Potatoes, Peasant Style

Potatoes, Peasant Style

    First things first.  I cannot for the life of me figure how this recipe got to be named "Potatoes, Peasant Style".  What I can tell you, is that this recipe is in the 1929 cookbook New Delineator Recipes. I googled "New Delineator Cookbook" and found an article by Linda Albert in The Daily Times from 05/14/2014. Ms. Albert is also interested in old books. She had been handed a copy which a colleague of hers had found in a free bin of books at a used book store in Knoxville.  I wanted to try and add a link to her article in case anyone would be interested in reading it, but I am not sure if that would be allowed.  So, just Google "New Delineator Cookbook" as I did, you will find it.  I actually did attempt emailing Ms. Albert at the email address listed in the article, but it was no longer valid.  I had figured it was a long shot, so I wasn't surprised.  (A little bit about The Delineator.  This was an American magazine for women which was around in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The magazine was produced by the Butterick Publishing Company. You can find more detail in Ms. Albert's article. Anyhow, I enjoyed the article and wanted you to know about it as well.)  

    So, it seems that I like picking recipes with "unusual", "funky", or "different" names and that trend continues with the "Potatoes, Peasant Style". The directions are to dice your potatoes, after washing and peeling them, fry them in the bacon grease until brown and remove from the pan. After removing the potatoes from the pan, you add the chopped garlic and parsley.  Cook the garlic and parsley in the fat , then add the flour, seasonings and milk and cook until thickened (the directions say that will be about 5 minutes). Add the potatoes to the sauce, stir to coat the potatoes while they re-heat and ta-da, you're done! 

    I prepped everything so it was ready when I came back from an outing with my Little Brother (I mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters). I measured the flour, paprika, salt and pepper and set that aside in a mini prep-cup. The recipe calls for parsley. I used dried parsley flakes (another mini prep-cup) and that worked out just fine. I cooked up bacon, so I'd have fresh bacon grease to fry the potatoes in. The recipe calls for 6 tbsp of bacon grease to fry the potatoes in. I didn't come up with 6 tbsp of grease, so I used 2 tbsp of vegetable shortening. Don't have bacon grease or you're a vegetarian? Use all vegetable shortening. 

    When I returned from my outing with my Little Brother, I diced up the potato and garlic, while melting the bacon grease and shortening. The recipe calls for three cups diced potato and that ended up being about 1 1/2 medium potatoes. I heated the grease while dicing the potatoes and then followed the directions as above. One thing I like to do when thickening a sauce, is to heat the milk before adding to my pan. It helps the sauce thicken quicker. When the dish was ready, I served myself a side of the potatoes with a chicken thigh and a bit of mashed sweet potato. 

    I really, liked this recipe. Would I make this again? 100%, yes!!!! Like garlic?  Use more than 2 cloves. Like Paprika? Do the same; add extra paprika. Options could be adding diced ham or crumbled bacon. Make this recipe and tell me how you like it. 

Six Month Review: Highlights of My Favorite Recipes and Least Favorite Recipes

 Six Month Review: Highlights of My Favorite Recipes and Least Favorite Recipes 

    I have been tossing around the idea of doing a six month review of my blog for about a week and well, I guess you can tell that I decided to do it.  I'd like to talk about what I've gotten out of doing this blog and review my favorite and least favorite recipes.  

    From my first post, I "was inspired to create this blog after I inherited a cookbook which had belonged to one of my great-grandmothers. My aunt knows I collect cookbooks, that I am a very sentimental person and that I would cherish it.  And I do.  It hits several marks.  It is a church recipe book (a church my great-grandfather was minister of, but I'm not sure if he was, when this book was made) in which member ladies submitted recipes; it belonged to a relative; it is old, it has handwritten notes; it has different types of clipped recipes in it, the first page is separate from the binding and it has taped pages and cooking stains." One of my favorite things about old cookbooks besides what I mentioned in my first post, is knowing that some of them have been very, used and obviously cherished. 

