

Put the meat, barley, and stock in a pot, and bring to a gentle boil. After a half hour or so, remove the meat from the pot and cut it into bite-sized pieces. When the barley is almost tender enough to eat, add the optional vegetables, and continue to boil until the vegetables and barley are tender. Add the optional spices, and salt and pepper to taste.

Bean and Kale Soup

If you have frozen or canned white beans on hand, chicken stock, and frozen kale, you can throw this soup together on a moment's notice. Add sausage for additional heft. Exact measurements and exact ingredients are up to you.

white beans, frozen or canned

chicken or vegetable stock

kale or other greens, fresh or frozen

(optional) fresh or smoked sausage, such as Italian, kielbasa, or chorizo

salt and pepper to taste

(optional) other spices, such as Old World Seasoning or Greek #

If using optional sausage, first crumble and brown the sausage in your soup pot over medium heat until it is cooked through. Use a little oil if using a poultry sausage, which tend to be dry. Spoon out the rendered grease, if necessary.

Add the stock and beans, and heat until a boil is reached. The add the kale – lots of it! Boil for about five minutes, or until the kale is suitably soft.

Add the optional spices and salt and pepper to taste.

Baby Food

I had taken this section out, but wok up this morning inspired to put it back in.  Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Baby Food

When your baby can hold up her head, and when she begins to watch and grab for what you are eating, it is time to introduce “solid foods” into her diet. “Solid food” really means “any food other than breast milk or formula”.

Jarred baby food is generally quite good in quality, if bland. However, it is expensive, and if used improperly, wasteful. To avoid waste, do not feed the baby directly from a jar of baby food and do not heat food while it is in the jar. Transfer a small amount of the food to its own bowl, and save the remainder of the jar for the next day. Discard leftovers after 24 hours, to be absolutely safe.

Baby cereals are finely-ground grains that need only to be mixed with baby food or a liquid. No cooking is required.

Consult your doctor as to what foods to introduce when. Keep in mind that the guidelines have changed frequently over the years, and that some foods (such as peanut and spices) which are not usually fed to infants in the United States are regularly used as baby food in other countries.

You can make your own baby food by cooking Steamed Vegetables #, and then mashing the vegetables with a fork and then adding a little water, breast milk, or formula. The same technique can be used with some fruits and meats, as well. A food processor or blender will help if you wish to make more than one or two meals' worth. Save baby food for later by freezing it in an ice-cube tray. Once frozen, transfer the cubes of frozen baby food into a tightly-sealing container.

Frozen baby food can be heated on the stove in a pan, or in the microwave. Always stir heated baby food, and always test baby food temperature before feeding it to the baby. You can use a clean finger to test the temperature, or you can taste the food.

Some fresh fruits lend themselves very well to being made into baby food: banana, avocado, peach, nectarine, mango, and the gooey interior of tomatoes. Baked Squash # and Baked Root Vegetables # also work reasonably well. And there are any number of foods that you might cook for yourself which can be mashed on your plate in tiny quantities to share with your baby.

Infants need to start with foods that are as as close as possible to the consistency of milk. Over time, the baby can be gradually introduced to foods that have a more lumpy consistency, such as mashed banana with no added water, followed by small bites of foods that require no chewing, such as Cheerios which have been broken into pieces. You can test small bites of food by holding it in your mouth. If, after holding it on your tongue for a short while, you can swallow it without chewing, then you can let your baby try it.

Be sure to read up on the Heimlich maneuver for infants before introducing solid foods.

Thanksgiving Section

Nobody should be scared away from Thanksgiving just because it involves a giant bird carcass!

No, the real reason to be scared of Thanksgiving is the stuffing. Once a year I am reminded of that, as the bread cubes are flung willy-nilly and I am franticly flinging chopped bits of food everywhere. And my husband doesn't appreciate stuffing. But what can I say? Stuffing is the best part!


Thanksgiving

Don't panic! A home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner from scratch isn't all that difficult to make. But it does take some planning and some practice.

If you are intimidated by cooking everything yourself, then don't! It's okay to open a can of cranberry sauce to go with a home-cooked turkey. Boxed stuffing mix can be jazzed up by adding chopped apple or celery. Gravy can come from a mix, or be made with canned chicken stock.

One way to handle Thanksgiving is to invite friends, and have the guests bring some of the dishes. Have the host cook the bird, and the guests cook the other baked dishes, or vice versa.


There is only one safe way to thaw frozen turkey: in the refrigerator. A frozen turkey will need about one day to thaw for every four pounds. So, for example, a 20-pound turkey will need about five days to thaw.

Turkey is just like chicken, but bigger. Bake it exactly the same way as Baked Chicken #. At 350 degrees, expect the turkey to take 15 to 20 minutes per pound to cook. Although you can “wing it” with a chicken, be sure to use a thermometer with turkey, because you will be feeding more people, and you don't want them to get sick, or pretend to enjoy overcooked, dry meat. A probe-style thermometer is preferable. Just as with turkey, set the thermometer to beep when the turkey reaches 160 in the thickest part of the breast. Then move the turkey out of the oven, and the residual heat in the bird will bring the temperature up to 165, at which point it is fully cooked. Let the turkey continue to “rest” for at least another 20 minutes before serving, to keep the moisture in the meat.

Don't cook the turkey with stuffing inside of it – it's unsafe if you don't really know what you are doing. And don't rely on the pop-up timer that comes with the turkey – they are unreliable.

If you plan on baking your stuffing, or baking anything else, and you are already planning to cook the turkey, then you will need to make sure that all of the necessary pans will fit in the oven at once. However, if they don't, you can finish baking the turkey first, and then immediately put the stuffing in the oven. The turkey will stay hot for a good long time even if left uncovered, but you can make sure it stays hot by covering it it first in foil, and then with towels or thick layers of newspaper.

Stuffing #, when made from scratch, is probably the most time-intensive of all the Thanksgiving dishes to make, because it involves so much chopping. However, if you save up chopped stale bread in your freezer for a few weeks in advance, you can save a lot of time and counter space on Thanksgiving day. Or you can save time by chopping up the bread a day or two in advance.

Baked root vegetables # are a good Thanksgiving side dish, as is Baked Squash #. But if the oven is already full, Mashed Root Vegetables # are great, too.

