Recipe help?

[trinityofone]

So, I am wanting to try to learn how to cook more. The problem is that every recipe book or site I consult, even when I am specifically looking for "quick & easy" type recipes, seems to assume that I have money for fancy ingredients (no) or already own fancy equipment (really no). Bah! Bah on them and their Chilean sea bass and their food processors and grills. I turn to you instead for advice!

Do you have any favorite recipes you'd be willing to share? Specifically, quick, easy, and CHEAP recipes?

Here's what I do not have:

1. Very much money.
2. Very much equipment.
3. Very much skill.

On the plus side, however, I like almost everything. Except beets. I HATE BEETS.

So, any non-beet, non-expensive, non-excessively difficult involving twelve types of pans and a magic wand you could share with me?

In return, here's my favorite, failproof recipe. (Well, failproof unless you are siriaeve and hate cheese. Sorry.)

ROMAN HOLIDAY
a.k.a., OMG Trin, you are a BAD JEW

Ingredients:
1 box penne or rigatoni (I used to prefer the latter, but have since been reconverted to the former)
1 pound ground beef (I've also made it with both ground turkey and with that fake vegetarian soy beef stuff, and both versions work pretty well)
1 large package of American Cheese (I like the Kraft Deluxe, as it is not individually wrapped in plastic. That is some B.S.)
1 jar tomato sauce
1 large yellow onion
salt and pepper

Start water boiling for pasta. Dice onion—my mom dices it finely, but I suck at chopping, have cheap knives, and like big chunks of onion anyway so that works too. Saute onion in a deep pan with olive oil. Add beef in chunks without thinking of the latest episode of SPN. Add a dash of salt and pepper; cook until beef is browned and onion is soft.

The water is probably ready by now, so add the pasta and cook as directed by the package.

Cut the cheese into cubes and distribute on the bottom of a large casserole dish. Add beef and onion mixture. (You can drain the grease first if you want, but I usually don't bother. It's flavor! Also I am gross.) When pasta is done, drain and add. Struggle with the stupid jar of pasta sauce for a ridiculously long time; when it finally opens, pour it over pasta. Stir. Put lid on casserole dish and place in oven, which if you are like me you have probably forgotten to preheat to 350°. But whatever, this recipe is almost impossible to screw up. Cook for 20ish minutes. Basically, you want the cheese to be all lovely and melty and bubbly. Stir and serve. Reheats really well. (But better in the oven than in the microwave, turtlespeaks!)

I should add that this is a Depression-era recipe of my (not Jewish) great-aunt Hopie, who passed away this past December. It was originally made with macaroni, Velveeta, and canned tomato soup, so in comparison, you can feel really sophisticated eating the current version.

Also, if through some odd cosmic circumstance, I was ever given the opportunity to seduce Dean Winchester, I would make him this.

So yes, please hit me with your own failproof recipes! And, er, it should be mentioned: I like healthy stuff, too. I love vegetables! (EXCEPT BEETS.) Mushrooms are good! Or, well, just about anything. I only know how to make this casserole and like three other dishes. It's sad.

Comments

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

When I was first learning to cook - okay, no. When I was first learning to cook, I was 14 and living with my father and his very complete kitchen and his absolute willingness to purchase anything that I put on the list before he went shopping Sunday morning that he could find in any store in the land. And I made things from Joy of Cooking and Julia Child and some vegetarian cookbooks I got from my mother and could totally just randomly experiment and not worry about the fact that the ingredients cost $30 for a side dish or that the recipe required its very own special cooking implement with a name in German or that it wasn't actually a meal.

And then I moved into my own apartment, and I had, like, a pot and a skillet and a knife, and not much money, and also I was cooking for actual meals and two people, and I had to learn all over again. During this phase of my life, a family friend gave me the More with Less Cookbook (http://www.amazon.com/More-Less-Cookbook-World-Community/dp/083619263X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266821142&sr=1-1), which was a great guide, because it assumes that you want to make very cheap things very easily. It does not turn up its nose at telling you to mix kidney beans, canned tomatoes, onions, green pepper, and grated cheese in a big pot. (This, by the way, is surprisingly delicious, and I will give you the recipe if you think it's something you might like.)

And I have many many easy recipes (all vegetarian, because I am, you know, a vegetarian, and have been since I was 10), if you want to tell me what you like. (Seriously - do you want main-meal salads? Pasta? Beans? The world's best and easiest method of cooking tofu? Tasty things to do with whatever vegetables are in season? Guide me!) In the meantime, here are two pasta recipes. (Pasta is usually easy and usually cheap.)

Not Very Good for You But Incredibly Tasty If You Like Spicier Foods Pasta

1 pound linguine (or fettuccine or whatever)
5 - 6 tablespoons olive oil
4 - 8 garlic cloves
Crushed red pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese in quantity (I recommend the pecorino romano at Trader Joe's, actually - stronger taste, more bang for your buck, and I know you live where I do, in the Trader Joe's Capitol)

Heat water, cook pasta. Salt the water HEAVILY, because it's the only place you can put salt in this recipe.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil on low or medium low, depending on how powerful your oven is - you want it to just bubble a bit - and mince your garlic and add your red pepper. Stir occasionally. Let the garlic get golden brown but not any darker.

Drain your pasta.

If you used a big skillet to cook your garlic, add the pasta directly to it and mix over low heat until the pasta is shiny. Then transfer to serving dish. If you used a small skillet, just transfer the pasta to a serving dish, pour all the oil and tasty spice bits over it, and mix the fuck out of it. Add parmesan. Mix. Add more parmesan. Mix. Serve with the parmesan ready to hand, because you may want even more.

Leftovers are tasty as-is, or can be made easily and tastily into a pasta frittata, the world's best way of using up pasta leftovers if you're averse to eating the same meal on successive days.

[thefourthvine.livejournal.com]

(Second one, because apparently I am so talky that two recipes breaks the comment limit.)

Better for You (Because There's a Vegetable!) and Very Tasty Pasta

1 pound pasta; for this, I like penne or something else more chunky than stringy
1 or 2 pounds zucchini (I always like a LOT of vegetables, so I go with two pounds, sometimes two and a half, but you may prefer more pasta in your pasta), sliced
Olive oil
Garlic as desired (not necessary)
Fresh basil (absolutely mandatory for this recipe, and you'll want a lot of it - I suggest either hitting the herb place at a farmer's market or going to Trader Joe's and getting their big plastic boxes of basil, which is relatively cheap - do not buy the tiny packets at a regular supermarket, because SO EXPENSIVE and usually really crappy), washed and chopped.
Lemon if you want
Parmesan cheese

Heat water, cook pasta, salting water fairly heavily.

Meanwhile, take a big-ass skillet and add the oil. Heat over medium heat. Add the garlic, if using, and let cook for 30 seconds or a minute, then add all the zucchini. Cook until soft and tasty-looking. Add half the basil, stir, wait a minute, and then pour over the pasta, which you have of course drained in the interim. Add the rest of the basil and the parmesan cheese and a teaspoon or so of lemon juice if you're using it.