by jphilo | Mar 26, 2010 | Recipes
A friend of mine said her husband enjoys the soup recipes I’ve posted in the last few months. So before spring and summer take over, here’s one more easy soup recipe that’s easy to modify.
A dear friend, Johnny Darling, gave me the recipe during the summer of 1982. We were staying with her and her husband in Bellevue, Nebraska while our son was in the University of Nebraska Hospital in Omaha. If you’re read A Different Dream for My Child: Meditations for Parents of Critically or Chronically Ill Children, she’s the woman who tries to get back at the squirrels in her yard by firing apricot pits at them with her slingshot. If you haven’t read the book, that tidbit of story should make you want to buy a copy, don’t you think?
Johnny was one of the most joyful, creative, free-spirited people I’ve known. She died of a fast-moving cancer about five years after Allen was born. Every time I make this soup, I see her smile and resolve to emulate her zest for living and her refusal to be bound by the expectations of others. I’m not always successful in those departments, but her soup recipe always turns out right. So without further ado, here it is.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
1 sixteen ounce can of chicken broth
2 cups milk
1 cup of chopped broccoli, cauliflower or celery
2 – 3 tablespoons butter
3 – 4 tablespoons flour
Melt butter in a saucepan and add vegetables. Saute for a minute or two over medium high heat, then add flour and stir until mixture is goopy. Turn down heat to medium and gradually add chicken broth, a couple tablespoons at a time. Stir well after each addition. Fill the empty can with milk and slowly add it. Heat until mixture just begins to boil, stirring constantly.
Options: You can add chopped ham or fried, crumbled bacon along with the vegetables. (There is ham in the soup pictured above.) Or add a 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese when the mixture begins to boil. Stir until cheese melts and serve immediately.
by jphilo | Mar 5, 2010 | Recipes
The produce section of the grocery store is a depressing place this time of year. The vegetables look downright exhausted, and the out-of-season fruits look like parodies of what’s available in summer and spring. Finding fruits and vegetables with crunch, flavor, and texture is often an exercise in futility.
To keep from succumbing completely to frozen and canned vegetables, I rely upon a couple never fail side dishes. One of them is Greek salad, which uses vegetables available and crunchy year round. It’s easy to make and so healthy you’ll feel increasingly virtuous with every bite.
Greek Salad
1 Romaine heart, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
1/4 medium sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/4 sweet red pepper, thinly sliced
1/4 cup kamara olives, pitted and halved
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon coarse black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
feta cheese
Combine vegetables in a salad bowl. In small bowl or curet, mix vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables immediately before serving and toss well. Sprinkle with feta cheese.
by jphilo | Feb 18, 2010 | Recipes
Along my gravel road, winter has been in full swing for two months. With the amount of snow on the ground, people in these parts are thinking the groundhog was mighty optimistic when he predicted only six more weeks of winter.
So what’s a person with raging cabin fever and a life-threatening snow overdose to do? Eat comfort food, which in my case means some sort of potatoes at supper, the thought of which probably has carb hawks shaking their heads.
But here’s the deal. One of my main motivations for sticking with my daily exercise regime is so I can eat potatoes now and then. My absolute favorite is mom’s recipe for the most comforting of all comfort foods, creamed potatoes. Yum!
Dorothy’s Creamed Potatoes
Peel, wash and slice 4 – 5 medium potatoes into 1/2 inch cubes. Put cubed potatoes in a saucepan and add water until the bottom 1/3 of the cubes are covered. Heat pan, uncovered, over high heat until the potatoes boil. Then turn down the heat and cover pan. Maintain a slow boil until potatoes are soft around the edges and firm in the middle. Remove from heat. Do not drain off water. Add 2 – 3 tablespoons of butter, 1/4 teaspoon pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon flour over all and stir well. Put pan back on low heat and add milk a tablespoon or two at a time, stirring constantly. Continue adding milk until the creamed mixture boils and reaches the consistency you desire.
Sorry the amounts aren’t exact, but this is a recipe Mom showed me how to make, and her amounts were by guess and by golly. So play with the recipe until you perfect it. The way this winter is going, you still have several months available to practice!
by jphilo | Nov 18, 2009 | Recipes
In Monday’s post, I briefly mentioned the Saturday night supper Hiram and I hosted for Anne, her boyfriend, and five of her cousins. On the family tree, they’re second cousins, but those particular branches grew up side-by-side, and they’re closer than sardines in a can.
The menu was simple because Hiram and I wanted to spend our time with our guests, not cooking in the kitchen, though these young adults were so helpful they would have pitched in and made it more of a family affair.
But, I digress.
The hit of the meal wasn’t the Turkey Tetrazinni, which I consider the mother of all comfort foods. It wasn’t the homemade caramel dip served with sliced apples for dessert. No, the big hit was the gigantic spinach salad I made because it is Anne’s favorite. Apparently, it was everybody’s favorite since there were no leftovers, even though I had filled the biggest Tupperware bowl they make with the stuff.
Because it was such a hit, I’m sharing the recipe with you. First, you’ll see the recipe I found in a Taste of Home magazine years ago. Below is the version served on Saturday night since strawberries are out of season.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
5 cups spinach leaves, torn in bite-sized pieces
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/4 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
Dressing:
1/4 cup salad oil
2 – 3 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 – 3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
Put first four ingredients into a large bowl. Combine dressing ingredients and mix well. Pour over salad and toss well. Serve immediately.
Saturday Night’s Spinach Salad
2 bags baby spinach
2 small cans mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup finely chopped sweet onion
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/4 cup crumbled bacon or real bacon bits
Dressing:
1/2 cup salad oil
4 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
Put first four ingredients into a large bowl. Combine dressing ingredients and mix well. Pour over salad and toss well. Serve immediately.
by jphilo | Aug 13, 2009 | Recipes
I’m pleased to announce that last night’s eggplant experiment was a big hit. In fact, Hiram could hardly wait to pack leftovers for lunch at work today. Since the dish is meatless, that’s saying a lot. He’s quite dubious when his favorite food group doesn’t make it to the dinner table.
So if your refrigerator is packed to the gills with eggplant, give this recipe a try. Allen gave it to me over the phone, from an Italian cookbook, but I don’t know its name and can’t credit the authors. But the recipe got the Hiram Seal of Approval. What more could you want?
Eggplant Pasta Bake
2 eggplants, cut in 1/4 inch cubes
1 1/2 tablespoons of salt
1 pound pasta (penne, bow ties or corkscrews), cooked
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cups tomato sauce
handful of fresh, chopped basil
1 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
Topping:
1 cup fluffy bread crumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Sprinkle eggplant cubes with salt. Let drain in a colander for a half hour. Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a pan and fry eggplant until brown. In a large casserole dish, combine, eggplant, pasta, cheese, tomato sauce, basil and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle over all. Bake covered at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Serve hot.
