OK. I have a little bit of everything here in one form or another, how about some ideas for my supper that don't take a chemist degree or a French chef's education, and as a bonus the cat gets what ever is left over.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 29, 2001

Answers

Here's my son's favorite soup: Boil 8 peeled & quartered potatoes with 1 chopped onion and 8 cups of chicken broth, until the potatoes are soft. Mash. Add 1/2 bag fresh spinach (or 8oz frozen or a can of drained collard greens) and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add a cup of shredded cheese if you want to, and salt & pepper to taste. You could easily cut this recipe in half. I always serve soup with some kind of bread or homemade croutons. Enjoy! Don't know if the cats will like it, though!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), December 29, 2001.

This time of the year we have leftover soup. Start with whatever you have in the fridge the you need to use up and go from there. Sometimes they turn out wonderful and then there is the rest of the time. They are always edible though, and unless you have a fussy cat he will also enjoy them.

A little boullion or broth, or maybe tomato can be used for a base, either way just add what sounds good together and let it simmer for a while so you can enjoy it for a while before you eat it on these cold, at least here, days.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), December 29, 2001.

This si the kind of things I am trying to get away from, I am looking for something different, a bit more exotic with out needing foreign grown stuff. I have beef, ground beef, pork, chicken, ocean fish, anchovies, 12 kinds of ground grain, at least 50 different canned veggies, 4 types of frozen mix veggies, 16 flavor sauces, 26 kind of bottled spice, and just about every type piece of kitchen hardware there is in captivity. But, no inspritation.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 29, 2001.

Stir fries??? Think chinese, whenever I am in a rut, a little soy sauce and sweet and sour sauce usually hits the spot. I make home- made egg rolls that are very good. But I have never been able to succeed with home-made egg roll wrappers. I can't get them thin enough. They are cheap in the stores though, and if you don't want big ones use won-ton wrappers.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 29, 2001.

It sounds like you have all the basics for some real interesting meals!

Take an item from each column and throw it all in a tortilla. Try all different combinations, you'll come up with something totally delicious! One of my favorites is seafood, garbonzo, rice and curry in a corn tortilla.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), December 29, 2001.

Stir fry is good food. Serve over rice or noodles. Make whole wheat noodles. Now THAT would be exotic. You can marinate firm tofu to replace meat.

Choose from: Meat, onions, carrots, minced garlic, brocolli, (slice the stems also), cauliflower, pineapple, apple, peach, almonds, sesame seeds sunflower seeds, walnut, snap peas, radishes. Dashes of soy, teriyaki and/or other sauces. Use a wok or cast iron skillet.

-- Rick (Rick_122@hotmail.com), December 29, 2001.

Melissa, when I run out of wrappers, I cheat and use flour tortillas. I do the same thing with mid eastern food that calls for pita.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), December 29, 2001.

One of my quick and favorites is to brown a couple of hamburger pattys, put in the bottom of a cassarole dish, cut a couple of potatoes and put over the hamburgers and dump a can of mushroom soup over(sometimes I will add a little milk if it is too thick). Bake at 350 for 30 min or until potatoes are done. I also love chicken totilla soup. You take 4 corn tortilla and cut into thin strips. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 400 for 8 min. or until crisp. Chop 1/2 cup onion and 3 boneless chicken breasts(in bite sized pieces) put in stock pot with a little oil and cook for about 5 minutes. Add 1clove of garlic, 1/4tsp chili powder, 1/4tsp ground cumin and stir and cook another couple minutes. Add 2 cans chicken broth, 1 can diced tomatoes(w/juice) bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes. Chop a small bunch of celantro(optional), dip out into boul, sprinkle with celantro, torilla strips, a little chedder cheese and I love to put on a little lime juice. Wonderful! and filling. God Bless

-- Micheale from SE Kansas (mbfrye@totelcsi.net), December 29, 2001.

Thanks Laura, I will have to try that next time. It is probably just as good, or even better.

-- Melissa (me@home.net), December 29, 2001.

So- Mitch,If I understand you, your wanting to take your cooking up to another level? What kinds of things are you interested in cooking? Casseroles? Soups? A lot of really good food is quite simple but very good. One thing we do is smorresbrod which is Danish open faced sandwhiches-get some really good dense bread and butter, then add toppings-it just takes a little. One favorite here is a sliver of roast beef with a spoon of potato salad, (sounds a litle strange, but its really good) or cheese and olives, or sliced mushrooms just use your imagination.