Gravy # can be made while the turkey rests. The easy way to do it is to use butter and chicken stock #. If you are up for a little more work, then while the turkey is still cooking, simmer the giblets and neck in a little water to make a small batch of turkey stock. Strain this and set it aside. When the turkey comes out of the oven, pour the drippings (including as much of the solids as possible) into a bowl. Let this sit in the refrigerator for ten minutes or so. This will allow some of the melted fat to rise to the surface. Spoon the fat off of the top, and use it to make the roux for the gravy. Supplement this with butter if necessary Once the roux is ready, use the rest of the drippings and the turkey stock to finish making the gravy. Use additional chicken stock if necessary.

Don't forget Cranberry Sauce #! This can be made a day or more in advance, and is great served hot or cold.

For dessert, you can't beat Pumpkin Pie #. Or use the same recipe to make squash pie or sweet potato pie. Make this a day in advance, or suggest that a guest bring it. If you feel like being fancy, you can make your pumpkin pie from actual pumpkins, with home-made pie crust. But you can also make a terrific pie using canned ingredients and frozen pie crust.

Adding the final recipes

I went to write the Thanksgiving section, and realized that I hadn't yet written recipes for stuffing or cranberry sauce or the pumpkin pie, dagnabit. Crap. Stuffing is a pain to cook and a pain to write about it, because it is so variable. Barbecue sauce also came up, so I got that one written as well. Argh, will I ever be able to move on to draft 3?!

So, after this, I need to finish the Thanksgiving section, and finish the food safety section. (And oh god, writing *that* has been painfully boring.)

Oh, I forgot to mention: getting set up on my parents' computer was a piece of cake, and I am having no trouble finding time to write. It helps tremendously that I am in a house that I am not compelled to clean. Thanks Mom!


Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry sauce in a can is decent enough, but the real thing is easy to make, and makes a great condiment for chicken #, pork chops #, and, of course, at Thanksgiving #.

12 ounces fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar, brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup
1 cup orange juice or water
(optional) zest from a lemon or an orange
(optional) cinnamon, or a cinnamon stick, or Pumpkin Pie spices #.

Rinse the cranberries clean. Boil the cranberries in the juice or water until the cranberries pop, which will take ten minutes or so. Add the sugar and spices, and if you like, use a potato masher to smash the berries some more. You can then serve the sauce at once, or continue to simmer it with a whole cinnamon stick.


Barbeque Sauce

This sauce is great on hamburgers, or with leftover meats of any sort. Or you can cook with it by brushing it on meats before cooking, such as baked or broiled chicken #, pot roast #, or sauteed meats #, baked tofu #. You can even substitute it for the dry rub in pulled pork #.

Barbeque sauce is more fun to make if you don't stick slavishly to a recipe. Instead, start with half of a small can or more of tomato paste, and stir other things into it, tasting as you go, until you are satisfied with the results. You will need:

tomato paste
something sweet (molasses, brown sugar, honey, etc.)
something tart (apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, etc.)
something hot (cayenne pepper, taco spices #, hot sauce, black pepper, etc.)
(optional) salt

Be sure to use a clean spoon each time you taste!


Stuffing

Stuffing can either be a side dish (such as alongside turkey, at Thanksgiving #) or a main dish, if made with enough meat and vegetables. It can be vegetarian or not. Stuffing is made up of stale bread, just enough broth to moisten the bread, and various other things, depending on what you have on hand.

This recipe does involve a lot of chopping if you choose to chop your own bread. You may want to chop up your stale bread in a day or two in advance if you are making a big batch. Alternatively, you can keep a container of chopped stale bread in the freezer, and add to it whenever you end up with a stale heel of bread. Then you will have chopped stale bread ready to go whenever you make stuffing. See recipe # to make stale bread.

Don't worry about measuring your ingredients when making stuffing! And don't worry about having specific ingredients. Want to use minced broccoli and leftover Baked Chicken #? Sure, why not​! It might be good served as a main course, topped with grated cheddar cheese.

The following make a traditional Thanksgiving stuffing:

stale bread #, cut into pieces, or pre-cut bread cubes from the store
chicken stock #, vegetable broth, or other broth or stock
sausage, cooked (optional) #
butter, or sausage grease
celery, chopped
onion, chopped
sage
salt and pepper to taste
egg (optional)
(optional) other spices, such as Lemon Pepper or Parisian Bonnes Herbes #.

You can add other things to this stuffing, and/or omit ingredients. Here are some other ideas you can try: ground turkey and dried sweetened cranberries; cooked breakfast sausage, celery, and parsley; pecans, pear, and raisins; cooked Italian sausage, garlic, and apple.

How much stuffing do you want to make? Pick out a mixing bowl that is about as large as the batch of stuffing that you would like to make. Start by filling it halfway with bread cubes. The rest will be filled with other things. Add extra vegetables as you go to build up the quantity of stuffing that you want. Onion and celery are particularly good fillers, because they taste good with almost any other ingredient that you might want to add.

In a pot that is large enough to hold all of the stuffing, break up the sausage, and cook it on medium heat until it has browned. (If the sausage is made of turkey or chicken, add a little oil to the pan first to keep it from sticking.) Once the sausage has browned, add chopped onion and celery, and stir them over the heat until the onion looks translucent.

At this point, if the pot doesn't contain a few tablespoons of grease from the sausage, then add a few tablespoons of butter. For a medium to large batch, add a half stick or more. Then add everything else except the egg and broth. Pour in the broth a bit at a time, stirring gently, until the bread is moist, but not soggy. Taste the stuffing, adding more salt and pepper and sage and optional spices as necessary.

Now you have a choice. You can either heat the stuffing right there in the pot until it is warm, and serve it as it is. Or you can beat an egg or two, stir the egg into the stuffing, and then bake the stuffing in a casserole dish. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or longer. If possible, use a probe thermometer. The baked stuffing will be done when the interior reaches 160.

Do not bake stuffing in the cavity of a chicken or turkey, because it is easy to undercook stuffing in a bird, and undercooked stuffing inside of a bird will be contaminated with undercooked meat juices.


Pumpkin Pie

More experienced cooks will want to try their hand at home-made pie crusts, but if you are new to cooking, store-bought pie crusts make this recipe “as easy as pie”. This recipe works just fine with canned ingredients, but you can also use fresh.

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust, or an uncooked home-made pie crust
1 15-oz can of pumpkin, squash, or sweet potato, or about 2 cups of Baked Squash # or Mashed Root Vegetables # that have been pureed or mashed.
1 12-oz can of evaporated milk, or 1 ½ cups milk, or 1 ½ cups cream, or a combination of cream and milk
2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spices #

Of the pie crust is the sort that unfolds, rather than the kind that comes in a disposable aluminum pie pan, then follow the directions on the box for thawing the dough, and place it in a 9-inch pie pan.

