By Kathy Hale

There is a notion that cooking must include lots of time and effort to make it delicious. When you are a professional cook you lose touch with how time consuming cooking can be. With our fast paced life these days it seems necessary to find ways to eat well with relatively little effort. So, what can be created in less than an hour? a half hour? What can be prepared with the minimum effort required?

The key of course to speed of preparation is a well planned pantry. So what is in yours? I always look to quality of ingredients, with that in mind these are some basic ingredients to keep in your pantry:

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil (spend the money on a good brand, there is a difference)
• Olive Oil
• White Balsamic Vinegar
• Balsamic Vinegar
• Garlic (always keep lots on hand!)
• Unsalted Butter (preferably organic)
• Unbleached White Flour (preferably organic)
• Natural Sugar (unbleached, unrefined)
• Basmati Rice
• Pasta (once again, spend the extra money for good pasta)
• Soup Stock (made without MSG, pay attention to those labels!)
• Various Herbs and Spices
• Sea Salt and Mixed Peppercorns

Now this is bare basics, I would add to this, but lots can be done with this and a trip to the market for some meat, vegetables and bread.

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