Jan Barrett, owner of the Ware Street Inn in Lewiston, is coming clean.

When it comes to cooking — whether for herself, overnight guests at her historic inn or for an occasional girlfriends get-together — she’s letting the cat out of the bag. Or in her words, she’s spillin’ the beans: Not all her cooking is from scratch! Perhaps there’s a slim chance I might admit to periodically doing the same, so I was happy to hear this and to learn from a pro.

“There are so many good (products) out there — you can eliminate a lot of the fuss and still make a really great meal,” she said. “What works for me is a combination of ‘easy’ and from-scratch. Sometimes adding just one minor ingredient to something store-bought makes it special.”

To help us out, Barrett offers a sample menu with tips on how to pull a meal together quickly and with as little stress as possible. While keeping the work at a minimum, she strives for great aroma and sumptuous flavor. “Then you won’t feel so frazzled or tired . . . and can enjoy your dinner party!” she added.

The first time she let her guests believe she had done all the cooking from scratch was after college, while living in Washington, D.C., working for former Maine U.S. Sen. and Secretary of State Ed Muskie. She had picked up a batch of prepared fried chicken (which she considered “excellent”) from a local supermarket on her way home. To keep it crispy and prevent it from becoming soggy with grease, she had the foresight to use a broiler pan while keeping the chicken pieces warm in the oven. Her guests loved it, and never knew.

And thus began her list of “secret recipes.” She’s perfected techniques through the years. “If you had a good product, people would just assume you’d made it.” She has been asked many times over for her biscuit (hello, Pillsbury!) and dip recipes (thank you very much, Marzetti!).

“We’ve come a long, long way since the early days of TV dinners,” she said. She believes many manufacturers of store-bought foods are aware of the public’s attention to quality and healthy eating despite our busy lifestyles, and are striving to meet our demands.

She also concentrates on the “presentation and eye appeal,” she added. “You don’t have to put in a lot of work to make it look good,” she said. “People are willing to try a lot of things if it looks nice to them,” she said. While using shortcuts, Barrett emphasizes color and presentation to liven up her meals. (Watch her set up an interesting cheese platter and demonstrate how to make her favorite garnish, a tomato rose, at www.sunjournal.com.)

Here are some of her suggestions to perk up what could be otherwise dull presentations:

• Cheese platters: Except for creating the actual display, she said there is hardly any prep time needed. She uses boxed crackers, a bunch of grapes and a cheese wedge — or wedges, if you want to offer a selection to your guests. She typically uses stemmed martini glasses to hold the dips — prepared tapenade (bought in the deli section of most grocery stores), her favorite jar of salsa and Joseph’s roasted red pepper hummus — as she has found that to be the quickest, easiest and most dramatic way to display them. And she will sometimes carve out a red or green pepper to hold dip.

• Chicken salad platter: The bulk of the work is to make your chicken salad. Barrett recommends starting with a roasted chicken from your store deli, which, she said “might be the greatest invention since peanut butter.” She usually will add Craisins, apple, celery, sweet onion, tarragon, sage, Poultry Magic, celery salt, parsley and sometimes sweet curry (although she skips the Craisins if she adds the curry). Chop up a sweet red pepper and onion. Using a bag of sweet butter lettuce, shredded carrots in a bag, a few grape tomatoes and chives from the garden, create small salads on each serving plate, sprinkle with the red pepper and onion; place scoops of chicken salad on top, and serve with bottled dressing (usually she goes with light balsamic by Newman’s Own) on the side.

• Salad: Never serve a dull salad again! It’s easy and colorful, she said, to start with “a bag o’ salad, bag o’ shredded carrots, grape tomatoes and packaged sprouts.” All you have to do then is slice up red or green peppers and onion. She likes to add tomato roses, “which are an easy garnish,” she said.

• Tiered dessert platter: Fillo cups with key lime or cream cheese fillings, topped with fresh blueberries and grated lime or lemon peel. Arrange on a tiered display dish. If you’re feeling a little fancier, you could add a fresh flower or springs of herbs for additional decoration.

When it comes to seasoning, Barrett said, “the nose knows!” Her very simple advice is “If it smells good together, it’ll taste good together.” Her favorite line of blended herbs and spices is the Magic Seasoning Blends by Chef Paul Prudhomme — almost any of them — including Sweetie Magic, Poultry Magic or Salmon Magic. “I also use Penzey’s blends, such as Bouquet Garni, Herbs de Provence and Sunny Paris,” she said.

Most of Barrett’s shortcut items can be found at Shaw’s, Hannafords, Walmart, BJ’s Wholesale and other grocers. And every now and then, she will order hard-to-find items online.

Her true confessions aside, it should be mentioned that Barrett still makes a lot of things the old-fashioned way — from scratch. She’s well-known for many of her breakfast items, including the specialty pancakes and french toast she serves to guests at her inn, old French-Canadian meals, and roasted meats and side dishes.

‘Shortcut’ Luncheon Menu

First Course: Orchard Fruit Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing

Entree: Baked Salmon Fillet with Bearnaise Sauce

Served with: Oven-Roasted Herbed Potatoes & Sweet Onions

Lemon Buttered Broccoli

Buttermilk Biscuits served with Dilled Butter

Dessert: Mini Phyllo Tartlets

Recipes

Orchard Fruit Salad w/Poppy Seed Dressing

1 bag of torn romaine lettuce

1 cup bagged shredded Swiss cheese

1 cup cashews

1/4 cup Craisins

1 apple cubed

1 pear cubed

1 jar of prepared poppy seed dressing

Prepare the fruit late in the afternoon; sprinkle with lemon juice to keep from browning. Combine and toss ingredients just before guests arrive; add dressing just before serving. Experiment with different fruit. You might find a substitute you like, but this combo works with the Swiss cheese, which tends to be strongly flavored.