Preheat the oven to 425. Beat together all of the ingredients except for the pie crust. Put the pie crust on a cookie sheet. (This will make it easier to put the filled crust in the oven without spills.) Pour the wet pie filling into the crust, and put it in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes, and then turn the oven's temperature down to 350. Continue to bake for another 40 or 50 minutes. The pie is done when a sharp knife stuck in the center of the pie comes out mostly clean. Let the pie cool at room temperature for up to two hours. Then serve at once, or refrigerate the pie.

Pasta

I just know I'm forgetting some vastly important pasta dishes. What have I forgotten??

Again, a lot of editing remains. I'm pooped. I spent most of today typing with one hand as I nursed Kaylee with the other. Now she is napping on the floor. Again. This time looks like it will be a real nap, and not one of those ten-minute fake-outs.

What's left? I got some good suggestions for the Soups and Stews chapter. And I need to write a Thanksgiving chapter. I think it was my father who mentioned a group that showed up one year at the home of a family who needed food assistance, armed with all the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner, only to be turned away because the family didn't know what the hell to do with a turkey. I would be scared if someone showed up at my door with a giant, unfamiliar carcass, too. Anyway, at this point I don't know the origin of the story, and it may be one of those gems that has been passed along a hundred times. But it still has a grain of truth. Before you can cook a meal, you have to learn how to do it. And it's easy to take cooking skills for granted if they were handed to you as a child.

Pasta

Pasta is very high in refined carbs, so it is a good idea to minimize the pasta in your diet, and eat whole grain pasta when you do eat a pasta meal.

One pound of dry pasta feeds about four adults.

Pasta is cooked by dropping it into boiling water. Follow the directions on the package for best results, and always cook pasta for the minimum recommended time. This will make the pasta “al dente”, or just tender enough to have a little bite to it.

For tomato sauce (marinara sauce) recipes see recipes ###.

Simple Buttered Pasta

You wouldn’t want to eat buttered pasta all by itself, but this is delicious and reasonably healthful if you top it with a big pile of sautéed vegetables (#), or with beans of any sort heated in some olive oil with some garlic or Italian spices #.

½ pound of uncooked pasta of any sort

2 tbsp butter or olive oil

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

(optional) Italian spices

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Drain the pasta, and return it to the hot pot. Add about a tablespoon of butter for each ¼ pound of pasta, and stir it until it melts; or use olive oil. Then stir in the grated cheese. Add salt, pepper, and optional spices.

Mac-n-Cheese

There are many ways to make mac-n-cheese from scratch. This one is cooked on the stove top and uses egg.

Mac-n-cheese can easily be made into a complete meal by adding cooked meats or vegetables. Cheddar is traditional in mac-n-cheese, but other kinds of cheese can make the dish more exciting. If you use a hard cheese, such as parmesan, you will want to combine it with a softer “melting” cheese so that it mixes in well.

You can make this recipe with any shape of pasta.

½ pound uncooked pasta of any sort

4 tbsp butter

2 eggs

¾ cup milk

½ tsp salt

8 ounces grated cheese (about two cups)

(optional) chopped meats, such as cooked chicken, ham, or pepperoni

(optional) vegetables, such as frozen peas, chopped carrot, chopped broccoli, chopped onion

Cook the pasta al dente. If you want to add optional vegetables, you can use pre-cooked veggies, or you can add raw or frozen veggies to the boiling pasta water partway through cooking the pasta.

Drain the cooked pasta and optional veggies, and return them to the pot. Set the pot on medium heat, and allow the butter to melt into the hot pasta. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and salt. Pour this mixture into the pasta and add the grated cheese. Stir continuously for three minutes, or until the mac-n-cheese is creamy. Add the optional meats.

For a fun variant of this recipe that kids will like, use parmesan and mozzarella cheese, add pepperoni, and top with drained canned tomato. Call it “Pizza Mac”.

Fettuccini Alfredo

Be sure to eat this in moderation, balanced with a lot of vegetables, because it is very fattening. This recipe makes enough for two adults.

½ lb fettuccini noodles or other pasta

2 tbsp butter

1 cup cream

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Nutmeg to taste

While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a pan. Add the cream, turn up the heat a little, and boil, stirring occasionally, for about ten minutes. This will thicken the sauce. Stir in the cheese. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste. Then add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan, turning with tongs or a spoon it until it is coated with the sauce. Serve at once.

Quick One-Pot Pasta Meal

If you want to throw together a healthful meal for yourself in a hurry and with a minimum of mess, this does the trick. Because the vegetables are boiled, they are not as flavorful as sautéed or baked vegetables.

For each person:

¼ lb uncooked pasta; or about a cup

2 cups washed and chopped greens, such as beet greens or kale, or 1 cup diced summer squash, carrot, peas, or other vegetable, or 1 cup cooked or frozen beans

1 cup of chopped tomato. If tomatoes aren’t in season, use about ¾ cup of tomato sauce.

1 tbsp oil or butter, preferably olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Lemon Pepper, or Italian

(optional) grated parmesan cheese

Boil the pasta. When the pasta has three minutes left to cook, add the vegetables. Resume timing when the pot returns to a boil. When one minute remains, add the greens. (If the greens are particularly delicate, such as spinach, add them when the time is up, immediately before draining the water.) Then drain the pasta and veggies through a colander.

Put a tablespoon of butter or oil in the pan, and put the pasta back in. Add the tomato or tomato sauce and the spices. Serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, if you desire.

Pasta with Beans

Topping pasta with white beans is a nice alternative to the usual marinara sauce. This is a variation of what the Italians call “pasta e fagioli”, which is traditionally a meatless dish.

For each person:

¼ lb cooked pasta

1 cup cooked, frozen, or canned white beans.

2 tbsp water or chicken stock # or vegetable stock

1 small onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 tbsp butter or oil, preferably olive oil

(optional) cooked Italian sausage, or chopped ham, or other cooked meat

Salt and pepper to taste

(optional) Italian spices

(optional) 1 cup washed and chopped greens

While the pasta cooks, heat the butter or oil over medium heat, and use it to sauté the onion. When the onion is translucent, add the garlic. Stir the garlic for a couple of minutes over the heat, and then add the beans, the water or stock, the optional greens, and the optional meat. Cook until everything is heated through. If you would like, use a potato masher to crush the beans a bit. Add the spices to taste, and serve over the pasta.

