Bites & Pieces (Pink Soup)

Posted on December 4, 2011 by lmsinca

My husband convinced the girls when they were very young that he invented the color pink, and to prove it he made a pot of pink soup.  This is an old family recipe for beet soup handed down through his family by word of mouth so you may have to adjust the ingredients a little to your own taste.  If you can get beyond the bright fuchsia color you’ll discover a wonderful and unusual taste.

Ingredients:

3–4 lb Pork Butt
3-4 fresh medium to large beets
½ onion diced
2 stalks celery diced
¼ cup celery tops chopped
2-3 carrots sliced thinly on the diagonal
4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
1 15oz can diced tomatoes
5-6 cups stock (vegetable or chicken)
3-4 bay leaves
Salt, pepper, celery salt (to season pork)
1 pint heavy cream
3 TBS (or to taste) distilled white vinegar

Directions:

Brown seasoned pork in heavy soup pan or dutch oven over medium heat until browned on all sides. Be extra careful not to burn the pan as it will affect the taste of the soup.  Cover with about 2 cups of water and some of the stock just till covered in liquid.  Add bay leaves, cover and cook over low heat or in the oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours until tender.

Remove meat from liquid and set aside to cool and chop to add back into soup.  Peel and cut beets into julienne strips and add to stock and bring to a high simmer on top of stove, cook for about 15 minutes.  Add onions, celery, carrots and more stock.  Add chopped pork back into pan and then add potatoes and canned tomatoes.  Let all simmer until beets are tender.  It should be a chunky soup with more ingredients than broth at this point but you can add a little more broth if you need to, remember though you’re also adding more liquid in the form of cream.  Add a little more salt or celery salt if necessary for taste.  When veggies are done, turn off heat and add cream until it has a nice creamy look and consistency; you can taste the richness and know if you’ve got enough in there or not.  It should take most of the pint.  Add vinegar a tablespoon at a time to taste.  Enjoy.

If you know me at all you’ll know I also make a vegetarian version but since we have mostly meat eaters here I’ll just leave that one to your imagination.

Filed under: recipes | Tagged: | 15 Comments »

Bites & Pieces (Leftovers)

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Michigoose

Leftover Turkey Casserole
by lmsinca

These are all just rough estimates as it’s one of those “created from thin air” recipes

3 Cups cubed cooked turkey
12 oz. of spaghetti noodles, cooked
1 1/2 TBS butter or margarine
1 Can cream of mushroom soup
1 Can cream of celery soup
1/3 diced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
2 1/4 cups milk
 1 1/2 tsp A1 steak sauce (crazy, I know)
3 cups grated cheddar cheese

In a large sauce pan saute onions in butter until soft, add garlic powder and stir into onions, add turkey, soup, milk and 1 cup of cheese.  Heat through and then add steak sauce (trust me).  Pour over noodles in a large baking dish and cover with remaining cheese.  Bake at 350 until bubbly.

By the way, I don’t use Campbells cream soups unless I need a cheddar.  Pacific makes terrific cream soups if you can find them.  They also make the best vegetable broth I’ve ever had when I don’t have time to make my own.  We buy them here at Sprouts, which used to be Henry’s, which used to be Wild Oats.  Oh, and they’re actually in boxes not cans if you go looking for them.

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Leftover Cold Turkey Sandwich
by Scott (not-a-chef) C

2 slices of White Bread (the whiter the better – no wheat or whole grain allowed)
Mayonnaise
Cold Turkey (preferably white meat)
Salt

Take the two slices of white bread, and cover one side of each with mayonnaise. Place generous portions of turkey on one slice of bread, mayonnaised side up. Add a touch a salt. Place other slice of bread on top, mayonnaised side down. Cut in half, always diagonally. Be sure not to slice horizontally or vertically. Eat.

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Black Friday Fajitafest
by MsJS


This recipe contains no leftovers from the Thanksgiving Day meal.  It’s for folks who want something else the next day.