    I realized when I was talking to my friend "J" the other day that I've picked a lot of recipes, based on their unusual names.  Those would be in order which I made them, Crazy Cake, Porcupine Balls, Donna James' Salisbury Steak, Farmer Jones' Special, Country Club Breakfast, Yum Yum Chicken and "Philly" Sloppy Joes.  Donna James' Salisbury Steak isn't a super unusual name, I just thought it was interesting that it had her full name in it.  I really just like picking unusually named things. Like for example and unrelated to cooking &  baking, I once bet on a horse race at Charlestown Racetrack in West Virginia, solely because his name was "Super Donkey".  That was over 25 years ago and I can't remember for sure, but I think I won something on him.  

    I started this blog in July 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was still sort of new.  I had a few things to help occupy my time, but had been looking for something new. Like I said in my first post, I am not "a writer". I hated English class in school and grammar is not my favorite either.  I decided I would just write about what I wanted to make, what I made and what I was feeling about how the recipes turned out (It is my blog after all). If what I wrote resonated with someone, great and if someone tried one of the recipes I made and liked it, even better. 

    I've found, that I have enjoyed having this new to me hobby. I enjoy finding new recipes to make.  I even enjoy planning out what ingredients I need to buy. I have enjoyed figuring out how to do those recipes that do not include pan sizes or measurement amounts for essential ingredients.  There will be more of that. My next recipe will be "Potatoes, Peasant Style" from a the 1929 New Delineator Recipes cookbook. I've had polls on Twitter to help decide what to make. My polls don't get that many votes, because they are not "risque", but I still do them. I recently found a recipe for a vegetable relish which I want to make, because the name is Rummage Relish. It's not something I've ever thought about making, but I am looking forward to that in the Spring or Summer, because it will be cool to see how it turns out and I'll get to use my canning stuff.  

    I've really been happy to have so many leftovers, which I freeze some of, because I am the only human in my household. I have found that I am not eating as much fast food, because I have more options at home.  So, I am saving money in addition to having a new hobby. I'm enjoying seeing what I like about recipes. The flavors and how they could be modified for personal preference or health reasons.  I try to address that when I write about the recipes.  

    Some of my favorite memories of my mother, who died when I was 19, are of cooking and baking with her, when I was a kid. Growing up, my father did most of the cooking and my mom would cook on her days off. Most of the main dishes she made either had cream of mushroom soup and or canned tuna. My favorite/comfort food dish she made is what I called her "Un-stuffed" Pork Chops, which I have not yet made for this blog, but will at some point. Dessert wise, we would bake chocolate chip cookie bars we called "Picnickers", Oatmeal Raisin cookies and I think we made peanut butter cookies sometimes as well. My mom had a pie she would make for my father on occasion . I baked that pie on December 23, 2020, which was the 2nd anniversary of  my father's passing and made that blog entry on December 24, 2020.  Pie crusts are not my strong suit, but I've made two with pastry crusts and they both turned out pretty good, so I am happy about that and am planning to make more. 

    Anyhow, this is turning out to be a longer post than I had thought it was going to be and now I want to give you my favorite and least favorite recipes.  I am not including the Mom's Chocolate Cream Pie with Meringue, because that is a "not new to me" recipe.

    Favorites have been the Fruit & Honey Candy, Colorado Cream Pie (Soooooo good), Grape-Nuts Bread, Spanish Limas, Stuffed Cabbage Leaves and the 5-Hour Stew. The shockers in this list are the Fruit & Honey Candy and the Grape-Nuts Bread. I wasn't sure what to expect from the Grape-Nuts Bread, but it had a nice flavor and I loved the texture. It would make a yummy French toast. The biggest shocker was the Fruit & Honey Candy. I have made that twice!!  It really isn't candy, but more of a healthy treat. I have a tiny, ancient Tupperware container which had belonged to my paternal grandmother in which I can fit up to five Fruit & Honey Candy balls. I know that I can have a couple for a late morning or mid/late afternoon snack, if I need something to tide me over to my next meal. I carry that to work with me every day.

    So, there you go. My six month review. I've enjoyed writing this entry and if you're reading my blog for the first time with this post, I hope you enjoyed it and maybe even try some of the recipes. I am looking forward to the next six months.  

