clafoutis!

And of course, because I am a nerd, now I am now singing "Clafoutis" to myself, to the tune of "Shipoopi."  That will NEVER get out of my head. Ugh, Meredith Wilson.

View fullsize

Doesn't it look pretty?  It's also pretty damn tasty, especially with a bit of whipped cream.  (never mind the fact that it didn't slice well, eh, whatever)

Shockingly I am the only one in my house who likes warm fruit--who doesn't like pie, I ask you? WHO?  Everyone living in my house, except me.  Of course, pie and fruit desserts are my favorite.  Because of course. 

Cherries can sometimes bridge the divide, but still since JBB was away on a trip the day I picked up the CSA share and the box of cherries, I figured why not make something I like.  And something that is easy. Because I am lazy.

And so clafoutis! Which is essential an eggy pancake batter poured over fruit in a cake pan or pie tin, and baked in the oven.  It puffs up, browns lightly and is fantastic hot or cold. Traditionally, it's made with cherries, with the pits in, which lends a bit of an almond flavor.  But you can use almost any kind of fruit--berries are great, but so are plums and peaches.  And the method is dead easy: arrange fruit in a pie dish, mix together wet ingredients, dump in flour, and pour over fruit.  Bake and DONE.

I turn to the clafoutis pretty often in the season, because you can easily adjust the size you make to the amount of fruit you have, and because it works so beautfully with so many types of fruit.  Today it was cherries, and though I do love a traditional French clafoutis and don't mind eating around pits myself, I have kids, and kids do things like choke on pits,  I went with pitted cherries and turned my counter in a cherry murder scene.

View fullsize

before the crime.

While technically the cherry pitter is a unitasker (I mean, it also pits olives! But it still just pits things), it's also way easier than all the non-unitasker methods of pitting cherries (poking them out with a chopstick or skewer, using a loop of a paper clip) and way quicker. 

View fullsize

cherry splatter patterns

It does leave a bit of a mess though, so do it over a bowl or something. 

View fullsize

all ready to go

The batter for clafoutis is essentially a crepe batter, and it really does come together in less than five minutes.  That's 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and 1/2 cup of sugar in that batter bowl (isn't it great? I love batter bowls with the handle and pouring spout.  This one I picked up at a pottery place on Cape Cod), and 1 cup of milk in the measuring cup.  Once again, I am lazy, and so I melted the butter in the cup first, poured it into the bowl and then reused the cup for the milk.

homemade vanilla and batter.  And sippy cup.  And wine. 

Even though almond flavor can be traditional for the clafoutis, I went with vanilla because I like it better.  That's my bottle of homemade vanilla that's been in use since 2008 (refilled countless times from the giant jar of homemade vanilla that's stashed in the pantry--remind me and I'll write about that sometime)

View fullsize

wet meets dry

Whisk up the wet ingredients (and yes, the sugar counts as wet), dump in the flour and whisk again.  This is pretty much exactly the way I make crepes, the only difference is the amount of flour.  Tweak the proportions to be a bit more flour heavy, add a leavener and you get a pancake.  Tweak a bit looser and you have a full on crepe batter. And it's easy to adjust the levels of batter to suit your fruit--just adjust the proportions based on how many eggs to use.

View fullsize

the pour

Then pour the batter over the fruit.  Note something missing in the pic above? That's right, I forgot to butter the damn dish, before assembling.  Because OF COURSE I DID.  This basically means that you get no beauty shot of the perfect slice of clafoutis at the end of the day because the damn thing won't come out pretty.  It tastes great, but doesn't slice well.

So lesson here? DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO.  Butter the damn dish before doing anything else.

View fullsize

pretty! raw!

But doesn't it look pretty now, before it's fused to the damn pan?  It does!  And look, I even thought to put it on a sheet pan to make it a hell of a lot easier to get in and out of the oven (and in case of spills or overflow).