Serves 8-10

Marinade:
Juice of two limes
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
2 Tbsp. mesquite liquid smoke or soy sauce
4 cloves garlic crushed and chopped

Other ingredients:
1 lb. skirt steak or flank steak, pounded to uniform thickness
1 lb. skinless, boneless chicken breast, pounded to uniform thickness
5-6 Tbsp. olive oil
2 yellow onions, peeled and sliced with the grain in 1/2-inch strips
4 bell peppers of various colors, cored, seeded, and sliced into strips
2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Served with:
10 flour tortillas
Optional add-ons:  Salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, sliced avocado or your fave guacamole

Mix all the marinade ingredients together and split into two portions.  Marinade the steak and the chicken separately for at least two hours in the fridge, preferably overnight.  Before cooking the meat, wipe off the marinade and discard.

Split olive oil into two frying pans and heat up a bit.  Saute chicken and steak separately until just cooked.  Cooking time will depend on thickness of meat, but start with 3 minutes a side and then check.  When just done, remove from pans and let rest on a cutting board.

Add more oil if needed to pans.  Saute half of the onions and peppers in each pan until just turning soft, about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, slice the chicken and steak into thin strips.  Put the sliced meats back into their respective pans for a minute to blend with the onion/pepper combo, mixing in a teaspoon of cayenne pepper into each.

Warm the tortillas in the microwave by covering in a paper towel and heating for 30 seconds.  Serve immediately with the optional add-ons and football.

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Filed under: food, recipes | 10 Comments »

Pre-Thanksgiving Bites

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Michigoose

Everyone has their favorite way of doing their bird for the Big Day (and, really, it’s kind of too close to the holiday to think about changing turkey recipes at this point. . . but if you ask very, very nicely I’ll let you in on the secret of how the world’s Best Damn Turkey gets fixed at Chez Michigoose most years) but side dishes are something that we can play around with–or, to be grammatically correct, something with which we can play around.

Have I mentioned that my mother was an English teacher?

At any rate, here is my twist on one of the classics:

Better Than Campbell’s Green Bean Casserole


1         cup        Italian bread crumbs
3         cups       Fried onions (about a 6 oz can)
2         lb           Green beans, trimmed and halved
3         T            Unsalted butter
1         lb            Button mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed and broken into pieces
3         cloves     Garlic, minced
3         T            All-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups        Chicken stock
1 1/2   cups Heavy cream

Toss the bread crumbs and fried onions together in a bowl, set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Fill a large bowl with ice water.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the beans.  Cook beans about 6 minutes until just barely tender; plunge beans into the ice water for a minute or two, then spread them on some paper towels to drain.

Place butter in a saute pan and melt over medium heat; add muchrooms, garlic, and some salt and pepper and cook for 6 minutes (mushrooms should release their moisture and the liquid should evaporate).  Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Stir in the chicken stock and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.  Add the cream, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer until sauce is thickened and reduced to about 3 1/2 cups (about 12 minutes).  Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Add the green beans to the sauce and stir to coat; arrange in a baking dish and sprinkle with the bread crumb/onion topping.  Bake for 15 minutes and serve.

And I really, really don’t like sweet Sweet Potatoes–those things with little marshmallows in them were the bane of my existence as a kid at Thanksgiving.  So I was very happy to find this recipe in Gourmet magazine’s cook book one year:

Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Peppers


4 – 5 Sweet potatoes
1 T Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (processed)
3 T Unsalted butter

Process the chipotle peppers in their sauce in a food processor to make a paste.  The leftover processed peppers last several months in the refrigerator (mine don’t last that long, but only because I love cooking with them and use them in just about everything except ice cream)

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.  Wash the sweet potatoes and prick the skins with a fork.  Roast for 1 – 2 hours until very soft and set aside to cool.  Lower oven to 350 degrees.

