The Perfect Pantry®

Puff pastry (Recipe: turkey and cheese in puff pastry)

Rachael Ray often says, "Take a little help from the grocery store," and while I'm not saying that every meal should be made in less than thirty minutes, I agree with her on this one thing.

The grocery store is your friend.

When I moved to a small town in Rhode Island, from the not-so-small town of Boston, I discovered that grocery stores have come a long way. Our local market (the independent that's trying to hold its own against the large chains) stocks more variety in every aisle, more ingredients we used to consider exotic or simply hard-to-find, and lately, an upgraded produce department. 

And -- hallelujah -- a healthy supply of frozen puff pastry.

I've made puff pastry from scratch, and proved to myself that it's not hard to do, but it's easier to buy it and keep a few boxes in the freezer. If anyone asks, you don't need to tell that you took a bit of help from the grocery store.

Grated or shredded cheese (Recipe: red pepper, asparagus and spinach quiche)

Everything I know about cooking I learned from Julia Child.

Watching The French Chef when I should have been doing homework for my college classes, I learned how to debone a chicken while leaving the skin intact (did it once, never again), and how to turn pate a choux balls into a croquembouche (did it once, never again), and how to buy socca at a market in Nice, should I be lucky enough to get there some day.

Julia was not all about the esoteric, though.

In one of her more recent series, I watched her take a container of shredded cheese out of the freezer. Cheese in the freezer? All different types, mixed together?

As Julia would have said... voila!

Pie crust (Recipe: asparagus, mushroom and sausage quiche)

What I'm about to say might shock you.

I like the taste of refrigerated pie crust, the kind that comes in a box that you buy in the supermarket in the aisle with tubes of crescent rolls and pizza dough and ready-to-bake cookies.

I really like it.

And I like it when I serve something made with store-bought pie crust, and everyone from chef friends to picky grandkids compliments the crust. I don't take credit for making the crust, of course, but I like that people like it, even after I tell them I didn't make it from scratch.

Puff pastry (Recipe: puff pastry cups filled with sweet potato, apple and nuts)

If I hadn't watched Julia Child on television all those years ago, smearing the butter and folding and turning and folding and turning again, making it all seem so utterly doable, I never would have had the courage to make puff pastry from scratch.

I did make it, and it was rich and buttery, and it puffed.

And it took all day to make.

Then I discovered frozen puff pastry. Someone else does the smearing and folding and turning for you. Imagine that! Puff pastry any time, without devoting an entire day to making it.