This recipe for a baked shrimp in a lemon and garlic sauce is essentially a slight modification of our pan-fried garlic butter shrimp recipe.

Serve with rice. Or don’t.

Ingredients for Baked Lemon Garlic Shrimp

This recipe is based on two pounds of shrimp, which should be more than enough for a family or one or two very hungry people.

You will need:

• Two pounds of raw (shelled and deveined) shrimp
• A cup of butter
• Two to three tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
• A tablespoon of parsley
• A tablespoon of chopped, fresh garlic
• Optional: one to three tablespoons of Dijon mustard, for an added zip

How to Bake Shrimp (in a Lemon Garlic Sauce)

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit or 230 degrees Celsius.

While your preheating your oven, place a cup of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add your lemon juice, parsley and garlic to the butter and stir it around until the butter is completely melted. If you choose to use Dijon mustard, you would add it now as well.

Arrange your shrimp in a baking dish. Any dish will do. Even a cookie sheet covered in foil if you’re really desperate. Pour your melted lemon garlic butter mixture overtop of the shrimp. Try to get it on every piece. Full coverage is kind of important.

Bake the whole thing in the oven for about twelve to fifteen minutes.

Tips for Baking Shrimp

• You can tell the shrimp is about done when it turns pink and opaque.
• Always buy shelled and deveined shrimp. It’s just terrible doing that part. Trust me.
• Substitute the lemon juice out in place of lime juice for a softer citrus flavor. You can follow our guide on how to get more juice from a lime and actually only use a lime or two for the whole recipe.
• A good casserole dish would be the best thing to use for baking the shrimp in this recipe.

This is a classic deviled eggs recipe. This is what people think of when someone says deviled eggs.

You don’t need one of those fancy deviled egg plates, but it would be nice.

Deviled Egg Ingredients

This recipe makes twelve deviled eggs out of six eggs. If you need more, double it up and make it a whole dozen.

• Six peeled hardboiled eggs
• Between a quarter of a cup and a half cup of (preferably) light mayonnaise
• A half teaspoon of dry mustard
• A half teaspoon of white vinegar
• A quarter teaspoon of each salt and pepper
• And paprika, to make your finished product look all deviled-eggsy

How to Make Deviled Eggs

Deviled eggs are actually extremely easy to prepare. Once you have hard boiled your eggs (check out this guide on hardboiling eggs perfectly if you’re not completely confident) there is only a few steps to make your deviled eggs.

Cut your hard boiled eggs lengthwise and remove the cooked egg yolks. They should pop out very easily, if you did a good job hard-boiling the eggs.

Throw the egg yolks in a bowl and add your dry mustard, white vinegar, and your salt and pepper.

Start mixing in your mayonnaise – you should start with a quarter of a cup. A quarter of a cup of mayonnaise will give you a fairly firm consistency, so feel free to gently add more to the mixture to get a consistency you are happy with. There is no hard rule, but if you go over half a cup, you have more than likely gone too far.

Once you’ve mixed everything together you can re-add it to the egg white shells. Put it where you removed the yolks from.

Place your almost-finished deviled eggs onto a plate, sprinkle them with paprika, cover them up, and put them in the fridge. Let them cool for a few hours and you’re done.

Tips for Making Deviled Eggs

• You can add horseradish or some chopped green onion or basically anything you want. But then that wouldn’t be classic, would it?
• Deviled eggs get a bit better when they’ve been given a good amount of time to cool. It’s best practice to make them the night before you plan on eating them.

How to Hard Boil an Egg

Bring your eggs out of the fridge before you get started. You will want them as close to room temperature as possible. While this isn’t terribly important, it does help ensure the eggs don’t crack when you boil them. A cracked shell during cooking will result in a rubbery egg.

Too much room is almost as bad, as it causes the boiling process to take too long and overcooks your eggs.

Start out with a large pot filled with water. You will need a large enough pot that your eggs can be rested at the surface of the water without being stacked one upon another. See the picture to the right for an example.