Scrape the meat out of the potatoes and add the chipotles and butter; beat with a mixer until smooth and fluffy.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Place the potatoes in a baking dish and dot with more butter if desired; bake until warmed through.

Another take on green beans from okie:

Green Bean Bacon Wraps


Ingredients
2-3     lbs            whole green beans (fresh or frozen)
1         lb or less   bacon
1         C              brown sugar
1         C              butter
½         t               garlic salt
2         T               soy sauce

Preparation
If using fresh green beans, blanch in boiling water for 1minute and drain.  Thaw if using frozengreen beans.  Cut bacon into short enoughpieces to wrap bundles of 5-7 green beans each (about ¾ slice each).  Secure with toothpicks and place in a glassbaking dish.  Mix brown sugar, meltedbutter, garlic salt and soy sauce in a bowl. Pour the mixture over the green bean wraps and refrigerate overnight.  Cook at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Apple, Cranberry, Currant Pie from MarkInAustin

Mike, Brian, BB, and Dave! I know y’all have seen this from me twice, so I apologize to you in advance.

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 1 1/2 hours, plus at least 1 hour to cool
MAKES: 8 [adult male or teenager] servings

1/4     cup            Gran Marnier [or brandy, if you are short on the good stuff]
1/4     cup            currants [look like tiny raisins – you could use raisins in a pinch but they are not the same]
1        cup            fresh [or thawed frozen] cranberries [I find fresh make a tarter pie – I am OK with tart]
About 3/4 cup     granulated FRUCTOSE  [a lot of apple pie recipes call for a cup or more of sugar – fructose is sweeter and way lower on the glycemic index]
1/2     cup            tapioca flour [I never use cornstarch in a fruit pie]
1/2     tsp             ground nutmeg
1/2     tsp             ground cinnamon
1/4     tsp             salt
2        oz              1/2+1/2
6        cups          sliced/chopped Granny Smith apples [about 2 1/4 lb].  I like the skin on for this pie – it’s more “rustic”.  Think of Pilgrims and Indians.
2×9-inch pie pastry shells  – I either make my own or buy really great shells at Central Market.  When I make my own they are in no way unusual.

1. In a small bowl, combine Gran Marnier and currants. Cover and let stand until currants are plump, at least 1 hour.  [Sometimes I cheat and do not soak this long.  No biggie.  The plumpness of currants is mainly a texture deal]

2.  Chop/slice apples, skin on, using a mix of techniques for slices and chunks.  If there will be a delay between prep and oven, put the 6 cups of apples in a big bowl and add a little OJ to keep them from browning.  LATER YOU MUST THOROUGHLY DRAIN AND PAT DRY THE APPLES!  My grandmother taught me the OJ instead of lemon juice trick about 55 years ago.

3. Sort cranberries and discard any that are bruised or decayed. Rinse and drain berries.

4. In a large bowl, mix fructose, tapioca flour, nutmeg, and salt. With a slotted spoon, lift currants from Gran Marnier; reserve Gran Marnier. Add currants, cranberries, and chopped apples to fructose mixture and mix well. Taste and add more fructose if desired. Pour filling into unbaked pie pastry in pan.  Cut hole pattern in top crust.  Mix 1/2+1/2 with reserved Gran Marnier and cinnamon and brush liberally on pie crust.  Carefully braid foil around pie’s edge to keep pie from from crisping-burning on crust edge that overlaps the pan during baking.  [Later, pass off the tiny pieces of foil that some guest finds in the crust edge as “healthy mineral”. 🙂]  

5. Bake on the bottom rack of a 375° oven until juices bubble around edges and through top holes, 55 to 65 minutes. If pie browns too quickly – check after 30 minutes – cover loosely with foil.

6. Set pie, uncovered, on a rack until cool to touch, at least 1 hour.

Personal note:  I think most apple based recipes use way too much cinnamon, to the point that some people confuse the cinnamon with the apples.  Using the cinnamon on the crust, only, permits the fruit flavors to dominate, but the smell of the pie out of the oven has the familiar cinnamon scent.

