Hoarding recipes like a dragon hoards treasure.

Unsurprisingly this book has quotable genius right out of the gate.

Roger Ebert on his Aunt Mary: When she was in the kitchen, she was on automatic. She had two speeds: Cook and Serve. She did not know how to measure salt. "Just throw in about enough, honey," she told me. This was her poetic wisdom about how to estimate the number of potatoes sufficient for a meal:

One potato

For every member of the family.

One potato for the pot.

And one last tater, honey,

So it’s Flu Season again, and this recipe for Tea To Fix What Ails You was given to me by a Christian friend, and I’ve taken to calling it JESUS TEA due to it’s miraculous properties.  Even though it, technically, contains no tea.  This tea is as caffinie-free as anything processed in a US plant can get, but be sure to check the provenance and all ingredients in case of allergies.

You will Need:

A Bigass Pot, becuase this is something you make in large quantities

working stovetop

those lil cloth sachets you use for wassail/empty teabags/those lil reuseable loose-leaf tea steepers.

Recipe:

about a quart of water

1 cup apple cider

about half a lemon’s worth of juice

a shitwhack of honey- try to get as local as possible and generally the less-processed the better if you want to build a resistance to local allergens. If you have allergy concerns or don’t like the taste of honey, go ahead and use more processed stuff/another sweetener instead.

three tablespoons/three bags chamomile tea

three tablespoons/three bags rooibos tea

teaspoon crushed cloves

1 cinnamon stick (more if you like it spicier)

¼ tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp cayenne or white pepper

Bring water to a simmer in the pot.  Add the chamomile, rooibos and spices to steep about 4-5 minutes or longer if you like tea-flavored tar which given you have the flu you probably do.  Add Cider, Lemon Juice and Honey until dissolved.  Drink all of this in the course of an hour to stay hydrated, make more pots as needed or until you pass out. 

pizza (no knead dough, tomato sauce, cheese)

homemade bread (no knead | hand kneaded | stand mixer) (flour, yeast, water, sugar, salt) (if you struggle to get through homemade (preservative-less) bread before it goes stale, know that it freezes very well as long as you slice it first)

rice pudding (milk, rice, sugar, spices)

bread pudding (bread, milk, eggs, sugar, spices) (good way to use up homemade bread when it goes stale)

chili (meat (optional), onion, beans, canned tomatoes, spices)

mac & cheese (pasta, milk, cheese)

bean & cheese burritos (beans, cheese, salsa, tortillas, spices)

tuna salad (tuna, mayo, lemon juice) (eat on bread or with crackers)

egg salad (hardboiled eggs, mayo, mustard) (eat on bread or crackers)

the chili makes a big batch, and it can be frozen and/or repurposed in:

loaded baked potatoes

chili cheese fries

nachos

chili dogs

how to make...

beans (pinto, black, kidney, garbonzo/chickpeas)

lentils

white rice on the stove

brown rice on the stove

pie crusts

flour torillas

yogurt (+ greek yogurt; start with the first link, then skip to step 9 on the second)

oatmeal

bechamel sauce (aka cream sauce for baked mac & cheese, scalloped potatoes, and poor man's alfredo)

cheap(ish) thanksgiving/christmas staples:

the aforementioned mac & cheese, bread pudding, rice pudding, and homemade bread, plus-

scalloped potatoes (high effort but cheap + delicious)

candied sweet potatoes

green bean casserole

turkey (cheap this time of year!)

Dollar Tree Dinners (youtube | tiktok | insta) has a lot of ways to repurpose a storebought rotisserie chicken - and budget holiday meals! - and her thing is to only assume you have oil, salt, and pepper

Julia Pacheco (youtube | website) has a lot of good survival budget meals

TheWolfePit (youtube) also has a survival budget meal series

r/EatCheapandHealthy, r/Frugal, and r/MealPrepSunday are also good resources (r/MealPrepSunday isn't budget-focused but search "cheap"/"budget"/etc and there's stuff)

all of these should be doable with an oven and/or stove top + utensils you can get from dollar tree, no specialty equipment.

