We all have ’em: that thing we cook when we don’t want to think about cooking; our favorite home-cooked dinner that’s quick and easy, but a few steps above a bowl of cereal or peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich for dinner.
When I was a kid, my mom hated cooking and my dad had very strict restrictions on what he wanted to eat. That meant we basically ate the same 7 dinners, in rotation, week after week. Sunday was always steak; Friday was always roast chicken. In between there was (I think…this was a long time ago now) brisket, veal chops, pot roast, and spaghetti. Maybe there were a few others that got swapped out, but that was pretty much it.
Now that I’m the grownup making my own dinners, I realize I don’t have anything at all like that; probably in some act of rebellion against the tyrannical sameness of my family dinners, I have no routine, no go-to recipes. Ever week is a new improvisation, with new recipes to try out, new techniques to test. And there is hardly a meal I can cook without a recipe.
That said, when the weather turns chilly I try to at least roast a chicken every Sunday. I’ve tried a lot of different ones out there, but this incredibly popular recipe from Epicurious (with 547 reviews), which uses nothing but salt and high heat to roast a bird, is my A number 1 favorite. I don’t yet know it by heart (and I should because it is very simple) but I’m getting there.
So here at BUST we wanna know: what are some of your go-to recipes? What do you make at least once a week or so? Please share! I’m really curious.
