It's been very hectic the last few weeks. I'm plum out of ideas and it's an hour away from midnight and my self-imposed blogging schedule is about to die. So...
What do you feel like cooking tonight? Nothing? Same here. In fact, I came *this close* to just ordering pizza online and having it delivered. Except I have a couple of children that can't eat pizza. Food allergies. So we ate leftovers. Again. Problem is, the leftovers are getting old and the ones that are left are the ones that weren't that great in the first place.
It must be time to make that wonderful standby Whatchagot Stew. There are several variations of this soup.
Variation #1:
Open the fridge. Remove any leftover cooked meat; beef roast is the best but any meat will do in a pinch. If you have leftover gravy, it's happy dance time.
Dig through the back recesses looking for leftover cooked veggies. Canned beans of any sort, cooked carrots, leftover potatoes of any variety as long as they're cooked, etc.
See if you have half an onion. (BONUS: If you know why I'm laughing over the half-an-onion quote, give yourself a pat on the back. If you have no idea why half an onion is funny, go read Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment.)
Root through the drawers to see if there are any raw veggies that would go in soup. Don't overlook spinach, chard, or kale.
Now the fun part happens. Cut the meat and cooked veggies into soup size chunks, if they aren't already. Chop up any raw veggies you have along with the half an onion. Sauté the onion in a tablespoon of butter until soft. Add any raw veggies that need cooking. Add enough water to cover. Simmer until the veggies are tender. Add in the meat and cooked veggies and any gravy you have around. Stir to mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you didn't have gravy, add some boullion, chicken flavor is the best because it goes with any meat. Cover and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, until it boils for at least a couple of minutes. Taste again and add more seasonings if needed. Serve with plenty of croutons or garlic bread.
The only thing you need to watch with this soup is that your flavors are at least mostly compatible. Try leftover ham with carrots, potatoes, and green beans or chopped kale. Beef goes with just about everything. Chicken is a little more picky, so choose milder flavored veggies to go with it. Cucumber just doesn't work in soup. Fresh zucchini goes with everything. Don't be afraid to experiment. They're leftovers. You were going to chuck them anyway, weren't you? If it taste horrid, the pizza place is only a few mouse clicks away.
Variation #2
Stone Soup is a fun story. Short version: A guy enters a village. He's starving but no one is willing to share. He sets up a big pot in the center of town, adds water and a big stone. He tells everyone he's making stone soup and it's wonderful. Curious neighbors offer him vegetables/meat/seasonings to add to the soup after he suggests that "___" would really make it better. Villagers and hungry guy end up with a big pot of soup, everyone loves it, he leaves them his magic stone, life is groovy.
Try stone soup at a party sometime. Everyone brings something to add to the stew, whatever they want, no planning ahead here. Mix everything together and let it cook. We ended up with potato and onion soup once, because that's all anyone brought. Another time we had a real wild soup with canned tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, zucchini, shrimp, and an assortment of other vegetables including corn, green beans, carrots, and chard. Different but tasty.
The trick with this soup if you do it out of your own pantry is to collect all those odds and ends that aren't enough to do anything with; like the stray potato and that one old carrot and the handful of green beans and that freezer-burned steak or that handful of wilted veggies from the dip tray you had at a party three days earlier. If you have enough odds and ends, you end up with a large pot of stew that is never quite the same.
Variation #3
Minestrone is Italian for whatchagot stew. So open the fridge and the pantry and see what 'cha got. Here's a basic recipe, in case you've never made minestrone before.
Necessary ingredients:
1 big can spaghetti sauce
1 medium can tomatoes, whatever variety you have
1 c. dry pasta, whatever is lying around in your cupboards
1 can beans, kidney or pinto preferred, but any bean type will work
1/2 lb hamburger, browned and drained
1/2 an onion, chopped
1 t. dried garlic or garlic powder or use 4 cloves fresh, smashed and chopped
1 t. dried oregano or 2 T. fresh
1 t. dried basil or 2 T. fresh, chopped
2 c. water
Necessary but not particular
2 c. green vegetables - green beans, zucchini, celery, bell pepper, peas, lima beans, or all of them, mix and match to your heart's content
2 c. other vegetables - yellow squash, carrots, eggplant, mushrooms, kale, cabbage, daikon, turnips, potatoes, whatever you've got lying around that needs used
To start: Chop everything into bite size bits. Separate things into three groups: Those that need cooked like raw meat or carrots or potatoes, those that cook very fast like zucchini or mushrooms or daikon or cabbage, and those that are canned or frozen and just need heated like the canned beans or the frozen peas.
