These recipes are the sorts of staples or basics that you can keep in heavy rotation and easily learn to make and improvise with. Nice tips and guidelines for people looking to transition to cooking from memory, or for people trying to learn to be a "spur of the moment" pantry chef. I'm already pretty good at that.

Recipes lean towards Mexican-themed, so lots of different types of peppers are called for.... Brazil isn't big on peppers, so if it isn't a bell or a bird's eye, I'm not gonna find it.