Soups and Stews

I know this section needs a lot of revision, but this draft is pretty solid. Am I missing any good recipes? I would love suggestions!

[edit]I forgot potato cheese soup!

[edit]There, I fixed it.

Soups and Stews

This section covers soups and stews made with fresh ingredients. For soups and stews made with pre-cooked meats and vegetables, see Quick Meals, #.

Classic Chicken Soup

There are endless ways to make soup, but this one is useful if you are looking for that traditional, comforting bowl of chicken soup. Although this recipe calls for raw chicken, if you have cooked chicken that you would like to turn into soup, you can use this recipe, and add the cooked chicken at the end, right before serving. Or, you can use the Quick Soup recipe (recipe #).

Raw chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

Chicken stock or broth

Uncooked pasta or grain (you may want to use a grain with a shorter cooking time)

Carrots, chopped

Celery, chopped

Onion, chopped

Garlic, minced (or garlic powder)

Oil

Salt and pepper to taste

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

In the bottom of the soup pot, first sauté the onion and the chicken in a bit of oil. Add the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic just as the chicken is almost done cooking. When the chicken is cooked, add everything else. Bring to a gentle boil, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the pasta or grain are tender.

Borscht

Borscht is a traditional vegetable soup from Eastern and Central Europe. There are many variants. This is not a traditional borscht, but like many versions of borscht, it contains beets, which turn the soup a wonderful pink or purple color. Purple cabbage will make this soup even more vibrantly colored, and gives it a sweet flavor.

This soup is also fantastic with ham in place of chicken. A vegetarian version can be made with vegetable broth and no meat.

(optional) cooked chicken, or ham, or cooked sausage

Chicken, pork, or vegetable stock or broth

Shredded cabbage

Potato, cut small

chopped beets

salt and pepper to taste

Chopped or dried onion

Garlic, minced (or garlic powder)

(optional) spices such as Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

(optional) heavy cream or sour cream

Put all of the ingredients except for the cream in a soup pot, and simmer until the cabbage and potato are soft. Remove from heat and stir in the cream, or add sour cream as a garnish.

French Onion Soup

5 to 10 onions, sliced thin

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

4 cups beef or veggie broth

(optional) 1 or 2 cups chopped or ground beef

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice or Parisian Bonnes Herbes (#)

Thinly slice the onions. Melt the butter in a soup pot, and over medium heat, stir the onion in the butter for at least 20 minutes, until the onions are soft and sweet. While you are cooking, if the onions start to brown, add a little water to keep them moist. If you are adding beef to the soup, remove the onions and brown the beef. Then set aside the beef and put the onions back in the pot.

Add the flour to the onions and continue to stir over medium heat for a few more minutes. Then add the beef broth. Return the beef to the pot and simmer until the meat is cooked.

French Onion Soup is traditionally topped with Swiss cheese melted on toast. Follow the Cheese Bread recipe to make this.

Curry

With a jar of curry spices, a can of pureed vegetables, and some chopped vegetables and meats, you can put together a quick and nutritious meal.

In a pot combine:

1 15 ounce can of pureed pumpkin, pureed sweet potato, or other vegetable, or a small can of tomato paste

1 or 2 cups of water

1 teaspoon curry powder

¼ teaspoon salt

(optional) minced or dried garlic

(optional) minced or dried ginger

(optional) one or two tablespoons sugar

Bring this sauce to a simmer. Then, if you want meat in your curry, add:

1 pound of raw meat, cut into bite-sized pieces

Simmer the meat until it is cooked through. While the meat cooks, chop up vegetables. You can use pre-cooked meats instead of raw meat; add it to the curry right before serving. You can also use tofu instead of meat, or omit the meat entirely and throw in some more vegetables. You could also substitute paneer, a delicious Indian cheese, if you are lucky enough to live near an Indian grocery store.

4 or more cups of vegetables cut into bite-sized pieces.

Possible vegetables for this dish include bell pepper, carrot, beet, turnip, broccoli, cauliflower, potato, peas, and onion. Frozen vegetables can also be used. Combine two or three vegetables for best results. Continue to simmer the pot, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender.

Serve over rice. This feeds 3 or 4 people.

Chicken Bean Stew

½ lb boneless chicken

2 cups frozen beans (or one or two drained cans of beans)

2 carrots

2 sticks celery

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp cumin, or spices such as French Four-Spice, Lemon Pepper, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

1 tbsp oil

1 bullion cube plus two cups of water (or two cups of chicken stock)

Cooked rice (optional)

Black pepper

Salt (optional)

Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Coat with the flour and cumin, and brown it in the oil. (The flour is optional - it is there to thicken the sauce.) Dice the carrots and celery, and toss them in the pot. (Other veggies can be used here, instead, such as onion, potato, kale, etc.) Add the water and bullion (or chicken stock), bring to a boil, and simmer five or ten minutes, until the chicken and veggies are cooked. Add the beans, and heat until everything is bubbly and delicious. Season with salt and pepper. Eat as-is, or over rice. Serves three to six people, depending on how much rice you serve it with.

Beef Stroganoff

This hearty Russian stew is best when served over egg noodles, but any pasta or boiled grain works well.

2 or more tbsp butter or oil

1 lb raw beef, chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 or 3 cups of milk

1 box or more of mushrooms, sliced

2 or 3 onions, sliced thin

1 or 2 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt, plus extra to taste

1/8 tsp pepper, plus extra to taste

Dill or spices such as Lemon Pepper or Old World Seasoning (#)

Garlic, dried or minced fresh

Heat 1 tbsp of the butter or oil in a large pan over medium heat until hot. Sauté the onions and mushrooms in this until they are done to your satisfaction. Remove these from the pan and set them aside.

Combine the flour with 1/8 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Pour this over the chopped beef, and stir until the beef is coated. Heat another tablespoon of butter or oil, and brown the meat in this. Once the meat is somewhat browned, add the milk and the garlic, turn the heat up a bit, and stir with a spoon or a whisk as the milk comes to a boil. The browned flour from the meat will thicken the milk. Let this boil for a couple of minutes, and then add the vegetables back to the pan. Add dill or other spices to taste, and add more salt and pepper to taste if necessary.

