Introduction

I’m a lucky person. I’m lucky that I love to cook, because I love to eat. I’m also lucky that I have a great connection to others who love to cook and eat through my Blue Jean Chef social media community. Every day I hear from folks who want to show me what they’ve made in their kitchens, or who have questions for me about how to make something they are craving. As a result, I have a great sense of what many cooks across the country enjoy preparing and devouring.

People love comfort foods. This is not a revelation. People also seem to love one-pot cooking because it means one-pot cleaning. This is also not a revelation. What is a little more noteworthy is that there are so many “one pots” to use these days and that makes one-pot cooking more interesting. I can’t tell you the number of times I get a question like “how would I make that in my pressure cooker or Instant Pot®?” or “could I do that recipe in my air fryer?” or “is there a way to use my slow cooker for that dish?” And all those questions led me to this cookbook.

In this cookbook, full of traditional and non-traditional comfort food recipes, I’ve given you a tried and true way to prepare dinner on the stovetop or in the oven. Every recipe in this book can be made with these two standard pieces of kitchen equipment. But then, for those of you who love your more modern kitchen appliances, those of you who are looking for a faster way to make something using a pressure cooker or a more convenient way to prepare dinner using your slow cooker, and those of you who are looking for a more health-conscious cooking method using your air fryer… I give you options (and it’s always good to have options). Whenever it makes sense – when it’s faster or more convenient AND gives you the same great results – the recipe has alternate cooking methods for how to make it using other kitchen appliances. If it doesn’t make sense to prepare the recipe any other way, I tell you so.

All these recipes are intended to be the only thing you will need to cook for a complete dinner. You may want to supplement the meal with a piece of bread or a salad (and I do give you suggestions), but you won’t need to cook anything else, unless of course you want to. The main rule for every recipe is that at the end of dinner, you’ll only have one cooking vessel to clean up.

So, take inventory of your kitchen. You’re about to make dinner YOUR way.