Because of the pandemic, a lot of people out have suddenly been dropped into the challenge of having to cook for themselves. Peter and I keep in a binder the recipes that have made it into heavy rotation at our house—the recipes that have turned out to be worth it, in the trade-off between pleasure-in-eating and effort-in-preparation. I just put a bunch into a Word document for a friend, and it occurred to me why not share with the world. This isn’t haute cuisine! It’s just how Peter and I manage to get through the week, as vegetarians who also eat dairy and sometimes fish. The inadvertent domestic reveal here: Yeah, we don’t eat much pasta; it’s all farro salads with us, baby.
The first two pages are an easy-reference cheat sheet, mostly of oven temperatures and roasting times for lots of vegetables. (The secret of roasting vegetables, by the way, is to dry them in a clean dishtowel after you’ve rinsed and chopped them, but before tossing them in olive oil. This makes the oil cover them more comprehensively, so that they roast more evenly and are less likely to stick to the pan. That is my one piece of kitchen wisdom.) I grouped the recipes themselves according to type—egg dishes, farro salads, soups, fish, etc.—and within each type, from easier to more elaborate.
Here you go: the Crain-Terzian cooking fakebook.