More Kitchen Sink Dinners

By Lori Powell

All this week, Special Fork bloggers are revealing what’s in their pantry, with tips for using pantry staples. To celebrate Pantry Week, Special Fork has teamed up with Zojirushi, the Japanese maker of top-quality kitchen appliances, to offer a fabulous sweepstakes prize: the 5.5-cup capacity Zojirushi Micom Rice Cooker & Warmer ($192 MSRP), which not only cooks rice flawlessly, but also steams foods and bakes cakes. Menu settings include: white/sushi, mixed, porridge, sweet, brown, cake, steam and quick cooking. Enter to win!

We all have those nights when we don’t have time to stop at the market and grab something to make for dinner that night. Mine was last night but fortunately I keep a well-stocked larder and can probably live from pantry (fridge/freezer/kitchen cabinet) for at least one month, anyway. No joke!

I am a nut about having stuff on hand and it might just be the result of growing up in a large family of all boys. Four brothers! Second helpings – what is that? Never happened in our house and it was not until I started eating at friends’ houses that I was introduced to the term, leftovers, and what that was all about.

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Cooking for the Midweek Blahs

By Lori Powell

Wednesday, midweek, is when my energy wanes a bit. Even though I begin my day with an hour of invigorating and restorative yoga, which helps me jump-start my day, it does begin to lose its effect by 4 p.m.!

If, on top of that, I have to work late, I am just about spent by dinner time but horribly hungry all the same. This is when I need a speedy but homemade delicious, quick-fix dinner.

I find cooking for oneself underrated…like yoga it can be restorative. The process of chopping and the smells of cooking something simple are super-satisfying and blissful. The pure action of it is grounding.

Just bring together some fabulous pantry and fridge staples and, voila! Happy days are here again, or at least another midweek day with a lovely, delicious ending.

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