With your eggs already placed in the water, bring your pot to a boil. As soon as the water reaches a proper rapid boil, remove the pot from the heat source and cover it with a lid.

How Long to Cook Hard Boiled Eggs?

Once you have removed your eggs from the heat source you will leave them covered for between fifteen and twenty minutes, depending on the size of the egg. Longer for larger.

You should set a timer, because as soon as it hits the mark you choose based on the size of your egg, you must drain the hot water and cover the eggs in cool water. Leave the eggs sitting in cool water for a few more minutes.

The cool water serves two purposes: it prevents your eggs from overcooking, and it helps build up steam between the egg-white and the shell, which will make peeling the eggs easier.

Tips for Making Hard Boiled Eggs

• Be careful about overcooking the eggs or leaving them unattended for too long. You can end up with a less than palatable film around the yolk.
• When peeling the shells from your hard boiled eggs you should always start from the larger end. Because of the way the eggs would have cooked, there will be a small air bubble to assist with de-shelling your eggs.
• Also consider de-shelling the eggs under cool running water. It helps get rid of any little excess pieces.

Preheat Your Oil

When frying your vegetables in a pan the most important thing to do is make sure you give your oil enough time to pre-heat. Regardless of what kind of oil you are using, if you add the vegetables before it is hot enough to “spit,” then you’re going to end up with soggy vegetables.

If you’re not sure if you’ve given your oil long enough to preheat, give it longer. You’ll get a sense for how hot is hot enough over time. This is the most important thing you can do to end up with properly fried vegetables.

Cut Your Vegetables Evenly

Another thing you can do to ensure your fried vegetables come out perfect every time is to cut them at reasonably even sizes. Even if you’re frying multiple types of vegetables, if you keep them at fairly uniform sizes, you won’t end up with randomly under-cooked or over-cooked pieces.

Certain Vegetables Have Different Cooking Times

Onions and mushrooms take less time to fry than most other vegetables. Carrots or large pieces of broccoli or cauliflower take longer.

If you’re going to be frying multiple types of vegetables in one pan, add carrots or broccoli first, and add onions last. Almost always. Specific recipes may have reasons for exceptions to this specific rule, but the first two tips will always apply.

This recipe is intended to be served with rice, but there is no rice in the recipe. Serve it with rice anyways.

This sweet and sour chicken recipe uses this simple sweet and sour sauce recipe. An abridged version will be included below to keep everything on one page, but the sauce can be used for many other dishes as well.

Ingredients for Sweet and Sour Chicken

For this recipe, you will need:

• Four boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• One red pepper
• One green pepper
• Some finely chopped ginger
• Five to seven garlic cloves, depending on how much you love garlic
• A couple of onions
• Some pepper
• Vegetable oil
• Sweet and sour sauce
• Optional: some sliced pineapple (usually from a can)

How to Make Easy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Bring a frying pan to medium heat and start cooking your chicken.

While your chicken is cooking, chop your red peppers, green peppers and onions into fairly large pieces. Big chunks of each is the general standard for sweet and sour chicken.

Finely chop your garlic cloves and your ginger.

While your chicken is (probably) still cooking, start preparing the sweet and sour sauce.

The Short Version of the Sweet and Sour Sauce Recipe

Combine:

• Three quarters of a cup of sugar
• Two thirds of a cup of water
• A third of a cup of white vinegar
• A quarter cup of soy sauce
• About a tablespoon of ketchup
• And about two tablespoons of corn starch

In a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

With your chicken (probably) about cooked, add a few tablespoons of vegetable oil to a frying pan and begin cooking your peppers, your garlic, and your ginger. Once the peppers have started to soften, add your onions. Cube up your chicken breasts and add those as well.

Pour your sweet and sour sauce overtop and allow to simmer for a few more minutes, and you’re done.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Chicken

• This recipe is written in an order that allows for the cooking times to align with your prep time. You can pre-make the sweet and sour sauce if you consider it simpler.
• If you choose to use the pineapple, add it at the same time you re-add the chicken.
• Some recipes suggest you cook the chicken along with the peppers. This one doesn’t. It’s for health reasons and for simplicity’s sake. Do what you will.
• Serve with rice.