Brown the hamburger with the onion and any other vegetable you usually sauté such as fresh garlic, celery, or bell pepper. Don't have hamburger? Use sausage or leftover beef roast or pork chops or anything except fish. Chicken will work in a pinch, but I prefer beef. Make sure it's cooked, or cook it now.
In a large pot, mix the spaghetti sauce, tomatoes, pasta (if it's a sturdy variety like elbow noodles or rotini), and water. Add any veggies that need longer cooking time like raw carrots, potatoes, or turnips. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes or so, until the veggies are mostly done. Stir in the meat mixture, spices, and the fast cooking foods (delicate pasta like angel hair can be added here). Cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Then add anything else that just needs heated. If you add spinach, use raw and add it very last. Cook for another 5 minutes until it's hot through. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. If the soup is too thick, add more water to thin it out.
Garnish the soup with parmesan cheese, croutons, garlic toast, crackers, whatever you got that would go with the soup.
That's the basics of whatchagot cooking.
Showing posts with label easy recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy recipes. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday Recipe - Goat Cheese Spread and To-Die-For Frosting
(I was going to add pictures, but my daughter has my camera. By the time I get it back, I'll have to make everything from scratch all over again. Maybe pictures later, if I don't forget.)
It's spring break. I should be writing, but I need some time to play, too. I've been playing in the kitchen. These two recipes DO NOT go together. Ew. But both are awesome in their own way.
I promised my 7yo that I would share her cheese spread recipe. 7yo and goat cheese? Weird, yep. She's allergic to cow's milk in all its forms. She's learned to love goat cheese instead. Costco sells some good goat Chevre. My daughter loves their sushi, too, but that's another story. A while back, Costco had a cinnamon-cranberry goat Chevre on sale. My daughter fell in love with it. She keeps begging me to buy it, but it was a seasonal item. So we got creative and made our own version. She tells me it's much better. I have no idea because I found I'm allergic to goat milk. I've never tasted the spread, so you'll have to take her word for it.
The frosting was an experiment that turned out awesome, to quote my 15yo son. The cake, an outdated carrot cake mix, was pretty bleh, but the frosting turned out incredible. I thought about cream cheese frosting, but most of my kids are allergic to milk, not just the youngest. So I played and came up with this. It's kind of a caramel flavor, but not. It would work well on carrot cake, spice cake, yellow cake, or white cake; but not on chocolate cake.
Goat Cheese Spread
1/2 c. goat Chevre cheese, or other soft, mild cheese
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. allspice
pinch of cardamom
3 T. dried cranberries, chopped small
1/4 c. finely chopped nuts, optional (my daughter loves cashews, but pecans would work, too. Use the ones from a roasted and salted nut mix for best flavor.)
Mix sugar and spices together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cheese. Add the cranberries, then gently smush with a spoon until the mixture is mostly blended. Gentle is the key when working with goat milk or goat cheese. The more you handle it, the stronger the goat flavor gets. Don't use an electric mixer on this one. Just be patient and mash it around with a spoon. It doesn't have to be thoroughly mixed, just enough to swirl everything through the cheese. Put the mix into a tightly covered container and refrigerate for at least two hours to let the flavors blend. Serve it with breads, crackers, or sliced fruit.
Optional: Turn it into bite-size cheese balls. Scoop the cheese into rounded teaspoonfuls. Roll each ball in chopped nuts to coat. Set on a serving platter and serve immediately.
To-Die-For Frosting
1/2 c. real butter, don't use margarine in this one
1/3 c. brown sugar
2 T. mayonnaise
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. coconut extract
1/4 t. almond extract
3 - 4 c. powdered sugar
3 T. water
Stick the butter in the microwave to soften, but accidentally put it in too long so it comes out half-melted. Scrape it into your stand mixer bowl anyway and add the brown sugar. Cream it for at least three minutes to dissolve the brown sugar as much as possible. Add the mayonnaise and the extracts. Cream for another three minutes. It should be pale brown and very silky at this point. Add 2 c. of the powdered sugar and the water. Cream for, you guessed it, another three minutes. Add enough of the remaining powdered sugar to make a soft frosting. If you get it too stiff, add a little bit more water. Then, cream it again for at least a minute. Creaming the frosting makes it very soft and fluffy as well as dissolving the brown sugar to remove any grittiness.
Frost the cake of your choice, or spread the frosting on graham crackers and eat it immediately. Or just eat it with your fingers. It's that good.
It's spring break. I should be writing, but I need some time to play, too. I've been playing in the kitchen. These two recipes DO NOT go together. Ew. But both are awesome in their own way.
