Soup #1 - Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

 The Year of Soup

Soup #1 - Easy Potato Corn Chowder

    So, this was a fun recipe. The recipe "Speedy Potato Chowder" is in the Favorite Recipes, Campbell's Creative Cooking With Soup (Over 8,000 Delicious Mix and Match Recipes. The recipe gives you four ingredients and then you select a liquid, canned vegetable and a meat from a chart. For the liquid, I chose milk. For the vegetable, I chose corn. And, for the meat, I chose to use diced potato in lieu of meat. I did also add salt, pepper and paprika to mine. 

   By the way, liquid options were beer & water, milk, milk & light cream and evaporated milk & water. Vegetable options were mixed vegetables, corn, Lima beans and diced carrots. The meat options were hotdogs, chicken, ham and tuna. 

      I'll write out the recipe how I made it. I really enjoyed this chowder. I hope you try it!

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon, diced (feel free to use more)

1/2 cup chopped onion (I used about 1/2 of a medium onion)

2 1/2 cups milk (I used more liquid than the recipe suggests)

1 10 3/4 oz can condensed cream of potato soup

1 15oz can whole kernel corn (The original recipe suggests using an 8oz can; I used low salt)

1 medium russet potato, diced

2 tbsps chopped fresh parsley, plus more for decoration if you wish

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp paprika

1/8 tsp black pepper

Directions:

In a 3qt saucepan over medium heat, heat a tiny bit of oil and add bacon. Cook until crisp. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. You can drain the bacon drippings, reserving 1 tbsp. I did not, because I only had a little more than a tbsp. Add the chopped onion and diced potato to the drippings and cook until the potato is somewhat tender; you don't want it super tender, because you're going to keep cooking and that will make it tender. Add milk, corn with it's liquid, the bacon, parsley, salt, pepper and paprika. Cook on low-medium heat until heated through, stirring occasionally. Makes 4 to 6 servings. 

Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

Easy Potato-Corn Chowder

Casserole #18 - Barley Casserole

 The Year of Casseroles

Casserole #18 - Barley Casserole

    This recipe is in my 1990 edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook was first published in 1896, titled The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, by Fannie Merritt Farmer. I wanted to try something different and this fit the bill. I liked this casserole; it felt pretty healthy with the use of barley. Serve it as a side dish, or add chunks of chicken to make it a main dish. I did make some modifications, which I will show in italics. Try it and let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

3 tbs butter

1 cup barley

1 small onion, chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped green pepper (I used a whole, small green pepper)

1/2 cup cashews, chopped (I used cashews, but leave them out if you like)

3 cups chicken broth, boiling

salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

paprika seasoning to taste

3 slices thick cut bacon, diced (optional)

1/2 cup Kerrygold blarney cheese, shredded (this is a creamy Gouda style cheese) (optional)

toasted breadcrumbs (optional)

cornstarch to thicken the sauce, because my dish was very, soup-y when I placed it in a casserole (if desired)

 

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a large skillet. Stir in barley and onion. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is slightly cooked. Add the green pepper and cook for two minutes more. Add cashews, followed by the broth and seasonings. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes. Thicken sauce with cornstarch by mixing together a little water with cornstarch and pouring, while stirring, into the sauce. At this point, you can simply serve from the skillet. Pour into a lightly greased 2-qt casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese, followed by toasted breadcrumbs. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, cool slightly and serve. 

Barley Casserole

Barley Casserole

Easy Potato Soup

 Easy Potato Soup

    This recipe is based off of a recipe from a former co-worker. This soup is easy to put together. You can adjust seasonings and add ingredients as you like. This recipe is easily made vegetarian/vegan, by using all vegetable broth and vegan gravy packet. Alternatively, you could use all chicken broth and/or add diced ham or bacon.  If you don't like onion or peppers, you can leave out those ingredients. This makes a large a big pot of soup and you'll get numerous servings out of it. Actual servings depend on how large you make them! I really enjoyed this soup and I hope you do as well. 

