Ingredients Hiding in Plain Sight

Right now my refrigerator is stuffed with food that doesn’t quite add up to dinner: a slice of mushroom pizza, at least one cup of cottage cheese, a huge pan of rice left over from a business meeting, some mushrooms, 2 bell peppers + the usual block of cheddar cheese and several dozen eggs.

I really should pop out to the store or find something in my freezer, but I want to clear out the fridge shelves first.  What can I make from these ingredients?  Click on the links below for the three recipes.

Mom Cooking Tip 102

When making brownies or other dessert bars in a square or rectangular pan, line the pan with aluminum foil, making sure two ends of the foil overhand the pan by about 2 inches.  That way you can easily lift the brownies out of the pan after they’re baked.

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Question for Mom?

Sugar Snap Peas (left)  Snow Peas (right)

What’s the difference between sugar snap peas and snow peas?  --Edna V.

Not a lot, especially considering that snow peas are the parent of sugar snap peas.  Scientists developed sugar snap peas in the 1950s through cross-breeding a snow pea with a garden pea.

There are differences.  Snow peas are flat and have small peas inside.  Sugar snap peas are puffier, and their peas are bigger.  Both make excellent side dishes.

Mom Cooking Tip 101

Some recipes call for saving a cup of hot pasta water before draining the pasta.  Here’s why: you may want to add at least some of the water to the sauce for extra flavor.  Also, the starch left in the pasta water helps the sauce stick better.     

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Where Do You Get Your Recipes?

Shrimp Chowder

I like trying new recipes, but I’ve learned to be careful about the source.  If my aunt, a terrible cook, hands me a copy of a recipe she likes, I say thank you and put it in my purse, never to be seen again.  If a close friend who is also a skillful cook offers one, I try it immediately.  I don’t always like the end result, but I’m willing to give it a chance.

With cookbooks, I’ll test out one or two recipes.  If they’re successful, I’ll try some more.  If they’re not, that cookbook moves down to a shelf near the floor of my kitchen and may never be consulted again.  If it was an epic fail, I banish the cookbook to the garage.

Mom Cooking Tip 100

If a soup recipe calls for fresh spinach and you don’t have any, substitute several handfuls of mixed salad greens.

Bean and Vegetable Soup

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Durum Wheat: What Is It and How Do I Use It?

When I was a beginning cook, spaghetti was one of my fallback meals.  I happily ate it two or three times a week.  The one thing that worried me about it, though, was that I might inadvertently buy the “wrong” kind of pasta.