Lulu’s mashed potatoes au gratin


8 – 10 potatoes peeled and cut in half, then boiled until tender

Mash potatoes with butter, milk, 2 cloves garlic, salt and pepper

While potatoes are boiling saute 2-3 onions (sliced) until really really carmelized, I do this over medium heat so they don’t burn

Put potatoes into baking dish, dot with butter and bake until heated through

Add onion to top and cover with either Gruyere or Havarti cheese and broil until cheese is nice and bubbly and golden

FABULOUS PUMPKIN BREAD
from MsJS


Makes three loaves.

Ingredients:
15 oz. pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil, preferably canola
2/3 cup water
3 cups sugar

3.5 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground gloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour three 8x3x2  loaf pans.

In a large bowl, mix together the first five ingredients until blended.  In a separate bowl, sift together everything else.  Mix the dry ingredients into the first bowl until just blended.  Don’t overmix.

Pour into the prepared loaf pans and bake 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool completely before removing from the pans and slicing.

Turkey Enchiladas
by Victoria Topham, owner and chef, Piñon Market and Cafe (and friend of Michigoose’s)

1 ea onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 can roasted green chilis, peeled
2 cups chicken stock

Sauté the onion and garlic.  Add the chilis and stock, cook down and puree.  Add salt if needed.

2 lb Turkey, cooked and shredded
2 cups Sour cream
1+ cup Pepper jack cheese, shredded (or salsa jack, if you can find it)
1+ cup Cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp Red pepper flakes
1 T Cilantro, chopped
1 T Scallion, chopped

Flour tortillas
Tomatillo salsa, for serving

Combine the enchilada filling ingredients together in a mixing bowl; mix well. Place about 1/2 cup of filling into a tortilla and roll up.  Place the enchilada in a baking dish and repeat until dish is full.

Pour the green chili sauce over the top, cover with more cheese and chopped tomatoes.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Serve with tomatillo salsa on the side.

NOTE: this is a very free-form recipe, as Vic adapted it for me from the amounts that she uses in her restaurant.  The most important thing is to use plenty of green chili sauce, so that the enchiladas don’t dry out while cooking. . . so supplement if needed–either with more sauce or more tomatillo salsa–and have fun!  I usually use more green onion than Vic does, and half the red pepper flakes since I use Penzey’s “very hot” ones.

Who’s next??

Filed under: food, recipes, Thanksgiving | 29 Comments »

My chili recipe for Okiegirl (and y’all)

Posted on November 1, 2011 by markinaustin

Step 1

2 lbs – “chili grind” beef chuck
2 tsp – cooking oil/olive oil + “pam”
1 tbsp – Wick Fowler 2 Alarm chili powder
2 tsp – chopped garlic

After browning meat in big skillet [use a little oil and pam], put the browned meat into a three quart heavy saucepan, add the remaining ingredients and simmer  [10 min.] .  Simmering is done on low-medium heat on most stovetops.

 Prepare Step 2 during the 10 minute simmer.

Step 2

1 – 8 oz can of tomato sauce or home prepared sauce
1 – big can of beef broth or real beef broth
1/4 cup chopped sweet yellow onion Texas A&M1015Y or [Granex (Vidalia, Maui Maui or NoonDay)]
1 tsp – chopped garlic
8 oz – bottled or distilled or filtered water
1 tbsp – WF 2 Alarm chili powder
2 – serrano peppers
1/2 tsp – salt

Combine seasonings except the serrano peppers and add to beef mixture. Float the 2 serrano peppers on top of the mixture. Bring to a boil and hold for 3 minutes, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.  Then remove the floating serrano peppers.

Taste the mixture after an hour.

Correction to your personal taste stage!