I promised my 7yo that I would share her cheese spread recipe. 7yo and goat cheese? Weird, yep. She's allergic to cow's milk in all its forms. She's learned to love goat cheese instead. Costco sells some good goat Chevre. My daughter loves their sushi, too, but that's another story. A while back, Costco had a cinnamon-cranberry goat Chevre on sale. My daughter fell in love with it. She keeps begging me to buy it, but it was a seasonal item. So we got creative and made our own version. She tells me it's much better. I have no idea because I found I'm allergic to goat milk. I've never tasted the spread, so you'll have to take her word for it.
The frosting was an experiment that turned out awesome, to quote my 15yo son. The cake, an outdated carrot cake mix, was pretty bleh, but the frosting turned out incredible. I thought about cream cheese frosting, but most of my kids are allergic to milk, not just the youngest. So I played and came up with this. It's kind of a caramel flavor, but not. It would work well on carrot cake, spice cake, yellow cake, or white cake; but not on chocolate cake.
Goat Cheese Spread
1/2 c. goat Chevre cheese, or other soft, mild cheese
2 T. sugar
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. allspice
pinch of cardamom
3 T. dried cranberries, chopped small
1/4 c. finely chopped nuts, optional (my daughter loves cashews, but pecans would work, too. Use the ones from a roasted and salted nut mix for best flavor.)
Mix sugar and spices together in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the cheese. Add the cranberries, then gently smush with a spoon until the mixture is mostly blended. Gentle is the key when working with goat milk or goat cheese. The more you handle it, the stronger the goat flavor gets. Don't use an electric mixer on this one. Just be patient and mash it around with a spoon. It doesn't have to be thoroughly mixed, just enough to swirl everything through the cheese. Put the mix into a tightly covered container and refrigerate for at least two hours to let the flavors blend. Serve it with breads, crackers, or sliced fruit.
Optional: Turn it into bite-size cheese balls. Scoop the cheese into rounded teaspoonfuls. Roll each ball in chopped nuts to coat. Set on a serving platter and serve immediately.
To-Die-For Frosting
1/2 c. real butter, don't use margarine in this one
1/3 c. brown sugar
2 T. mayonnaise
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. coconut extract
1/4 t. almond extract
3 - 4 c. powdered sugar
3 T. water
Stick the butter in the microwave to soften, but accidentally put it in too long so it comes out half-melted. Scrape it into your stand mixer bowl anyway and add the brown sugar. Cream it for at least three minutes to dissolve the brown sugar as much as possible. Add the mayonnaise and the extracts. Cream for another three minutes. It should be pale brown and very silky at this point. Add 2 c. of the powdered sugar and the water. Cream for, you guessed it, another three minutes. Add enough of the remaining powdered sugar to make a soft frosting. If you get it too stiff, add a little bit more water. Then, cream it again for at least a minute. Creaming the frosting makes it very soft and fluffy as well as dissolving the brown sugar to remove any grittiness.
Frost the cake of your choice, or spread the frosting on graham crackers and eat it immediately. Or just eat it with your fingers. It's that good.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thursday Recipe - Candy Cane Cookies
Here's my December cheer moment. These cookies are not those time-consuming, delectable butter cookie creations shaped like candy canes. These are my answer to all those candy canes lying around your house that no one will eat. It is also a great recipe for relieving stress and anger. And it tastes really good when you're done. Because they are chocolate chip cookies, nobody cares if they are lumpy and misshapen. So, don't stress. Not everything has to look perfect and tidy this month. You should see the way I'm wrapping presents this year. I'm letting the 7yo do it for me. I just need a lot more tape than normal...
Candy Cane Cookies
12-20 candy canes, any size but please don't mix the peppermint with the fruit. That's just plain nasty. Use one or the other.
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
3 c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips, milk preferred this time
Unwrap all the candy canes and stuff them into a plastic bag. Don't use a ziploc or anything that seals tightly. Clean bread bags are great. Triple bag the bag with candy canes in it. Twist the top loosely to keep them from exploding out the top. Take a rolling pin and beat them into smithereens. Work out all that built-up aggression. You want nothing bigger than a chocolate chip when you're through. Set the candy cane remnants aside.
Heat oven to 375° F. Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together. Add eggs, soda, salt, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and candy cane bits. Scoop dough by tablespoonfuls onto well greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool 1 - 2 minutes, then move to a cooling rack. Don't let them cool on the pan or you'll be sorry. Melted candy canes are not only VERY HOT but sticky and messy. They stick to cookie sheets when they set back up. Let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes before you eat them. Did I mention the candy cane bits will melt and get VERY HOT?
Have a great holiday. I'll have to post other traditional Christmas recipes as I remember them or my kids ask for them.