Beef Stew

Beef is the most traditional meat used for stew, but almost any meat works in this recipe: pork, chicken, turkey, etc. If you use what the store sells as “stew beef”, or chuck roast, or other tough cut of meat can tenderize the meat by simmering the stew for an hour or so. Other types of meat won’t need to cook for so long.

Stew that uses a tough cut of meat also benefits by using vegetables that can withstand being cooked for a long time, such as potato, carrot, turnip, onion, mushroom, parsnip, or winter squash. Delicate vegetables can be added to a stew, but are best when added shortly before serving. Examples of these include peas, broccoli, leafy greens, and summer squash.

1 tbsp butter or oil

1 lb raw beef (or other meat), chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 or 3 cups of beef broth (or chicken (#), or other broth)

1 or 2 tbsp flour

3 or 4 cups of diced vegetables. (See above for suggestions.)

1/8 tsp pepper, plus extra to taste

Salt to taste

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Old World Seasoning (#)

Combine the flour with 1/8 tsp pepper. Pour this over the chopped meat, and stir until the meat is coated. Heat another tablespoon of butter or oil, and brown the meat in this. Once the meat is somewhat browned, add the broth, turn the heat up a bit, and stir with a spoon or a whisk to break up the flour clumps. The browned flour from the meat will thicken the broth. Once boiling, add the vegetables back to the pan, and reduce the heat so that the stew simmers. Let the pot sit for ten minutes, if you are using a delicate meat. Let it simmer for at least a half hour if you are using tough meat. A few minutes before serving, add tender vegetables if you are using any. Add salt and pepper to taste if necessary, plus any optional spices you wish to try.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a stew designed to make use of summer garden vegetables. This is a dish that only makes sense to make during the height of the summer, when these vegetables a cheap and at their peak of flavor.

Ratatouille can be served on its own, or with pasta or boiled grains (#). Although untraditional, this dish can be made more filling by adding beans, meat, or cheese.

This feeds three or four people, depending on how many extras you add, and if you serve it with pasta or grain.

2 tbsp butter or oil, preferably olive oil

1 large eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces (or 2 smaller eggplants)

2 or 3 zucchini or summer squash, cut into large bite-sized pieces

3 to 6 tomatoes, chopped roughly into chunks

3 or so cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 or 2 onions, chopped

(optional) chopped mushrooms, bell peppers, carrots, etc.

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Italian (#)

(optional) grated parmesan or mozzarella cheese

(optional) 1 cup of cubed ham, cooked chicken, or other cooked meat

(optional) 1 drained 15-oz can of garbanzo beans or white beans, or two cups cooked or frozen

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the butter in a pot over medium heat. When melted or hot, add the onion. Stir the onion over the heat for a couple of minutes, and then add the garlic. Stir for another minute or two. Then add the remaining vegetables, including optional vegetables. Stir occasionally over the next ten or 15 minutes. The tomato will break down, forming a liquid for he other vegetables to simmer in. Taste the eggplant occasionally - when it is cooked to your liking, the ratatouille is done cooking. Add salt and pepper to taste, and any optional spices you wish to try. If using any meats or beans, add them to the pot and continue cooking until they are sufficiently warm. If you want to use cheese, sprinkle it over the ratatouille as you serve it.

Potato Cheese Soup

This is a good warming winter soup. Feeds two to four, depending on how many optionals you add.

Usually when you add cheese to a soup, you must first add cream so that the cheese doesn’t melt into unpleasant lumps. However, something about this soup makes the cream unnecessary. But you can add cream anyway if you like the taste.

4 to 10 potatoes, depending on the size of the potatoes

3 or 4 cups of water or any sort of stock (such as chicken #)

(optional) 1 cup of milk

4 ounces or more of grated cheddar or other cheese

(optional) ½ cup of cream or half-n-half

(optional) chopped vegetables, cooked or raw, such as carrot, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, plus 1 tbsp butter or oil

(optional) fresh greens, chopped

(optional) ham or other cooked meat

(optional) spices such as French Four-Spice, Parisian Bonnes Herbes, or Italian (#)

Salt and pepper to taste

If you wish to add raw veggetables to this recipe, start by heating the butter or oil in the bottom of your soup pot over medium heat. Saute the vegetables until done to your liking. Then move the vegetables aside to a bowl and continue using the same pot for cooking the potatoes.

If you are using russet potatoes, or if you dislike potato skins, you may want to peel your potatoes. Otherwise, scrub the potatoes clean and leave the skins on. Roughly chop the potatoes. The smaller you chop them, the less time they will take to cook.

Put the potatoes in the pot and add the water or broth. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium, and put a lid on the pot. Every ten minutes or so, stick a fork in the potato pieces. When the fork slides in without resistence, turn off the heat, and use a potato masher in the pot to squish the potatoes. (For a smoother texture, you can put the soup through a blender in batches.)

Add the optional milk or cream, and stir in the grated cheese. Do not boil the soup once the cheese has been added, or the cheese will curdle!

Finally, add the optional spices, cooked vegetables, cooked meats, and/or raw chopped greens. Apply low heat if the soup needs to be warmed back up. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Try these variants:

Beefy Potato soup with Swiss cheese, beef stock, pot roast, onions, and Parisian Bonnes Herbes.

“Baked” Potato soup with chicken stock, cheddar, green onions, cooked bacon, and spinach.

Italian Potato Soup with vegetable stock, cream, parmasan and mozerella cheeses, tomato, greens, and Italian spices #.

The Heart of the Cookbook!

So here is the payoff of the cookbook: once someone learns how to cook beans, grain, sauteed veggies, and a chunk of meat, all of those things can be cooked in advance and then used to throw together good quick meals.

What's left after this? Soups and stews, Thanksgiving, maybe a pasta section (if I can think of anything to say other than "read the directions on the box"), and some short essays on food safety, freezing, and making baby food.

And then I have to edit everything so very hard, because holy inconsistency Batman! And it all has to be cross-referenced, with all of the ###'s replaced with recipe numbers.

Damn it, I think I'm going to have to bow out of NaNoWriMo if I hope to get this done properly by Christmas. Booo. *sulk*

But I SO want to do this right. I want it finished, and highly polished. I want people to speak highly of this book. I want people to suggest it to their friends. I want I want I want. . .

Anyway. . .

Quick Week-Night Recipes

Now that you have a baked chicken in your refrigerator (or pot roast, or pulled pork, or any other cooked meat), and some cooked grain, cooked (or frozen) beans, cheese, and vegetables on hand, you can now use these things to whip up any number of delicious, healthful weeknight meals in 30 minutes or less. The following are recipes that are designed to use whatever you have on hand.