Have handy:
a little bit of chopped onion, a little bit of chopped garlic, more 2 Alarm chili powder, red pepper, a little cumin, salt, and [optionally] a little bit of brown sugar.  Also more bottled water, of course.  I personally never use the sugar, but a little bit is ok for most people. Do not overdo sugar or you will make a hopeless, disgusting mess.

GUESS HOW MUCH OF EACH YOU NEED TO CORRECT THE SEASONING AND USE LESS THAN YOUR GUESS FOR EACH.

THIS will be  your first correction simmer.

If necessary do a second “correction to your personal taste stage”.

 Simmer for 10 minutes.

Let stand for 40 minutes

Filed under: Bites and Pieces, food, recipes, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Bits & Pieces (Sat. Night Food Fight)

Posted on October 2, 2011 by lmsinca

Just kidding

I mentioned my garden this morning. One of my fall vegetables coming along quite nicely is acorn squash. Maybe you have them in your garden also. Here’s a great recipe.

Roasted Corn Pudding in Acorn Squash

1 small acorn squash (2lb.) cut in half lengthwise and seeded
1 TBS clarified butter or olive oil
1 cup milk (you can substitute coconut milk if you want)
1 egg plus 2 egg whites
1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
1/4 tsp anise seed, chopped (or curry paste if using coconut milk)
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp of fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup grated white cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375

Rub orange flesh of each half squash with butter/oil. Place cut side up on a baking sheet. You may have to trim the bottom (green side) a little to get the squash to sit flat. Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes.

Combine the milk, eggs, corn, anise (or curry paste), 1/2 of the scallions, nutmeg and salt. Fill each squash with filling. There may be some left over so pour into ramekin and bake with squash. Continue baking squash, uncovered, for another 30 to 50 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven and set oven to broil. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of squash and broil until cheese is brown and bubbly. Add remaining scallions and serve.

Be creative and mix up the spices, parsley and cilantro both go well with the corn instead of the anise or curry. (lmsinca)

It looks like FairlingtonBlade and I are both obsessed with food today. I promise I’ll get back to politics manana. I have an interesting link that might surprise some of you regarding the move by BofA to charge monthly debit card fees. (lmsinca)

Hope you’re all enjoying your weekend.

Filed under: recipes | Tagged: , | 12 Comments »

Thursday Morning Opening Thread

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Michigoose
The Tea Party Strikes Again?
Hold onto your hats, it’s about to get bumpy out there again:
The U.S. House, in a surprise setback to Republican leaders, defeated a spending bill providing $3.65 billion in aid to victims of recent natural disasters and needed to prevent a government shutdown.

Republicans unhappy with the measure’s overall cost joined Democrats opposed to a proposed cut in an auto industry-loan program to derail the measure yesterday, 230-195. Opposing the legislation were 48 Republicans and 182 Democrats; backing it were 189 Republicans and six Democrats.

The defeat raises the prospect of a government shutdown because the bill would fund the government until Nov. 18. The current fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and Congress is in recess next week.
Roll call is here.
”Utah’s Sarah Palin”
I had not heard of this woman, and I have to say that I don’t think she’s got a snowball’s chance as the congressional district is configured right now, but she is mounting a run against my Blue Dog. Jim Matheson is really going to be in trouble if the redistricting commission goes with the “doughnut hole” approach (one CD centered on Salt Lake City on the Wasatch front and the other three dividing up the rest of the state). He isn’t liberal enough to carry the new urban district—the big reason why his re-election was so close last time was because liberals like me voted for a third party candidate rather than him—and Tea Party sentiment is running high in Utah and a candidate like Ms Eagar could carry the rural part of his existing district. Will she have the ‘Cuda’s ability to fire up the masses?
Greek Salad
From the BBC, Reuters, and Food TV. Although I, personally, would leave the green peppers out of the last one.
Who’s got a good joke to start the day?
Submitted for your consideration by Michigoose

Filed under: budget, government shutdown, Greece, recipes, redistricting, Tea Party | Tagged: | 29 Comments »

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