35-40 minutes later? Voila! You are done! Let it cool a bit, serve warm (perhaps, pried out of the pan if you also forgot to butter the damn pan), or cold. 

And here's the recipe, tweaked and adapted from several clafoutis recipes.

Clafoutis

• 1 lb fruit, sliced and/or pitted (Cherries are traditional, stone fruit works great too)
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 325 deg.  BUTTER A PIE OR CAKE DISH.  Arrange fruit in single layer in dish and set aside on a sheet pan.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla, melted butter, and milk until thoroughly combined.  Add in the flour and whisk--you're going for zero lumps.  The butter may make a few little ones, but you're really looking out for flour lumps.

Pour batter over fruit, and carefully place in oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until center is set and top is pale gold.  Let cool in the pan, dust with powdered sugar.  Slice and serve warm or cold with lightly whipped cream, ice cream, more fruit, or just a fork.

strawberry season--part two

yeah yeah, storing berries is all well and good. But what about EATING them?  

View fullsize

all the Berries!

Other than just eating them, straight, I fall back to a few options.

View fullsize

that's brown sugar on the strawberries, not blueberries.

First, sliced berries with a bit of sugar.  I make my own vanilla sugar, which is killer sprinkled on the berries.  But also a bit of brown sugar is FANTASTIC. Sprinkle the sugar and let it sit for a bit, drawing out the juices of the berries--this is called macerating.  

Then, if you want to get fancier, add some cream--whipped or not.  Whipped cream is easy enough to do a small amount by hand with a whisk, just add a pinch of sugar (white or brown!) and beat the hell out of the cream with a whisk until it's thick.  You don't need to fully beat the cream to stiff peaks, even softly beaten cream is great.  Or just pour a bit on the berries.

Or, if you don't have heavy cream on hand, stir a bit of brown sugar into a little sour cream and plop that on top of the berries. 

Want strawberry shortcake? Make some of the cream biscuits (add a tablespoon of sugar to the dry ingredients).  Split them, top with the macerated berries and top that with whipped cream. DONE. 

Also, here's a little whipped cream trick: add a little bit of sour cream to the heavy cream before you beat it.  It'll help stabilize the whipped cream to make it last longer (it won't deflate in the fridge or weep liquid), and adds a little tang, similar to what creme fraiche is like. 

View fullsize

strawberry water.  take the tops out before you drink though.

One last thing you can do with the berries: throw the tops into water, and keep in the fridge for an hour before fishing out the berry tops.  Now you have fancy spa strawberry water!

Strawberry season

Yesterday, we got two boxes of strawberries in our csa share. You guys they are so good. There's nothing like truly ripe strawberries that are red all the way through.

View fullsize

bowl 'o berries

I love strawberry season. But it doesn't last long, and neither do the berries once they're in my house. While the biggest little isn't the fruit fanatic that the littlest little is, both kids will eat strawberries until they turn into one. 

The problem is that berries, especially the ripe ones, are so fragile and spoil quickly. and because I am a hoarder, and want to eat all the berries when they're around, keeping them from getting gross before I can snarf them down can be tricky. 

There are a ton of articles about how to keep your strawberries for longer, and BELIEVE ME I've read them all.  Here's what works for me. HOT water (or vinegar water), and perfectly dry berries before stashing in the fridge.

Wash the berries in the hottest water you can get from the tap. Or, wash the berries in vinegar water. OR, wash the berries in HOT vinegar water.  Ditch any berries that have any mushy spots (or, realistically, carve out the mushy spots and eat those berries RIGHT NOW), and any signs of mold (don't eat these). Then make sure they're all 100% dry before putting them in the fridge. 

To wash in hot water, you can either fill the sink with the hottest water you can stand, then let the berries sit for a few minutes in the hot water.  Or, depending on the cleanliness of your sink, put them in a colander or strainer in a SINGLE LAYER, then rinse with the hottest water you can stand. It's a bit of a pain in the ass to place each berry in a single layer, but you need to sort through them anyway to ditch the gross ones, right? Then pat them dry on the dish towel or if you could fit your whole batch in the colander in a single layer, just let them dry there.  