Quick Enchiladas

This is a great week-night recipe to use with the chicken (recipe #), pot roast (recipe #), or pulled pork (recipe #) that you baked over the weekend. Or you can use another pre-cooked meat, or frozen or canned beans. Or you can make plain cheese enchiladas by using more cheese. You can also make a fun variant for kids using raisins instead of meat.

This is another recipe that doesn’t require precise measuring, or exact ingredients. Use whatever you have on hand.

1 cup pre-cooked chicken, or other pre-cooked meat, or frozen or canned beans, or ½ cup raisins

1 ½ cups Monterey jack and/or cheddar cheese

1 package of tortillas

1 can enchilada sauce (or about 1 ½ cups of home-made, recipe #)

2/3 cup chopped greens, such as frozen kale or spinach, or cooked onion or mushroom, or other chopped vegetable

In a microwave-safe, small (9 x 9 inch or so) casserole dish, pour about a third of the enchilada sauce. Dip one tortilla in the sauce so that both sides are wet. Then put cheese, meat, and veggies in the tortilla. Roll up the tortilla and move it to one end of the pan. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, until the pan is full and all of the ingredients are used up. Pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, and grate little extra cheese over the top. Then microwave the casserole for about ten minutes, or until the whole dish is hot and melty. (Alternatively you can bake in a 350 degree oven until the sauce bubbles.)

Serve on its own, with or without such toppings as salsa or sour cream, or with a side-dish such as rice or refried beans. Serves two to four people.

Quick Soup

With soup, every ingredient is optional, with the exception of the broth! Pick whatever ingredients below that you would like, in whatever quantities that you would like. For a classic chicken soup recipe, see recipe #.

Cooked meat of any sort (See the meat sections: #, #, #)

Chicken broth (recipe #), or any other sort of broth. You can use canned or bullion cubes if you don’t have any home-made broth on hand.

Cooked grain (recipe #) or pasta (recipe #)

Cooked vegetables (recipe #) or frozen vegetables, or fresh, chopped vegetables

Salt and pepper to taste

Herbs and spices of any sort (recipe #)

Milk or cream

Grated cheese (use ONLY if you are also using cream)

Heat the broth or stock to a boil. Add the vegetables first, if they are fresh or frozen, and, simmer until they are cooked to your liking. Add everything but the milk or cream and return to a boil. Then, remove the soup from the heat, until the pot no longer boils. If you want a clear soup, at this point you are all done!

If you want dairy in your soup, add milk or cream after the soup has stopped boiling. Do not boil a soup that contains dairy, because the dairy could curdle into unappetizing chunks.

If you wish to add cheese to your soup, do so after adding a significant quantity of cream. (Note that cheese will not melt properly into a soup unless you have first added cream. If not enough cream is present, the cheese will form lumps.) Heat just until steaming (but don‘t boil it). Season to taste. Serve, and enjoy!

Quick Chili

If you make pot roast or meat loaf on the weekend and have leftovers, you can use it to make chili later in the week, for variety. Chicken or other cooked meats can be used. Frozen cooked meats work well, too. Or, the meat can be omitted entirely. This is a particularly good way to get rid of overcooked pot roast or mediocre meat loaf.

You don’t need to measure ingredients for this dish. Just start with your leftover meat, and add frozen or canned beans, and tomato, until you have a pot of chili big enough for everyone.

Leftover pot roast or meat loaf

Canned or frozen beans

Canned or fresh tomato

Cumin

Salt and pepper

(optional) reserved liquid from Pot Roast

(optional) tomato paste

(optional) taco spices (recipe #)

(optional) onion, green or red bell pepper, chopped carrot, or other vegetables

Chop the meat into small pieces. Or, if the meat is frozen, just put it in the pot whole, and later (after a bit of simmering with the other ingredients) take it out and cut it up. Add beans (with or without the can liquid) and tomato (with or without the can liquid). If you made pot roast and reserved the liquid, you can add that to your chili. Add some tomato paste if you like. Add some water if it looks like too many dry things thrown together. Add other vegetables if you like. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add seasonings and spices to taste.

Serve as-is, or topped with cheddar or Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, or green onions. Or serve on top of lettuce as a taco salad, with any of the above toppings.

Chili keeps for a few days in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen and reheated later.

Quick Curry

This curry isn’t authentic to any particular country’s cuisine, but it’s fast to make and tasty. It’s also a good excuse to eat vegetables. The sauce is based on the Universal Gravy recipe (#). Vegetables and meats can be cooked in advance, or you can use the sautéed vegetables recipe (#) or the sautéed meats recipe (#) immediately before making the curry. If you sauté vegetables or meats before making the curry, you can transfer the cooked meats or vegetables to a bowl and make the curry in the same pan that you just used - and you won’t even have to wash it!

1 tbsp fat, such as butter, bacon grease, chicken fat, or oil

1 tbsp flour

½ cup liquid: milk, tomato sauce, or coconut milk, or 1 tbsp tomato paste plus ½ cup water

½ cup very finely grated carrot, beet, sweet potato, and/or other vegetable, or canned pumpkin puree, squash puree, etc.

1 tsp curry powder

1/8 tsp salt

(optional) garlic, ginger, black pepper

2 cups cooked, canned, or frozen vegetables and/or cooked or frozen cooked meats and/or cooked, canned, or frozen beans

In a skillet on medium heat, heat the fat until it is melted and hot. Add the flour, and whisk it around for a few minutes. Then add the liquid, continuing to whisk. Bring the sauce to a boil and then add the finely grated vegetable matter. Whisk in the curry powder and salt. Bring the pot back to a boil and add the cooked veggies or meats. Heat until everything is heated through.

If served with boiled grains (#), this will feed about two adults.

Quick Tacos

This recipe makes tacos for two adults using leftover cooked meat of any sort. You can make a vegetarian version using beans instead of meat, or you can stretch a little meat further by using a combination of meat and means.

1 tbsp cooking oil

1 medium onion, chopped small

2 cups cooked meat or cooked beans, or some combination

1 or 2 tbsp water

1 tbsp taco spices (#)

4 to 6 tortillas or taco shells

(optional) grated cheddar or Monterey jack cheese

(optional) chopped tomato, onion, and/or lettuce

(optional) salsa (#)

(optional) sour cream

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion until it is translucent. Add the spices and a tablespoon of water. This should make a saucy concoction in the pan. If it looks dry, add a little more water. Then add the meat and beans, and continue to stir over the heat until everything is heated and coated in taco sauce. Serve in tortillas with any of the optional ingredients.

