I like to use a staple food as a base for most meals. It is how most

folks in the world eat today (think about east-Asian cuisine and rice as

one example) and it's how Europeans previously ate their food. I dunno the

particulars of what happened there but I reckon globalization and

industrial capitalism are to blame. In medieval Western European

cuisine, it was something made of wheat; probably porridge or even bread. You'd

have your vegetables and your pig's feet or whatever and you would put it

on your frumenty because you always had way more wheat than anything else.

And you might not even bother using plates, just put it on a piece of

bread. You might make bread soup with that crusty stale hunk from

baking-day last week etc etc.

You pick something cheap and calorically dense and then you can pad out

whatever you make. I buy a 20lb bag of rice and I have a big container

of cooked rice in the fridge at any given time. If I cook chili, like

I did the other night, I put rice in my bowl and put chili on top of it.

I use less chili, which isn't that expensive but more expensive

per-lb than the rice so a pot of chili can get me thru the whole week. You

could "over-season" the accoutrements to stretch it out even more but

I usually just add extra seasoning as needed to the plate/bowl/whateverthefuck.

Another fun thing is "leftover fried rice", the name of which explains the

thing. You can use leftovers from the fridge or leftover ingredients from

whatever you have cooked. I try to avoid having leftover ingredients but

it does happen sometimes that you've got a quarter of an onion and some

random ends from some other vegetable or maybe some bits and bobs from the

chicken breasts (if that's your thing) and you can just fry them in some

oil in a pan, throw your rice in there and some soy sauce and a bit of

sriracha or whatever. You have not lived until you've had hot dog fried

rice.

Now the secret to fried rice is sugar and MSG. Not a ton of sugar, but

enough to enhance the other ingredients. Honey, brown sugar, froufrou

agave nectar, whatever you got. Conversely, definitely use a ton of MSG

which, contrary to the popular and not a little racist mythology, does not

cause migraines or "the itis" or "Chinese Restaurant Syndrome". Lots of

processed stuff like packaged broth has a shit-ton of MSG already but

I would suggesting you buy some MSG crystals from the spice rack at the

store or something like "chicken powder" or whatever. It's a bit extra

to add to the bill but it is very much worth it for the sheer utility.

Everything savory is better with MSG and it is, so far as I can tell, not

possible to overdo MSG because it doesn't have it's own flavor; it

enhances the savory/umami flavors that are already present in a particular

thing. And if you are vegan or vegetarian, it's mandatory for everything.

For sugar, it's best to add a pinch (for a full pan) at the end to finish

it.

The key technique wrt sugar and any other spices is to taste your food

while you are cooking it and to go easy and add stuff in small

increments. You can always add more but, as of writing, there is no

reasonable way to remove them. There are some things you can do to

mitigate some over-seasonings (a bit of vinegar[1] can help counteract too

much sugar, for example. This works the other way too; too much acid or

sourness can be counteracted with some sweetness) but it is simply easier

to be cautious. Also be cognizant of reducing effects when seasoning/

a full pot of soup at the start might seem to need a shit-ton of salt but

after it's cooked down, it will be way too salty. So, unless it's a recipe

I've got down, I tend to salt at the end.

Next post will be back to regularly scheduled programming, as I piss and

moan about something ultimately trivial.

[1] Another vinegar tip: if it seems like you've added a lot of salt and

the stuff still doesn't seem properly salted, add a bit of vinegar.

Sometimes what the dish really needs is a bit of acid to accentuate the

perception of saltiness. In both this case and the case of

counteracting sweetness, be mindful of the flavors of the vinegar or other

acid. Even a neutral, white distilled vinegar has a flavor besides

"acidic".