Nine meals away from anarchy

Work with me here - this is a bit of a rambling path of a post.

I recently heard a radio interview with someone from CHOICE magazine about their Shonky awards and the main part that I heard was their critique of Coles' Feed a Family of 4 for under $10 promotion. CHOICE said:

Shonky for ten-buck blow-out goes to... Coles

When we were culling our list of nominees down to a manageable eight, the clouds of conundrum hovered over Coles: so many potential Shonky awards, but which one to give?(snip) However, we decided to give the Shonky for its loaves-and-fishes $10 meals, where you can supposedly make some Curtis Stone MasterCreation to feed four people for less than $10 – provided, it turns out, if you happen to have some of the stuff in your pantry already and you manage to convince Coles to let you buy two cloves of garlic or one bay leaf. We calculated Curtis’ $7.76 Coq au vin would cost $37.74 if you bought all the necessary ingredients – including the integral half-litre of vin, which somehow wasn’t included in the $7.76 (though you’d perhaps hope not for that price). And it wasn't just that recipe - the $9.99 Chicken Tikka Masala set us back $39.74.

And the person from CHOICE being interviewed snickered and chortled about "who has that well-stocked a pantry" and "why would you have half the ingredients in your pantry when a supermarket is just around the corner" and so on. The interviewer agreed with her, all the while agreeing that it was unreasonable to have things like wine, stock, herbs, spices, garlic and so forth on hand.

I take a lot of pride in our pantry. I should take a photo of it to put here but for now I can tell you that I could probably feed my family for about 3 weeks on what is in there, maybe more. I have flour, sugar, salt, yeast, milk, cream, pulses and lentils and beans, vegetables, pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes and a whole lot of other things that are stocked in there. If I had a larder I would be serious about stockpiling our food. We also have a chest freezer full of meat. With a Thermomix now, we don't need to have food precooked so much - just a few bits and pieces in the freezer for a true emergency or for someone else to feed us with, rather than heat-and-eat meals.

This is for two reasons. Firstly, our income can be a bit cyclical and when we've got more income, we can stock up on things and "save" that way.

Secondly, as peaktavists, we are sure that at some point soon we will have an energy crisis that will mean there will be a problem with food supply, even here in Adelaide in an established first world country. It happened in the UK just this year. And it will happen here in Australia sometime soon. Milk and bread will go first. Then fruit and vegetables. Then canned and frozen goods, toilet paper, first aid/pain relief and packaged items like pasta and chocolate.

I recently heard another discussion, on the ABC so I should be able to add it in later, about organic food and food security - which, like water security, will be buzz words of 2011 I think - and someone spoke about the situation where any country is only 9 meals away from anarchy. Some say it's only 4 meals though.  

And so - we have a well-stocked pantry. I'm working on building it into a larder, with extra things like toilet paper and spices. We have a "zombie store" as well - extra long lasting foods, in tins, as well as water and toilet paper. For the impending zombia apocalypse. We have a garden that will hopefully produce more than just spinach soon. We have friends with eggs, and we have skills to trade.

And that is what is going to help us. I can bake, and I have a recipe book - or a dozen - because yes, I do use the internet for a lot of recipes but in the real world one day the internet might not be there. I can make soap, make a lotion, make a cream, make a balm. I have good aromatherapy knowledge and a stock of oils to use. I have books to refer to for first aid as well as the skills. I have a strong TheHusband who can do all kinds of mechanical and labouring type things. We try to be low maintenance in general with our health and wellbeing.

And so, I maintain a pantry. Just in case one day we can't access the superpantry, just-in-time, don't worry I'll just pop out and get some life that is being foisted on us. It's not paranoia, but a form of saving for a rainy day.

Busy bee

I have a new set of cramps, stretch marks, swollen feet/ankles and lack of sleep. And by "cramps" I mean I have to breathe through them and grimace a bit. Mostly from over-working at 32 weeks, and from being on my feet way too much. Only 4 weeks, and 17 shifts to go.

So a day off today saw us clean the house thoroughly and then I made spring rolls, and a banana cake, and a roast chicken, and smashed potatoes, and roast pumpkin. zomg the chicken was perfect, and the Crash Hot Potatoes were very successful.

Is this the nesting phase of pregnancy? I don't know. I do know that I also cleaned the pantry out, and the fridge, and did some crafty, and washed the dishes, and now need a nap.

Top 100 recipes

It's that time of the year isn't it - where the top 100s and 50s and 10s come out. RecipeZaar kicked it off with their top 100 recipes of the year.

