Food Like That: Recipes your mouth will like

Susie emailed me to make a request:

i'm tired of everything i know how to cook, so i'm soliciting favorite recipes from my friends to supplement my own cookbooks. i'm not looking for fancy dishes, but for favorite dishes or meals that can be cooked any night of the week.

the only rules are: no eggplant, no avocado. (the former is disgusting and travis is allergic to the latter.)

Can we help her? What can you cook any night of the week using "the basics"? I know that if I have a piece of chicken, meat, or fish, I can always come up with a way to prepare it and select from some side dishes.

So, suggestions for easy to make and exciting mains and side dishes? 

Since it's cold and rainy here in Vancouver, I've been cooking lots of comfort food, much of it German, like boiled potatoes (Salzkartoffeln -- literally, salt potatoes, referring to the salt you put in the boiling water) or red cabbage. Actually, I'm still waiting for my mom to post the "canonical" red cabbage recipe. Since I've been talking about it, Djun was inspired and ended up bringing me an example of his red cabbage.

I would say lots of my recent recipes qualify, except they are all big quantities designed to cook on the weekend, and I confess I'm not good at always documenting my "one offs".