"Philly" Sloppy Joes

 "Philly" Sloppy Joes

    This recipe comes to us from the Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese Cookbook published in 1981. I was intrigued by the idea of a Sloppy Joe that had cream cheese in it. The recipe was quick and easy to prepare. Start by browning the hamburger meat and while browning the meat (make sure you cook thoroughly and cannot see any pink), you can chop the green pepper and onion. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup each of green pepper and onion. I used a little more than that; it worked out to half of a green pepper and half of a medium sized onion. Drain the hamburger grease and add the chopped green pepper and onion.  Cook until the green pepper and onion are tender. Stir in the barbecue sauce and the salt. Simmer for 15 minutes and add the cream cheese, stirring until the cream cheese is melted.  

    The interesting thing about this dish, is it is served "open-faced" on cornbread. You could surely serve it on rice, potatoes or on burger buns.  What I did was pre-heat my oven, before browning my hamburger meat and mixing up my corn bread and putting it in the oven to bake while cooking the meat mixture. 

    I would definitely make this dish again. Like I said, it was super easy and it was tasty.  You could get six to eight servings with this dish.  Also, I have a friend who really doesn't like vegetables and I'm sure would not eat this. For people who don't like those vegetables, you can leave them out. Are you vegetarian? Use a combination of beans (lentils, red, navy, black, lima, etc) or even crumbled tofu or paneer cheese. Staying away from carbs? Try riced cauliflower in the sauce instead of meat. Substitute other veggies, like zucchini or spaghetti squash. 

     Let me know if you try it and what you think!

*I tried to add a video of my stirring the meat sauce, but due to technical error, or possibly user error, I am unable to add it.*

   

5-Hour Stew

 5-Hour Stew

    Alright, alright, alright! This is another recipe from the 75th Anniversary Hy-Vee cookbook. I liked that this recipe was super easy. The first thing I did was prep the vegetables, by cleaning and peeling the carrots and potatoes; cleaning the celery and peeling the outer layer of the onion. The recipe says to cube the carrots and potatoes, so I did as best I could. The onion and celery I just chopped. 

       The stew meat was already cut into chunks, so I didn't have anything to do there.  Why not buy the package of pre-cut chunked meat, if you can? Again, this recipe was so easy. I put the vegetables in my cast iron dutch oven, mixed them around, added the meat, the cup of tomato juice and 3 tablespoons of tapioca. The recipe calls for Minute (brand) tapioca, but I simply couldn't find any brand of tapioca pearls anywhere, so had to buy a box off of Amazon.  The last two ingredients are salt and pepper, which you add to your personal taste.  I prefer to salt and pepper my food when I plate it, so I didn't add any during cooking.  

    So, that's it! I put the cover on my dutch oven and placed it in my oven, which I had pre-heated to 250 degrees.  As I think I've mentioned before, my oven is wonky and I had to guess at the temperature, but I think I did good, because at the end of the five hour cooking time, when I took that lid off, it looked pretty perfect.  I had that stews were "soupy", but this one isn't, there's only one cup of liquid added, so it wasn't "soupy".  I'll have you know my house smelled really good and the stew was delicious. 

    This would make a perfect meal with a nice, crusty french bread, garlic bread or rolls and a side salad.  I really liked this dish, because of how easy it was. The five hours was a long cook time, but the recipe also says it can be made in a crock-pot. There was no time give for making it in a crock-pot, so maybe still five hours? On low? Or maybe, eight hours on low? So, maybe it is one of those things you can prep the night before, toss in your crock-pot, go to work and then come home to a delicious meal all ready for you. 

    Would I make this recipe again? 100% I would make this again and I wouldn't change anything about it. You could get several servings out of this, but I don't like to say how many, because you know we don't all take the same size serving. IF I had to hazard a guess, I'd say at least 4-5 servings.  So, I hope you try this one out.  Let me know how you like it.  

Yum Yum Chicken

 Yum Yum Chicken

    I know of Hy-Vee grocery stores from visiting family in Iowa a few Summers growing up and added this Hy-Vee 75th Anniversary cookbook to my collection a few years ago.  I had a poll between Yum Yum Chicken, Chicken Delight and 5-Hour Stew.  It's pretty obvious that Yum Yum Chicken won. 5-Hour Stew came in second and Chicken Delight was nowhere close. 