To use vinegar water, fill the sink with water, and throw in a solid splash of white vinegar.  Let the berries soak for a few minutes.  Fish them out and let them dry or pat them dry.  And same thing for hot vinegar water--hot water in the sink with vinegar.

The hot water and vinegar will help kill the stuff on the berries that'll make 'em go bad.  Keeping the berries dry keeps them from rotting in the fridge.  I also don't stack them too high, because then the ones on the bottom get smooshed.

Next up? HOW TO EAT THEM.  Other than, you know, cramming them in your face hole. Which also works. 

It's not easy being green--keeping up with the CSA

(Could I resist that headline? No, no I could not.)

We are members of our local CSA--that's Community Supported Agriculture, aka when you pay a farmer in the winter/spring and get shares of the veg/fruit/etc. that he or she grows over the course of the season.  Our local CSA is awesome, and has a fantastic farmer at the helm of the food.  There's also a separate fruit share--POUNDS AND POUNDS OF PEACHES PEOPLE!--eggs, chicken, the whole nine yards.

Anyway, one of the blessings and the curses of belonging to a CSA is figuring out how to cook and eat truly seasonally.  And because we are in New Jersey, and not like Portland or the Bay area where temperate climate means year round growing seasons, almost, our season runs from June through November.

And it also means a shit-ton of greens at the beginning and end of the seasons.  (Did I mention the BUCKETS of Jersey tomatoes in August? Oh wait, I did not, because it's not nice to make people jealous on purpose.)

I love me a good salad, but I am also lazy and fickle when it comes to planning my dinner. And, dude, keeping up with things like a CSA is not my strong suit, I am the first to admit. So JBB and I have figured out a few ways to manage our CSA share, especially when the CSA share consists of like 6 bunches of different kinds of lettuce. The first principle is one that food writer Tamar Adler helped popularize recently with her book, An Everlasting Meal (not only is that an affiliate link, but I went to college with her. Different years though.), and that is to prep and process food when you get it. That way when you go to make a meal, everything is ready for you.  25 minutes one day gets you set for the rest of the week, and takes making a salad from a pain in the ass production to a quick solution for a meal.

Once a week, when we get the CSA pick up, we "process" the greens and wash them all at once, and store them, ready to go, in the fridge. 

Here we take a page from Alton Brown's book (show, really), and put Science to Work! We always try to wash the fragile greens like lettuce and arugula and the like right away, since they're leaves, they wilt, and when they get gross they stink.

Fill a sink with cold water, tear the leaves off the core of the head of lettuce (don't cut! Cut edges brown), and throw them in the cold water. Completely submerge them and swish them around a bit.  If they're at all wilted, let them sit in the cold water for a while. The water's not going to hurt the greens at all, so be lazy and let 'em soak.

big sink o greens

Do you have a salad spinner? WHY NOT? They're awesome for this thing, though a pain in the ass to store, but they do double as a nifty Wheel of Death for Hot Wheels cars, as well as a lesson in centrifugal force, so there's that.

(NEVER A SINGLE TASKER, ALTON! NEVER A SINGLE TASKER!)

Ours is Oxo (affiliate link), but there are a ton out there that are good.  I prefer the pump kind with a brake to the pull-string kind.  Though growing up, we totally had the pull string one, which was super entertaining when you're eight. Which might be why I now prefer the pump kind, since now I'm the grown up and have to clean up after the designated spinner.

Salad spinners are great, though, for real.  I highly reccomend them.  In a pinch you can suck it up with a clean non-terry dishtowel or pillowcase, but the spinner is the easiest. Swish the leaves again in the water, and DON'T DRAIN. Just gently lift out a handful or two of just leaves.  Shake off some of the water, and toss them into the salad spinner.  

