Tag Archives: onion

Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

Vegetable Beef Soup

Vegetable Beef Soup to serve

One of the nicest things about preparing an Italian Beef Roast, aside from it being used for French Dip Sandwiches the first time around, is using the leftover roast for Vegetable Beef Soup. You can use your roast for another meal by preparing this hearty soup, and, if the day is overcast and chilly, all the better, for this soup will definitely warm your tummy AND your kitchen.

I used the recipe from my cookbook today to prepare this soup but did add 3/4 cup of the left over au jus broth from the roast for added flavor since it was available and I knew it would enhance the store-bought beef broth listed in the recipe; I also added a can of stewed tomatoes, snipped small, because I wanted to stretch my servings as the soup is for sharing tonight with my mom and her friends. Because the meat was already cooked, it didn’t need to be sauteed before beginning. Once the soup finished cooking, a quick stirring up of my favorite garlic and red pepper-flavored croutons, using French bread also left from this week’s dinner party, found both lunch and supper ready, waiting, and tempting.

You can substitute vegetables of your choice as the V8 juice base of this soup allows for many possibilities. I sometimes add lima beans, corn, or peas but today wanted to follow the cookbook recipe as closely as possible. You might also like a pan of cornbread in place of croutons; just about anything you fancy works easily with this recipe. Thirty minutes of prep work and thirty minutes of cooking and you can call everybody to the table!

Vegetable Beef Soup

Ingredients

1 T. vegetable oil
3/4 lb. boneless beef sirloin steak or beef top round steak, cut 1/2” cubes
3 cups V8 100% Vegetable Juice
1-3/4 cups beef broth
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves, crushed
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 cup potato, cut into cubes
1/2 cup carrot
1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced thick
Shredded cabbage, to taste

Directions Heat the oil in a 4-qt. Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it is well-browned, stirring often. Pour off any fat. Stir the vegetable juice, broth, thyme, pepper, potato, carrot, onion and celery in the sauce pot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the vegetables and meat are tender. If you want a thinner broth, add water as soup cooks.

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Recipes - Side Dishes

Broccoli Cornbread

Broccoli Cornbread 2 (2)

I made this dish when Susie was visiting in November and served it with Chicken Cacciatore, but made it again today because the photo from November was terrible (it’s all about “the learning curve” here with photographing food). Today I halved the recipe since there was no company here to help enjoy it. This simple dish bakes up moist with cottage cheese, eggs, and Jiffy Mix, and it actually tastes more like dressing than anything else. The broccoli and eggs produce a satisfying side dish with many purposes; it is especially delicious accompanying meatloaf or a pot of ham-n-beans. This old recipe of mama’s is always a good choice for a pot luck or when there are enough people around the table to enjoy it in one sitting; if not, it does microwave well the second day.

Broccoli Cornbread

Ingredients

5 eggs, beaten
2 cups cottage cheese
1 box frozen chopped broccoli, thawed
1-1/2 sticks margarine, melted
1 onion, chopped
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix

Directions Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, mix eggs, cottage cheese, broccoli, margarine and onion. Stir to mix well. Add the cornbread mix, one box at a time and mix well, folding all ingredients. Scrape into a greased 9×13 glass baking dish. Bake 45-50 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly then cut into squares for serving.

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Recipes - Soups, Stews, & Chowders

German Sausage Chowder

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german sausage chowder and pretzels

This recipe from the Maui News is an oldie-but-goody. I pasted it in my notebook and enjoyed it many times, sending it along to mama for enjoying on winter days in Florida. Here in Missouri today, it is damp AND chilly AND the drizzling rain continues, and so a perfect time for cooking up this chowder. I halved the recipe today because I had already used half of the sausage and the cabbage for another purpose but still ended up with four nice servings.

The chowder is hearty with potatoes, onion, cabbage and smoked sausage, and the broth just as hearty with their flavors. Though the original recipe doesn’t advise sautéing the vegetables and sausage for five minutes with a tablespoon of butter, tonight I did so and it enhanced the overall flavor. You might enjoy this with cornbread muffins because the broth just says, “bread please” but I settled on the Spiced Pretzels also prepared today. The Teacher Gang ate the first batch of pretzels this week down to the crumbly crumbs and today’s batch proved a quirky, but satisfying, accompaniment to chowder tonight. Together, they hit the right note: spicy and creamy. You will love this chowder if you’re expecting cold weather this week too.

German Sausage Chowder

Ingredients:
1 lb. fully cooked bratwurst or kielbasa, cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1 small head cabbage, shredded
3 cups milk
3 T. flour
1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded
Fresh parsley, snipped

Directions In large saucepan or 4-qt. Dutch oven, combine sausage, potatoes, onion, salt and pepper. Saute for 5 minutes in 1 T. of butter. Add 2 cups water and bring to boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are nearly tender. Stir in cabbage, cook another 10 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Stir in 2-1/2 cups of the milk. Blend remaining 1/2 cup milk and the flour and shake well in a jar with a tight-fitting lid to blend; stir into soup. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Stir in the cheese and turn off heat. When cheese has melted, stir to blend well. Garnish with the fresh parsley.

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Recipes - Salads

Absolute Best Macaroni Salad

different mac

Ahhh, macaroni salad! Who doesn’t love pasta and veggies dressed with a special “sauce”? Because this salad keeps well in the fridge without losing its flavor or texture, it was on my carry-in list to my sister’s house for Christmas again this year. The secret to the salad’s great taste is found in the sweetened condensed milk used in the dressing. Cutting the vegetables for this dish by hand does take longer, an exercise in determined effort more than anything else, but the moisture the veggies release using a food chopper detract from the flavor of this dish and you will have better results taking the time to slice-and-dice them yourself.

The secret to the salad’s great taste is found in the sweetened condensed milk in the dressing. Use just enough mayonnaise to prevent the dressing being runny as this keeps the pasta from being overwhelmed. I already adjusted the mayonnaise amount; you should start with the smaller amount then adjust to your taste. This yields a large bowl of salad so it is a perfect choice for a “next day” menu as well. Do try this and let me know what you think; it is not the typical Hawaiian-style plate lunch mac salad, y’all, but it is a good alternative. Don’t over cook the macaroni and it’s all “duck soup!”

Ingredients

For the salad

1 (16 oz.) pkg. elbow macaroni, cooked, drained well
1 large onion, chopped, small dice
1 large green pepper, seeded, cut into strips, then cut, small dice
2-3 stalks celery, cut into thin strips then diced
3 carrots, shaved into strips then snipped small

For the dressing

1 can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1-1/2 to 2 cups Hellman’s mayonnaise, to taste
1/4 cup cider vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
Celery seed, to taste

Directions Prepare the vegetables. Cook macaroni according to package directions; drain well in a colander. Prepare the dressing by combining the milk, mayonnaise, and vinegar in small mixing bowl, whisking thoroughly to blend. Season dressing to taste with salt, pepper, and celery seed if using. Place well-drained macaroni in large bowl, add the vegetables and the dressing; stir well, folding the dressing in thoroughly to coat the macaroni. Scrape into large covered container and chill completely before serving. Store leftovers in fridge.

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