Ingredients: 

32 oz bag frozen diced (hash brown) potatoes (For extra variety, use the O'Brien styled hash browns)

48 oz chicken or vegetable broth, or a combination of the two

1 packet white, country gravy mix

1/3 - 1/2 cup diced onion (cook in butter/margarine, in the microwave for one minute)

1 tsp butter or margarine

1/2 cup diced green/red/yellow/orange peppers 

salt to taste

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp or to taste, chili powder seasoning

1 cup diced ham, optional

Optional Toppings: shredded cheese, finely sliced green onion, crumbled cooked bacon

Directions:

Empty the potatoes into a large cooking pot. Pour vegetable/chicken broth into the pot. Add onion, peppers and seasoning. Add ham if using. Cook on medium to medium-high heat until gently boiling. Ladle soup into bowls and serve with a side salad if desired. 

Easy Potato Soup

Charley the Muffin Man was interested in my Easy Potato Soup

Appetizer #10 - Onion Tartlets

The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #10 - Onion Tartlets

    Betty Crocker's New Choices Cookbook published in 1993 is the first cookbook I bought myself. I believe I bought the book in a Waldenbooks store at White Flint Mall (closed) in Maryland. This recipe is based on the Creamy Onion Tartlets in this book. The original recipe calls for turkey bacon; I used pork bacon and added a dab of cream cheese in the bottom of some of the tartlets (to see how I liked that). So, the biggest issue I had is that the recipe calls for 8 cups chopped onions (about 4lbs). I had four large onions and actually weighed them. None even weighed a pound, so I figured I was good. When chopped there was a huge mound of onion, but I figured "That's okay. I don't have 4lbs of onion." But, the onion did not cook down into a marmalade consistency as the recipe says it will.  I'll give you the recipe and note modifications in Italics. Even though they didn't turn out how they were supposed to, they still tasted fine. I served them with Appetizer #9 - Lemonchick's Sun-Dried Tomato & Cheese Tartlets this weekend.

Ingredients:

1 15-piece package of Athena phyllo shells

8 cups chopped onions (about 4lbs) *Note - This was way too much onion; I had a lot leftover and want to figure out what to do with it.

1 cup beef broth

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 diced, cooked bacon (Orginally 2 slices turkey bacon, cooked and chopped)

6 tbsps grated Parmesan cheese

Softened Cream Cheese (Optional)

Directions:

Cook onion, broth, pepper and bacon in a large skillet over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to medium low and cook uncovered for 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. *Note: The original recipe says cook until all liquid is absorbed and the onions are the consistency of marmalade. This did not happen for me. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place phyllo shells on a cookie sheet. Spoon onion mixture into shells and sprinkle Parmesan cheese over each tartlet.  If desired, add a dab of softened cream cheese into the bottom of the phyllo shells, before adding the onion mixture. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until cheese is light brown. You may need to cook a couple minutes longer to ensure that phyllo is crisped.

Appetizer #10 - Onion Tartlets with Appetizer #9 - Lemonchick's Sun-Dried Tomato & Cheese Tartlets      

Appetizer Number Four - Lemonchick's Un-stuffed Jalapeno Popper Tartlets

 The Year of Appetizers

Appetizer #4 - Lemonchick's Un-stuffed Jalapeno Popper Tartlets

    Whoa, not really sure what I'll be making going forward, but I've had a bit of a hiatus from my blog, aka recipe diary. I am still committed to my Year of Appetizers. I had bariatric surgery in late April.  I had complications from the LapBand I'd had for 13 1/2 years, so had that removed and the Sleeve procedure in it's place.  So, I'll be trying to make healthier versions (especially for a while of recipes from my collection of cookbooks).  

    This recipe has evolved over the years. Years and years ago, a coworker used to bring stuffed jalapenos to work and they were yummy.  I started making them the way she made them, but then I tried making them differently and fast forward to now, where I just blend all the stuffed jalapeno popper ingredients together and fill mini Phyllo tart crusts. I love them and I hope you do also. 