View fullsize

handful o greens

Don't try to pack in all your lettuce at once.  The leaves need some room for centrifugal force to work its magic, fling the water off the leaves, and get 'em dry. (If you are using a dish towel, lay the wet leaves on the towel and gently pat dry.  If you are using a pillowcase, stick the leaves inside the pillowcase, hold the open end tighly closed and swing that sucker around in a circle, without knocking your shit off the walls. THAT'S why I have a salad spinner.)

Keep going, drying off all your leaves. When you're done, and left with a sink full of water, check out the bottom and look at all that crud! Satisfying, no?

View fullsize

big sink o dirt

Using all your lettuce right away? Good on ya, you are ready to go. More likely than not, you'll be hitting a week where you have more lettuce than you can eat that day. This is the trick to keeping things fresh and crisp for days.  Grab a stretch of paper towels, or a clean, dry, non-fuzzy dish towel and lay it out flat in front of you.  Spread your leaves out in a single layer (mostly single layer, I fudge it a lot).

View fullsize

big paper towel o greens.  note the salad spinner in the background.

Roll up the towel loosely, like a jelly roll, and pop the roll into a big ziploc bag. Press out some of the air, and boom into the fridge.

The towels absorb any extra moisture from the greens, and then will release it back to them so they don't wilt.  Don't press all the air out of the bag, because the greens will still be respirating--exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide--as they age. Also, to keep waste to a minimum, we get the 2 gallon size of ziplocs so we fit more than one head/roll of lettuce in there. We also reuse the bags (and sometimes the paper towels, dried) for the next week's greens.   

View fullsize

big jelly roll o greens

 I don't bother doing the full jelly roll with hardier greens like kale or swiss chard.  Those are sturdy enough to last just fine once washed and dried.  But the lettuces? This jelly roll trick is effing MAGIC.  Greens, even fragile ones, will last a full week, or longer. 

Next installment? We'll talk big salad for the week.

French radishes

French radishes: not really two words you'd associate, right?

And yet. AND YET. 

mmm butter and crunch.

One of the things I love about spring is these French breakfast radishes.

bread and radishes

We get them in our farm share/CSA, the first box of which we picked up a few days ago.

And last night, JBB brought home wine and cheese and a baguette. And so i had wine and cheese and baguette slices with salted butter and thin-sliced spicy crisp fresh radishes with flaky salt.​

Yay spring!​

Pavlova: is it the best dessert ever? (Hint: Yes. Yes, it is.)

pavlova my heart. (Also doesn't make sense, I know.)

I was totally going to have a dumb joke title like "pavlova, I hardly know ya!", but realized that made zero sense.

So i went with the slightly more hyperbolic, but far more accurate headline above. Cause let's face it, pavlova is the shit. 

Named after the famous Russian ballerina, Anna Pavlova, and thought to be created in her honor during one of her tours of Australia (or New Zealand) in the 1920s, it's a meringue shell, topped with whipped cream and fruit. Traditionally the fruit is some combination of strawberries, passion fruit, kiwis, bananas. The meringue isn't your regular crispy meringue either; it's crispy on the outside and marshmallowy and pillowy on the inside (thanks to vinegar and cornstarch).

This year, there were a billion folks at my mom'parents house for their super laid back easter festivities (featuring the oddly competitive easter egg hunt), and I was on dessert duty. Now, I am not a massive fan of cake, much preferring the pie-style for desserts (don't get me wrong. I am not ever turning down cake), but I also figured something a bit lighter might do well after stuffing our gaping maws with mac and cheese and ham and crescent rolls and candy. Thus, pavlova.

Despite looking delicate, it's actually a great dish to bring to a party, so long as you can protect your meringue from transit, small children, and nibblers. Just bring the fruit and cream separate, and assemble there. I figured if mine didn't survive, it's wind up as some impromptu Eton Mess (crumbled meringues, whipped cream, berries, served in a dish).