The top 10:
1) Better Than Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
2) P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps
3) Fannie Farmer's Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese
4) Best Ever Banana Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
5) Bourbon Chicken
6) Cracker Barrel's Hash Browns Casserole - Copycat
7) The Best Chili You Will Ever Taste
8) Oreo Balls
9) Whole Chicken Crock Pot Recipe
10) Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

From 2008, the top 100 gives us this top 10:
1) Better Than Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
2) P. F. Chang's Chicken Lettuce Wraps
3) Bourbon Chicken
4) Puppy Chow or Monkey Munch
5) Best Ever Banana Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
6) To Die for Crock Pot Roast
7) Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies
8) Fannie Farmer's Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese
9) Jo Mama's World Famous Spaghetti
10) Beer Bread

There are lots of repeats there from 2008 to 2009, reflecting that the "classics" of the new century are not found in well-worn books and handed down recipes. They are the handed around, blogged about, passed on and printed out.

I however am not a fan of American cooking - the flavours are strange, and some of the ingredients are not available here. So I looked at the taste.com.au list. Which was only 50. So I looked at them all and there are lots on here to comment about!

50. Banana bread (Yum. A favourite around here)
49. Bread & butter pudding (Not a favourite of mine. MIL makes it but I can take it or leave it)
48. Tuna mornay pasta bake (Yum. Another favourite)
47. Greek salad (Dislike olives. And without them it's not a Greek salad. So not yum)
46. Vanilla cupcakes (Yum)
45. Lemon slice (Double yum!!)
44. Choc chip banana muffins (Shmeh - take it or leave it. Not a fan of chocolate)
43. Banana cake with cream cheese frosting (Yummo - made my own tonight, for dessert)
42. Beef sausage rolls (Yum)
41. Easy fried rice (Yum)
40. Chocolate mousse in minutes (Good for a dessert - I serve mine in tea cups)
39. Basic roast beef & vegetables (Yum)
38. Thai red curry chicken (Yum)
37. Mediterranean chicken bake (It took me til now to find something I didn't immediately say "Yum. Made it. Been there. Perfected it.")
36. Pumpkin & spinach salad (Yum - two of my favourite vegetables)
35. Classic quiche lorraine (Yum)
34. Hearty beef casserole (Yum)
33. Chicken & sweet corn soup (Yum)
32. Chocolate brownies (Again with the chocolate?!)
31. Easy fried rice (Again?) (But - still yum)
30. Pasta salad (Yum)
29. Mediterranean chicken casserole (Again?)
28. Spaghetti carbonara (Yum)
27. Chicken and cheese pasta bake (Hmmmmmm. It would depend on the chicken. I dislike immensely reheated chicken)
26. Creamy potato bake (Yum)
25. Butter chicken (Yum)
24. Cheesy potato bakes (Yum) (Anything with cheese and potato gets my thumbs up!)
23. Red wine garlic slow cooked lamb shanks (Yum)
22. Chocolate chip cookies (More chocolate)
21. Irish stew (Hmmmmm maybe?)
20. Basic pancakes with lemon & sugar (Yum - a staple around here)
19. Gingerbread men (Yum)
18. Beef stroganoff (Yum)
17. Potato & leek soup (Yum)
16. Rich chocolate cake (*sigh* I wish I liked it)
15. Chocolate caramel slice (Yum - I'll eat the caramel, you have the chocolate)
14. Thai beef salad (Yum)
13. Hearty chicken and vegetable soup (Yum)
12. Sticky date pudding (Yum)
11. Slow cooked lamb shanks (Yum)
10. Pikelets (Yum)
9. Chewy Anzac biscuits (Yum) (This is starting to read like a "here are the 50 dishes that describe Australia's cuisine)
8. Basic scones (Yum)
7. Classic shepherd's pie (Yum)
6. Apple crumble (Yum)
5. Zucchini slice (Yum)
4. Basic scones (Again? Cheats!)
3. Classic cupcakes (Yum)
2. Pumpkin soup (Yum)
1. Banana bread (Yum - again. #1 and #50?)

So really a list of 50 turns into a list of several less. But still a great list!

So - things Emma does not like:
- olives
- corriander
- reheated chicken
- chocolate
- bread and butter pudding

and has very strong Australian roots and flavour references. But with a babe on the way - and the In Laws getting us a chest freezer for a Christmas, birthday, wedding, housewarming gift - I have been thinking lots more about making foods and so have started a calendar with TheHusband so that we know what to make. We are both members of it and I have synched it with me Ipod. The idea was simple enough and not mine to be honest. I created a Google Calendar, and then tried to come up with 35 meal ideas. Ooooooh boy that was hard! Then I set them to repeat over 5 weeks and let them be.