     I'll give you basic ingredients and then you can modify how you like. For example, if you like more or less jalapeno or pineapple, just add more or less to your taste. Or if you don't like pineapple, leave that out. I've had a bit of extra filling before after filling two boxes of the Phyllo crusts, so I've used this filling on crackers and toast and I think it would be yummy on a bagel.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened

2-3 jalapenos, washed, seeded and diced (If you like spicy, you could definitely leave more seeds in)

1/4 to 1/2 cup crushed pineapple or pineapple chunks (If you use pineapple chunks, you'll have to dice up the chunks into tiny bits; also, you're going to drain the pineapple before measuring)

1/2 cup fresh, but cooled cooked bacon, finely diced (It is up to you how finely cooked you make the bacon, but I'd definitely make sure it is cooked; do not use raw)

1 or 2 1.9 oz packages of Athens brand Phyllo crusts (This is the brand I use; you can use whichever you like or make fresh)

Directions:

Bake Phyllo crusts according to package directions. You want them a bit crispy when you fill them.  Remove from the oven and cool. You can start mixing the ingredients while the Phyllo crusts are baking.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. I start with mashing the cream cheese, then add the diced jalapeno, followed by the bacon and pineapple. Make sure all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.   Using two spoons, fill the cooled crusts with your cream cheese filling and place on in a baking pan or on a baking sheet. Top with chunks of pineapple or thin, tiny slices of jalapeno. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on them and if the shells start getting too brown, you want to take them out. 

Lemonchick's Un-Stuffed Jalapeno Popper Tartlets
*Note - I believe this picture was taken before baking; due to my hiatus and having made these two months ago, I can't remember.

Creamed Cottage Cheese With Bacon

 Creamed Cottage Cheese With Bacon

    Here is recipe two that I've made from Milk....The Way to Health & Beauty, published by the New York State Bureau of Milk Publicity in 1939. I've heard recently that there's been a resurgence in the popularity of cottage cheese, which has surprised the heck out of me. While I have always liked cottage cheese, I know it's not always been a popular choice for others. What I like about cottage cheese, is that it is fairly low in calories and low in fat, while it has a good amount of protein. I liked this recipe. I can easily see it being a comfort food for me, with the creamy white sauce base and serving it over hot toast (buttered or not).  It was not difficult to make and it was inexpensive, so win-win.

    The base of this recipe is similar to a recipe I like to make, that my dad made when I was growing up, called Eggs Goldenrod. Eggs Goldenrod is a white sauce, with diced hard cooked egg white in it. Also served over buttered toast, the hard cooked egg yolks are finely crumbled and sprinkled over the sauce covered toast. And, let's not forget that there is bacon in this. When I made it tonight, I served it over some fresh jalapeno cheese bread I bought at a farmer's market. I did add a bit of a chili powder seasoning and sprinkled parsley flakes on top to make it look pretty.  Both of which are not in the original recipe. Modifications and notes in italics. 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup flour

2 cups milk (I like to heat mine for at least two minutes in the microwave)

3/4 tsp salt (I used 1/2 tsp)

dash of pepper (I used 1/4 tsp)

1/4 tsp chili powder seasoning (use your favorite spicy seasoning)

1/2 lb sliced bacon

2 cups cottage cheese (Drained of much of the liquid)

6 - 8 slices buttered toast

parsley flakes (optional)

Directions:

Make a white sauce by combining butter and flour together in a saucepan. Add heated milk, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened. Stir in cottage cheese and heat on low while you cook the bacon. Cut sliced bacon into small pieces and cook until desired crispiness. Remove bacon to a paper towel covered plate with a slotted spoon, to drain. Toast and butter bread. Place a piece or two of buttered toast on a plate. Spoon creamed cottage cheese onto bread (I cut my buttered toast into pieces before covering with the creamed cottage cheese). Sprinkle with parsley flakes and serve.

Creamed Cottage Cheese With Bacon

Creamed Cottage Cheese With Bacon

Pie Number Ten - Bacon Cheese Pie

 The Year of Pie

Pie #10 Bacon-Cheese Pie

Yeah, so finally writing this post for this pie that I made like two or three weeks ago. It's been another period, where life has been getting in the way of my baking. This Bacon-Cheese Pie is from my favorite cookbook, the Pillsbury Family Cook Book, sixth printing in 1970. I think because of the bacon, I would consider using 1/2 teaspoon salt instead of a full teaspoon. And, mine didn't seem to "set" really well, even though I baked it at the designated temperature, for the allotted time. That said, my crust was good and I really liked this quiche-like pie.  I would definitely make this again. 