    This recipe was pretty easy and the finished dish was visually appealing.  I had three large chicken breasts which I cut up in chunks (that made up the 4 cups of cubed chicken). I cut up the chicken first and then cooked it and spread the chunks in the bottom of my glass 9x13 Pyrex pan. I mixed together the soups and sour cream; pouring that mixture over the chicken. I wasn't sure if it was going to be messy spreading this over the chicken, but it was fine. Next came the stuffing. I sprinkled the dry stuffing mix over the soups and sour cream 'layer'. This was finished off by pouring the melted butter and broth mixture over the stuffing layer.  I popped the pan in the oven, which I had pre-heated at 350 degrees, for 45 minutes.  It looked good and was bubbly when I took it out. And, it smelled good.  I let it cool a bit, not very long though, because I wanted to try it.

    The verdict? It was good, but tasted pretty salty to me and I try to watch my sodium intake. I want to make this again, but I will use low salt soups & broth and unsalted butter.  If a low sodium stuffing is available, I would think about trying that also. This recipe made a lot of food and could easily feed several people. A side salad would do well with this. It did re-heat well the next day for leftovers.  I have to admit though, that I ended up taking the chicken out, washing it off (classy, but I didn't not want to waste the meat) and disposed of the rest of the dish; I just couldn't deal with the saltiness.   You might try it as is and it is fine, but like I said, the next time I make it, I will definitely reduce the sodium as much as possible.

      Next up, I'll be making the 5-Hour Stew.   

Country Club Breakfast

 Country Club Breakfast

        This recipe comes to us from an April 1981 edition of the Laurel (Iowa) Centennial Cookbook 1881-1981. A lady named Pat Howard submitted this recipe.  I've done desserts, breads and main dishes and thought it was about time I made some breakfast. I made this on January 1, 2021 and I have to say I am pleased with how it turned out. Although, I can't figure out why it is called "Country Club Breakfast", because there is nothing fancy about it.  I made a couple small changes, but one of the things I really liked about this recipe is that you can modify it very, easily. For example, I used 4 eggs not 3. I just simply thought 3 eggs was not enough and the recipe calls for 1 to 1 1/2 lbs of ham (cut up) and I only had 1/2 lb of cut up ham. What did I do? I cooked several slices of bacon, which I cut up into small pieces and added with the ham. You could easily add diced chili's, diced tomatoes, use shredded cheese instead of sliced and you could use sausage. With less than a lb of meat,  I had plenty of meat in my dish. I would say that 1 1/2 lbs of meat would be the limit for this dish. Don't like meat? Use crumbled tofu. Another modification I made was I didn't have regular dry mustard, so I used the Spicy Mustard seasoning from Trader Joe's that I have. I somehow didn't see that the recipe said to cover and refrigerate the dish overnight.  Oops. But you know what? I really liked the texture of how it came out, so I guess you could do it either way.  Preparing the night would definitely be a time saver. 

    Would I make this again? Yes, most definitely, only I want to maybe try shredder cheddar and add diced green chilis. 

    To start, I placed 6 slices of white bread in the bottom of a 9x13 pan, which I had greased. One slice of cheddar cheese on each piece of bread came next, followed by spreading my cut up ham and bacon over the slices. I beat the eggs, milk, salt and mustard and poured this mixture of the ingredients in the pan. The next item was melted butter.  The recipe calls for melted "oleo", which is what margarine used to be called. I don't have margarine, so I used butter. One whole stick!!!! The recipe calls for spreading dried bread cubes over top, after you pour your melted margarine/butter. I lightly toasted about 6 pieces of bread. I didn't really measure, but after I cut up my lightly toasted bread, I just sprinkled all of it over top and placed it in my preheated oven at 325 degrees for an hour. 

    The cubed bread was nice and toasty, but not "burned" toasty. And the best part was that the bread cubes had soaked up some of that butter flavor. This recipe could serve 6. Add a fruit salad on the side if you like. And I think this might be nice with a hollandaise sauce drizzled over top when served, so if that interests you, go ahead and try it!

    As always, if you make this, let me know what you think.