Good - Fix-It and Enjoy-It: All-Purpose, Welcome-Home Recipes

Includes index. ISBN-13: 978-1-56148-527-7 (hardcover), ISBN-10: 1-56148-527-6 (hardcover) ISBN-13: 978-1-56148-526-0 (pbk.), ISBN-10: 1-56148-526-8 (pbk.) ISBN-13: 978-1-56148-525-3 (plastic comb), ISBN-10: 1-56148-525-X (plastic comb) 1. Cookery, American. I. Title. TX715.G6366 2006

Let me be honest. My mother tried to teach me, bless her persistent heart. But she had to make the kitchen more enticing than the books I was always trying to sneak off and read, and I couldnt be persuaded. I have a box full of unstained recipe cardswritten in her hand and mineto prove it. I can still bring back the panic that flashed through me when I suddenly had to make a grocery list. Merle and I were married for two weeks and were settling into our grad-school housing in New York.

Merle had volunteered to do the cleaning. I said Id cook. Merle had far more experience in the kitchen than I did. He had been unable to duck the duty as one of seven sons (no daughters!), each of whom had to take his turn helping their mother with serious food preparation. I was blithely nave. Ive learned since that Merle was earnestly hopeful.

You see, in the masculine world of his upbringing, boys worked in the kitchen only when there was absolutely no alternative. My roommate had given us a cookbook for a wedding gift. And somehow, I had brought my mothers favorite community cookbook along to our first home. Those two books, and the trusty box of recipe cards my mother had helped me to fill, must have been the source of my confidence when I agreed to cook. When I read the community cookbook, but still couldnt figure out how to cook a chicken to get chicken broth, I realized I needed a very basic cookbook. And so I began reading cookbooks that spelled out every step.

I tried stuff. Merle ate and cheered me on. In fact, he started suggesting that we invite our visiting family and friends to stay for meals. (It did take me a while to figure out that I didnt need to wait until our guests had arrived to start preparing the food. I vividly remember chopping onions for my one reliable casserole in full view of our visitorsand only then realizing that I could have done that before they came and saved myself the pressure of observers.) So heres what Ive figured out since I started cooking: 1. Good cookbooks are godsends.

Carefully enumerated steps can get you through. (These books can also be entertainment. Today, reading recipes and imagining their outcomes relaxes me.) 2. Sometimes you feel like cooking; sometimes you dont. But everybody always feels like eating. Or so it seems.

When I gained enough confidence to believe that Merle and I wouldnt starve with me in charge of meal-making, I started to like it. In fact, cooking became a great relief from grad-school reading assignments. Now its a good foil to numbing computer screens. Sometimes cooking is a real burden. My mother-in-law once confessed to me that she was sick and tired of cooking. I was shocked.

She put amazing meals on the table without a whimper or a sigh. Then she reminded me that she had made three full meals a day for her farmer husband, seven sons, and a hired man for a good chunk of her life. Including baking dinner rolls, doughnuts, and pies, making from-scratch gravy and potatoes a dozen different ways, and serving up salads and a multitude of fresh vegetables pulled from her own garden. No wonder the woman was tired of cooking. But I was in a different life phase. 3. 3.

What would we do without the great practice of pass-it-on recipes? I am utterly grateful for good cooks who happily share their recipes and hard-won wisdom. Sometimes they do it in the kitchenIm forever indebted to my mother who tried, and then sent her typed up recipes along with me into life, knowing that I would someday come to my senses. (And she never said I-told-you-so when I called her with a dumb cooking question.) This book is full of pass-it-on recipes. I started the sorting process with more than 3,000 recipes, and spent months selecting the more than 675 you find here. Thank you to all the cooks who shared their family favorites. 4. 4.

When youre squeezed for time Look at three elements before you rip into one of these recipes: 1.) The Prep and Cooking/Baking Times, just above the list of ingredients for each recipe. Theyll give you a pretty accurate sense of how long each recipe will take to prepare. 2.) The length of the list of ingredients. If thats short, good chance the recipes a quickie to put together. 3.) The number of steps in the procedure. 5. 5.

If you dont know how or where to start 1.) Choose a couple of recipes, each with a short list of ingredients and only a few steps in their procedures. Go with those recipes made from packaged and prepared ingredients. Not a bad way to start. 2.) Do you have the ingredients those recipes call for? If not, can you easily find them in your grocery store? 3.) Can you do what the recipes ask, and do you have the equipment they require? 4.) Do they sound good? 5.) Take a chance. It will be hard to fail with any of these, except for some of the bread recipes which are geared to more experienced cooks. 6.

If you love to cook You know what to do! Youll spot the from-scratch recipes. This is a collection of real treasures. And your family and friends will be very pleased. May you enjoy this good, everyday food from some of the best cooks in the countryas you prepare it, and when you eat it! Phyllis Pellman Good Hot Virginia Dip Sue Suter Millersville, PA Makes 4 cups Prep Time: 20-30 minutes Baking Time: 20-25 minutes 1 cup chopped pecans 2 Tbsp. butter 2 8-oz. cream cheese, softened 4 Tbsp. milk 5 ozs. dried beef, chopped 1 tsp. garlic powder 1 cup sour cream 4 tsp. chopped onion 1. chopped onion 1.

In skillet, saut pecans in butter. Set aside. 2. Combine remaining ingredients. Spread in greased baking dish. 3.

Sprinkle sauted pecans over top. 4. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Ham Dip John D. Allen Rye, CO Makes 4 cups, or 8-10 servings Prep Time: 15 minutes Chilling Time: 8 hours, or overnight 8 ozs. chopped onion 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley 2 tsp. dill seed 2 tsp. dill seed 2 tsp.