Ingredients:

8 or 9 inch unbaked pie crust (I did a 9 inch pie crust)

1/2 pound sliced bacon (I chopped mine)

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (I used Monterrey Jack)

3 eggs

2/3 cup (6-oz can) evaporated milk

1 1/3 cups milk

1 teaspoon salt 

dash pepper

dash cayenne pepper

1/2 cup baby spinach washed and chopped (optional)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Make your favorite pie crust. You can also buy pie crust dough or a pre-made crust. Chop bacon, frying until crisp and drain. Sprinkle into the bottom of your unbaked pie crust. Sprinkle shredded cheese over the bacon. Beat eggs slightly with both milks and seasonings. Pour egg mixture over the bacon and cheese. Sprinkle baby spinach on top, if desired. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle of the pie, comes out clean. Do not overbake. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes. 

You can also add 1/4 finely minced onion in with the egg mixture and you could substitute ham for bacon. 

Serves 6-8

Bacon-Cheese Pie

Bacon Cheese Pie

Bacon-Cheese Pie: Showing that it was thoroughly cooked but still a bit soft. 

Nancy's Easy Potato Soup

 Nancy's Easy Potato Soup

Recipe 50 of 52

Vegetarian Entree #7

    Next to last recipe for this Fifty-two in Twenty-two and I am late writing about it, because you know "life happens" and sometimes things get away from us, which we've planned to do. Nancy's Easy Potato Soup is in the 1997 Sharing our Best cookbook by the Greenville High School - Class of 1997.  This Greenville High School is in Greenville, Texas. This soup was really, easy. It took just about 53 minutes to make, from pulling out the pan from my cupboard to turning off the stove. It was perfect for a cold, Winter's day and I do plan to make this again. Enjoy with a salad, 1/2 sandwich or a nice piece of toasted and buttered bread. I got yummy Bolillo bread from a Fiesta grocery store.  Bolillo bread is like french bread, but is shorter and wide. Bolillo bread makes great sandwiches and garlic bread. I sprinkled shredded Monterrey Jack cheese and chopped green onion on my bowl. I would make this soup again. You should try it; it really was quick, easy and tasty.  

    I had to substitute a bag of cubed style hash browns with green & red peppers for the bag of hash browns, because that was literally the only bag at the grocery. That said, I would recommend the hash browns with peppers in it, because it added color and a little extra flavor. The recipe also calls for chicken broth and cream of chicken soup. To keep this a vegetarian recipe, I substituted vegetable broth and used two cans of cream of celery soup, instead of one cream of chicken and one cream of celery. You can keep the original recipe or make substitutions like I did. You could also sprinkle cooked bacon as a topping, if you eat meat. 

Ingredients:

16 oz package frozen hash browns (I used chunked style with red & green peppers)

1 cup chopped onions (the recipe calls for 3 or 4 green onions, but I used regular sweet onion)

1 can vegetable broth (the original recipe says chicken broth)

2 cups water

2 cans cream of celery soup (the original recipe calls for one can cream of celery and one can cream of chicken)

2 cups milk

black pepper to taste

red chili pepper flakes (optional)

shredded cheese (optional)

chopped green onion (optional)

Directions:

Mix together hash browns, onion, broth and water in a Dutch oven (or large pot). Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir in milk and canned soup. 

