The Perfect Pantry®

Recipe for slow cooker Thai green curry chicken with broccoli and mushrooms

When I was a little girl, I smeared everything I didn't like (liver, turkey, broccoli) with ketchup to cover up the taste. In my grown-up kitchen Thai curry paste often replaces the ketchup, not for its masking qualities but because I love almost anything cooked with it. Yes, I'll even lap up broccoli when it's cooked in a curry and coconut milk sauce. This Thai green curry chicken adapts to any vegetables you have on hand: asparagus, cauliflower, butternut squash, sweet potato. I'm partial to the Maesri and Mae Ploy brands of store-bought green curry paste, because they don't contain cilantro; both are widely available in Asian markets (they come in identical 14-ounce green tubs). Fresh basil is essential in this dish. Out-of-season Genovese basil from the supermarket tastes fine here, and Thai basil from your summer garden -- or from your local Asian grocery -- would be even better.

Slow cooker recipe for lemon-garlic chicken and white bean stew

While it's true that Rival invented the Crock-Pot®, back in 1971, the company didn't invent slow cooking. Clay pots, tagines and Dutch ovens all predate the electric slow cooker. This chicken and white bean stew springs from the French farmhouse tradition of slow cooking in a pot set into the fireplace. Today, thanks to an inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment (the slow cooker I used for this recipe cost less than $20), I can make stew without hauling in wood, building a fire, raking the embers, and lugging a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven from the kitchen to set into the hearth. Lemon and garlic create the flavor base for this healthy, naturally gluten-free stew, which, like most stews, tastes even better the second day.

Recipe for Greek pasta salad with sun-dried tomato vinaigrette

In a typical winter, we'd be tromping through snow banks, shoveling our paths, digging out our cars, waiting for the plow guy to come and extricate our driveway. This year (and I don't mean to jinx us by saying this), we've had February days warm enough for T-shirts and sidewalk café dining. Everything here in southern New England seems out of season; if you don't believe me, wander in my garden, where rosemary, thyme, oregano and even parsley still show some green. It's not quite as warm here as the Greek Isles, but the sight of fresh herbs in my mid-winter garden makes me crave Mediterranean flavors. For this Greek pasta salad, I reached into the pantry for the sun-dried tomato vinaigrette ingredients. You might want to make extra dressing, to keep in the refrigerator for a quick sauce for warm pasta, a dip for crudites, or a sandwich slather.

Recipe for chicken and vegetable quinoa stir-fry

A couple of years ago, my husband Ted and Cousin Martin hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Every evening, after climbing all day and carrying tents, food and gear, their guides cooked a meal for the group of hikers. When I asked recently what those meals were like, all the guys could remember was "some sort of quinoa stir fry thing with vegetables". Not much to go on, but Kathy and I started with a recipe we found online, and we loved the dish we created, a kind of chicken and vegetable fried rice -- without the rice. I imagine that the Peruvian cooks might have included roasted cubed potatoes. We used cubes of grilled chicken breast, for a super healthy and satisfying entrée. I hope this quinoa stir-fry, even if it's not authentically Peruvian, brings back good memories for Ted and Martin. (PS: Their next climb is Mt. Kilimanjaro. Anyone know any Tanzanian dishes that use our pantry ingredients?)