After a week, it is proving a goddess-send. It means I just have to "look" at something rather than try to work out what we are going to eat. It also means that my energy goes into the dish, not into what we're going to eat. And we can use things out of the cupboard and kitchen to substitute and still keep some consistency.

For example - tonight was chicken and apricot or mango. But we don't have any apricots or mango. Nothing tinned or jarred. So it went onto the shopping list so there is stuff in the cupboard for next cycle, and I made a roast chicken instead. So we're not slavishly adhering to the menu plan but it's a plan.

This falls into the "oh dear with have no money and bills to pay and something has to be cut down" category as well. I cleaned out the pantry and there is a LOT of food in there. Not too many repeat packets (though there were 3 containers of brown rice!) and not too many open, and nothing infested thankfully. We could easily live out of the pantry for a month though. And I aim to make things for the freezer as well so we can eat out of that post bub.

Ugh I've waffled enough. I'm going to go and make some hot chocolate and have a small piece of banana nut cake and retire for the evening.

My house actually *does* smell like vanilla!

I made vanilla sugar yesterday as Christmas gifts for friends. It's a tradition among my friends to make food and share it around as a small gesture of love and this year I wanted to make something useful too!

So this year I made Bourbon Vanilla Sugar. It is SO easy it's not funny but is SUCH a lovely gift and so appreciated.

1 vanilla bean
1kg caster sugar
1 food processor or blender
jars to store in
double sided tape and another vanilla bean, if you're feeling adventurous
labels

Put the caster sugar in the blender. Slit open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds/caviar. If you're like me, get vanilla goo on your hands and wipe it unstrategically on yourself so you smell like vanilla for the rest of the day and have random black dots on you. Put the scrapings on top of the sugar. Add the bean in as well.

Blend until you can see that the bean has been cut up finely, and that the little black spots are distributed well throughout the mix.

Seive the sugar to get the big bits of bean out (keep these in a jar for yourself for next time you want to infuse!). Pack into jars and pat down densely. Slice up the other bean into however many jars you have, and use double sided tape to stick a piece on the inside of the jar lid.

Label.

It gets better with time and age - 6 months or more is best, if stored in a cool dark place. But who can resist?

10 things I have to have in my pantry

1. Tinned tuna - must have for making a quick pasta or rice dish, a salad, or lunch.
2. Frozen vegetables - peas, corn and beans, as well as celery bits.
3. Herbs and spice in small jars so that turnover is rapid.
4. Plain flour and SR flour. Small purchases made (2 bags of 1kg eah) at a time to stay fresh.
   
5. Eggs (always a half dozen at least), milk (UHT), cream (UHT) and butter.
6. Butter - did I mention that? A couple of 250g blocks as well as a few wrappers from old blocks so I can grease pans.
7. Vanilla extract.
8. A surprisingl number of different types of sugar - brown, white, raw, caster, vanilla.
9. Pasta and rice and cous cous and polenta.
10. Cheese - grated in the freezer, block in the fridge. Cheddar, mozzerella, parmasen.
    

Jars

I seem to have an opinion on everything but today's is on jars.

I made lemon butter today (the Australian Woman's Weekly recipe but similar to this one from Best Recipes) and used some of the jars that I've been keeping to store it in for Giftmas presents and for eating as well.

But I used a variety of jars and had a variety of experiences with getting the labels off them. The worst offender was Beerenberg which is a shame as the jars are a great size, especially the little sample-sized jars. The labels just would NOT come off - not with soaking, not with a bread knife, not with swearing, no way and no how. So that jar will be for home use I guess!

It is frustrating when things like this are put in the way of reusing so that I can just do something here without adding to the pile of crap associated with modern living or get into the "is recycling worth it" debate...

But I do have lemon butter now!

3 recipes to contemplate

Chicken Biryani
"This is a delicious Pakistani/Indian rice dish which is often reserved for very special occasions such as weddings, parties, or holidays such as Ramadan. It has a lengthy preparation, but the work is definitely worth it. For biryani, always use long grain rice. Basmati rice with its thin, fine grains is the ideal variety to use. Ghee is butter that has been slowly melted so that the milk solids and golden liquid have been separated and can be used in place of vegetable oil to yield a more authentic taste."

