One-Dish Meals
lynnescountrykitchen.net
The recipes presented here look both to the past and the present. These one-dish meals are suited for today's busy cooks. Some of the soups and stews here involve long simmering on the back of the stove or in the oven, mostly unattended. These are good for weekend meals.
The skillet suppers are all quickly made from scratch, most of them well under 1 hour. Likewise, the salad suppers can be whipped together quickly. It's all mom's good home cooking, with an eye on the clock.
With not much extra time these days, setting up your kitchen with the right cookware can make cooking go easily and smoothly. You don't need a lot of gadgets or pots and pans - just do yourself a favor and purchase the best that you can afford. It's well worth it when you can whip up supper in minutes and clean up afterward, leaving time for yourself or for playing with the kids.
CUTTING TOOLS - The larger the cutting board, the easier the chopping goes. You won't have food falling off the cutting board and you may even have the room to leave the prepped food on the board instead of storing it in a bowl, which is just one more dish to clean later.
Sharp knives are a must! A good heavy chef's knife, a paring knife, a serrated knife for slicing tomatoes and bread, and a swivel-bladed vegetable peeler will cover just about every situation you will come across. A carving knife is nice, but you can get by without it.
COOKWARE - For soups and stews, you will need a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan or Dutch oven. The most versatile ones can go from stovetop to oven. Cast-iron is good, even better is porcelain-clad cast-iron - it has the good heat distribution of cast-iron but won't react to high-acid foods, such as a tomato sauce.
For skillets, I recommend cast iron. Once properly seasoned, it is reasonably nonstick and virtually impossible to destroy. I still have and use my gram's skillets! Don't buy cast-iron skillets with wooden handles, though; the handles tend to break and then the pan is worthless.
For the oven meals, a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish will cover almost every recipe here. The few that won't fit into a 9 x 13-inch dish require a large roasting pan, but you need one of these anyway, for holiday meals.
Now, that leaves salad suppers - you need a large bowl. Simple enough!
STOCKING THE PANTRY - Even when you cook from scratch, certain convenience foods can provide shortcuts that make the cooking go faster. The ones I rely on most are canned tomatoes, beans, and broth. You certainly are free to substitute home-grown or home-cooked ingredients. Use 2 cups of chopped fresh tomatoes for 15-ounces of canned diced tomatoes with juice. Use 2 cups cooked dried beans for 15-ounces of canned. But, if you use the canned goods, don't feel that you are sacrificing flavor. Canned tomatoes are better than out-of-season supermarket tomatoes. And there are several commercial broths that are comparable to home-made. Taste several brands before settling on one. Canned beans should be drained and rinsed before they are used.
All-In-One Chicken Bake
Baked Beef Pot Pie
Chicken and Dumplings
Chicken In A Pot
Chicken Tetrazzini
Chili Cheese Meal
Fish Surprise
Frittata de Nonna