Learn how to cook 10 good meals

My husband is not a fan of his mother’s cooking in general, but he does like her beef bourgignon (once when he was sick he asked her to come over and make it!). So I decided to give it a try.

It’s a nice dish in that you can eat it for several days, but there is a LOT of prep and cooking involved so it’s not a quick or easy meal. Nor easy to clean up…

I use Julia Child’s recipe, although I add about 2 tablespoons of cognac to the stew veggies as they sauté, and will probably switch to a smoky salt next time to add some more depth of flavor.

Not sure how company-worthy this is, as the final product is a brown mess, but it is a nice winter meal.

Serve with boiled new potatoes & a big salad.

I’ve never been a big fan of pork but the loin has a much less pork flavor and so it’s passable for me—and a welcome change for my husband who likes to vary his meats more than I do.

This is another thing that fell off the radar – which is dumb because it’s really easy & there are lots of variations of seasonings which we like.

Last night I made a ginger marinated pork tenderloin which was really good. We had it with leftover creamed spinach & roasted green beans.

This was a staple in our house for a few winters and then I just forgot about it. I re-found the recipe this week (for my goal of organizing recipes & meal planning) and now it’s back in rotation.

Pot au feu is a type of traditional beef stew. It’s maybe even more of a braised beef dish than a stew, as the liquid is broth, not thick.

Basically it’s vegetables & beef cooked for a long time in water with just a few subtle spices. The flavor comes from the meat (quality of it, plus the types of cuts you use & how/when you put them in).

I started making this just after I moved in with my husband, but it’s become one of my staples and he always tells me how good it is. It’s very easy to make but takes several hours of cooking & requires planning to have enough room in the fridge to put the whole giant pot in, as it always tastes better the second day.

Served with mustard, cornichons (small pickles), a crusty loaf of bread and large-grained salt. Cheese course after is pretty obligatory, since it’s really a traditional French meal.

I hadn’t made it in about a year, but it’s coming back into regular rotation.

I suppose this is a classic for everyone because it’s so easy and adapts so well to whatever you have on hand. I’m not sure it qualifies as a truly “GOOD” meal, but it’s a staple so I’m including it.

Usually I use chicken, but from time to time beef. I cut up the veggies as the meat cooks. Always an onion or two, the rest of the veggies depend on what’s in the fridge. Usually zucchini, broccoli, a pepper (usually red to add color and extra vitamins). Mushrooms if I have them on hand.

I usually make a huge amount because we eat it for lunch the next day or two.

For flavoring, I rarely do just a normal stir fry, I will usually make it a thai green or red chile flavor—I have powder spice mixes for both, and sometimes I have the pastes in the pantry (the paste is better than the powder). Add some coconut milk at the end of cooking and violà.

Another option is to just add some chicken broth and a sprinkling of cayenne pepper. It makes a very good pasta sauce too.

I make either pasta or rice to go with it – pasta maybe a bit more often.

I’ve played around with making quiche a few times but now that I’m eating low carb I can make them well (I don’t scrimp on cream or cheese, LOL). I make them crustless, so that I can eat them too, and my husband has never been a fan of the crust part of any pie or tart anyway, so he didn’t even notice.

Usually I make quiche Lorraine, but there are a few others I’m putting into rotation.

It’s great to make on Sunday and have around for quick dinners during the week, because a slice of quiche & a salad and you’re ready to go fast. Can heat it in the microwave or not depending on your mood.

My base recipe is that of Julia Child, which says a lot about the quality of her recipes, since I live in Paris & my husband is French and yet he thinks my quiche are “very very good”

Living in France this one of the few types of cuisine you just can’t find decent versions of. And being from a Western state, it’s one of the few things I really miss about the US (other than people).

My answer? Homemade Mexican food. I make my own pico de gallo, and either ground beef for tacos or steak & chicken for fajitas, season it up (I bring the spices from the US, plus add some cumin and other things available locally).

I make big pots of pinto beans a few times a year which I then freeze in ziplocks and defrost for each meal.

I cut up avocado if I find good ones (sometimes make guacamole) and usually cut up lettuce and tomatoes too, sometimes onion.

I’ve learned to sub Greek yogurt for sour cream, but cheese is the hardest (and the reason the French attempts at Mexican get it wrong). The cheese is the hardest part – I have to be organized and get to one of the few stores that sell English Cheddar. There are several stores in Paris that stock it but none near my house or office, so it requires thinking ahead. When I do buy it, I buy in bulk, run it all through the Cuisinart, and put the shredded cheddar in ziplocks and then freeze – and again, pull out one meal’s worth at a time.

For the support, most of the time it’s store-bought flour tortillas (which are really awful when compared to American ones, but what can you do?). If we are having company or if I have time, I deep fry corn tortillas that I keep frozen and buy in bulk from one of the few decent Mex places in town (where I also buy chipolte peppers and a few other things).

For our home dinners, I can pull the whole thing off in about 30 intense minutes (no guacamole, and pico de gallo is pretty watery because it’s done in the food processor). For company I make more of an effort (including the tostada shells or taco shells fried at home) but it takes much longer.

Both my husband and stepson love it when I make it, and for friends it’s always a good and fun dinner – less stuffy than making French food, and I feel much freer to do it my way.

I only started making mussels recently. They are one of the few shellfish that are easy to make and eat, affordable, and something I actually like. There are other fish and shellfish that are either very expensive or something I have to force myself to eat, but the mussels are neither.

I found a good basic recipe (Nigella Lawson) and it’s ready in a hurry. Serve w salad and potatoes, and a big crusty baguette for mopping up the sauce. Cleaning them takes just a minute and they are cooked in 3-5 so it’s a good fast easy supper.

Like the roasted chicken, there are many variations of mussels that can be made to change the flavor and keep the same simple method.

I fiddled with many chicken recipies until I found a winner that involves onion, garlic and lemon, and a baking pan that catches the juices so you can make gravy too. Lots of variations are possible depending on the spices I add – rosemary, herbes de provence, curry, paprika, chili powder, etc

I roast all kinds of veggies but with chicken green beans are great, in part because they’re quick (and so don’t block the chicken from browning) and the color on the plate is nice.

Potatoes can either be whole or quartered and put into the roasting dish w the chicken (or on their own).