Nancy's Quick and Easy Potato Soup

Fresh Bolillo bread (with a cameo by the grapes I'd also bought; lol)    `

Week 33 - Baked Beans

 Baked Beans

Week 33 of 52

Side Dish #5

    When I thought about finding a recipe for Week 33 (before I looked up which category it was), I had decided I wanted to try a recipe in my late mother's recipe box (photo below). The very, first recipe I pulled out, was this one. It was a folded piece of lined paper, with no author name or date or anything, besides the recipe. I shared the picture below with my sister, my cousin (maternal) and two of my aunts (one maternal and one paternal) and nobody recognizes the handwriting. I thought it reminded me of my maternal grandmother (whose recipe for Crazy Cake {it wasn't crazy}, was the second recipe I made for this blog). I guess it the name of the author will have to remain a mystery. Neither my sister nor my cousin ever remembered having beans this way and although I thought I'd maybe heard of beans like this, I don't think I'd ever had them. I really liked this recipe. It made a good sized amount. Perfect for toting to a picnic or pot-luck.  Note: I'm going to write it out exactly how it is written, because it is kind of charming, with it's spelling mistakes; I'll use italics to write the correct word/spelling and to add direction.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb hamburg (ground hamburger)

1/2 lb bacon (chopped before cooking)

1/2 of a large onion (diced)

1/2 cup catsup (ketchup)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 teaspoon vinigar (vinegar)

1 large can or 3 small cans pork & beans (Drain two of the cans if using small or half if using the large can)

1 small can kidney beans

1 small can butter beans (I substituted Great Northern Beans)

Directions:

Combine bacon and hamburger in a large pot (I used a cast iron dutch oven), and begin browning. Add onion after just a few minutes and continue cooking until hamburger and bacon are thoroughly cooked/browned. You do not want any pink showing. Drain grease and return meat & onion mixture to pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low-medium heat, until hot. 

Tip: I drained one of the cans of pork & beans, the kidney beans and the great northern beans, because I didn't want the finished product to be "soupy", so do the same thing if you don't want "soupy" baked beans. 

Baked Beans

My Late Mother's Recipe Box (One of my treasures)

The Original Hand-Written Recipe

Week 17 - Peanut Butter Bacon Bread

  Peanut Butter Bacon Bread

Recipe 17 - 52 in 2022

Bread #3

    There's just something about the sweet & salty combination. I first made this bread a few years ago. It is from a recipe booklet produced by the Oklahoma Peanut Commission. There is not date in the booklet, but from the pictures, fonts and coloring, I believe it is mid-late 1960s to the early 1970s. There are truly some recipes which I would never want to try, that obviously taste good to some people, and that's okay. An example being the Peanut Seafood Salad, which has includes rice, tuna, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, lemon and peanuts. That said, there are numerous recipes which I want to try and I obviously liked the Peanut Butter Bacon Bread, if I decided to make it again, for this blog.  I just had a warm slice and it was yummy. I added butter and some apricot jam. 

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

1 tsp melted shortening

1 cup milk

1 egg, well, beaten

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 cup chopped unsalted peanuts (I used about 1/2 cup, because 1) that's all I had and 2) I used some pretty chunky peanut butter)

1 cup bacon chips, crisp (chopped, crisp bacon)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a regular sized loaf pan. Melt shortening. Add sugar, milk and egg to a bowl and mix, before adding the shortening (re-melt the shortening a bit if needed; remember even though it's a small amount, you don't want it hot, because you don't want to 'scramble' the egg). Add peanut butter and stir to combine. Mix in salt, flour and baking powder (It may be a little clumpy looking). Stir in peanuts and bacon. Pour batter into your greased loaf pan and let rest for 20-25 minutes. Bake in your pre-heated oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Makes 1 loaf. Serve warm with butter and jam if you wish. 

   

Peanut Butter Bacon Bread

Sliced Peanut Butter Bacon Bread

Peanut Recipe Booklet by the Oklahoma Peanut Commission; Peanuts are saucy!

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

 Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

    Dear Readers, I created this recipe this morning.  I've been making a real effort to eat healthier and am also experimenting with alternative protein sources; I'm not anti-meat, but one of my doctors suggested trying to get more protein from sources other than meat, so I am.  One of the things I've discovered that I like, is quinoa. One cup of quinoa contains 8 grams of protein.  I subscribed to Imperfect Foods for about a month and a half, and while it is not a great fit for me, I did get some good produce and tried some new things. For example, I wanted to try leeks, so I got leeks in my last box. There were two leeks and they were huge!!!! I didn't know anything about cooking them, but they are giant versions of the way smaller green onions, so I knew they'd be onion-y (Just like green onions, the closer you get to the bulb, the more onion flavor) and that I could cook them just like you would if green onions.  