Quick Stew

This stew can be made quickly from any cooked meats. For best results, use chicken stock with chicken, beef stock with beef. The sauce is a variant on Universal Gravy (#). This feeds about three adults.

1 tbsp fat, such as butter, bacon grease, chicken fat, or oil

1 tbsp flour

2 cups liquid, such as chicken (#) or beef stock. For variety, you can replace a cup or two with milk or tomato sauce.

Pepper

Salt (omit the salt if using a salty broth)

Other spices (optional)

1 or 2 cups cooked meat

2 or more cups cooked or frozen vegetables

In a skillet on medium heat, heat the fat until it is melted and hot. Add the flour, and whisk it around for a few minutes. Then add the liquid, continuing to whisk. Bring the sauce to a boil and then continue to simmer for a few minutes until the sauce thickens. (It will thicken even more after it cools.) Season to taste with pepper and salt. (Though salt may not be necessary if you started with a salty broth from a can or made from bullion.) Add the cooked meat and vegetables, and continue to cook until they are fully heated.

Beans, finally

I'm having to pinch myself to stay awake. Not sure why I've had so much trouble writing the bean section, seeing as how much I love beans.

I finally came up with a decent quick curry recipe today. Though, lunch's iteration came out better than dinner's, which was pepto-bismol pink and has an unfortunately stringy texture.

Gads, the last 10% of any project takes 80% of the time, doesn't it?

Beans

Few foods feed us so well for so little cost. Canned beans (#) are reasonably inexpensive and convenient, while dry beans cost pennies, and are simple to cook, if you have the time (recipe #). Beans can be cooked on the weekend and stored in the refrigerator to make quick meals with during the week. But better still, cooked beans can be frozen, for use at any time (recipe #).

Canned beans

Canned beans are cooked and ready to eat right from the can. Some people swear that the beans should be drained and washed in order to minimize gas, but you can cook with the water from the can if you want to. Be aware that canned beans contain a lot of salt.

Boiled beans

Nothing could be simpler than cooking dry beans: simply cover them with water, put a lid on the pot, and set them to a simmer or a low boil. Stir every 20 minutes or so. Cook with a lid on to keep too much water from evaporating. Add extra water to the pot if the beans seem to be crowded. Taste a bean every so often. When the beans are as soft as you like, use them in any recipe that calls for cooked or canned beans.

6 or more cups water

2 cups (1 pound) dry beans

1 tsp salt (optional)

There are many types of beans. Each type of beans has its own cooking time. Additionally, the older the beans are, the longer that they will take to cook (and the less nutritious they will be). This makes it tough to judge how long it will take to cook a pot of beans. Unless you are cooking lentils, which can take as little as a half hour to cook, assume it will take at least two hours to cook your beans.

Beans need to be rinsed before cooking, to remove dust. You should also sort through them before cooking to remove any pebbles or other agricultural debris that may have jumped into the bag. Also take out any beans that look particularly shriveled, discolored, or otherwise unfit to eat.

Cooking time can be reduced somewhat by soaking the beans overnight in cold water, but this is not a necessary step.

Most cooks will swear that adding salt to a pot of beans will cause the beans to take longer to cook. However, chef Mark Bittman has tested pots of beans side-by-side, one with salt, the other without, and reports that both pots of beans finished cooking at the same time. But if you want to add salt to the pot, and you wish to cover your bases, you can always wait and add salt then the beans are mostly cooked.

Beans double in size when cooked, more or less, so if you cook two cups of dry beans, you will get about four cups of cooked beans. One pound of beans is about two cups of dried beans.

Once your beans are cooked, you have several options. You can drain the beans in a colander, or you can keep them in the cooking water. (The cooking water can be useful for making soup or stew.) You can immediately turn some or all of the beans into soup or any other recipe. You can refrigerate the beans with or without their cooking water for use in recipes over the next five days or so. Or you can freeze the beans indefinitely.

Run cool tap water over your drained beans to cool them before moving them to the refrigerator or freezer.

Frozen beans

Cooked beans freeze beautifully. If you drain them, you can put them into one big freezer-safe bag or box, and then later use a butter knife to break off beans when you need some for a recipe. But chipping away at an iceberg of beans can be tedious. An alternative is to freeze beans (with or without cooking water) in individual serving sized containers.

Beans in soups and stews

Not only are beans tasty in soup, but if you mash them up a bit with a potato masher, they also function as a thickener. Frozen beans can be added directly to soups and stews without thawing them first. Add cooked beans at the end of cooking, if you wish the beans to remain whole and firm.

Beans in salads

Beans add a lovely heft to salads. Frozen beans need to be thawed before being used in salad - preferably in the refrigerator, but the counter will do in a pinch.

Beans in balls, patties, and loaves

Beans are fantastic in balls, patties, and loaves, particularly in meatless versions. You can add them whole and even frozen, if you are in a hurry. But for a better consistency, chop or mash the beans before adding them.

Refried beans

Beans can be “refried” by heating them in a pan with a little water, and the mashing them with a potato masher. For flavor, season with salt and pepper, and add cumin, garlic, onion, and/or taco spices (#). Or experiment with other spices.

Tofu

Tofu is a soft white substance made from soy beans. It can usually be found in two varieties: firm, and “silken”, which is softer. While it can be eaten raw, tofu’s flavor is very bland, making it an excellent candidate for dishes with a strong-flavored sauce or broth. Tofu marinates well (see Baked Tofu #). And tofu makes an excellent filler in Balls, Patties, and Loaves (#), especially when you want to make the dish meat-free.

Baked Tofu

Baked tofu has a tougher texture than raw tofu. When cut into one-inch cubes and baked, the toughened tofu cubes can then withstand being stirred in curries, soups, and the like, more than raw tofu can. Baked sticks of tofu make great finger foods for young children, or for parties. Or it can be eaten as a meat substitute, cut in a slabs. Baked tofu can be refrigerated for about five days, and it can even be frozen for later.

Use firm tofu for baking - or “extra firm”, if it is available.

You can bake tofu with or without marinating it first. You can marinate tofu just like you would marinate meat: cut the tofu into the desired shape, put it in a container with a lid, and cover it with a flavorful liquid. Marinate it from thirty minutes to overnight. Discard the liquid before baking the tofu.