The reason this stuff is judged to be seriously superior for some baking is that—unlike baking powder and baking soda—in the finished product you can't taste that any leavening product has been used. The heat of the baking process drives off the ammonia (and you betcha, you'll smell it then!). But the final baked product will be light and beautifully risen, and will taste of nothing but the non-leavening ingredients. It's frankly kinda magical.

ingredience:

lemons/limes (this needs to make up the bulk of the fruit being used, like at least 80%)

whatever other fruits or fruit scraps you want, plus any herbs/other flavorings you want to try. by fruit scraps I mean things like cherry pits, apple peels, pineapple cores, strawberry ends, things like that.

granulated white sugar, the coarser the better, 50% by weight of total citrus rinds + 100% by weight of any additional fruit. you'll measure this after you prep the fruit.

water as needed

equipment:

a few nonmetallic mixing bowls

a mesh strainer

a chinoise, ricer or some cheesecloth

a kitchen scale

a citrus juicer or reamer (manual or electric)

a potato masher

juice the citrus through a strainer - saving all rinds -  and refrigerate the juice for the time being. dice the rinds and other fruits if any, keeping the rinds separate. make note of weights, and measure your sugar.

 Place sugar in a large nonmetallic bowl. If using non-citrus fruits and/or any other flavorings, mix them in with the sugar and mash with potato masher. add diced citrus rinds, mix thoroughly, and mash again. cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 4 hours. this allows the sugar to draw out flavors that would otherwise get discarded with the rinds, and the rinds' acids should be enough to dissolve the sugar into a syrup.

Afterward, mash one last time, then collect the syrup by pressing the macerated mixture through a strainer/chinoise or ricer, or squeeze it through cheesecloth. if you want, this can be saved as a standalone syrup at this point, for use in cocktails or desserts. if not, slowly pour the reserved juice through the solids to to help get the remaining syrup out, and squeeze/press again. do the same thing one more time with warm water (roughly the same amount of water as juice). discard solids (or try making sangria with them!).

taste the mixture and add more water if necessary. a stronger mix is totally fine if you anticipate serving over ice on a hot day, or adding booze, or if there was a lot of non-sour fruit. keep in mind that it will taste a bit less sweet once it's chilled. pour into a pitcher and refrigerate.

citrus oils will float to the top, so stir/shake before serving. love you. enjoy.

some tried and true flavor combos:

straight lemon or lime, or any combination of the two, is of course an untouchable classic

lemon & strawberries (that's pussy babe!)

lemon & orange with a hint of vanilla (creamsiclemonade...?)

lemon & apples or apple peels with cinnamon/ginger/allspice (for late summer)

some cocktail type combos, booze optional:

lemon or lime & berries with basil + gin

lime & mint + white rum

lime & ginger + dark rum

lime & cucumber + gin

lime & orange (berries optional) + tequila

I just spotted my first acorn of the year on the ground, which means it's officially TIME to remind you that you can EAT THEM

I've drawn an instructional comic about foraging acorns, which is available as a free PDF or a not-free print minicomic here on my Ko-Fi shop!

Acorns are one of our most abundant and underutilized wild foods! Teaching yourself how to process them is a great way to learn more about the past and present importance of oaks in our ecosystems and our foodways. And you're gonna love the pancakes, seriously.

There are no food rules, ESPECIALLY when you're just feeding yourself.

The internet (and specifically TikTok, Pinterest, etc) has become obsessed with beautifully plated meals that follow certain conventions. It's all bullshit.

don’t need a separate rice cooking appliance

as our household already has @petermorwood

who makes absolutely perfect rice every time

one of his many superpowers

:)

…oh yeah:

Ireland

Heh.

We’ve got a small enough kitchen that getting an air fryer / slow cooker / bread machine / rice cooker have all been considered, then abandoned for lack of space.

TBH, they’re also not needed.

