limey wrote:

> Lia, I find you one of the most common-sense posters in the newsgroup. I
> enjoy your posts and commend you.


Thanks, the trick is all in the killfile. Now let me hijack this thread
and go off on a tangent.


The subject has been brought up that most households have 10 recipes
that the family keeps cycling through, making the same thing over and
over. I can believe that. Despite many cookbooks, without a swift
kick, I'd end up making the same recipes. My top 10 list is:

I. The Stews.

1. A variation on the coq au vin recipe found in Joy of Cooking. I use
chicken thighs instead of a whole cut up chicken and use olive oil
instead of the salt pork. The recipe depends on having the fat from the
chicken. If I accidentally buy the skinless, the dish suffers.


2. Beef stew. The beef cubes are browned. Onions, carrots, turnips,
sweet potatoes and mushrooms are added. The broth is a can of V-8 juice.


I've made a curry lamb stew or a chicken stew with Mexican spices, but I
usually go back to the above standbys. The stews get served over rice
one night (Uncle Ben's converted, long grain brown or short grain brown)
and pasta the next.


II. The Roasts. When the weather is cloudy, we want something simple
that involves turning on the oven.

3. Lamb
4. Beef
5. Turkey Thighs

All are roasted. The variation is in the accompanying vegetables--
sometimes scalloped potatoes, sometimes winter squash, often sweet
potatoes or turnips, carrots, onions. Again, I fall into ruts. For a
nice change, I buy fennel and roast that. There might be a variation on
the spices I sprinkle on top.


III. The quick meals.


6. Burger and broccoli. As simple as it sounds. The leftover burger
gets used in

7. Burger and mushroom tomato sauce over pasta.

8. Pan steaks

9. Tilapia francaise

10. Broiled mahi mahi.


That's what I end up making all the time. Oh, there's one mo

IV. Vegetarians are coming for dinner. (We eat it too when there are
no guests.)

11. The vegetable stir-fry. Onion, carrot, red and green bell peppers,
mushrooms, zucchini, cabbage are stir fried with tamari, vinegar, oil,
mustard, ginger and garlic as a sauce. Serve over brown rice.


I do end up making a few more dishes, but those are the main meals I
cycle through all the time.


--Lia