This recipe seems a little bit simple, and isn’t 100% authentic, but it is a delicious sweet and sour sauce you can make in about ten minutes.

Pork not included.

Sweet and Sour Sauce Ingredients

To make about two cups of sweet and sour sauce you will use:

• Three quarters of a cup of sugar
• Two thirds of a cup of water
• A third of a cup of white vinegar
• A quarter cup of soy sauce
• About a tablespoon of ketchup
• And about two tablespoons of corn starch

How to Make Sweet and Sour Sauce

Bring a saucepan to medium-high heat and start combining ingredients.

It’s usually easiest to combine the water, vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup and corn starch first, and slowly stir in the sugar. It’s quite a bit of sugar and you want to make sure it fully dissolves to ensure your sauce ends up delicious.

While you’re stirring, your mixture should gradually come to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, slightly reduce the heat. Continue simmering until it starts to thicken.

The cooking time should only be about five to seven minutes, but going a bit longer is okay to get a thicker sauce.

Tips for Making Sweet and Sour Sauce

• You can substitute out the white vinegar for rice vinegar if you want to get all fancy and authenticy, but most people prefer the familiar taste of white vinegar.
• Don’t worry if the sauce continues at a rolling boil when you reduce the heat during the cooking time. It doesn’t end up “burnt” unless you really, really overdo it. The higher the temperature while you simmer it, the quicker it cooks. Bringing it down a bit further is probably the best plan, though.

Everyone has whipped together a grilled cheese sandwich and ended up with one slightly burnt side. If you follow this recipe you can avoid burnt grilled cheese mishaps from here on out. Probably.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Ingredients

Making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich requires only three ingredients:

• Sliced bread
• Sliced cheese
• And butter. Lots and lots of butter. Or margarine.

You can optionally include all kinds of other crazy things. Such as onions or a fancy weaved up slab of bacon or whatever. But if you’re going to go through that kind of effort you should probably eat something fancier than a grilled cheese sandwich in the first place.

How to Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich (Properly)

Bring your frying pan to medium-low heat. Start this before you really do anything else. It’s very important that the pan has time to come to an even (medium-low) heat. Throw in a glob of butter while you’re waiting. Swirl it around as it melts to give yourself an extra buffer between pan and burnt grilled cheese.

While you’re waiting for the frying pan to heat, start applying copious amounts of butter or margarine to one side of each slice of bread. The important thing to remember when applying butter for a grilled cheese sandwich is that one side should be entirely coated from crust to crust. Any un-buttered space left at the edges will burn instead of becoming goldeny brown goodness.

Place the two pieces of bread against each other, with each buttered side against the other slice’s. This allows you to place the sandwich on the counter-top to add cheese before actually cooking, and also helps ensure that each side of the sandwich will be evenly buttered.

Add cheese. Sliced. Place it on the not buttered side.

When putting your sandwich in the frying pan you can pick up the top slice of bread and the cheese, place it in the frying pan, and then pick up the bottom slide of bread and place it on top of the sandwich in the frying pan.

Cook on one side for two or three minutes. Flip. Cook on the other side for two or three minutes.

 Grilled Cheese Sandwich Making Tips

• Play around with cooking times on your stove. Always use medium-low heat, but try to figure out the optimal cooking time for each side of your sandwich. It is important to minimize sandwich-flipping to prevent outer-layer sandwich toughness.
• If you opt to go with additional toppings, make it a bacon and grilled cheese sandwich. With the amount of butter this recipe recommends using it is one of the most delicious (and unhealthy) things in the world.
• Ketchup.
• Use real cheese sometime. It’s more expensive but it’s much, much better.

Wait a second – why is a grilled cheese sandwich pan-fried?

(For a more authentic homemade gravy check out this recipe for a “from scratch” beef gravy.)

