I have a confession to make. Even though I write about food for a living and spend the bulk of my days sitting no more than five feet from my kitchen, I still regularly struggle when dinnertime rolls around.
You see, I try to keep our evening meals relatively inexpensive, healthy and not too time consuming to make. What this ends up meaning for me is that I cook the same seven things over and over again. While Scott is perfectly willing to eat chili, turkey burgers, giant salads and chicken soup on repeat, I find that I need new meals on my plate.
I’m constantly searching for genius to strike. I flip through Everyday Food each month when it arrives and I try to sit down in front of my shelves of cookbooks on a regular basis to see if something will resonate.
Recently, I fell hard for a new cookbook that I think will be motivating my meals for many months to come. Part of the reason I love it so is that it fits my mealtime criteria and cooking style (cheap and easy). Called Cornerstone Cooking and written by Nick Evans (he’s the blogger behind Macheesmo), it’s designed to help you build meals around one of eight central ingredients.
Each chapter starts with a recipe for the central (or cornerstone) ingredient and then offers a number of different ways to transform that item into a full meal. While I realize that this isn’t a crazy-new concept, it’s so helpful to have all these different recipes in one place and to be reminded that I can do more with a roast chicken than just make my standard soup (I’ve got Nick’s tortilla soup high on my to-make list).
One section that I think will particularly appeal to the preservers in the crowd is the one in which Nick details all the things you can do with Marinara Sauce. Many of us make up a dozen or more jars of homemade sauce each August and while serving it over pasta is always an acceptable course of action, it’s always nice to have alternatives.
Next brunch potluck I’m invited to, I’m making his Eggs in Purgatory Casserole. I’ve done a quick, skillet version of that dish for years, but I like the idea of lining the casserole dish with crusty bread so that it becomes akin to a savory, tomato-y, French toast. With a salad, I wouldn’t think twice about serving something for dinner, either.
Last week, Nick took the time to answer a few of my questions about his new book and his plans for future canning projects.
I love the title of the book. How long have you been working with that phrase and this idea?
I came up with the idea for the book long before I had a name for it. I knew I wanted to write about repurposing leftovers and try to show people how it can sexy to take something old and turn it into something new. Chefs do it all the time, but most home cooks haven’t quite caught onto the idea.
Anyway, about the name, I was walking down the street one day listening to a podcast (I don’t even remember which one) and they described something as the “cornerstone” idea. It worked perfectly with the method of cooking I was trying to describe — using one large meal as the backbone for other smaller meals. I’ve always liked alliterative titles so Cornerstone Cooking just flowed from there.
What was your very first cornerstone recipe?
The first one that I wrote for the book was the Nick Nugget recipe. I knew I wanted roasted chicken to be the first chapter since it is easy and accessible to a lot of people. Plus there are tons of meals you can make with leftover chicken. I could’ve written a whole book on that!
The first cornerstone recipe that I ever made without knowing it was probably my Fridge Cleaner Chili. I kind of just toss all of the veggies I have in my fridge with some stock, spices, tomatoes, and beans and let it simmer for awhile. It’s always a hit.
I see that you did some canning in 2011. Any plans for more in 2012?
Oh yes! I was lucky that both of my canning attempts last year turned out to be successful even though I was a complete novice. You honestly inspired me to try it out. I was shocked by how easy it was to do.
I plan to do a lot more pickled veggies this year just because they are my favorite. I might try one or two experimental jams to give out as gifts also. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I made a jalapeno peach jam last year that was better than expected.
Here’s the other thing that makes this book so impressive. Nick did the whole darn thing himself. He wrote every word, did the all photography, prepared the design and indexed every recipe (he even indicated which recipes are his wife’s favorites, a touch that I love). Truly, every ounce of it is all his work.
Beans would be my cornerstone ingredient.
I’m so lucky that my mother was a leftovers wizard; she started teaching me that early. So spot-on with the idea: cook more once and get mileage out of re-makes. Love it! Our cornerstone ingredient is home made stock. Turns plain into super every time.
Roasted chicken is a great cornerstone ingredient.
Moose, actually, is our cornerstone ingredient.
chicken for sure
I think my favorite cornerstone would be potatoes. Not sure if the book addresses that ingredient specifically, but we have potatoes 2-3 times a week!
Eggs are a cornerstone ingredient for me. With five young hens in my backyard coop, I have a lot of eggs at this time of year. While I give away a lot of eggs I also try to use them in meals for me and my boyfriend as often as possible.
Definitely roast chicken.
Chicken is huge for me. I can do *a lot* with some chicken.
The holy trinity-garlic, onions, and celery. I start with that as my base and it can turn into stirfry, pasta, soup, pilaf…anything!
Eggs and garlic FTW!
my favorite cornerstone ingredient is round steak…so so many possibilities!
