General Staples of a College Kitchen

There are a couple of staples that will help out in any college kitchen. These are things that are versatile and useful in a myriad of different dishes. I'll tell you a little about each one as we go along!

• Butter
• Butter is used in a lot of baked goods, and also in savory dishes. I tend to keep a few sticks handy just in case I want to make cookies or with pasta.
• Garlic/garlic powder
• This is one I consider the staple of spices. I put it in just about everything if I can. It's great on meats, in vegetable sautes, stir-frys, even on toast for a cheap garlic bread!
• Onions
• If you like onions, it's not hard to find uses for this delightful root. It adds another level of flavor to almost any savory dish. If you have extra, you can always add it into nachos, omelettes, on pizzas, in soups or stews etc. 
• Eggs
• Eggs are the greatest! They're relatively cheap, stay pretty well in a fridge, and can be used in hundreds of ways. Great scrambled with veggies/meats, in omelettes, making muffins/cookies/baked goods, breads, hard-boiled for a protein rich snack, or for egg or potato salad.
• Flour
• Again, hundreds of uses for flour! Used in almost any baked good, pizza doughs, and also when breading meats or cheeses. Also is used in thickening stews, or gravies in place of cornstarch if you have none.
• Bouillon cubes
• These bad boys are super useful when you need broth, but don't want to open a can for it. You add a cube to a cup of water, and baddabing, baddaboom, you have stock. Also great for making a quick and easy egg drop soup!
• Pasta
• Pasta is cheap, easy to make, and a great addition to a lot of dishes. 
• Rice
• Like pasta, a great addition to dishes to add substance to it. I like to have chili over rice, and then my chili can last all week long. 

These are what I can think of right now, I'll add more if I think of them! Feel free to comment with your own kitchen staples. :]

Hearty Beef Stew

Winters in Maine are notoriously cold and unpredictable. Who wouldn't want to curl up with a nice, thick beef stew on a blustery day? It takes about two hours to make this stew, but requires rather little direct attention. You could make it in a crock pot as well if you were truly very busy. Like most recipes you'll find here, many of the ingredients are staples and easy to find. 

Hearty Beef Stew:

• Stewing beef
• 2-3 carrots
• 4-5 medium red potatoes
• 2 stalks celery
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 cups beef broth
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 Tbs parsley
• 1 tsp rosemary

1. First things first, chop up your vegetables into bite-sized chunks. In a stockpot, brown the beef in a little olive oil with salt and pepper. Add beef broth, rosemary and parsley. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.
2. Add vegetables to pot. Mix together flour and water very well (no lumps). Add to pot and stir. Cover stew and simmer 1 hour. 

This recipe is easy to make, and you can add more or less of anything depending on what you have and how much you want to make!

Quasi-Vegetarianism?

Recently I've given a lot of thought to the merit of vegetarianism. Some vegetarians don't eat meat because they think it's cruel, but some do it for health reasons. I've met both kinds and decided that it would be an interesting adventure to become what I call a "quasi-vegetarian". A quasi-vegetarian is someone who goes between eating and not eating meat. I personally challenged myself to go day by day, vegetarian, then not, then vegetarian again. This would make a 50/50 vegetarian diet. 

I, along with many other people in the US, love beef. I love to use it in many ways, and it rarely disappoints. Alongside beef, I enjoy chicken in many various uses; baking, broiling, stewing, pan-frying, kebabs etc. It's easy to make, and is a fine addition to any meal. Fish also is a great meat with so many species with their varying qualities, it's hard to find a meat you won't like. And here I am willing to give it all up a few days a week. 

There are always some nutritional concerns when taking to a vegetarian diet. All of the essential amino acids can be found in animal products, but are sometimes lacking in plant products. This isn't to say that vegetarians can't find these amino acids elsewhere, it just may be slightly more difficult to get them all in. Vitamin B12 is a particularly tricky vitamin that can be lower in vegetarian diets, as well as omega-3 fatty acids. Luckily B12 can be found in eggs and dairy products so ovo-lactovegetarians need not concern themselves too much with that. Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in soy and walnuts, and olive oil is a good source for unsaturated fats as well. Seeds in general are good for fats in vegetarian diets.

Anyways enough of the nutritional bits. Let's see how long I can keep this up!

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

Tomato soup. One of the simpler soups that exist, and one that, I for one, love to make homemade. Especially when tomatoes are on sale! As you'll tend to notice, I find ingredients that are on sale and then find something tasty to make with what I have. It might not come out exactly as I've planned, but it's usually tasty enough. This afternoon I decided it was time to use up the 7 or 8 vine tomatoes I had gotten, as well as clear out the vegetables I had in the fridge that had to be used before they went bad.