I'm amazed your cat will eat leftovers. My cat wont-the only thing she will eat from the kitchen is fish or tuna water(the water you drain from a can of tuna) She much prefers some dry kibble and an occasional juicy mouse.

-- Kelly (ksaderholm@yahoo.com), December 29, 2001.

Mitch -- have you got a grill? You could make kebabs. Cut meat and veggies into spearable sizes (about 1 inch cubes is good) and marinate in 1/3 c lemon juice, 1/3 c oil (olive is good, but any will do) and whatever seasonings take your fancy. Marinate at room temp for a couple hours or in the fridge overnight and then string on skewers. Grill until nicely browned. Serve with rice or a salad. Makes for a nice change, and it's pretty easy.

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), December 30, 2001.

Well, I tried mixing a few odd things useing a ground beef slab, with mushroome, pineapple, onion, garlic, sweet and sour sauce, soy sauce, tomato sauce, fetticini, dash of mustard, a little sprinkle of different spices which I just sprinkled with out looking at the labels. It did not taste good, the cat didn't want to be in the same room with it, so I dumped it in the worm food compost bucket, had two fried eggs on whole wheat toast with mayo and went to bed.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), December 30, 2001.

Hey there Mitch, try to keep the ingredients simple!!! I'm with your cat on that meal you made. hee hee here's a couple easy recipes..

Cavatinni..... brown ground sausage (I like hot), add chopped onion and green pepper and cook with sausage till tender. While I'm doing this, boil ya some noodles till done. Put noodles in baking pan, add sausage mixture, and add one can of Rago or Presto pasta sauce. Mix well in pan. Top with cheese if ya like and bake in 350 oven till good and hot throughout. About 30 or 40 mins. You can also add mushrooms to this dish. Salad and garlic bread go great with this dish.

Parmesean Chicken....Take the chicken pieces and roll in ground craker crumbs with grated parmesean cheese added to them. Put in a baking dish with melted butter in it and bake for an hour or more, covered. Good with twiced baked potatoes and a veggie.

Pork chops....Get ya a big piece of foil, put two pieces together to make it wider, butter the foil, lay your pork chops on the buttered foil. Cut up potatoes, onion, carrots and celery. Salt and pepper. Add a few dabs of butter on top. Seal up the foil around food. Put in 350 oven for an hour or more. Depends on the thickness of the chops. Delicious. No pans to clean and ya got your meat, potatoes and veggies in one meal.

Good luck to ya (and your cat!!!!)

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), December 30, 2001.

Mitch, you only need one sauce, or one item from each column. For future reference, tomato sauce and pineapple together is particularly nasty!

Start over....1 meat, 1 veggie, 1 grain 1 sauce and as much of your favorite seasoning as you like.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

Oy vey, Mitch, I wouldn't be in the same room with that combo either! Seriously, when I get bored with our meal planning, I get out my recipe books and start reading them. There is all kinds of inspiration in them. There are a lot of recipe sites that help me also.

-- Ardie /WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), December 31, 2001.

I didn't read all the above, so sorry if someone suggested this. Try marinating chicken breast or pork chops in Kraft Zesty Italian dressing-or similar, then grill on charcoal or George Foreman or broiler. This is one of husband's favorite recipes, it's really tender if you're careful not to overcook. I serve it with french fried okra and home canned peaches.

-- Cindy (SE. IN) (atilrthehony@hotmail.com), January 13, 2002.

If you don't have it already, get the Moosewood cookbook. When I feel realy uninspired, I pick a recipe from that, that I haven't tried before. Unlike some cookbooks, most of the meals in this one are very good. The only one I dodn't like was the solyanka, though I haven't tried them all yet.

The other thing I just figured out is that most soups are good as a sauce over or cooked with rice. Just cook the rice, with leftover soup dumped in. The soup will flavor all the rice, you may need to add salt.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), January 18, 2002.

Try Barbecued Koala, first hunt koala(Wild ones are better tasting) skin koala( fur is good to make things with)remove fat and slice into thin strips light bbq and toss strips on cook until lightly brown throw on a bread roll and dig in YUM YUM

-- Hungry Hungry Hippo (hungry@yahoo.com.au), September 09, 2002.