Myclassic cornerstone ingredient is pasta! Change out sause, veggies, meat, etc and its a whole different meal.
it is a toss up between beans and roast chicken for me.
I think my favorite would have to be black beans! Thanks for the chance to win 🙂
Bread, of course! We make the Mark Bittman bread pretty often, but would love to have some new ideas as to what to do with it.
Thanks for the chance.
We eat a lot of elk in our house, and I sure do get tired of having it the same old ways each time, even though it’s really good.
This looks fascinating. I would love to add this to my shelf! I think probably chicken, though I am trying to use more beans. But it seems whenever I am in a pinch, chicken is what comes out of the pantry or the freezer.
Chicken is always my go to leftover ingredient. Cooked and frozen is almost always in my freezer.
Chicken is a definite staple for me. Would love to learn some new tricks to keep it interesting! Looks like a great book.
Risotto! Does that count as an ingredient, or more a technique? It’s my favorite way to make random veg left in the fridge into a delicious meal.
Roast chicken is my favorite. I’m always struggling to use the leftovers for something else other than chicken noodle soup
Roast chicken would be our cornerstone ingredient. We then use the meat for another meal (or two) and make stock out of the bones. It goes a long way.
What a great idea for “planned overs” as my mother called them. One of our favorite cornerstones is good ol’ pot roast. I could really use some good ideas for that wonderful beef after Sunday dinner is over!
My fav would have to be the roast chicken- can’t wait to see what he suggests!
What a great-looking book!! For me, definitely lentils! I cook with them all the time as a healthy “fill-you-up” ingredient… But even though I know they’re so versatile, I always end up doing the same old boring thing with them. Would love to have a copy of this and see all Nick’s variations!
Beans, for soups, chili, stews, Mexican food, hummus and casseroles. I always cook up a lot and freeze in jars. Also skinless, boneless, unsalted canned salmon for salads, sandwiches, chowders, salmon patties, baked salmon-loaf, and pasta or rice casseroles. I also keep a good supply of low-fat cheeses in the fridge. If you have cheese, you can scrape together a meal in a pinch, with just a few other ingredients.
I have to say onions and garlic, can not have to much of them, and mushrooms. Put it on pasta, rice, toast, salad, side to eggs for breakfast. I keep frozen mixture of fried trinity in freezer all the time for easy dinners.
Pork is probably one of my most versatile cornerstone ingredients, even moreso than chicken. Figuring out other recipes for sausage would be nice since people know it’s either jambalaya or gumbo when I pull out the andouille , so something else would be fun to throw ’em off a little.
I know it’s boring, but chicken tends to be my cornerstone ingredient. Cook up a bunch of chicken breasts at the beginning of the week, and those become the base for most of the weeks lunches.
Beans, I think are my favorite cornerstone ingredient. I always keep a supply of black beans, white beans of some kind, and garbanzos. They go in salads, soups, become dips and spreads and side dishes, tortilla fillings. They can supplement a protein or be the protein in a dish. They’re also tasty and full of fiber!
Probably sausage. We open up a six-pack of some tasty chicken sausage and throw them in pasta, soups, eggs, etc to get some protein without much effort.
I probably don’t have a cornerstone recipe unless it would be chicken. I am fascinated with this idea and how it really could help dinner time.
Kale. juice it and reduce it into pasta sauce, steam it and top with a few fried eggs, chop and toss into a salad or a soup…I am secretly sad that I just had to cut down the bolted and aphid-infested huge kale stems I’ve been picking meals off of for the last year!
I regularly sauté onions and garlic before I have any idea what I’m making for dinner.
For me it’s shrimp & pasta….for everyone else in my house it’s ground beef & pasta!
Quinoa! Whenever I make it I just make a huge batch, and use it as a base for veggies, meat, soup, or salad. Any leftovers get chucked in the fridge and turned into something else (even porridge for breakfast).
I think carrots would be my favorite “cornerstone” ingredient. Carrot in salads, soups, breads, cookies, carrots glazed, roasted, saute, or just eaten raw and my most beloved; cakes!!
Ground beef is my cornerstone.
My cornerstone item would have to be chicken, followed closely by tomatoes and pasta. There are a gazillion things you can do with chicken. I think I’ve done ten. Maybe twenty. … still working on it.
chicken. could be roasted, grilled, slow-cooked, pan-fried, but I always make extra to use in lunches, salads, etc.
Dried Beans all my cornerstone!
My cornerstone food is home-grown roasted chicken. We use it from everything to soup, stir fry, wraps, pizza, etc.
Pot roast is one of my favorite cornerstone ingredient. I love to make one on sunday, then used the beef in tacos, on pizza, in burrito bowls, etc.
Sweet onions. They’re flavorful and versatile without overpowering….soups, salads, sauces, casseroles, pasta or just grilled. Yum.
