Written By: Lily Weeks
Ladies, gentlemen, and esteemed readers, the world is falling down around our ears, but we still must eat properly. As the great Virginia Woolf said, “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” This is proving to be more difficult than usual, considering that we are not allowed to leave the house except in emergency situations, and the amount of people being laid off from work means that we all likely have a little less money to spend on food than we used to. However, fear not! This article will teach you how to make simple, delicious meals with staple ingredients you likely already have.
Everyone has been making sourdough since the pandemic hit, it seems, and for good reason. It requires very few ingredients – only flour, salt, water, and a pinch of yeast – and is quite simple to bake; mix the ingredients together, knead the dough, let it rise, and pop your lump of dough in the oven for a delicious homemade loaf. It also takes a long time, making it an excellent way of passing the hours when you have literally nothing else to do. This recipe eliminates the need to knead entirely by letting the dough ferment for up to eighteen hours.
Sidenote: If you don’t have yeast at home, it’s quite easy to make a sourdough starter using flour and water. A sourdough starter can be used in place of yeast in all kinds of recipes, not just bread. Do not, under any circumstances, buy “nutritional yeast” from Amazon or Whole Foods and attempt to use that in place of yeast. It will not work. Nutritional yeast is a seasoning used to give foods a savory, umami flavor, and it is often used in vegan cooking. Your bread will not rise, and you will have a miserable, flat “loaf” of bread.
Simple, delicious, timeless, iconic. No fancy ingredients are required for this recipe, but you can add whatever you have available – jalapenos for a more savory take, or blueberries for a sweet spring snack. They can be eaten at any time of day as a worthwhile addition to any meal. You’re less than ten common ingredients and thirty minutes in the oven from some fantastic muffins – what are you waiting for?
Don’t be intimidated by the recipe requiring pepperoncini – anything briny will suffice, such as pickles or olives. A new take on deviled eggs, but with a fancier name and a faster cooking time. I also found them more delicious.
If you’re anything like me, you groaned at the mention of pasta – you’ve had it too many times this week, let alone in the past month or so. This recipe is a fresh enough take on the classic struggle meal to feel like something new, and the Italian name makes you feel fancy.
Every day the news gets more depressing, and we wish we could return to simpler days where our biggest concerns were test grades and not worldwide pandemics. These cookies cannot help you travel back in time, but they taste of uncomplicated days gone by, and they’re very easy to make. Just peanut butter, sugar, and an egg.
The Heritage Herald 