Recipes for the Resourceful Cook, by Keri Williams
With rain and wind again today, and more on the horizon, this week it just seems right to feature some good, old-fashioned comfort food–like the food my mom used to make for us when I was a kid. In the winter, mom makes lots of soups, stews, roasts and beans. On Sundays, mom would put a roast into the oven before we’d go to church. It would be ready when we got home–the smell of …
Today, I will start my weekly post with the story of a sad day. The featured picture is what’s left of my beloved plum tree. On Tuesday, we experienced a severe storm, with rain and wind gusts of almost 100 mph. At the height of the ferocious storm, I heard a deep “thud” and learned that our 75-foot-tall elm tree had fallen on the house. The 70-year-old tree was lush and green and the picture …
Here in Northern California, we’ve been experiencing cold, rainy weather–something that we haven’t had in several long years of drought and heat. In the Valley, we have had more than 17 inches of rain for the season so far, more is predicted next week. For us, it’s been cold–in the 30’s at night and in the 50’s during the day. I see a lot of you rolling your eyes, but seriously–it’s what keeps folks like …
Cascatelli pasta, or “waterfall” pasta came out probably a couple of years ago and almost immediately turned into “unobtainium”–you couldn’t get it anywhere–backordered until who knows when. The good news is that it’s readily available now and I have gotten several boxes of it from Amazon, although I still don’t see it in stores. The idea behind this new shape is that the curves, curls and valleys of the pasta are supposed to hang onto …
Hello! Thank you for visiting my blog! My name is Keri. I am an avid home cook who has some pretty cool equipment and about 30 years of experience cooking for everything from Thanksgiving dinners for 25, parties for 50 and simple meals on a daily basis. I live in a pretty small house in the Northern California that has a pretty big kitchen. I love to cook and I’m kinda fearless in the kitchen. …
The frozen pantry: ham hocks hamburger boneless, skinless chicken breasts bacon andouille sausage puff pastry pie shells spinach mixed vegetables pancetta—cubed or sliced
whole milk (I prefer whole milk, 2% will do if you must) cream mayo pickles vinaigrette 1 dozen eggs 1 lb butter yogurt—small container of plain, plus flavored as you like for breakfast sour cream cream cheese (I use bricks because they’re cheaper and easier to store b/c they’re flat cheese—cheddar, Monterey Jack, American block of parmesan cheese some kind of breakfast meat—sausage or bacon mustard— whole grain, yellow dijon (if you must) carrots celery
flour: bread, all-purpose, wheat bread crumbs Campbell’s vegetarian vegetable soup x 2 Campbell’s cream based soup x 2 of your choice Campbell’s tomato soup x 2 Chicken broth, or chicken bouillon Tuna packed in water, good quality tuna packed in oil Pasta: spaghetti, rigatoni, orzo, bucatini, lasagna, penne, linguini rice: long-grain white, brown, basmati, jasmine Salsa—green and red enchilada sauce—green and red crackers peanut butter tomato sauce—28 oz x 2 tomato sauce—14 oz x 2 …