witches brew

Dear Anais,
You have by now returned to Colorado without me. But while you were here we made this delicious dish together; witches brew. I found this recipe on another blog- The art of manliness. I love this blog! If you are a fella, you must get thee to it. But I digress, this recipe was posted there. Nearly all the recipes required sausage bacon or ground beef (and this one was no exception) but you could easily modify this a million different ways for low fat or vegetarian tastes. I think you could even add greens to it and it would taste delish. Maybe the title itself implies throwing whatever the witch has on hand in the pot? We gobbled up this simple dish in two days, and I only modified it slightly (my mods are in red text).

Witches Brew

1 package precooked bacon
1 pound grass fed beef
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
1 large can 28 oz tomatoes
1 large can kidney beans
1 can mushrooms, undrained
1 bag egg noodles dumpling
3 gloves garlic minced

My instructions are a little more involved that the manly ones given of brown beef, drain fat, throw all in the dutch oven at 350 oven for one hour. I recommend thus; crisp bacon in microwave oven per package instructions, set aside to cool. Brown the ground beef in a skillet take some of the reserve fat and use it to saute the onions garlic and celery. When they are translucent throw everything in the pot and let simmer for a half hour or as long as you can go without the delicious aroma killing you! While the cauldron bubbles, cook the bag of egg noodles. Serve over the noodles-YUM!

Notes: You can make endless variations with this dish, but some starters might be with ground pork, white beans, and some collard greens? Or even you could go all veg with some boca crumbles, bacon bits/smoke flavor and black beans? How about ground chicken , cannelini beans, some spinach and ditalini for a fantastic fagioli? Now you and Daddy can eat this at least once a week...I think you could even do it up in the crock pot!

Tajin salsa

This recipeI am not writing to Anais, as she is here with me!!! Hooray!

She helped me come up with this delicious salsa.

1/2 c finely diced jicama

1/2 c finely diced mango

2 cloves garlic, shredded or minced

1/2 c onion finely diced

one packet tajin seasoning (or roughly 1 teaspoon I think, if you have it in the jar)

1 tsp finely chopped cilantro

I can diced tomatoes and green chiles (I used store bough, but rotelle will also work)

Combine and serve with fine Mexican style chips (no, Tostidos or Doritos are not in that category! Be adventurous, try it with blue corn or something.)

Shrimp toast, potato salad and soup of life.

Meme's shrimp toast

5 oz old english cheese spread

1 stick butter

1 Tb mayo

1/2 tsp garlic powder

14 oz can shrimp drained

1 package 6 english muffins

Chop shrimp and mix all ingredients. Spread on 1/2 muffin. Then cut muffins into triangles and place on cookie sheet. Broil 3 minutes or until bubbly.

Meme's potato salad

potatoes

bacon

hard boiled eggs

mayo

salt & pepper

chop potatoes and boil gently in salted water 8-10 minutes

strain the potatoes and place in a marge bowl to cool

boil eggs in heavily salted water for 7 min

while frying bacon until crispy

peel and chop eggs, chop bacon

salt and pepper the potatoes, add eggs and bacon

coat with enough mayo to make moist

serve slightly warm

Delish!

Mure's Thai soup of life

one inch peeled ginger, grated

12" piece lemongrass (optional)

2 cloves garlic (optional) grated

4 oz chopped extra extra firm tofu

1 cube vegetable bullion

1 leek sliced in rings (can sub green onions)

1 tsp wakame (optional)

2-3 TB fresh basil chopped

4 c water

1 block glass noodle

wedge of lemon

Throw everything in the pot but the glass noodle and basil, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the glass noodle, simmer for an extra 5 minutes. Remove from heat add basil and serve with wedge of lemon.

Notes:Mure fashioned this soup after a trip to Dharma garden for her birthday dinner. I have been addicted to this soup for weeks. I am convinced it has given me vitality and peace of mind-All from a bowl of soup! Mure has come a long way from a girl who could burn water.

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.

Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese and Italian Potato Salad

Dear Anais,
Today I had a goat cheese and cherry tomato on baguette sammy and I was thinking about Italian food. You know you will have to go and ask Peppe' for his recipes, as I am not Italian at all, but I do have a great appreciation for Italian food. This first recipe is a modification of a Matha Stewart recipe. I saw her (or rather some of her minions) making this dish on her show and I didn't have time to write down how she made it,so I got the gist of it and whipped up this.

Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese

1Tb olive oil
1/2 white onion diced finely
4 baby carrots diced finely
4 fresh tomatoes from mom's garden or 1 can chopped tomatoes
1 cube veg bullion with sea salt (no msg)
4 cloves garlic pressed or finely diced
1/2 half package morningstar farms beef crumbles (or 1lb ground beef for a meat alternative)
1/4 c beer or burgundy wine
1/2 c milk or cream
Pasta, preferably thin spaghetti.

Warm the olive oil and saute the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and carrots for a few minutes. Toss in everything else but the milk, let simmer and thicken. Set a large pot of salted water to boil. When rolling boil is achieved add pasta. Slowly add milk to the sauce. Cream is least likely to curdle, but I have never had a problem using milk, and I have used all kinds, to include soy, and 2%. Cook pasta to desired tenderness, drain. Serve sauce over fresh pasta.