    Anyhow, I tossed around the idea of cooking them and making an Asian inspired sauce to serve with.  I went with the much easier, cooked and sauteed with butter.  I had thought about serving them as a side with rice or quinoa, but decided to create a 'salad' if you want to call it that. I'm calling it a 'dish'. So, below is my recipe for my Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish.  I enjoyed it; it was pretty easy to make and tasted good, so I would make this again.  

    This can be made without bacon; try cubed or diced paneer cheese or tofu. You could also add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, because I bet that would be yummy.  This time around, I only did the red chili pepper flakes and salt-substitute.  I didn't want to add to much other seasoning, because the leeks would be flavorful enough (I was right).  

Alone or served as a side with chicken, pork, beef, try this and let me know what you think. 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Quinoa

1 Leek (mine was giant), sliced 

8 Strips of Bacon (or more, this is totally up to you)

Directions:

    Cook quinoa according to directions and set aside; cut the tip of the bulb and slice up your leek. Slice as thin or thick as you like (mine were pretty thin) and drop into a skillet pre-heated with a little bit of oil.  Cook until tender, add butter and stir.  While your leek is cooking, add bacon to another pre-heated skillet.  Cook until both sides are browned, but not crispy and drain on paper-towels. Cut bacon into half inch or so pieces. 

    To assemble this dish, spoon 2 cups of your cooked quinoa into a large serving dish (you'll have about 1 cup of quinoa left; so save that to use in another recipe). Add your sliced leek and bacon and stir to mix all the ingredients.  I added a sprinkle of red pepper chili flakes and salt-substitute. 

Lemonchick's Leek, Bacon and Quinoa Dish

Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

 Grandma Marlin's Norwegian Best Bean Hotdish

    This recipe is adapted from The Centennial Harvest - A Collection of Recipes from The First Unitarian Church of Dallas. My church. We are Unitarian Universalists.  It was founded in 1899; the 100 year anniversary was celebrated in 1999 and the cookbook was published in 2000.  I joined the church in about 2009/2010. The original recipe was submitted by a member and due to this cookbook only being 10 years old, I'm not going to name her, for privacy reasons.  A friend in the Twitterverse, said she has a cookbook with a very, similar recipe. It goes by the name "4 Bean Bake" in her book and that recipe is popular with her family. 

    Yeah, so this recipe wasn't complicated, but I felt like I used a lot of bowls in making it. I did the washing up, while it was in the oven. When it was finished, there was more liquid than I'd thought there would be, but I liked it. I served my Best Bean Hotdish over some brown rice and had two little pieces of buttered and toasted sourdough bread (to sop up the juices).

Ingredients:

1 Big Can of Baked Beans (I used a large can of Bush's Original Baked Beans)

2 Cans Kidney Beans

2 Cans Great Northern Beans (The original recipe calls for butter beans)

1 lb Bacon, cut into 1 inch strips

3 Large Yellow Onions; Sliced and then sliced in half (The original recipe calls for 4 large Bermuda onions, sliced)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 Tsp Dry Mustard

1/2 Cup Vinegar

    Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Drain the beans, saving the liquid and mixing the beans together in a large bowl.  The original recipe also says to cut your bacon into 1 inch strips, but you can certainly cut into smaller pieces if you like. Whatever size you choose, you'll fry it gently, not letting it get crispy, and remove from your pan. Put your onion in the skillet and fry for several minutes (about five minutes at least), stirring to coat with the bacon grease.  Whisk together the last four ingredients and stir into the onions. Simmer for 20 minutes. If the liquid evaporates, add in a little of the reserved bean juice, so it doesn't stick, because you don't want the onions to get dry. Mix the onion mixture into the beans, add the pieces of bacon which you had set aside and combine all ingredients. Pour the mixture into a large casserole dish.  The original recipe says a covered casserole dish. I had to use the largest casserole dish that I own, which does not have a lid. Since my dish did not have a lid, I used foil and it worked fine. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees. I really don't know how this could ever fit in a regular sized casserole dish, because it made a huge amount. 