Choosing the fruit was easy: mixed berries all the way, passion fruit not just because it's traditional but because i love it. And no bananas or kiwis because enough was enough. Though i did as lemon curd because who doesn't like lemon curd? People who are dead inside, that's who.

Fairway totally let me down on the passion fruit front, but at least they had frozen passion fruit pulp. (by Goya, oh boy-a! And now I have totally dated myself. Whatevs. I'm old.) 

I didn't have the one true recipe for pavlova, so i read through a few, and cobbled together one that I'm pretty happy with, all told. 

This makes a big pavlova, about 10" across, but can also be used to make individual ones by doing little meringue nests instead of one big one, or reduced by taking down the number of egg whites.  A few notes on whipping egg whites: the bowl and whisk must be totally clean, with no grease or the whites won't whip. And even a tiny drop of yolk in the whites will make the whipping fail. So separate carefully. (Whipping cream is easier, just keep it all very cold.

here it 'tis, with inspiration and adapted from Ina Garten, Martha Stewart (technically Geoffrey Rush's recipe), Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and The Kitchn.

Pavlova

Serves 8 to 10

Meringue: 

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp plain white vinegar 
• 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tsp vanilla
• Pinch salt

Topping:

• 8 oz heavy or whipping cream, very cold
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp vanilla
• 2-3 cups fruit, such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, sliced strawberries, passion fruit pulp
• Jarred lemon curd (optional), I get mine at trader joes

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Trace a circle into parchment paper using a plate or a mixing bowl. Flip the parchment over onto a baking sheet (so you don't have a graphite meringue). 
• If your parchment is super curly, crumple it up then smooth it out first.

 "pencil on parchment", 2015

• If your parchment is super curly, crumple it up then smooth it out first.
• Separate your eggs: use three bowls for this. One for cracking each egg into and separating over, one for transferring the clean whites to, and one for yolks. Trust, the worst thing is fucking the whole shebang up with yolk in the whites on egg number six. So do each egg over the little bowl first, so if you mess up the separating on one, you don't have to start from square one. There are lots of egg separating gadgets out there, and they are all a waste of money. Just use your (clean) hands to hold the yolk while keeping the white drain through. Done.

sometimes the best tool is you.

• Put the egg whites into the bowl of a mixer (or a large bowl if you are using a hands mixer). Add vinegar and salt to the egg whites, and beat on high until the eggs are light and fluffy, and when you raise the beater you have soft peaks (they slump over on themselves).

action shot of meringue!

• While the mixer is running, add the sugar little by little, and sprinkle in the cornstarch in. Keep beating until the whites are stuff and glossy, and hold stiff peaks (no slumping). Don't overbeat or they'll get grainy. Stir in vanilla.

Stiff peaks (that's what she said)

• Mound your meringue into the center of the circle on the parchment paper, and use a spatula to nudge it to the edges, creating a shallow nest in the center to hold the cream and fruit.

ready to bake, low and slow

• Put into oven and immdiately turn the heat down to 225 degrees (or 250). Bake a large pavlova 1 hour 15 minutes, then turn off oven and let cool completely in closed oven. (Don't open the door while cooking or cooling.) Bake individual pavlovas about 50 minutes before turning off the oven and letting cool completely. You can even leave that sucker in the shut oven overnight.
• The meringue should be crispy on the outside and may possibly be a very pale gold. Use a big spatula to help you transfer the meringue off the parchment and on to a serving platter. It's pretty fragile, but it's OK if it cracks. Just reassemble it as much as possible on the platter. Be gentle and don't try to pick it up by the edges or something.
• If you aren't topping and eating the pavlova that day, wrap the whole thing, platter and all in plastic and keep it OUT of the fridge.
• When you  are ready to top it, Wash and slice your fruit. Defrost the passion fruit pulp if you're using it.  Whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla together with a mixer (hand or stand), until it's softly whipped. Don't go for the super stiff whipped cream, you want dollops like clouds.

like a cloud. A delicious cloud.

