Effervescence: homeschooling, homekeeping, all that good stuff. Barbara has an entry up about meal planning and cooking on the pantry principle (something I strive for myself, though I’m not into writing out meal plans.) She mentions one of my very favorite cookbooks: How to Cook Without a Book, by Pam Anderson. It teaches techniques of cooking quick meals based on real food that you have on hand, instead of choosing a recipe and then going out to fetch the (often processed) ingredients.
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I guess I’d overlooked that point — using “real” food — in favor of the “healthfulness” of HTCWAB. I am dismayed sometimes to find that recipes want me to have Hidden Valley ranch dressing or bottled barbecue sauce on hand. It’s more fun to experiment with a bunch of stuff you had in your pantry, anyway.
HTCWAB is truly helping me think beyond cookbooks and recipes, even though I love both. Even more, I love the prospect of looking at what I have, deciding what to make from it, and doing it. Without a handholding recipe. Much more like my sometime kitchen role models, pre-1940s farm women.
I do ignore the options in HTCWAB that include specialty foods I don’t have on hand. No problem, I’m a long-time substituter 🙂