Spaghetti and Meatballs
By Smitten Kitchen, one of my new fave blogs. "I could argue that the entire point of this site is for me to find a single reliable recipe for each of my favorite comfort foods, and in most cases, I’ve eventually run into some luck: matzo ball soup, macaroni and cheese, caesar salad and crumb cake. Heck, I’ve even added some of yours, like chicken and dumplings, fried chicken and sweet cherry pie. I think we should all be able to make these things at home, whenever we want."

Crockpot Oatmeal
Must dig out my timer so I can use my crockpot, and also find/buy/borrow a smaller crockpot. I love my crockpot!

Mix Master flashbacks

When I was little, my mother had a Mix Master. It had a particular smell to it - slightly sweet and a smidge oily and a lot of spice. She used it for cakes and bread and lots of other things and the sound of it is a lovely flashback to my childhood.

Anyway, I am now lusting after a Kitchen Aid.
To make bread. To make cakes. To make those desserts that I want to. It is TOTALLY a want, and I know that until maybe my 30th I'm not going to be able to justify such an indulgence, but I can still write about it, right? And label the post properly...

Smoothie smoothie smoothie smoothie, wo oh oh oh oh oh...

Song lyrics to the some Ruby which I mashed up for that song title can be seen here.

A while ago I bought a cheap version of a Magic Bullet and I love it to pieces - I use it for so many things it was so worth the $30 it cost me at Spotlight. I've used it for:

• shreddding chocolate
• whipping cream
• making smoothies
• making dips
• chopping onions
  

Smoothie advice:

• Get some flavoured protein powder (vanilla is good as it means you get some sweetness and protein in it but it's not the One Flavour for every smoothie you make) so it fills you up more than just milk or water can;
• Chop fruit into bite sized pieces and freeze them. Rinse, pat dry and then freeze. You should use it up pretty quickly so don't worry about freezing it flat on something before packing away - it's pretty easy to chip apart! I freeze fruit (bits of strawberry that are sliced off other berries, frozen berries in general, orange, apple, banana) so that I have colds to go in the smoothie. This avoid using ice and increases my fruit content for the day.
• Experiment with milk - I've used soy as well as rice, cows, goats, UHT etc.
  
• Use ice to get an extra cold crunch. I'm going to try freezing coffee as well to see how that goes.

I would like to try some fruit / fruit juice ones too! But I'm not a big sweets person so I'm not in any rush for that.

Chesticles

I would like a chest freezer. Since the advent of the piano and wardrobe and extra couch, we don't really have room, but I still want one because it makes so much sense to make:

• stock
• soup
• pies
• vegetables
• curries
• pasta sauce
• lasagne
• big purchases of meat
• chilli
• pies
• chicken nuggets
• fish sticks
• potato bakes
• pasta bakes
  

But really, we don't have the room. So I'm forced to limit (! unbelievable!) the amount of cooking and baking I do, as we have limited freezer space.

*sigh* it's annoying not having a House. I have a lovely semi-detached house (well, half a house I guess) but I'd love a whole house with a garage to put a car and a chest freezer and the bikes in, and a garden to dig in. It'll have to wait until uni is over and I have a job and a life again, right?

Back to exam study it is!

My house may smell like vanilla, but my kitchen looks like this!

No you eyes aren't deceiving you - I can't work out how to merge the two so that it shows one continuous shot across my kitchen. But isn't it neat? I love that part of my kitchen. Lots of open storage for my Tupperware and glassware, and teapots.

More cake

I made another cake:



And it was yum. It was a chocolate cake with cream and strawberries on it. So simple and yet so elegant and easy!

But not really a Good Cake. The recipe is almost like a packet mix, and it's a pain to melt the ingredients and then cool them, and then add the flour and mix it up. The result isn't very light (although it is very tasty and lovely immediately after making) but next time I want to make Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe.

Apricot chicken recipe, and thoughts on my childhood

My favourite comfort dishes as a child were sweet and sour sausages, fish pie, and apricot chicken. A few months ago, ManFriend had an unfortunate experience of reverse sweetandsoursausuages and has sworn me to never ever make it again for him ever. So I will at some point archive it here for posterity, and will also post fish pie, and apricot chicken.

