Most weekday nights, instead of making a full meal, we just have appetizers or “assembly nosh”. It helps that my husband & I do not have children which are a HUGE source of clutter.

I couldn’t resist commenting on the frozen vs. fresh again because the truth is that if you don’t live somewhere that has local vegetables fresh year round, frozen is actually MORE nutritious than “fresh” in most instances. Frozen is frozen immediately, virtually in the field. The “fresh” vegetables at your store may have been picked 1-4 weeks before they finally get home with you. They are stored, shipped, unpacked and then sit for unknown lengths of time at the store too. They’re exposed to temperature changes, light, etc.all of which can affect nutritional content.

So, in the summer, we depend on our CSA for really fresh, organic veggies, but in the winter? Bring on the frozen!

For one, all the recipes are very healthy and have a ton of veggies, good quality protein and whole grains. They go from prep to table in one hour. And they use ONE pot – an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. What’s not to love? I wrote a review here: http://naturalmomstalkradio.co.....pot-meals/

I’ve tried most of the recipes in the book and so far, every one has turned out beautifully and even my kids love them too.

I regularly use: Cooking Light (website), Epicurious, MS Food, Joy of Cooking, New Best Recipe. I also skim some food blogs when I get stuck in a rut and want to see what other people are cooking.

With the above, I can find almost anything I want to make, in varying degrees of time and difficulty – Anything from quick weeknight suppers, to using up leftovers or misc. produce, to long weekend projects.

PS. to allen — spell check is your friend.

happy eating all.

I suppose the most essential thing to be found in the pantry is the confidence to experiment. You’ll mess up some meals, we all do. Just keep trying, and you’ll learn it right.

Anyway…I used to have a pantry focused cookbook in which the author listed what she thought should be in a basic pantry and then based all the recipes around it. Unfortunately, it was British and the conversions made it more inconvienent. Also, I found that the dishes just didn’t match what I’d eat.

It’s not fast, but learning how to cook basic dishes and then learning how to hack them to any ingredients you have around the kitchen has worked much better for me. For instance, I can make risotto out of anything as long as I’ve got arborio rice around. I’ve also found stir fry is also a good use anything we’ve got type of recipe as long as there’s soy sauce and oyster sauce. Note, you see my pantry may not look like your pantry. In any case, being able to fit the ingredients to the recipe has been very useful, especially since we subscribe to an organic veggie delivery service (like a CSA only year round.) Opening the box is a little like playing Iron Chef.

BTW, I do keep canned tomatoes and beans and some frozen corn around b/c sometimes we just need it, and I don’t like running to the store just b/c we need something specific. I’ve been invited to friends’ houses in the past only to have dinner held up b/c somebody had to go buy missing spices b/c they just couldn’t eat unless the recipe was done exactly as written. Wasteful on time and gas b/c they always drove.

It has very simple recipes with a small ingredient list but he has lots of simple modifications you can incorporate if you have time or the ingredients on hand. Great basic cookbook.

I love this book because there’s one for every day of the year and the recipes are sorted by season! A lot of soups for fall and winter, and salads and such for spring and summer. It doesn’t have all the recipes for the side dishes, but we solve that by quickly steaming veggies or some rice or something.

I plan out and buy the ingredients on Sunday evening, then make a list of 3-4 recipes per week. That way, if I’m running late my (wonderful) husband can take over!

While not all the recipes are that great, some are very good and I’ve marked them for future use. Most recipes use every day items you can find in any grocery. I noticed that Rachel Ray’s books (which I own) sometimes carry ingredients found only in Whole Foods (which I can’t afford).

Here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obi.....tterer-20/

Amazing cookbook divided seasonally. Simple, clean, elegant, easy recipes for everyday life. Surprisingly easy to follow.

And on Sandra Lee, my father adores her cocktails. Her cooking show is based on entertaining graciously without a lot of work in the kitchen. She seems to have no children of her own and isn’t very concerned with nutrition. And hey, that’s cool. I remember having a different life not too long ago. Don’t condemn. We’re not all on the organic, whole food, anti-nugget, AP mom bandwagon. Heh, I am though.

Another thing people might be interested in is Once A Month Cooking, http://www.once-a-month-cookingworld.com/

This is a technique for doing a lot of work on a weekend, and freezing the results to use over a period of time. Of course it all depends on your schedule, but one tip of theirs that I use often is to brown ground beef and freeze it. Then you can come home and turn it into a meal quickly, either in a casserole or some soup/stew/meat sauce recipe that you like while rice or pasta cooks.

I’m glad something good has come of the comments about the Sandra Lee book. I am looking forward to trying some of the other resources listed!

It’s for cookies and the such. Putting cookies onto paper-towel or worse brown-paper bags just lets them sit in their own grease/oil, and get yummy paper falvour. Mmmmm. Also: Next to impossible to “cool” w/o Air-flow.