Dried beans, for sure!
My cornerstone ingredient has got to be beans. Usually, cranberry but sometimes a mix. Cooked with onion, celery, carrot, Rotel tomatoes and a dry rub blend. The first day, the beans are a side dish to a luxury food, like tri tip steak with more dry rub blend on it. The next night, they’re on their own as the main dish to make up for the previous night’s indulgence. Later in the week, they appear again with corn tortillas, cheese and creme fraiche. If there’s any leftovers at that point, they go to work with me for lunch.
Onions. Caramelized onions can take almost any dish from ho-hum to superb, in my opinion.
Roast chicken is a definite cornerstone for my family. I’d love to learn what Nick suggests we do with it!
Pasta would probably be my cornerstone ingredient.
As boring as it sounds, tomato sauce is my cornerstone ingredient (and I see from these comments that I’m not the only one!). Spaghetti is the first meal, and always simple and welcome at my house. Depending on the amount I make and the amount left over, the next night might be pizza with that sauce, or meatball subs. Sometimes it gets spiced up and turned into Mexican rice. There must be a zillion different things to do with tomato sauce. Your author agrees, and I’d love to lay my hands on that book…
I think that at my house tempeh and black beans are the biggest corner stone ingredients. I often find myself trying to come up with new meals to make with last night’s left over tempeh. 🙂
My cornerstone ingredient is pasta. It is inexpensive, there are name different varieties and it goes with any meat, cheese, herbs, sauce or vegetables that I happen to have lying around. Pair it with a green salad and dinner is served!
I guess I have several-potatoes, eggs, cheese, beans, tomato sauce and whatever vegetable is in season.
A roast turkey: serve a turkey meal, then pull all the rest of the meat off the bones, freeze chopped meat, make broth with the bones and freeze that, you’ll be set for a multitude of soups, casseroles, pot pies, etc. in the future.
My cornerstone is probably cheese. And eggs. Or cheesy eggs.
I’d have to say chicken, or really any type of poultry, would be my cornerstone ingredient. Leftovers are so easy to use up.
Cheese. I buy a (different) pound of cheese every week (whichever is on offer) and it usually gets used up by mid-week!
Sweet potatoes are my cornerstone right now – I still have about 15 pounds that I grew last summer.
I would say andouille sausage, or any sort of sausage. If pre-cooked, it’s easy to mince or slice up and add to a meal, to an egg dish, with some veggies, etc. If it’s raw sausage, it can be cut out of it’s casing and used any which way, or grilled whole, or cooked in a skillet. I tend to go for turkey or chicken sausage.
Crusty homemade bread is hands down my favorite! I will eat it dipped in olive oil instead of dessert any day!
I’ve been cooking dinners for 46 years and I’m tired of coming up with ideas. Help! My favourite cornerstone (this month, anyway) is dried beans. I cook up a big batch and use them in salads, soups and casseroles until they’re gone. We try to eat healthy meals so some of my old standbys don’t work as well, and I’m now cooking for just two instead of six, so I always end up with leftovers. I’d LOVE to win this book.
I definitely need this book! I don’t even know if I have a cornerstone. I’m such a lazy cook.
I guess eggs, if only because I don’t get sick of having scrambled eggs or an egg sandwich all the time.
Black beans. I can always, and often do, pull the last minute dinner together with these little beauties.
Beans and salads are my cornerstones….but this cookbook looks so intriguing…I love the concept and it looks like it will inspire new exploration!
I’d have to say bread is my favorite cornerstone food. There may be times when I don’t feel like eating meat, or eggs, or various other foods, but bread is always welcome. It’s versatile, filling, and comforting. Plus the smell of freshly baked bread is to die for!
I just made a roast chicken last night and was reminded of how simple it is! I love the looks of this cookbook, simple recipes that can be used as components in more complex dishes…just what my husband and I are looking for as we plan for our new baby’s arrival!
I’ve just started working in a commercial kitchen that serves family-style meals. I am having the most fun coming up with uses for leftover bread- croutons, baked french toast, bread crumbs for meatballs. Bread, whether it’s inexpensive sandwich loaves or crusty dinner loaves is my cornerstone.
Lately, it’s been pork. Chops became dumplings and stir fry last week.
You captured me at “cheap and easy”; but versatility is all the more enticing!
Roasted veges would be my cornerstone as I use them in curries, soups, stews and salads. Just clean out the vege bin, cut into pieces, toss w. olive oil, garlic, rosemary or other herbs, s&p and a pinch of crushed pepper flakes. Grill in grill pan or roast in the oven.
My bottled meat!! As long as I have that, I can do anything!!! Oh, and flour. : ) Any kind as long as I can make something with it like tortillas (to eat with the meat…lol), bread, gravy, goodies, etc.