• Assemble the pavlova: I plopped some lemon curd onto the meringue shell, then covered that with the whipped cream, leaving a border of meringue. Pile on the fruit, then drizzle the passion fruit pulp (which was more like passion fruit liquid) over top.  Slice like a cake and eat.

right before we ate it all.

Nots:  

• If it totally crumbles while you are transferring, make Eton mess by layering the meringue pieces with whipped cream and fruit.
• Individual pavlovas work beautifully and while slightly less impressive looking are more sturdy to transfer.
• Sppoedly you can make the meringue well ahead, wrap well in plastic, and freeze for about two weeks. I've never frozen meringue before, so if you try it and it works, please tell me.
• A topped pavlova will get soggy if left too long, and if it's humid your meringue might not be the crispest or may begin to weep sugar beads.

mmm... toffee

Today I'm making matzoh crack, aka buttercrunch matzoh, aka toffee matzoh, aka just plain crack.  

tasty tasty crack. With salt.

Here's the thing: it's dead easy.  Really and truly.  It's hard to mess up, ever.  And it has a perfect balance of sweet and salty and crunchy.  And at Christmastime, make it with saltines--salted side up--and it's Christmas Crack.  

TOFFEE HAS NO RELIGION PEOPLE! It crosses boundaries, it unites us all!

But first, a Digression. I need to confess something that many folks who know me in person already know (and many are horrified by): I don't like chocolate. 

I never have.  Sure, I like white chocolate, but as any true chocolate fan will tell you (loudly), that's not real chocolate.  That's essentially fat and sugar (which is why, I say, it's so damn good).  But honest to god chocolate? Gross. I like the texture, but the flavor is just TOO much.  And that's saying something coming from a girl who loves pate and butter and cream and all things rich. And don't even get me started on dark chocolate--ugh.  Give me buttery toffee or caramel or fruit flavors all day long, yo.

(The going theory, by the by, is that I'm a supertaster with weird quirks.  That's another post tho)

But anyway, back to the matzoh crack.  For all of my dislike of chocolate, it works here.  And I just skimp on half the tray for me, and over do it on the other half of the tray for everyone else in the world who thinks I'm cray. 

Matzoh / Saltine Crack

• several sheets of matzoh or about 40ish saltine crackers
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional, I like pecans or walnuts)
• flaky salt (optional, but if you don't include it you're dead to me)

What to do:

• preheat your oven to 400 deg. Line a baking sheet (the kind with a rim) with tinfoil.  You can also use parchment and foil if you're fancy, but I am lazy.
• break up the matzoh into more manageable pieces if you like, and arrange in a single layer on the foil-lined-sheet.  If you're using saltines, arrange in a single layer, salt side up
• in a heavy bottomed saucepan (so it doesn't burn), melt the butter and sugar together.  Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Off the heat, stir in a healthy glug of vanilla.  Or if you're precise, measure it. 
• Carefully pour the butter-sugar mixture over the matzoh or saltines, making sure everything is evenly covered.
• Pop in the oven and bake for 6-7 minutes.  Err on the side of longer, the sugar should bubble all over, especially in the corners.  Underbaking will make the toffee chewy instead of crispy.
• Remove from oven, and while hot, sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the top of the candy.  Let sit for a minute to let the chips melt a bit--they will not lose their shape because chocolate is like that--and then use a spatula to spread the chocolate evenly across the candy. 
• sprinkle warm chocolate with the flaky salt and nuts if you're using them.
•  Let sit at room temp until set, break into pieces and store in an airtight container in the freezer.

pots and pans

Here's the thing: pots and pans are tools.  Good tools make tasks pleasant.  And if you're sitting there struggling with a warping saucepan with a handle that gets so hot it burns your hand, there's no way in hell cooking will be pleasant. 

So what kind of pots and pans do you need? I am full on in the cult of all-clad. That shit is awesome. Solid, well balanced pots and pans, level bottoms, shiny and pretty. And USEFUL.  But if it's too much money? Get something else "clad" (they sandwich a metal that conducts heat well in between layers of aluminum, to make the pot heat up quickly and evenly).

