The Quick Cook Uses What's There--Once It's Found!

Last week I posted my Quick Cook Tips that I write about once a month in The Pinewood News, a small town paper in Munds Park, Arizona. I’ll be doing a series on some of those tips so you can see how it might play out in your kitchen.

Your Quick Cook Tip #7 is:

Organize your pantry

A few years ago, I was helping my mother organize her food pantry and other food storage areas. Ay yi yi yi yi! She had five boxes of cocoa and that was just the beginning. I asked her why she had so many of so many different products. And you know the answer. She couldn’t find cocoa powder so she bought more. There was fish in the freezer that was more than five years old. And so out it went.

I took everything out of her pantry, cupboards, refrigerators, and freezers and tossed old or duplicate products. Then I arranged foods in categories. She had a hard time with “like goes with like”. But it makes such sense to me to put spices only with spices and ingredients you use for baking together. Soups should all be together. Beans and other veggies together. Fruits together. I bought her organizers to help with that principle and to use space well.

I do not think I am anal retentive but for The Quick Cook to put a meal on the table fast, it means I cannot spend time hunting for foods. Grab and Go! Pick and Pour! Match and Mix!

The pantry principle also applies to your closet. Who hasn’t taken out everything and laid it around the room discarding/or repairing the torn, giving away the unworn, and keeping the clothes you know you wear. They say (Have you ever wondered who “they” are?) that we wear 10% of our clothes 90% of the time. That is probably true, as I look at my daily clothes choices.

I’ll bet the same is true, or close to it, for our foods. There’s that lovely pumpkin pie spice sitting there and used rarely. It sits next to pepper—used daily.

Like your clothes reorganization—you discover the shirt you ALWAYS wore with one pair of pants can be used with that skirt or those shorts—it is productive to see where else you can use some of those food products.

Now that you’ve got your kitchen all organized, let’s try mixing it up a little. Perhaps you are nervous about putting ingredients together that you never tried before. That’s natural. No one wants to waste food. So, an easy place to try your experimentation is with appetizers.

Generally we make smaller portions of a few dishes to serve as appetizers. If you don’t like something, just don’t make it again. But remember, someone else tasting your creation may think it is spectacular.

Here are six suggestions to start:

Pop a batch of microwave popcorn and toss the hot popcorn with chocolate chips and that package of leftover nuts. Or melt the chocolate chips and drizzle over the popcorn and nuts. I often toss popcorn with dried cranberries and nuts.

Soften cream cheese and mix with that half-jar of leftover pepper jelly and use as a spread for crackers. Or spread the mixture on a flour tortilla and layer on cheese slices and baby spinach leaves. Roll up tightly and slice into 6 pinwheels. Pulverize the can of black olives and mix with cream cheese for a different spread.

Mash up the leftover black beans and add in the dab of corn you have left. Blend in salsa and fill tortilla chip cups with the blend for bite-size appetizers. Or crumble corn chips and put in bottom of shot glasses. Layer black beans, corn, diced tomato, and diced green onion topped with more crumbled corn chips. Serve these salsa shots with a tiny spoon to eat.

Your turn. What’s in your refrigerator and pantry? Be adventuresome!

Tips for Being a "Quick Cook"

I’ve been writing a food column for a small town newspaper for about a year and a half. In the spring, summer, and early fall, I write one column a month. In the winter, I post every other month. You can take a peek at current and past issues by going to The Pinewood News  

I called my column “The Quick Cook” because DH, before he was DH, told me he’d never seen someone put a meal on the table as fast as I could. Well, I am pretty good!

A big part of being a quick cook is prepping and knowing which nutritious pre-prepared foods are worth the money. But there are some other ways to meet my goal. I want to feed people nutritious food but quickly and cheaply.

Each column includes a QC Tip and at least one recipe. Here are my QC Tips to date and a little bit about the column it appeared in.

The Quick Cook Tips:

QC Tip#1

Always keep some basic mixes in the fridge for quick cooking.

You can slather these basic mixes onto food you’re cooking or food already cooked. Flavorful and savory, these easy spreads fancy up a meal

Recipes for Savory Butter and Cream Cheese Spread

QC Tip #2

Keep basic seasoning mixes in the cupboard for quick cooking.

Don’t buy pricey seasoning blends. Make your own.

