All recipes posted on the Simply Prepared with CFD Publications Facebook page, on Pantry Cooking Plus, and in subscribed emails come from 3 sources: Pantry Cooking: Unlocking Your Pantry’s Potential, Pantry Cooking II, and Pantry Cooking with Home Preserved Foods (the last two are not yet published). All recipes in those cookbooks are original recipes or instructions by Cheryl F. Driggs (except for 7 recipes printed with permission in Pantry Cooking) and are not compilations of other people’s recipes.
Recipe ideas can begin in many ways:
- I see a recipe that looks like it could be adapted to shelf stable ingredients or different ingredients.
- I see a picture and/or a name of a recipe that will start me thinking.
- I see or taste something in a restaurant that will give me ideas.
- A friend or family member will give me an idea.
- I expand on an established concept.
- I create something using leftovers.
- I experiment using an ingredient in a different way.
- I try to recreate shelf stable convenience foods.
- A new idea distills from heaven.
Once the recipe idea starts to come together, I sit down with paper and pencil and create a rough draft or, with recipes that can be adapted to shelf stable ingredients, I take the original recipe and start to break it down, substitute, delete, and add ingredients. Notes and results from testing other recipes help speed up the process as do the charts found in Pantry Cooking and the revised edition of Simply Prepared (not yet published).
I start testing with paper and pencil next to me so I can take notes and jot down ideas, changes, and additions. Sometimes I don’t know how much liquid I will need until I start cooking. Sometimes a proportion or ingredient doesn’t look right and needs to be changed or modified. Sometimes cooking times and temperatures need to change. I like to test recipes in relative seclusion so that I’m more sensitive to proportions, flavor, and method and can think through things in my mind. I can also reason and apply principles of food science (my educational background) better.
Seldom do I test only once. It’s a miracle when that’s all it takes, though the longer I develop recipes, the less time and the fewer testing sessions are needed. Most commonly, it takes 3 or 4 testing sessions but sometimes it can take 7 or 8.
This process has taken place for every recipe that has appeared or will appear in any of my books, emails, web sites, or Facebook posts. While a picture or recipe may look familiar, it is not what you made when you were a little girl and it’s not the recipe your aunt or grandmother used to make (unless someone had a copy of Pantry Cooking). I have spent the time and the effort and the thought creating them, and my archived notes prove that. These are original recipes created by me, Cheryl F. Driggs. I create them so that you can enjoy using and eating your food storage just like I do. I appreciate those who give me credit for them and recognize my work, effort, and creativity.