Candy Cane Cookies
12-20 candy canes, any size but please don't mix the peppermint with the fruit. That's just plain nasty. Use one or the other.
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
3 c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips, milk preferred this time
Unwrap all the candy canes and stuff them into a plastic bag. Don't use a ziploc or anything that seals tightly. Clean bread bags are great. Triple bag the bag with candy canes in it. Twist the top loosely to keep them from exploding out the top. Take a rolling pin and beat them into smithereens. Work out all that built-up aggression. You want nothing bigger than a chocolate chip when you're through. Set the candy cane remnants aside.
Heat oven to 375° F. Cream butter, shortening, and sugars together. Add eggs, soda, salt, and vanilla. Beat until smooth and creamy. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and candy cane bits. Scoop dough by tablespoonfuls onto well greased cookie sheet. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool 1 - 2 minutes, then move to a cooling rack. Don't let them cool on the pan or you'll be sorry. Melted candy canes are not only VERY HOT but sticky and messy. They stick to cookie sheets when they set back up. Let the cookies cool at least 10 minutes before you eat them. Did I mention the candy cane bits will melt and get VERY HOT?
Have a great holiday. I'll have to post other traditional Christmas recipes as I remember them or my kids ask for them.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thurday Recipe - Favorite Thanksgiving leftovers
Did you have a great Thanksgiving? We did. I've got a fridge full of leftovers now. And here are some of my favorite ways to eat them:
Double Turkey Gravy
2 c. leftover gravy
2 c. leftover turkey, cut into small chunks
leftover rolls, stuffing, potatoes, etc.
Heat gravy and turkey, serve over the other stuff. Easy, but my kids favorite leftover preparation.
Turkey a la King
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
3 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste
dash of tabasco sauce
1 c. cooked turkey, chopped up
1 c. leftover green vegetables (broccoli, peas, beans, etc.)
Rolls, noodles, or potatoes
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour. Cook and stir 1 minute, until very bubbly but not browned. Whisk in milk, keep whisking until smooth. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a full boil. Boil and stir for 1 minute, it should thicken up. Remove from heat. Stir in turkey and vegetables. My kids like peas the best, use frozen if you don't have any leftovers. Season to taste. Stir over low heat until everything is nice and hot. Serve over rolls, potatoes, noodles, or whatever else you like.
Turkey Poop Soup
4 c. leftover turkey (usually the very last bits, so all you have left is the poop. Family story behind this one...)
2 c. carrots, peeled & sliced
1 T. butter
1 c. celery, sliced
1/2 c. onion, chopped
8 c. chicken or turkey stock or broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. ginger
1 t. dried oregano leaves
1 t. dried parsley
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. turmeric
2 c. noodles, uncooked
Saute onions and celery in butter in a large soup pot until tender. Add everything else except noodles. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 hour, until vegetables are tender. Add salt to taste. Turn heat up to high. Add noodles. Cook just until noodles are done. Remove from heat, serve immediately. We love it with croutons on top.
Double Turkey Gravy
2 c. leftover gravy
2 c. leftover turkey, cut into small chunks
leftover rolls, stuffing, potatoes, etc.
Heat gravy and turkey, serve over the other stuff. Easy, but my kids favorite leftover preparation.
Turkey a la King
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
3 c. milk
salt and pepper to taste
dash of tabasco sauce
1 c. cooked turkey, chopped up
1 c. leftover green vegetables (broccoli, peas, beans, etc.)
Rolls, noodles, or potatoes
Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour. Cook and stir 1 minute, until very bubbly but not browned. Whisk in milk, keep whisking until smooth. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a full boil. Boil and stir for 1 minute, it should thicken up. Remove from heat. Stir in turkey and vegetables. My kids like peas the best, use frozen if you don't have any leftovers. Season to taste. Stir over low heat until everything is nice and hot. Serve over rolls, potatoes, noodles, or whatever else you like.
Turkey Poop Soup
4 c. leftover turkey (usually the very last bits, so all you have left is the poop. Family story behind this one...)
2 c. carrots, peeled & sliced
1 T. butter
1 c. celery, sliced
1/2 c. onion, chopped
8 c. chicken or turkey stock or broth
1 bay leaf
1/2 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. ginger
1 t. dried oregano leaves
1 t. dried parsley
1/2 t. paprika
1/2 t. turmeric
2 c. noodles, uncooked
Saute onions and celery in butter in a large soup pot until tender. Add everything else except noodles. Bring to a simmer. Cook for 1 hour, until vegetables are tender. Add salt to taste. Turn heat up to high. Add noodles. Cook just until noodles are done. Remove from heat, serve immediately. We love it with croutons on top.
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