Cooking for Beginners

1. Pot Roast With Root Vegetables

There are many ways you can make a hearty, delicious, rib-sticking pot roast, but one of the easiest is to put a 4 lb. chuck roast in a slow cooker (also called a Crock Pot) and let it cook on low for 8 to 10 hours.

Before you set it and forget it, however, you’ll need to season the roast with salt and pepper and sear (just a fancy word for make brown) each side of the roast in a skillet over high heat. Once the roast is seared, put it in the slow cooker with chopped carrots, potatoes, celery, and onion, a cup of water, and a packet of dry onion soup mix; for the soup mix, Lipton’s is probably the easiest to find.

You can put all of these ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, and your meal will be ready by dinnertime. Easy as that. You can make a nice gravy to go along with your pot roast, too — either homemade using the drippings (you’ll need cornstarch or flour) or using a packet (which will only require water).

2. Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Spaghetti is a quick and simple dish for kitchen newbies to throw together, but cooking the pasta perfectly requires a little TLC.

To start this dish, bring a large pot of water, with a tablespoon of salt added, to a boil. Add in your spaghetti noodles based on how many people you’re feeding. A standard 1 lb. box feeds eight people, so divide the noodles accordingly. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box; you want the noodles to be “al dente” — tender but with a little bite.

As the noodles cook, heat up a prepared pasta sauce on the stove. From the jar will never be as good as homemade, but perhaps you’ll be comfortable enough to accept that challenge in time.

To make the garlic bread, mix a couple dashes of garlic powder, dried Italian herbs, and half a stick of room-temperature butter together and spread it on both sides a loaf of fresh French or Italian bread that’s been cut in half. Put the two halves back together, wrap in foil, and toss it into a 350-degree oven for 12 minutes.

When the pasta has cooked to al dente, drain it, return it to the pot, and add in the sauce and toss. Plate the pasta and serve with piping hot pieces of the crusty garlic bread.

3. Chicken Noodle Soup

Like a soul-soothing pot roast, there are a million and one recipes for chicken noodle soup, most of which are just variations on a very simple starter method.

This recipe for chicken noodle soup is ready in 30 minutes, so you can whip it up in no time on a brisk fall night. The ingredients you’ll need are all ordinary items you have in your fridge or pantry or that can pick up during a quick trip to the supermarket after work.

Here’s a rapid rundown of what to do:

• Melt butter in a large pot and cook onion and celery in it for about five minutes.
   
• Add chicken and vegetable broths, cooked chicken breast, noodles, carrots, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.
   
• Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and let it simmer for 20 minutes.
   
• Eat.