Are you tired, run down and listless? Do you poop out at parties?

hello girls...

10 cents for anyone who can name the source of the title of this post. If you can, then we will be best friends forever I am sure of it. But I am the Ethel. I just have to be. Let's get together soon and gossip about Carolyn Applebee.

Next. If you are here looking for some wisdom I managed to scrape some up today totally by accident. Here it is. A long long time ago, or last week. Sharon, fabulous Sharon of Cupcakes and Cutlery, handed me this little book called Substituting Ingredients; The A to Z Kitchen Reference by Beck Sue Epstein. Now, I know what you are thinking... but stop thinking that and pay attention. This is important and here is why...

Today I had a headache. I was tired, run down... see above. This makes doing any task difficult at best. Cook dinner? Wait, what? Any other day I would send my husband through the nearest drive thru and call it good but today there happened to be a 4 and a half pound zucchini on my counter and it needed to be cooked. The giant telephone jokes had run their course and frankly, my husband didn't laugh the first time I held it like a rifle and marched like I was on night watch in the military. I purposely avoided putting googlie eyes on it because it was much too large for that. It was big enough to talk back and I did not want to encourage a personality. But what can I do with zucchini that is not just steamed mish-mash? Wait for it....

I consulted The Joy of Cooking and found a simple recipe for a zucchini casserole. Fine, good, this sounds simple, right? Well I guess, if you have all of the ingredients. But I had no sour cream or ground coriander because I am not an Iron Chef, I am not even a short order cook. No way am I going to leave the house to get this stuff. Nobody combed my hair today and I had a kool aid mustache. So what to do?, insert twiddling thumbs here.

And then I remembered the book...I had thought at the time that I would use it for all of those obscure ingredients that are present in most of the recipes that I tear out of doctor's office magazines. I was not thinking of it's practical everyday substitutions. Here I was with a monster headache and I just needed to make some food, nothing fancy, just simple, fast and tasty.

No sour cream? Well Carole, do you have greek yogurt? Yes, I don't know why, but yes, I do. And no ground corriander? or cilantro? Well how about a little dried parsley and lemon zest? Heck yes. No Monterey Jack? Well cheddar is like a cousin from your mother's side.

Done and done and I didn't even have to leave the house. Score. This book is a wealth of knowledge. Perfect for the thrifty or dare I say lazy (just me ladies, I can say that about me) cook. I was intrigued and saw that there were tons of great substitutions for all kinds of things. Saffron! Have you ever hmmmed and hawwed over a fourteen dollar bottle of saffron? Well, tumeric or marigold petals for color will do just fine in a pinch.

Check this book out, you will not be sorry. Especially if you really dislike going to the store at 5:30pm on a weekday.

p.s. I will be trying this out on a fancy recipe soon.

p.p.s. I love this book.

p.p.p.s. the cheese substitution categories in the book are the greatest. I buy a lot of cheese and I almost never have the correct cheese for a recipe. It is good to know who is related to who in the cheese family.