It's funny - no specific sweets really stand out as "foods that highlighted my childhood". I've never had a sweet tooth. I was the kid who wanted water instead of cordial, and vegemite on Vitaweet instead of sweet biscuits; who wanted Saos instead of cream biscuits, and hated fruit but wanted carrot in her lunch box; and for whom dessert wasn't a great motivator. Desserts that I do remember loving:

• self-saucing pudding (butterscotch, blackberry, lemon - but not chocolate)
• apple turnovers
• stewed apple and cream
  
• sponge cake with strawberry jam and strawberries and cream
• trifle
• royal icing off christmas cake as I don't like cake
• pikelets (very occassionally)
  

Other savoury things that my family made and I "grew up on" would be:

• mashed potato wrapped in slices of fritz
• really awful bland chicken soup with equally bland scones (wow that's SO not a favourite but is something I definitely remember!)
• baked soy and honey chicken legs
• bolognese
• lasagne
• sausages sliced up the middle and stuffed with cheese, with mashed potato and gravy, and veges on the side
• chicken satay on rice
  

Awww now I'm all wistful. And I should go fold some clothes, and study. So - a simple recipe for apricot chicken.

Apricot Chicken (serves 5-6 times which for us was two for dinner, two for the freezer, and two for leftovers)

4 carrots, chunkily sliced
1.5 chicken breasts, chunkily sliced
4 garlic cloves, chunkily sliced
1L boiling chicken stock
1 410g ish tin of apricots
1 shake of spices (as you like - I used a dash of cayene and some nutmeg, with pepper as well as the stock was quite salty)

Arrange in a deep baking dish in that order. Bake loosely covered with foil, at 200C for about an hour. Stir and add some frozen veges. Bake for a further 15 minutes. Add a dash of cream and stir. Make some rice. Serve up.

Yum. I need seconds.

(Manfriend just leant over and asked me if I had a tape measure. And if not, would it be in my apron. 0_O. We both work at the House of Bun and this is funny in the context of, at work, we do indeed both have tape measures on us. At home, I don't usually have it *on* me but I do own a few... it was just a tad random. And amusing.)

Quasi instant soup

I hate instant packet soup. Canned soup doesn't do it for me either. So when I had a friend to feed last night, what'a girl to do?

Well in my case, you take ~1L of stock (in this case lamb stock for which I had no other plans - it was great, it was lovely, it wasn't uber salty, but it isn't called for very often in recipes!) and put in 2 piece of mince that you've packed previously into a hamburger press, so that 500g ish went into 6 patties (so about 85g mince each) and bring to the boil. Mush the mince up a bit to make it into balls if you can / want to. Add about a cup of frozen veges - I used a combination of beans, carrots and baby corn. Adjust the seasoning to what you want - I used oyster, soy, plum and a dab of chilli sauce, but you could also use tomato-y type flavours, or sesame and chilli, or sweet and sour, or anything you'd like. Add 250g rice noodles (vermicelli or angle hair) and boil some more. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Eat.

Absolutely fabulous for:

• using up bits and pieces in the freezer and fridge;
• watching your weight;
• instant food any night of the week
• feeding friends
• impressing anyone you've brought home ;)
  

Cake stands and so forth

I found a great post the other day for a cake stand making tutorial and wanted to archive it here for future reference. I have been working on my cupcake recipe and wanted to write that out here too! With some photos for decoration.

Basic vanilla cupcake recipe
125g butter (I use salted butter bought in a block)
3/4 C sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp Queen vanilla bean paste with vanilla seeds
1 1/2 C self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 C milk
1T milk

Have the butter at room temperature then beat it with the sugar until it is paler than originally. Add the vanilla (you can use 1 tsp vanilla essence instead) and one egg and beat well. Add the other egg and beat some more. Remove the beaters and grab a spatula.

Sift in 3/4 C of flour with the extra self raising flour. Add half the milk and mix gently through. Add the remaining flour and fold in gently. Add the remaining milk from the 1/3C and mix in. The mix should hold a peak but not be too stiff - add a smidge more milk if you need to get it to "plopping" consistency.

Half-fill cupcake liners in your patty pan and bake at 180-190C for 10-15 minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on them - they are done when slightly golden brown on top. Remove from over, remove from pan, and cool on a wire rack.

Some notes on ingredients:

• I'll never ever go back to imitation vanilla essence. If you're going to bake, please use the best you can find. I love the paste I've linked to and while it's expensive, I use 1/2 the recommended amount for a recipe and it gives such an amazingly real, vanilla, homemade flavour. It also adds extra liquid to the mix which tends to keep the crumb happy.
• Use the best ingredients you can find. Cake making is about making love in little patty cases so don't scrimp on it. I use generic sugar, but I do use the best flour I can find at the time.
• Play around with patty liners and pans. I like the stiffer paper ones rather than the really cheap thin ones. I also love love love individual silicone ones that you remove afterwards - great for mini bite sized ones! I tend to fill 12 of the paper cases and then use the rest of the mix in the silicone cases.
  
