Baked Potatoes

Ingredient
Potatoes, large, labeled Idaho and/or Russet

Steps
Preheat oven to 400.

Wash the potatoes: not with soap, but with running water and your fingers in case some of the dirt that makes them into potatoes is still on the skin.

Put the potatoes in the oven on the rack, and use a fork to poke one set of holes in each potato.

Check after 45 minutes.

If you can see that the skin is a bit puckered, they're probably done.

To test further, you can:

• Put on an oven mitt and squeeze one gently.  If it's feels soft like a baked potato, it's done.  If the skin is a bit hard, and feels like it's bending or breaking, it's definitely done.
• Take one out and cut it open.  If it looks like a baked potato, with a bit of flaking of the white part, it's done.

Salt and pepper will make it better.  Butter or sour cream or grated cheddar cheese, better still.

Garlic and little potatoes (two ways)

Both recipes involve two to three pounds of little potatoes and two tablespoons of minced garlic.  My brown-eyed children have two different preferences about how they combine.

Molly's Way
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Put the potatoes in a 13 x 9 baking pan.  If the biggest ones are close to twice the size of the smallest, cut them in half.

Combine the two tablespoons of garlic with three tablespoons of olive oil, and drizzle over the potatoes.

Roast for twenty minutes and then start checking with a fork. When they feel like they'll taste good, they will.

Rebecca's Way

Real chicken soup

Real cooking, where you put in a bunch of effort one day and then have food for several.  

Shopping tips:
1. If you don't already have spices, the list below could get expensive, but you can leave some of them out.
2. If you don't have a great strong spatula or spoon to use getting the chicken out of the pot, buy a chicken that has already been cut up or three or four pounds worth of pieces.  That'll cost a little more, but that beats dropping the chicken.

Ingredients
A whole chicken (preferably one with giblets, preferably 3 to 4 pounds)
1 pound of carrots
2 pounds of potatoes (either little ones or a few big ones)
8 ounces of mushrooms
A yellow onion
Minced garlic
Bay leaf
Thyme
Parsley
Salt
Better-than-Bouillion chicken
12 ounce package of frozen green beans--the cut up in one-inch chunks kind.
Pepper

Saltines because you always have to have saltines

Equipment
Necessary: A soup pot with lid (or a slow cooker), a knife, a carrot peeler, a strong spatula or metal spoon, a big fork
Helpful/optional: A frying pan (optional), a cutting board, a colander

See, you can tell it's real cooking because we're already at the break and not yet at the instructions.

Murdered Pot Roast

Concept
Cook the roast for way longer than other recipes recommend, either by accident or on purpose.  Lovely caramelization (sweetness and bits of crispness) will result.

Ingredients
3 or 4 pound beef roast (can be a cheap one)
1 pound carrots
8 ounces of mushrooms
1 onion
beef better-than-bouillion
minced garlic
soy sauce

Equipment
Slow cooker (big dutch oven could work: see notes)