I need new weeknight recipes: inspire me.

[Brynda]

I have been making entree salads with chopped, cooked chicken. Couldn’t be faster, and there are infinite variations.

[Zsofia]

Oh, I forgot about my pre-diet fallback meal -

1/4 pound sliced pancetta (I’d get it in big batches and freeze it in small packages just for this)
Tablespoon or so butter
1/3 cup vodka
1/2 cup heavy cream
Can tomato sauce
Penne pasta

Chop up the pancetta and fry it up in the butter, melted. Add the vodka (not from the bottle, please!) and cook until dryish. Throw in the tomato sauce and cream and simmer until the pasta that you just put on to boil is done. Voila.

[purplehorseshoe]

@Sattua

Catfish: thaw and pat dry. Dredge in flour, then egg and milk, then cornmeal with salt and cajun seasoning. Fry in canola oil in a skillet.

Then dice half an onion and add it plus an egg, a teaspoon of baking powder, and enough milk to make batter to your leftover cornmeal breading. Fry dollops in the skillet to make hush puppies.

Shred half a head of cabbage and dress with a dollop of mayonnaise, dollop of yogurt, milk, dill, sugar, salt, and vinegar to taste.

Serve boughten green tomato pickle (I recommend Sechler’s kosher dill tomatoes) on the side.

If you have time, toss some rhubarb with sugar, top with oats flour sugar butter and cinnamon, and bake this whole time to make crumble.

Catfish, okra, and buttermilk have been obtained. We’re doing this one tonight - thanks!

[Baker]

Do you like chili? I made a fast and easy chili recipe that I like. It’s not a classic style, long simmering thing, Texans probably would sneer at it. But if you want something that doesn’t take forever and makes a big pot, this is for you.

Brown one pound of good hamburger in a skillet, along with as much chopped onion as you like. When the meat is just done stir in two large size cans of Campbell’s tomato soup concentrate. Don’t water it down. Also stir in a can or two of your bean of choice, I like kidney beans. Turn heat to low and simmer. Taste and add chili powder to the strength you like. Simmer until it’s all hot. If you need to you can add just a little water, or the liquid drained from the beans. I do this all in a big cast iron skillet, so I don’t have to dirty and extra pot.