I’m very eclectic. What ever left over is in the fridge can be wiped up into a different meal. The last left over to be transformed were four BBQ pork country ribs. This was diced up and became stir fried rice. I try not to make the same things all the time but mix it up a bit each month. Maybe my cornerstone is left over meat.
My favorite cornerstone ingredient is to use any leftover meat to make another meal, tacos, burritos, stew or soup. Would love more ideas!
A hunk of meat is my favorite cornerstone…once a week (or less) I do a roast or a chicken or a pork roast and then we can use the leftovers in all different ways. Our little family of 5 took a fairly decent sized (3-4 pounds) pork roast and had it as a roast with sides, as pork fried rice, as BBQ shredded pork sandwiches and as pork and gravy over mashed potatoes last week…4 meals, none alike and good use of a hunk of quality local meat!
This book sounds awesome.
Lentils and beans…….red lentils, french greens, yellow split peas, cannellini beans, pinto, the list can get amazingly long. They can be soup or salad, a spread or stand all on their own. Magnificent!
Eggs, hands down- the most versatile and delicious food.
Now this is the type of book that I would luv to win!
Potatoes would be my cornerstone. They can go from roasted to mashed to soup without blinking.
Home-smoked turkey broth. Great for phô, pilaf, matzoh ball soup, risotto, or pasta sauce. Family favorite — Smoky Mac and Cheese!
I use a ton of rice- all different kinds frequently. It is much more versatile than people give it credit for.
Must go along with roast chicken being at the top of the list, followed closely by a turkey breast. The roast chicken is especially versitle since it can even come from the grocery store, ready to eat. Either one, cooked in the crockpot, finds all the leavings in the pot becoming a white chili either later in the day or the next day.
Then again, the home canned pinto beans are quite the conrnerstone here as well.
Sounds like this book appeals to many of us!
chicken is my cornerstone ingredient. sunday’s roast chicken becomes monday’s sandwich for lunch, wednesday’s alfredo and (if i have enough) thursday’s tacos.
It is hard to pick just one cornerstone ingredient. At our house our three regulars are homemade bread, chicken breasts, and black beans from the crockpot.
Great concept! I’d have to say bread–you can get puddings, bread crumbs, sandwiches, breakfast (with your homemade jam of course!) and of course, bread always perfectly rounds out a meal. Would love to win a copy!
Eggs. Just made eggs with sliced russet potatoes and parmesan cheese last night. In a skillet with some fresh herbs. LOVE IT! I guess you’d have to add cheese to my cornerstone list too 🙂
I have been using a lot of oats of late, trying to mix up breakfast…. The cornerstone mealoftheday!
I guess raw milk would be our cornerstone ingredient. I use it for so many things, including sauces and whey and cheese. It makes its way into much of our food.
Chicken is a cornerstone of my cooking, along with pasta. I’ve never roasted a chicken. This book makes me want to try it.
Hmmm. Favorite cornerstone? Chicken is definitely one. Eggs another. I have a sourdough starter and make everything with it from pancakes to pita bread, so it’s become a bit of a bread cornerstone. Oh, and beans. How I love beans in all of their forms. This is my kind of cook book!
Beans have really become a cornerstone of my cooking.
I guess I would say eggs are the cornerstone in our house. We’ve always got them on hand, and they can go so many different ways to round out a meal. Not as exciting as many of the possibilities above, though!
Chicken! Definitely, chicken!
The cookbook looks fantastic! Since my husband is vegetarian one of my favorite cornerstones are lentils or beans. Tempeh is up there too. Though I’d be really excited to get my hands on that chicken chapter as I recently started roasting a chicken for myself to use for lunches at work etc. I’ve been roasting one about once a month for a couple months now. But as the only person in the house who eats it I’m always on the lookout for great ways to turn it into interesting, packable meals.
Beans would be my favorite cornerstone. A few uses–
Bean salad
In a larger mixed salad
Bean spread cold with crackers
Bean puree hot as a seasoned side dish
Puree & thin for soup
Ingredient in a brothy soup
Chili!
WOW – I NEED this book! Chicken would be our cornerstone 🙂
Roasted sweet potatoes are my cornerstone right now. So good in enchiladas, with a poached egg and greens, ingredient in muffins. yum!
So hard to decide just one…I’ll go with tomato sauce.
Believe it or not, lettuce is my cornerstone. I have found so many different uses for it lately. I have it growing in the garden, and I let it reseed, so I basically have lettuce almost all year round. I put it in salads, I take the larger leaves and roll them around meat and spices, veggies and spices, meat and veggies, chop some fine and put it in just about everything!
I would have to say eggs. Scrambled, fried, frittata, in fried rice or egg drop soup, burritos…the list goes on and on! This book sounds great. Just ordered yours, too. Can’t wait!