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup:

• 6 or 7 large tomatoes halved
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 medium onion diced
• 1 stalk celery chopped
• olive oil
• 2 cups vegetable/chicken broth
• 1 1/2 Tbs basil
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• 3/4 cup milk/cream
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Saute onions, garlic and celery in pan with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and basil. 
3. Place tomatoes cut side down on top of sauteed vegetables in oven-safe pan. Lightly drizzle olive oil over and bake for 40-45 minutes.
4. While tomatoes bake, combine broth and wine in pot. Simmer on low for 20-30 minutes.
5. Remove pan from oven and lightly crush the tomatoes into the vegetables. Add to broth mixture, mix well. Optional: Blend soup using an immersion blender, regular blender or food processor to make smaller chunks of tomato. If using blender or food processor, be careful transferring hot soup. 
6. Add fennel seeds to soup, along with milk. Stir in well. Add rice and cover. Simmer on medium low heat until rice is tender.

I ended up using too much rice the first go round. It was still tasty though!

Parsley Carrots

An easy and good-for-you side dish for almost any dinner is carrots! They're sweet and in general many people like them. In addition, they're not very expensive for college kids and they have insane amounts of vitamin A in them! Add parsley to the mix and you have some fancy-looking easy veggies for dinner.

Parsley Carrots:

• 3-4 carrots peeled + sliced
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1 1/2 tsp parsley
• salt to taste

1. Put carrots in pot and cover with cold water. heat to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Time depends on how thick the carrot slices are. Carrots are done with a fork can easily pierce them.
2. Drain carrots and add butter. Allow the butter to melt and coat the carrots. Sprinkle parsley on top and give it a quick stir. Add salt if desired.

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes were always a staple in my house growing up. They were easy to make, and tasty. This recipe adds a new level to plain old potatoes and will make you wish you made more! Just about any type of potato will work in this recipe so it's quite versatile. I tend to use red potatoes because the skins make it look pretty in my opinion, and they were what I had on hand at the time.

Garlic Parmesan Mashed Potatoes:

• 7 or 8 medium sized red potatoes
• 1-2 Tbs butter
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• 1-2 cloves garlic minced OR 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3 Tbs milk

1. Wash and peel (if desired) potatoes. Cut into roughly 1" pieces and rinse in cold water before boiling.
2. Place potatoes in pot, and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Potatoes will be fork tender when done. 
3. Drain potatoes and return to pot or bowl. Add the butter and mash until relatively well mashed. Add in garlic, cheese and milk. Stir with a spoon until creamy.

Easy and Impressive Pot Roast

Who doesn't love a good pot roast? I remember that it was always cause for celebration in my house when I was growing up. And as I was perusing the meats at my local Hannaford's, I discovered that chuck roast was on sale; two dollars off a pound! Now, I don't know about you, but I can rarely ignore a sale like that. I got a small roast for a little over $3, knowing full well that my tiny crock pot could only hold so much. I also picked up some local red potatoes that were on sale, celery and carrots. Of course in any savory dish, I like to add garlic and onions, so I picked up a large head of garlic, and some yellow onions. 
When my mom would make pot roast, she would always use Lipton's onion soup mix in the pot to add more oniony flavor, so I picked up a packet of that as well. For my own spin, I snagged a bottle of red wine that caught my eye. It was only $6.50 and was called Gato Negro. Along with the pot roast, I had garlic parmesan mashed potatoes, and parsley carrots. Altogether it was a relatively inexpensive dinner with little effort and skill needed, that could impress just about anyone!

This recipe was quick to start, easy to forget about, and tasty to eat.

Red Wine Pot Roast:

• 2-3 lb chuck roast
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1-2 stalks celery 
• 1-2 carrots 
• 2-3 small red potatoes 
• 1 cup red wine (or water)
• 1 package onion soup mix
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp rosemary 
• Olive oil

1. In small bowl combine parsley and rosemary with a teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Rub over roast on all sides. Let sit while you chop up the vegetables.
2. Chop onion, celery, carrots and potatoes into large chunks. Place into crock pot.
3. Heat up enough olive oil in a skillet to cover the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot, gently place the roast in the oil and sear on all sides. The goal it to brown the outside for flavor. Once seared, place in crock on top of vegetables. Optional: Pour pan drippings in pot as well.
4. Mix soup mix and wine together well. Pour over roast and vegetables. Set crock pot on low for 8 hours at least, or high for 4 hours.