Rub a little oil on a baking sheet or a casserole dish, and lay the tofu out with an inch of space between cubes. If the tofu has not been marinated, sprinkle it with a little salt. Then, for one-inch cubes, bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Use tongs or a fork to flip the tofu over, and bake for another 20 minutes. Larger tofu shapes may require additional time in the oven.

This concludes our vegetable chapter!

*phew* Getting there. Trying hard not to be distracted by NaNoWriMo plans.

Yes, I do know someone whose mother blew the door off a microwave with a squash. I also know two people who have blown up pies (including the glass pie plates). And I, myself, blew up a pizza stone. Cooking can be dangerous.

I feel a little odd writing about steamed vegetables, because I never ever steam veggies. Ugh. I guess I should add that to my to-test list. But still, ugh. Flavorless!

Steamed Vegetables

When food is steamed, it is cooked in a pot with a tight-fitting lid and with a small amount of water. The food is suspended above the water with a steamer basket (or with a plate stacked on a bowl, or other ad hoc device.) The water becomes steam, and the steam cooks the food.

Cooking vegetables in steam is useful if you need to remove all butter and oil from your diet. There are some disadvantages to cooking with steam, however. First, because no oil is used in the cooking, and because no browning of the food occurs, the results will not be as flavorful as sautéing, baking, or broiling. Second, it is easy to overcook foods, because you can’t watch the food to judge its doneness. Third, if all of your water boils away and you continue to heat the pot, you can permanently damage the pot.

With that said, you can treat steaming much like you would treat sautéing (#): use it to cook bite-sized pieces of almost any vegetable. Once cooked, you can season and eat the veggie as a side dish, or store in the refrigerator for a few days to then pop on top of salad (#), toss into a quick pasta (#) or curry (#) or soup (#) or omelette (#) or. . . The sky is the limit!

Baked Vegetables

When you have a half hour to get dinner on the table and want a hands-off way to cook some flavorful veggies, try this. Preheat the oven to 350. With just about any vegetable wash or peel, and cut it into slices about ½ inch thick. Roll these slices in some oil (preferably olive), lay them in a single layer in a casserole dish or a cookie sheet with edges, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for 20 minutes.

If you want more veggies, make it two layers thick and bake for 30 to 40 minutes.

Leafy greens and broccoli don’t cook well by this method, but squash, zucchini, root vegetables, and eggplant do.

Potatoes, of course, are known for being baked whole. You can bake just about any large root vegetable whole. Just be aware that it will take longer to bake a whole vegetable - up to an hour, or longer. Poke a few fork holes in your large vegetables before baking, to prevent it from exploding. (Potatoes don’t usually explode, but when they do, they can make quite a mess.) To bake larger vegetables, see Baked Winter Squash, #, below.

Baked Winter Squash

Cutting raw squash is difficult, so the best way to deal with it is to avoid cutting it as much as possible until it is cooked. With smaller squashes, this means cutting the squash in half, scooping out the seeds, and baking. Bake at 350 degrees on a cookie sheet until a fork easily pierces the squash through the rind. This will take at least 40 minutes. You can cook it cut-side up, or cut-side down. If the squash is to be eaten as a savory dish, sprinkle the cut side with a bit of salt and pepper, and drizzle with oil (preferably olive). Leave off these additions if you intend to use your baked squash for pie.

For larger squashes, such as pumpkins, you need only cut a dime-sized hole all the way into the hollow interior so that it does not explode while cooking. (And make no mistake: a squash will explode if you do not cut a hole in it before cooking. I have heard of a microwave door being blown off by an inexperienced cook messing around with squash.) Once the squash has had a hole cut into it, bake at 350 degrees until easily pierced by a fork. This may take an hour or more. Remove the seeds before serving.

Baked squash can be served as a plain vegetable, topped with brown sugar, salt, pepper, or maple syrup. It can also be served mashed. To mash, scoop the pulp into a pan, add a little water or milk, and mash with a potato masher

A large squash will generally contain more pulp than you will want to eat for dinner. Cooked squash freezes beautifully, however, so you can pop it in the freezer and reheat as needed.

Dishes such as pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin French toast require pumpkin puree. For this, you need a blender. Simply put pulp and a little water in a blender and blend until you have a paste. This paste can be frozen for later use.

Jack-o-lantern pumpkins are edible, but they are not as tasty as the smaller “sugar pumpkins” which were bred for cooking. Some squashes, such as hubbard squash, taste even better. In fact, if you read the ingredients on a can of “pumpkin”, often you will see that it isn’t actually pumpkin in the can at all, but another sort of squash!

Broiled Vegetables

Broiling is just like baking a single layer of vegetables (See #). The difference is that broiling imparts a grilled flavor.

With just about any vegetable, first wash or peel, and then cut it into slices about ½ inch thick. Roll these slices in some oil (preferably olive), lay them in a single layer in a casserole dish or a cookie sheet with edges, sprinkle with salt and pepper. (If this is your first time broiling, see #) Move the top oven wrack so that the food will be just three or four inches from the heat source. Set the oven to broil, and cook the food until it starts to develop small blackened spots. If necessary, flip the vegetable slices over and repeat.

This method works particularly well with red peppers. In this case, broil the peppers whole. Cook them, turning occasionally, until the outside of the peppers is entirely blackened. Then, in a bowl of water, peel off the burned skins. Discard the stems and seeds, douse the cooked pepper in olive oil, and delight in a tasty Italian treat!

Mashed Potatoes and Other Vegetables

Potatoes are not the only veggie that taste good mashed. Just about any root vegetable can work nicely. You can also mix vegetables. For instance, you can cook a beet along with potatoes to make hot pink mashed potatoes. Mashed yams or sweet potatoes are particularly good.

Scrub or peel your vegetables, and chop them into rough chunks. (The smaller the chunks, the faster they will cook.) Cover with water in a pot, and set them on high heat until the pot boils. (Caution: the starch in root vegetables will make the boiling water more bubbly than normal, and the pot can easily overflow.) Once boiling, turn down the heat just enough to maintain a gentle boil, and let the veggies cook for about 15 minutes. You will know the veggies are done when a fork will go through a piece with little resistance.

Then, drain the water. (You can use the pot lid to hold the veggies in the pot while you pour out the water, if you don’t want an extra dish to wash.) Add a splash of milk or a lump of butter to the pot, and mash with a potato masher. Add salt and pepper to taste. Other spices, such as dried garlic, are also nice to add.