Vegetarian Pot Pie, Shephard's pie and Baked Apples

Dear Anais,
This first recipe is one that I have stolen out-right from your Pepe. I imagine when Meme was sick with the cancer he got real good at making fast and tasty meals to serve them when he came home from working hard all day. This was one that he shared with me. Now this recipe calls for a premade pastry pie shell. If you purchase one from your usual grocer in the freezer section it is generally made with lard and tastes terrible. If you can purchase one from a health food store, or make one yourself it is always going to taste better. If you are in a hurry, don't beat yourself up, sometimes convenience wins. I know daddy got you that new mixer for xmas, so maybe you could look up a quick pie crust recipe and make one from scratch.

Vegetarian Pot Pie

2 premade pastry pie shells
1 can cream of mushroom soup (cream of celery or cream of chicken work well also)
1 can vegall, drained
1 can chicken for a meat variation-optional
pepper

Poke holes in one of the pastry shells with a fork and bake according to directions (or bake if from scratch) leave other pie shell out up-side down over a sheet of waxed paper to thaw. While shell is cooking combine all other ingredients on a bowl. After shell is cooked fill with ingredients, sprinkle with pepper. Carefully remove thawed pie shell from tin and place over filled pie and seal. Cover the edges of the pie with aluminum foil so they won't burn. Bake according to instructions on shell package and serve.

Shepherd's Pie

1 pastry pie shell
1/2 package morning star farms beef crumbles (or 1 lb ground sirloin for a meat variation)
2Tb beer
1 package brown gravy mix
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 small can chopped peas and carrots,drained
1 small can corn,drained
4 servings instant mashed potatoes

As above, precook the pie shell according to the pie instructions. I know that a lot of Shepherd's pie recipes do not call for crusts at all (like the one served at the Abbey pub-YUM!), but it is so much easier to serve people when the beef isn't flying out of the bottom and I have already told you how I feel about taking hot crocks out of the oven. Heat up the beef crumbles and follow the instructions for the brown gravy. Usually something like stir it up and ad 1/3 c water. You can make your own gravy with a tsp of Better than bullion or soy sauce and some cornstarch, but I am LAZY! Add in the beer ,black pepper, peas and carrots. Once that is all Incorporated and slightly thickened place it in the shell. Top with the can of corn. Top all of this with some instant mashed potatoes and cover the edges with foil so they wont burn. I don't think I need to go into the details of doing that when it should say so on the package,and the ease of the meal is ruined if you make them from scratch. But if you really wanted to you could make it all from scratch from the ground up, put the potatoes on with a frosting tip, brown them with egg whites and make it look fit for long-shanks himself. Even then I don't think the taste would be too much improved, AND it would still hop off the table to be eaten in about 20 minutes tops! I digress, bake the darned thing according to the shell or roughly 375 for 20 min or until heated thru and serve.

Baked Apples (or dinner with Henry Miller)

1.5 apples per guest (any kind will do, but baking apples-you want them to soften)
roughly 4 veggie or pork sausages per guest (I prefer johnsonville maple or brown sugar flavored)
cinnamon
1 bag of cholesterol free egg noodles
margarine or butter
dry dill

Core apples. I make a square incision on the top and then a smaller square on the bottom and push through to the other side. Place apples in a lipped cookie sheet or casserole dish. Put a sausage in every apple, sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Place the leftover sausages on the side of the pan next to the apples. Bake at 375 for 30-40 min or until the apples have split and are soft. While apples are baking boil noodles, drain cover with margarine or butter and sprinkle with dill. When serving apples, slice them in half and cover with margarine or butter-eat with noodles and fight over sausages-YUM!