    Serve as a side dish or over rice.  The side of sourdough bread went really well with this dish, because again, "hello!!" there was juices to soak up. I have no idea how many servings to say this made, so let's just say "a lot", because it was a lot. 

    The verdict? I really, liked this recipe and would definitely make this again. 

Great Norther, Kidney and Baked Beans

Onions

The bean, onion and bacon mixture.

Yass!!! It looks yummy, just out of the oven.

I wasn't going to include two pictures of the finished dish, but you can see my UU (Unitarian Universalist) Flaming Chalice (our church symbol) tattoo, so I'm including this photo, because my church means a lot to me. 

A close-up of yumminess.

   

Roast Chicken

 Roast Chicken 

    This recipe comes to us from Rufus Estes' Good Things To Eat. Rufus Estes was born into slavery in 1857. In about 1867, he attended "one term" of school and then left to go to work and help his mother.  At sixteen, he was employed by a restaurant keeper in Nashville. In 1881, at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Estes got a position at "77 Clark Street" in Chicago. In 1883, he entered the Pullman (railway) service.  Until 1897, he traveled, met and worked (in the railway service,) with many VIPs of the day. In 1894 he traveled to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Tokyo, Japan. The couple he traveled with on the Empress of China ship, I assume must have been some of those VIPs he'd met in the Pullman service. In 1897, he became employed by the president (at the time) of the Kansas City, Pittsburg, & Gould Railroad, and was  placed in charge of the company president's private rail car. He'd been hired by the company president and was well liked by the president.  In 1907, when new management took over, Mr. Estes left and was employed as a chef in subsidiary companies of the US Steel Corporation in Chicago.  This version of Mr. Estes' cookbook was printed in 2009.

    I've adapted the recipe a bit, but followed Mr. Estes' directions as closely as possible.  

Ingredients:

1 Chicken (Mine was about 4 lbs; I meant to write that down, but neglected to)

Bacon (I used about 1/2 pound)

Optional:

Garlic Salt 

Pepper

Paprika

    Back in Mr. Estes' time, fresh chickens were easy to come by and you didn't go to a store for your poultry and other  meats, so it should come as no surprise, that my chicken was store bought.  After removing the chicken from it's packaging, I rinsed it off and placed it on my large cutting board. I spread a mixture of Jane's Krazy Garlic Salt, Pepper and Paprika all over the top and bottom of my chicken and used a bit of white string to tie (truss) the legs. I placed the chicken in a deep casserole dish, which was miraculously large enough.  I laid strips of bacon all over the top of the chicken and placed a piece of buttered parchment paper on top, tucking it into the dish. Mr. Estes' directions say to cover the chicken and bacon with buttered paper and I wanted to do that part, because it was in his directions. The part I was confused about, was the bacon. Did he mean bacon like we would have as part of bacon & eggs or in a BLT or did he mean a meatier kind, like Canadian bacon? Personally I figured he used the latter, so that's what I used.  I placed the dish into my pre-heated oven. I started checking what it looked like at 50 minutes, which I knew wouldn't be enough time, but I wanted to see. Ten minutes later I took the paper off and basted with the chicken's own juices. Mr. Estes says to take the paper off five minutes before cooking time is finished. Your bacon is supposed to brown up after you take the paper off. I actually ended up cooking the chicken for one and a half hours, taking it out and basting every ten minutes. 

    So, I set the pan on top of a pot holder on my counter to let it cool. I think I waited about fifteen minutes and had removed as much of the juices I could suck up with the baster, and placed the chicken on my cutting board (which I had washed immediately after having the raw chicken on it). I let it cool a tiny bit longer and then served myself a leg and a small slice of breast. I'm not including a picture of my plate like I normally do, because it just was not a cute photo. 

    The verdict? Would I make a roast chicken this way again? Yes. I would do a couple things differently though. I would cook the chicken either longer or at a higher temp, because it could have gone another 15 minutes at least and I would use more seasoning. It did come out juicy (awesome!), but I like the skin to be crisper.  I would also want the bacon to be way crisper, although it wasn't bad. 

The cookbook

The finished chicken. 