Baked Salmon Fillet with Bearnaise Sauce

Ingredients:

Frozen (portioned) salmon fillets, defrosted and seasoned with the enclosed seasoning packet. (If you fillets don’t come with seasoning, use Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Salmon Magic or similar seasoning.)

Knorr Bearnaise Sauce mix

Make the Bearnaise sauce up early in the day and reheat in microwave just before serving. Poach or bake salmon and serve with warmed sauce drizzled over it. Similar sauce mixes could be prepared to use on other types of meat or fish. Barrett suggested a Morney sauce with haddock, for example. When it comes to homemade sauces, she said, “They’re not easy to throw together if you don’t do it all the time. Why take the chance of ruining it?” She almost always opts for a mix.

Oven-Roasted Herbed Potatoes with Sweet Onions

Prep late in the afternoon, cover and refrigerate until ready to cook. She said you can improvise with the types of potatoes you use — all white, all sweet potato or a mixture of the two. She has tried different mixes made for potato seasoning, but always goes back to the Good Seasons Italian dressing mix.

Scrub potatoes, then cut one potato for each person dining into 1-inch cubes (do not peel).

Place potatoes in gallon-size plastic bag. Add one chopped Vidalia onion, if desired. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil for each potato. Zip the bag closed and shake vigorously. Add one package of dry Good Seasons Italian dressing mix or any herb mix that appeals to you. Zip the bag closed again and shake vigorously one more time.

Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or heavy duty aluminum foil and spray with PAM (or the generic brand). Dump seasoned potatoes onto cookie sheet. Place in 425-degree preheated oven until done (about 20 minutes — check after 10 minutes with cake tester; when tester goes through potato easily, it’s done). If you think of it, you can stir roasting potatoes once during the cooking cycle.

Lemon-Buttered Broccoli

Here’s an easy way to make your broccoli less mundane.

1 stick butter

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice or 1 fresh lemon

Bunch of fresh broccoli

Melt butter with lemon juice (and grated lemon rind if you use a fresh lemon) early in the day — reheat while broccoli florets are cooking in the microwave or steaming on the stove. Pour butter mixture over broccoli just before serving.

Buttermilk Biscuits with Dilled Butter

1 bag of Pillsbury Grands (frozen biscuits). See recipe for butter.

Prep the butter earlier in the day and chill. Bake biscuits just before serving; serve hot with herbed butter.

Assorted Mini Phyllo Tartlets

Defrosted Athens Mini Fillo Shells. See recipes for filling options.

Make these up the night before. Refrigerate, but no longer than 24 hours.

Butter Spreads:

Herbed Butter

1 stick butter (softened)

1 teaspoon herb of your choice, i.e. dill, rosemary, oregano, etc.

Blend thoroughly and chill.

Orange Butter

1 stick butter (softened)

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1 tablespoon orange juice

Blend thoroughly and chill

Cranberry Butter

1 stick butter (softened)

1/2 cup whole cranberry sauce

Blend thoroughly and chill or serve immediately.

Honey Cardamom Butter

1 stick butter (softened)

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon sugar

Blend thoroughly and chill.

Mini Tartlet Fillings

4 packages of frozen mini phyllo dough shells, and one of the following fillings:

Key Lime

1 can condensed milk

1/2 cup key lime or lime juice

1 container (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping (defrosted)

Beat first two ingredients in large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and thickened. Fold in whipped topping.

Lemon Cream

Same as above, except substitute lemon juice. Garnish with curls of lemon peel.

Cheesecake Filling

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

1 8-ounce container frozen whipped topping (defrosted)

1 cup sour cream

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all ingredients except whipped topping in large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and thickened. Fold in whipped topping.

Spoon a heaping teaspoonful of topping mixture into each phyllo shell. Cover and refrigerate tarts at least 1 hour or until set, but no longer than 24 hours. Garnish with fresh raspberries, strawberries or blueberries.

Jan’s go-to list of  ‘incredibly good’ store-bought food items

Knorr and/or Wagner’s gravy and sauce mixes

Good Seasons Italian Dressing and recipe mix

Barilla, Bertolli and Classico pasta sauces

Marzetti and Marie’s dips and salad dressings*

Rhode’s Cinnamon Rolls (frozen)* (Jan’s advice: Put in a muffin tin, let rise overnight, and bake fresh in the morning. Your guests will be wowed.)

Pillsbury Grands Oven-Baked Biscuits (frozen)*

Pillsbury Pie Crusts (Considered the best, according to Barrett.)

Pepperidge Farm Stone-baked Artisan Rolls (multi-grain) (Ready in about 10 minutes, she said.)

Athens Fillo Shells

Near East and Zatarain’s rice mixes

Joseph’s hummus and tabbouleh

Krusteaz products — muffin mixes, etc.*

Hand-made sushi from Shaw’s seafood department

Other time-saving prepped foods, according to Jan

Bags of salad mix or baby spinach, used separately or in combination

Bagged baby carrots and other prepared vegetables

Bagged shredded cheeses

Store bakery cornbread*

Bottled lemon and lime juices

* “I’m often asked for my recipe for these products,” said Jan.

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