Easy Beef Gravy Ingredients

For this recipe you will need:

• beef bouillon
• flour
• butter
• and water

There’s not much more to it. Optionally, you can include an onion, very finely chopped. You can also add some salt, but it’s not really all that necessary since bouillon cubes are so salty to begin with.

How to Cook a Simple Brown Gravy

Bring a cup and a half of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add three or four teaspoons of beef bouillon, a quarter cup of flour, and a quarter cup of butter. If you choose to use an onion or any other optional ingredient, add it at this time as well.

Whisk thoroughly until there are no chunks of flour or butter and allow the mixture to return to a slow boil. Reduce to medium heat.

Let the mix simmer at low to medium heat for five to ten minutes, or until the mixture has thickened.

Tips for Making Easy Beef Gravy

• If you like thicker gravy, let it simmer for longer. If you like thinner gravy, don’t let it simmer as long.
• If you choose to add an onion or a garlic clove or anything “chunky,” it is usually best to chop it as finely as you’re able to.
• For a more authentic gravy, check out this recipe for a homemade beef gravy made with beef drippings. You probably don’t need a more authentic gravy if you’re using it for something like french fries, though.

This recipe is not exactly “traditional” and is meant to be a simple version of a teriyaki marinade. There are more traditional, authentic recipes available. This particular recipe is meant to be easily made with ingredients most households should already have.

Soy sauce is basically the only real ingredient, anyways

Teriyaki Marinade Ingredients

You will need:

• Soy sauce
• Brown sugar
• Fresh garlic
• Black pepper
• Optional: Cinnamon or cayenne pepper

How to Make a Simple Teriyaki Marinade

In a large bowl, combine a third of a cup of soy sauce with a third of a cup of water. Add a tablespoon or two of finely chopped garlic. Add about half a teaspoon of black pepper.

A small pinch of either cayenne pepper or cinnamon should suffice, but you can add more if you want your marinade to have a bit of a “kick.”

Place whichever meat you choose into the mixture, cover it, and marinate in the fridge for as long as possible. Two hours would be considered a safe “minimum,” but a bit longer is usually better.

Tips for Making a Teriyaki Marinade

• Try using orange juice instead of water for a citrus flavor. This option is best used for fish dishes.
• While neither cayenne pepper or cinnamon is completely necessary, this recipe benefits from using one or the other specifically because it is such a basic recipe for teriyaki.
• When using a marinade, longer is typically better. It is typically best to prepare your marinade the night before you plan on cooking your meat. This gives the marinade proper time to work its magic.

Ingredients for an Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

You will need:

• Chicken broth (homemade or from a can)
• Chicken breasts
• Butter
• Onion
• Celery
• Egg noodles
• Sliced carrots
• Basil, oregano, salt and pepper

How to Make Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Before you do anything, you need to fry up roughly half a pound of chicken breast. Your chicken should be thoroughly cooked before using it for this soup recipe.

Chop up your celery and onion. You will need about a half cup of each. Add more or use less depending on your opinion of sort-of-crunchy things.

Bring a large pot to medium heat and add a tablespoon or two of butter. Cook your celery and onion in the butter for between 5 and 10 minutes, or until they begin to soften.

Once the celery and onion begin to soften you can pour in your chicken broth. You should add about six to eight cups of broth. More broth would just give you more soup but unless you balance out the broth with more soup-stuff then it probably isn’t worth it.

Now you can add your (already cooked and cut) chicken, about a cup and a half of egg noodles, some chopped carrots, and your spices. You should use a teaspoon or less of both oregano and basil, and as with anything else, you can add salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have everything combined in the pot, bring the soup to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, reduce the heat and let your chicken noodle soup simmer for about twenty minutes.

Tips for Making Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

• Basil, oregano, salt and pepper are just recommendations. This is an area where you can easily experiment or just use something you like better.
• Homemade chicken broth is an obviously better choice than the canned stuff but for the purposes of this simple recipe, the canned stuff is probably more reasonable.
• As with most soups and stews, letting this chicken noodle soup simmer longer will result in an overall better soup. Beyond twenty minutes you will see diminishing returns, though.