We don’t deep-fry stuff often enough to need a dedicated device (the long-ago deep fryer was used just twice in 12 months, after which it was carefully cleaned and passed on to a charity shop); our oven has a slow cook setting; we make bread with a mixer or processor and that oven; I do the rice.

I searched “Why use a rice cooker” and got more or less the same info from several different sources. The writer of this Huffpost article said:

I tried cooking rice over the stove and ended up with a soggy mess, then tried making it with an Instant Pot and got uncooked grains. … Instead of having to boil water over the stove, stir in the rice, cover it and simmer (all while keeping your eye on a timer), all you have to do is put the rice and water in the cooking pot, place it in the cooker, and press a button. There’s no need to peek under the lid to make sure your heat isn’t too high or low, or worry about babysitting a pot to keep the rice at the bottom from burning.

This is from Tom’s Guide:

Anyone who cooks rice regularly knows it can often be tricky to get it right each time. Much like a science, if the water levels in the pot are not precise, or the stove temperature is not adjusted carefully, you’ll end up with either soggy, crunchy or worse still, burnt rice. … After all, who has time to stand by a pot of boiling rice, constantly stirring, and having to scrub it clean at the end?

Here’s my response.

I get it right every time.

Once, very early on, I ended up with soggy rice, but I’ve never had crunchy or burnt rice.

I don’t have to stand by the pot constantly stirring, in fact my method doesn’t involve doing either.

I don’t have to peek under the lid, in fact my method says Don’t Do That.

I don’t have to keep an eye on the timer, it’s got a loud beep.

My saucepan is as easily cleaned as the pot of a rice cooker.

Here’s my method:

Put 2 containers of water in a saucepan & bring to the boil (control dial Full On).

Add 1 same-size container of rice, stir, return to the boil.

Reduce to low simmer (turn control dial to one stop up from Off), cover and wait 12 minutes.

Do Not Peek.

Preheat oven to 120°C. This is optional, see (7)

After 12 minutes, check if water is absorbed.

If it’s all absorbed, fluff the rice with a fork, cover again & transfer the saucepan to the heated oven for about 30 minutes. Turn the oven off; residual heat is enough. Rice CAN be eaten straight away, the oven stage just improves things from Great to Excellent.

If it isn’t all absorbed, put the lid back and wait about 2-3 more minutes, then continue as (7).

I’ve been cooking white long-grain and Basmati rice this way for years, and It Always Works. Conclusion: even if we had room for a rice cooker, we don’t need one.

More Here.

I just made it myself for the first time (because I never had to do it before. He always did it). And it worked perfectly. Because of course it would. After all, this is Peter we’re talking about.

You know, I actually DID try that! Turnips, as Mists of Pandaria indicates, are a bit of a divisive food, because they taste unbearably bitter to some palates. Fortunately for me, I don't have that sensitivity (but I do have the cilantro-tastes-like-soap gene. Sadness), so I can tell you that turnips have an earthy, sweet taste with a slight radishy spiciness, and while my experiments weren't anything I would have recommended to a Warchefs reader, they weren't at all unpleasant. Still, I'm going to impart a very simple soup recipe here, that I'm sure can be applied to turnips if you'd ever like to try it out and should somewhat approximate the dish in-game. I've made this with other vegetables like carrots and mushrooms and potatoes, and it's very satisfying.

-- In a saucepan, fry some chopped onion in butter or oil until the onion turns slightly translucent. Throw in some aromatic spices of choice (black pepper, crushed red pepper, garlic) if you like. Once you're there, add your chopped vegetables of choice and saute them a little along with the onion to cook them partway, and then sprinkle over some kosher salt, and pour in water or soup stock to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil.

Once it boils, lower to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are soft enough to pierce easily with a fork, then turn off the heat and either puree in batches in a blender, OR use an immersion blender in the saucepan itself. If you like some texture in your soup, reserve some of the cooked vegetables and onions while you blend the rest and then add them again. Taste your soup, season to your liking with salt, and add a bit of complementary acid to brighten the flavor (lemon or lime juice, or vinegar).