But getting all clad for every piece is insane.  The usual adage of the best you can afford goes well in most situations, but not, I think in this one.  

There are far too many super pricey pots and pans that are useless for actual COOKING.  And don't waste money on a set. Buy open stock, and get only what you need and what you will use. There's no need to spend that kind of cash for a stockpot, which if fully clad, will weigh the same as a toddler.  And non-stick pans wear out so quickly that spending cash on fancy ones is just a waste. 

So here are my recommendations, based on personal usage and on Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen's testing. 

• 4 quart saucepan with lid,  and a 2 or 2.5-quart saucepan with lid.  (a 1 quart one is also handy for ramen)
  • Can you swing all-clad? Great! If not, can you swing all-clad seconds and irregulars?  No? Cook's Illustrated suggests Cuisinart Multi-Clad unlimited
• 10" nonstick skillet and 8" nonstick skillet
  • I go straight up restaurant supply store for these babies, because the nonstick gets damaged or wears off and it needs to be replaced.  No all clad here.  Cook's Illustrated suggests the T-fal non stick pan, and I think the next one I need to replace, I'll pick one up. $20!
• 3 quart saucier
  • I LOVE my saucier.  It's such a workhorse--part skillet part saucepan, the perfect pan, I think. They have wide mouths, slightly rounded bottoms, and are AWESOME.  Mine is all-clad.  Cook's Illustrated has a roundup, but it looks like the cheaper ones they liked are discontinued. Boo. 
• stockpot (12 quarts)
  • I don't even remember which one we have of this.  A cheap aluminum one with a clad bottom.  Here's one that Cook's Illustrated recommends.
• 10 or 12" regular skillet (optional).  
  • Once again: all clad is my first choice.  Cook's Illustrated likes this pan from Emeril.  The thing you want here is an oven safe handle. Not "oven safe to 350" plastic, but METAL. OVEN SAFE. 
• 10 or 12" cast iron skillet
  • these are cheap. You will need to season it (I have opinions. That's another post entirely, though), but it will last forever.  First option is to get an old one from someone's grandmother, a thrift store, secondhand store or flea market.  The reason being that the old ones were cast then the cooking surface was polished and ground down to be smooth. After seasoning, that cooking surface was like GLASS.  Even a cast iron pan with shitty seasoning (rusty, etc.) is preferable to new because you can redo the seasoning pretty easily. But, if you're lazy, like me, just buy a new Lodge cast iron pan. 
• dutch oven
  • don't go too small here, but don't get enormous. How many people do you normally cook for? a 6-8 quart range is fine for most.  I like LeCrueset because it's pretty, and you can get it at their outlet for cheaper.  Cook's Illustrated recommends the Lodge enameled dutch oven, which is ALSO pretty and way cheaper.  Either way, make sure you get one with a metal knob on top so you can do the no-knead bread method with it!

Where do you go to get these things?

All-Clad is everywhere. I linked to Amazon, the ever useful Evil Empire.  But Bed Bath and Beyond has those lovely 20% off coupons.  Even your local hardware store may carry good deals on things--certainly the Lodge cast iron.

If you don't care if your All-Clad has teeny flaws in it, go to Cookware N More and buy the irregulars for way cheaper.  Still great quality!  (also check out their knife section!) 

And do not forget a restaurant supply store! While you're there for those  nonstick skillets, pick up a half sheet pan or two.  They are better than cookie sheets, less expensive than the overpriced sheet pans that'll warp and drive you batty.  Also, look at their whisks and serving spoons.  GREAT DEALS to be had.

PS: saucepans are "pots," in the traditional sense.  Most come with lids. Get lids.  Skillets are frying pans that have sloping sides and to me, are far more useful than saute pans, which have straight sides. They may or may not come with lids, but a universal lid is a handy thing to have.

(yet another I was told to write about this!)