Assuming you are not a vegitarian:

Butter
Noodles (i suggest two types. Macaroni/Elbow & Spaghetti will get you ALONG way!!)
Canned Tomatoes (becuase they’re basically only fresh for like 2 weeks). You might want to try various sizes
Flour (if you aren’t used to cooking, feel free to get the small size. you WILL want a tupperware/rubbermaid container to keep this in!)
Sugar (same as above, please!)
Salt
Pepper (Grind your own. if you don’t have a grinder, they sell little pepper-containers with a built in grinder, till you get used to it all!)
Cinnemon (as with all spices, buy small, until you start cooking alot. Spices go bad)
Garlic: Fresh is Best, but if you’re not used to it yet, and you are scared, then go with the canned pre-cut [cue arguments here. The point is if she is NOT READY. ]
Olive Oil
a differnt oil with a much higher smoke point: Maybe Canola or Peanut
Basil leaves
Vinegar (if you buy white, you can also use it as a cleaner. Mmmm)
You can’t go wrong with Rice. (Warning: The stuff is so cheap, you’ll have to plan on where to store it! Keep it in a sealed container as well to keep out the riff-raf.)
Crisco-like stuff.
a cooking sray (like PAM), if you want to make your life easier.
YUMMY YUMMY EGGS!!
[Bacon is not a staple, but i wish i could justify it as one]

Some ppl like beans. These ppl are ones i can not understand.
Vegitables: It is better to get these frozen if you can. Canned items are cooked in their can, and veggies can loose SOME vitamins, minerals, &c when you cook ‘em. Frozen: they ain’t cooked in the can. Most frozen veggies and fruits are frozen at the peak of freshness as well, so they’re often better choices then the limped greens you get in the “produce” isle that was flown in from half-way across the globe.

If you want to bake:
baking soda
Baking powder (these are two differnt things)
Canned Milk (condensed & sweetened are two differint kinds. You may want to just buy these as you need at first)
Baking Mix: (like Jiffy or Bisquick) this really simplifies your life, as it’s already bascially pre-mixed. Often, just add eggs and milk (maybe), and you’re set.

GEAR:
Frying pan, non-stick
Large pot, get one that can go in the oven.
Lid for both
small{er} pot (sauce pan)
Glass 9×13 inch (USA! USA!) pan
Glass 8×8 inch pan
Cooking rack
Cookie Sheet (get one with a lip, and you can use it to put under things that might spill over, like a Quiche)
Paper Towel
Dish Towel
Rolling pin (you can use an empty bottle of wine (or a full one if it’s got the screw-cap))
One Decent main knife (chef’s knife, or a San…Santuroum? I can’t spell it. A Chef’s knife has a curve up, and the other kind has the cutting edge basically straight. You only kneed one of them)
A pairing knife
[for knives: Go for a bit more quality, and you won’t be replacing them in 2 years. Do NOT choose on colour/&c. Choose on quality, on how it feels in your hand, &c. Make sure to get from a place with a decent return policy, so you can try it out on some carrots, meat, potatoes, &c)
A Ballon whisk: Keep in mind the size/make of your pans. In general, the more tines (bits ‘o metal) the whisk has, the more useful it is. Ones with under 7 tines are just ornemantal. If you have pots/pans with non-stick coating, then metal whisks will DESTROY THEM!
A good woooden spoon. Maybe two, if you want to multi-cook.
a small set of mixing bowls. They even have colapsable ones!
a collander (for noodles, &c). They have colapsable ones of these, too! In gerneal, the more holes a collander has: THE BETTER. do NOT get ones with holes only in the bottom!
a flipping spatula (same advice as to what your pans are as whisk)
a miking spatula (same advice as to what your pans are as whisk)

Fancy:
Muffin tin (want to save yourself the trouble of having to keep muffin/cupcake wrappers on hand? Get the Silicon ones!)
Bread Pan (same advice as above)
Pie pan: I consider this a necesity. ^_^

Quick Tip: Save yourself some clean-up when you make meat-loaf: skip the bread pan. Just make it, and then plop the meat-mix onto the cookie sheet (one with an edge, or you’ll be cleaning your fridge!) and form into a shape you like! Even easier: Line the pan with tin-foil first.

I’m sorry if this isn’t as conscise as some would like, but outfitting a WORKING kitchen from scratch does take some equipment. Please feel free to suggest something i’ve forgotten

I keep good olive oil (often $20/5 liters at Kroger), almonds, whole wheat pasta, wheat berries (we grind our own flour), oatmeal, walnuts, cans of beans, almond butter, flax seed and quinoa (a neat grain that cooks quickly.) I have a few brands of soup that we really enjoy and I try to keep some of those along with containers of organic chicken broth.