• Use good eggs. I use free range ones locally produced and bought. I find that battery hen ones are pale, insipid, and watery. Yuk.
  

Icing: Ok I'm not the most sophisticated cake maker and decorator yet. But I love making them and icing them. I colour my icing because it adds something extra to the whole experience. My basic icing recipe:

1T salted butter
a dash of lemon juice
a dash of hot water
icing sugar
food colouring

Put the butter in a small bowl. Add a heaped teaspoon of icing sugar and mix in. Add a few drops of lemon juice and mix in. Add more icing sugar and mix in. Add a dash of hot water and mix well. Taste. If it's not sweet but it buttery, add more sugar. If it's sweet and only sweet, add more lemon juice. If it's too lemony, add a smidge more hot water. Colour and apply.

*tap* *tap* *tap* is this thing on?

I am eating a ham and cheese "toasted" sandwich that tastes vaguely of roses. I've just worked out that it's because the bread was sitting next to a ziplock bag of solid henna, which is kind of rose scented. Strange but true.

Hi. Welcome to my blog. This is a new blog bringing together a couple of other blogs - Knitting by Zen, and Midwifery is Catching. I'm moving house as I want to bring together a lot of things in my life under one roof, and it's easier to do that than to update the other places repeatedly. Plus I realised the other day that I am one person, not different aspects of the same person (woh deep and meaningful for this time of the morning) and 2009 should be a really interesting year.

100 things to cook and/or eat

From scratch even! Cooked = bold, eaten = italics. It's a list from around the internet that I've adjusted to Australia as some of them weren't foods I knew of. Gives me some ideas of what else to cook too.

Breakfast

1. Eggs Benedict
2. Quiche
3. Frittata
4. Waffles
5. Cinnamon Rolls
6. Pancakes
7. Hashbrowns
8. French Toast
9. Bircher muesli
   

Nibbles

1. Pate
2. Oysters
3. Tabbouleh
4. Egg Rolls
5. Fish Cakes
6. Pierogies
7. Falafel
8. Voulevants
9. Salsa Verde
10. Wontons
11. Baba Ganoush
    

Sweets

1. Profieroles
2. Bread Pudding
3. Tart
4. Banana Caramel Pie
5. Cannoli
6. Chocolate Chip Cookies
7. Pumpkin Pie
8. Fruit Juice Jelly
9. Truffles
10. Brownies
11. Chocolate Mousse
12. Sponge Cake
13. Cheesecake
14. Creme Caramel
15. Apple Pie

Side Dishes

1. Brussel Sprouts
2. Mashed Potato
3. Fried Rice
4. Stuffing
5. Potato Pancakes
6. Potato Salad
7. French Fries

Bread

1. Naan
2. Tortillas
3. Croissants
4. Bread
5. Pizza Dough
6. Garlic Bread
7. Beer Bread
8. Zucchini Bread
9. Pita Bread

Soup

1. Chicken Stock
2. Bean Chowder
3. 44 Clove Garlic Soup
4. French Onion Soup

Meat

1. Bangers and Mash
2. Chicken Masala
3. Blackened Chicken
4. Braised Chicken
5. Coq au Vin
6. Beef Roast
7. Meatloaf
8. Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic
9. Baked Whole Fish
10. Sweet and Sour Chicken
11. Stuffed Chicken Breasts
12. Beef Wellington
13. Koto Sto Phyllo
14. Beer Can Chicken
15. Yiros
16. Cornish Game Hens

Pasta

1. Bolognaise
2. Manicotti
3. Homemade Ravioli
4. Homemade Gnocchi
5. Zucchini Strand Spaghetti
6. Stuffed Shells
7. Lasagna

Main Dishes

1. Ratatoille
2. Navy Beans
3. Risotto
4. Curry
5. Paella
6. Tortilla Espanola
7. Sushi
8. Pad Thai
9. Stew
10. Eggplant Parmesan

Other

1. Jam
2. Gravy
3. Ruth Reichl Recipe
4. Quinoa
5. Cheese
6. Dill Pickles
7. Tzatziki
8. Dumplings
9. Bechemel
10. Souffle
11. Tomato Sauce
12. Alfredo Sauce