Bacon and Onion Pie

 Bacon and Onion Pie

    I've wanted to make a quiche for a long time, but never have.  This pie is pretty much a quiche; it's just not called a "quiche". I have a set of four book set of Favorite Recipes of America cookbooks from 1968 and this recipe comes from the "Vegetables" book, which also says "including fruits" on the cover.  This amuses me that it mentions it includes fruits. I started by pre-heating my oven to 375 degrees. I made my piecrust using a recipe from a 1978 The Family Circle Pies and Cakes Cookbook. This recipe was submitted by Mrs. Jack Roberts of Augusta, Georgia. I'm not good at rolling out pie crusts or making them look pretty in the pie pan and this time I was par for the course.  The crust was pretty horrid looking (I used a 9 inch pie pan and used a nine inch single crust recipe) as it had torn a bit. I poked  holes around the crust with a fork, after I'd done as best I could getting the crust into the pan and patching a few places. You do not pre-bake this crust. 

    Next, instead of cooking my bacon and then crumbling it, I cut it up befre cooking until crispy. When crispy, I removed the bacon to a paper towel covered tray. As the bacon had cooked (I stirred it around occasionally) I chopped up my onion.  The recipe calls for four large onions and after I'd chopped one onion, I knew that two were going to be plenty and it turns out I was right on that.  Two large onions were perfect for this. I cooked the onion in the bacon grease until clear & softened, returned the bacon to the pan, combining the onion and bacon before removing the pan from the burner to cool. I mixed sour cream and eggs until well incorporated and combined the sour cream and egg mixture with the bacon and onion mixture. Here is where it was helpful to have the onion and bacon mixture cooled. When mixing hot ingredients with eggs, you need to either cool the hot ingredients  before mixing or temper the egg with a little bit of the hot mixture, before combining the two.  If you don't it will not be smooth.  It will look more like the egg bits in fried rice.

    Once the egg/sour cream and the bacon/onion mixtures were well combined, I added a 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper, as well as a 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning and poured everything into my crust and placed it into my oven for about 37 minutes.  The recipe says to bake for 30 to 45 minutes and I set my timer for 37, because I could always cook the pie longer if necessary. As it was, at 37 minutes, there was no need to cook it longer. The pie was gorgeous, in my humble opinion and even my wonky pie crust looked fine around the edges. After cooling for about 15 minutes or so at least (I actually lost track, because I was anxious to cut into it), I served myself a good slice with a sprinkle of finely shredded Cheddar-Jack cheese. 

    The verdict?  I really liked this and I would definitely make this again. I thought the pie was visually appealing, the pie crust turned out really good, I liked both the finished texture and flavor. The recipe calls for caraway seed, which I didn't have and I was going to substitute dill seed, but at the last minute, decided to use the Italian seasoning instead and  I'm glad I did. Other options could be cajun seasoning, chili powder, garlic powder or try something different. As always, let me know if you try this.  

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. 

    

Hot Cabbage Slaw

 Hot Cabbage Slaw (German Style)

    Bonus post today for Christmas Eve!! After making the stuffed cabbage leaves a few days ago, I had so much cabbage left over, that I planned to make a hot German style slaw. I used a recipe for a Hot Slaw that I found in my 1990 edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It was different that another recipe which I've used and I did do some seasoning not in the recipe. Two egg yolks, water, butter and vinegar are stirred together (and stirred constantly) in the bottom of a saucepan until thickened. I had about 1 lb of cabbage chopped up already to go, so once the mixture in the saucepan was thickened, I stirred in my chopped cabbage and cooked it until it was softened and then I added my seasonings. 

    I like poppy seed in my hot slaw and I used 1 teaspoon in this dish. I hadn't had quite the full 1/4 cup of vinegar (Oops. I should have made sure I had enough before starting) so the other seasoning I added, was to help give it more flavor. I added about 2 1/2 teaspoons of Trader Joe's spicy mustard seasoning.  I also added 6 strips of cooked and crumbled bacon. I made sure to incorporate all of the seasonings and bacon with the cabbage. Although it wasn't as vinegar-y as I like, I am happy with it.