French Onion Soup, Cabbage Roll Stew,Potato Pancakes, Kale Soup, Chicken and Dumplings

Dear Anais,


As you know you have always been an unusual child, but the only one I knew who could eat onions like apples. I think this is a trait from your Grandmother as it is said when she was pregnant and living in Denver she would only patronize one pizza parlor reputed to have raw onion slices on the top of their pizzas! I am not at all surprised that you should adore french onion soup so much. I have heard that this recipe I am including is some long lost relative of a Moosewood cookbook recipe. The Moosewood is a fine vegetarian restaurant located in Ithaca,NY ironically the exact location of the first Rainbow gathering your daddy took me to. I didn't get to go to the restaurant, but I did get to swim in the buttermilk falls and had a fantastic time on my first cross country motorcycle trip. So here is my version of the soup;





French Onion Soup





3Tb margarine or olive oil


4 lg onions coarsely chopped


1 tsp salt


1/2 tsp dry mustard


dash of thyme


5c water


1 Tb better than bullion veg (you can use reg veg bullion, but this particular bullion has a nice beefy/brown flavor that adds more authenticity to the soup I would really try not to skip it)


2Tb soy sauce (make sure yours does not have msg)


2 Tb beer (any kind will do, but the stouter the better, let daddy treat himself to a Guinness)


dash of white pepper


pumpernickel bread


smoked provolone





This soup is perfect for a dutch oven, but in a large soup pot warm your margarine or olive oil. Add your onions and salt. Cook them at a medium high heat until they have *sweat*. Not until they are translucent, but are well coated in the oil and are starting to look glossy. Add all other ingredients. Partially cover the pot and let simmer for 30 minutes. It can depend upon the onion (as either white or yellow make a suitable soup) but the cook time is just until the onions are tender. When the soap is ready to serve toast your pumpernickel and cut or tear into pieces, cover with smoked provolone and serve soup over the bread and cheese and eat when it has melted.





Notes: Now some of you die hards will proclaim that mozzarella must go on top. I concede that provolone is not the standard, but smoked provolone tastes so darned good! Just try it and tell me you haven't converted! Also, I know most of you will want to put the cheese on top and purchase special little soup crocks to put under the broiler for this soup. Don't do it! After having crocks explode, splashing soup on myself and little kids burning themselves on the side of a soup crock-forget it. Leave that kind of thing to the restaurants. When you are at home put the cheese under and it will taste just as delicious even if the presentation is not as grand.

This next soup is so easy that you can make this for you and daddy any day of the week in no time flat! It also would be super to throw in the crock pot and turn on while you are at school and come home to for dinner.

Cabbage Roll Stew

1 package shredded cabbage (don't shred it yourself to be cheap-this defeats the ease of the dish here. I know it would be cheaper, but really hard on the back, and if you want to make it super easy, then just buy the package and consider it money paid to yourself for making a healthier choice)
1 large can chopped tomatoes (make sure there are no added spices, just plain)
1/2 c instant rice or 1 c precooked leftover long grain rice (no parboiled)
1/2 package boca meat crumbles (you can ground 1 LB ground beef for a meat alternative)
1 cube veg bullion

Throw all in a pot. Fill tomato can with water add that too. Simmer on med for 30-40 min until all is tender. Stir occasionally to make sure it won't burn. If it gets too thick add more water. Serve with a generous amount of pepper and a pad of butter/margarine on top.

Notes: As I said earlier this would make a perfect crock pot dish, it would be great to come home to. Just serve with a great hunk of crusty rye bread. Unless you are Polish or Ukraininan you probably are not familiar with cabbage rolls (golabki/holubtsi) which would be a staple or treat in your house. I am TERRIBLE (for shame!!!) at making this delicious and back breaking meal, so this is my cheat. And if you are going to break your back,you might as well make some potato pancakes too...

Gramma used to tray and be lazy and make hers in the blender but they never came out very well. And I would make the from homemade shredding them myself, and putting them in salted water to keep them from turning black, straining them and then frying them, but they always came out so greasy and sometimes the potatoes were not cooked all the way in the middle. I guess you could say potato pancakes were something our family traditionally loves to eat, but we are not good at cooking them. But then I found this recipe, and though it is not mine (it purportedly came from a manufacturer of potato flakes) I think it is better than all our family flops.