Recipes for Poultry Seasoning, Taco Seasoning, Chinese Spice Blend, and Pumpkin Pie Spice

QC Tip #3

Use seasoning blends in new ways

Ideas for different ways to use the five seasoning spice recipes I gave

More D-I-Y recipes for Seasoned Salt and Italian Seasonings

QC Tip #4

Keep basic mixes in the cupboard for quick cooking.

Measure out ingredients for a double recipe. Bake one and bag one to mix up fast another day.

Recipe for Cran-Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

QC Tip #5

Use your kitchen gadgets and appliances

Using appliances in unexpected ways is one way the quick cook gets food on the plate fast

Recipe for TQC Risotto

QC Tip #6

Develop a kitchen-awareness of foods on hand.

Know what foods you have on hand and play the TV cooking show, “Chopped”

Recipes:  I give several suggestions for combining foods or stretching them

QC Tip #7

Organize your pantry

Look at the foods in your pantry like matching new clothing combos in your closet. Try new things together.

Recipes: I give six suggestions for food pairings like what to do with cream cheese or leftover black beans

QC Tip #8

Clean out the refrigerator before shopping

We have some odd food pairings before I go grocery shopping. Sometimes it’s an archaeological expedition as I uncover that bit of roasted veggies (So that’s where it went!). I want my fridge and cupboard to have space for the new stuff so I make all kinds of un-replicable dinners.

Recipe for Garbage Soup

QC Tip #9

Wow ‘em with dessert if dinner is ordinary.

Let’s face it, some meals are just good, and that’s good enough. But if you’ve got company make their last memory of dinner a spectacular but easy dessert.

Recipes for Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Avocado Pudding, One-Minute Chocolate Microwave Cake, and Frozen Chocolate-Nut Bananas

QC Tip #10

Make menus before and after shopping.

I survey my food reserves, make menus, create a shopping list. After shopping I make more menus for the bargains I found that weren’t on my list.

Recipe for In-a-Hurry Pumpkin Soup

QC Tip #11

Make quick breads and store in freezer for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

When making muffins, mix up one batch; package dry ingredients for a second batch to speed up making them again.

Recipe for Cran-Nut Oatmeal Muffins

QC Tip #12

Make convenience mixes so you never run out

It’s a pain to need yellow cake mix, cake flour, baking mix, or self-rising flour and you have none. Make your own with my recipes.

QC Tip #13

Cook foods in small sizes for faster cooking

Serve dinner faster by cutting down on cook times.

Recipe for my meatloaf which I form into small football shapes for single serving.

QC Tip #14

Be in charge of portion control for the health of family and friends

Mini-desserts are one of my “things”.

Recipe for Mini Nutella Cinnamon Brownies

QC #15

Minimize kitchen time for large-gathering breakfasts

I give ideas for cooking for a crowd in a way that doesn’t take you away from your guests.

Recipes for Omelets in a Bag and Waffle Iron Hash Browns

Down the road, when I have another batch of these Quick Cook Tips, I’ll do another column of them. For now, happy quick cooking!

Vote Now for February Month-of- Recipes

Each year for the past several years, I have posted a daily recipe in a category during the month of February. Three years ago, it was soup. Two years ago, I posted chicken recipes. And last year was appetizers.

You, Dear Readers, selected those categories. Because it takes me a while to assemble, create, and try out recipes in a category, I have you vote now so I have enough time to prepare and post 28 recipes in a row.

This year, I have four categories (listed alphabetically) for you to consider. During February, should I post 28 recipes for …

Eggs

I’ve read that the traditional chef’s hat has 100 pleats. The toque was earned when the chef demonstrated he (because they were only he initially) could prepare eggs 100 ways.

Mini-desserts

Season 52, a marvelous restaurant chain, created the first restaurant mini-desserts and now everyone is doing them. They are a staple at my parties.

Muffins

Both savory and sweet muffin recipes abound. Let me share some favorites with you and show you some you might not have tried.

Slow Cooker

Your slow cooker can deliver hot-and-ready breakfasts, entrees, sides, and desserts.

Your choice.

Vote in comments or on the poll. You have one week. Your votes in the poll and comments below will be tallied as will votes on Facebook and Twitter. You have one week to register your preference. All votes entered by midnight MST, January 13^th will count. In February you will find out what category won!

Next week, I am so happy to have guest blogger Patricia Gligor, author of the Malone mysteries, telling about the fun of writing mysteries. Stop in and read what she has to share.