Lazy Ass Latkes

3/4 c flour
1 1/4 c instant mashed potato flakes
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 c milk (soy works very well)
2 eggs
1/4 c finely diced onion (green, chive, or yellow)
2Tb oil (safflower or other high temp oil for frying)

Mix up the dry, add the wet, fry up!

I have heard this next soup bears an obnoxious resemblance to a soup they serve at the olive garden, but mine is all vegetarian and is low fat.

Kale Soup

1 bunch kale
1Tb olive oil
1 onion diced fine
3 cloves garlic chopped fine
1/2 package morningstar farms sausage crumbles or 4 links boca Italian sausages crumbled or 1/2 package morningstar farms ground beef crumbles +1tsp fennel seed
4 med sized red potatoes thinly sliced or shaved
1 c milk
4 c water
1 cube veg bullion (no msg w/ sea salt)
1 dash red chile flakes

Heat olive oil saute onions for 5 min de-rib and chop kale into bite sized pieces. Add kale and garlic to the mixture until fully wilted. Add the remainder of ingredients simmering 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender, or start to break when you stir roughly. Serve with grated Parmesan.

This next recipe is really a misnomer. I have not put real chicken in the chicken and dumplings recipe for a long time, but try telling your friends you have invited them of for veg'n and dumplings they don't look nearly as enticed as they did before no matter how hard you explain it away. I mean really, let's be frank, does fooling a flesh eater really carry the same sort of sin as fooling a vegan? So even thought I generally don't serve this with poultry I have always called this chicken and dumplings and probably always will.

Chicken and Dumplings

1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
1/c carrot or 3-4 baby carrots chopped
1 small can mushrooms ( you can use fresh, but first you must saute them until they are golden brown)
1 small can peas
1 small potato cubed
1 cube veg bullion
1 small bay leaf (maybe even half one)
1 tsp poultry seasoning (you can use Italian seasoning in a pinch)
2 planks Qorn crumbled or 1 can chicken for non-vegetarian variation (optional)
1 c milk
3 c water
1 Tb corn starch
1/3 c water
squirt of lemon

dumplings:
1 c flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 c milk

Saute onions in dutch oven or soup making pot until dark Brown and nearly burnt (but not bunt!) to give your soup a nice golden color. Add garlic, carrots, potato and shrooms with bullion water and seasoning to simmer for 20 min. Add milk and peas and bring to a boil. Mix together your corn starch and 1/3 c water until there are no lumps. When you have a rolling boil add this in slowly stirring constantly. After 5 minutes see if this is thick enough for you. If you like it thicker repeat with another 1/3 c water and 1 TB cornstarch. Note that it will thicken some with cooling and the addition of dumplings-you don't want to make a chicken pudding! Keep it going at a low simmer while you prepare the dumplings. I usually like to do this right in the measuring cup. It does not need to be exact. I throw the dry ingredients in (flour, BP , and salt) and then swirl in the milk until it is gloppy and gluey. Then take a spoon and throw teaspoonfuls into soup pot. Make sure the soup is still boiling so they don't sink. The more BP you add the fluffier your dumplings, the less the doughier or noodlier they will be. I vary them depending on my mood. once you get them all in there, put a lid on the pot, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Squirt the lemon in there stir it around and serve!

Notes: Do not try and cheat here and by a can of vegall! If you could, believe me I would have taken the short cut. If you do the carrots will overwhelm the dish, the lentils will stand out, the celery will be out of place (it has a sort of Italian flavor with the bay leaf oddly enough) and there are too many potatoes. Also, do not be tempted to add more potatoes. The one tiny potato is just to add the little earthy flavor it imparts. The dumplings themselves are bready enough with the potato it would be starch-o-rama! Maybe I should alter the recipe for a turnip or parsnip instead-it's just that potatoes are so handy. We all have usually them in our cabinet.