Notes: I have used just cheap beer leftover from the previous night's debauchery. Usually PBR or Miller, etc. Something like guiness or Pete's wicked ale might be a little overpowering and ruin the flavor of the sauce. The toasted flavor of a Burgundy wine lends itself well to tomato sauces and will richen the sauce, but feel free to try a dry white and let me know how it goes! Omitting the carrots, booze and milk will alter the sauce and turn it into ragu or something. I guess that is what really makes it a true bolo. Now on to the potato salad.

Italian Potato Salad

6 potatoes (use something firm-no russets. try reds, whites or golds here)
any size will do
1/2 c mayo (not salad dressing)
1/4 c Parmesan
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 clove pressed garlic
salt to taste

If potatoes are large cut them into cubes, if tiny just half them. I like an open potato so it can absorb some of the flavors. Place them in a pot of salted water, enough for them to swim. Bring to a boil and simmer them for 10 min. Check to make sure they have cooked to desired tenderness. Strain. Rinse with cool water if desired. I like this potato salad warm too. Toss in the other ingredients. For a low cholesterol alternative I recommend Vegenase in place of Mayo-delish! Salt to taste. This dish pairs wonderfully with garlic rosemary pork chops. And so easy!

Garlic Rosemary Pork Chops

Thin cut pork chops
crushed garlic, roughly one clove per side of chop
whole rosemary leaves dried
salt and pepper

Coat pork chops with crushed garlic and sprinkle with rosemary leaves and salt and pepper lightly. Broil in over or toaster oven. Even suitable for grilling.

Recipes:Corned Beef and Cabbage, Colcannnon, Sausage and Saurkraut, Reubens and Faux Lobster aka Kippers in the Jar

Dear Anais,
Though there is snow on the ground here still, it won't be long before the crocus's will bloom and the warm winds blow and St.Patrick's day will be upon us. While I am still singing with the Irish singers I should make sure to gain a fine recipe for Irish soda bread to go along with these recipes. A nice one that uses buttermilk would be grand! But I digress, here is my recipe for corned beef and cabbage as many Chicagoans make it:

Corned Beef and Cabbage

2 pieces corned beef -one point cut and one flat cut
(If you buy one there will not be enough, nor will there be left over for reubens!)
1 head of green cabbage , cored and quartered.
1/2 dozen red or white potatoes
(no russets or baking kind, they will turn to mush)
1 large white onion, cut in half.
whole cloves
1 bay leaf

Take the biggest pot you have and lay the fattiest cut of beef fat side down on the pan. Take one half of the onion and poke it with cloves like you have since you were little. Place the onion, the seasoning packet the meat comes with, and everything else in the pot. Cover it all with enough water to make it all swim. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer roughly 2 hours for every brisket. Be cautious not to let it cook too long, or the beef can get too soft and then it will just shred as you cut it.

Notes: For a spicy variation you can cut into one of the briskets and stuff garlic cloves into it. I haven't before as you and your sisters were too little to take the spice. If you have one large enough ,you can put this meal to slow cook in a crock pot. I never have as this meal is so heart clogging, it really is only something to be served once a year. It used to be my annual meat indulgence, LOL. The best thing about it is serving reubens for lunch the week after.

Reubens

Margarine
2 slices Pumpernickel
Corned beef
1 slice Swiss cheese
Thousand island dressing
sauerkraut

Spread Margarine on outside of pumpernickel bread. Microwave Corned beef and sauerkraut until warm. Place on Bread with cheese and dressing. Cook in hot skillet or sandwich maker until cheese is melted.

Now the best time to make these is if you have leftover sauerkraut from Polish sausage and sauerkraut. Of course I have a weakness for wedding sausage(weselna), or black forest sausage but any sausage is good. We are so blessed here to have all the polish delis, but you and daddy will have to make do with what you can get from the store.

Polish Sausage and Sauerkraut

1 Big link of Sausage
(I prefer to cut it into portions ahead of time so everyone knows what makes a serving, otherwise you have grabbypoos who take too much)
1 package of kraut
(I like sour less than I used to and I prefer to rinse it a bit, but John likes it super sour-follow your own tastes. Some people like it very mild and with a lot of onions and butter...hmmm-who would I know who likes onions?
1 Tb caraway seeds
(yes caraway seeds always caraway seeds!!!!!)

Throw it all in a giant sauce pan. and simmer for 20 min. Eat it all. Usually there is sauerkraut leftover but no sausage-perfect for tomorrow's reubens.

Sometimes the corned beef leftovers can vanish quickly leaving you with a pot full of lonely cabbage. Take heart! Nothing need go to waste. Now you have the fixings for colcannon. The first time I tasted this was in Chloe's Gramma Kitty's kitchen. I have never had it made any other way, and I have heard others make it with kale and not cabbage as she does. But it was just so delicious I don't think I could be persuaded to fix it in any other manor. She did not divulge her recipe, but I made my own fashioned after the way gramma makes mashed potatoes and how Gramma Kitty's Colcannon tasted.

Colcannon

2-4 cubed potatoes
milk
2-4 Tb butter
1 tsp salt
generous pepper
sliced steamed cabbage

Put the potatoes in the pot with he salt and water, set to boil. Boil for ten minutes or until tender. Drain. Add enough Milk to make them moist and 2 Tb butter mix with a mixer. Microwave leftover cabbage until warm, stir into the potato mixture. Top with more butter and and pepper.

Notes: This should really be a simple and pleasant dish. You can use freshly steamed or leftover cabbage. You can use any greens in place of cabbage. I have heard kale is nutritious and traditional. When in a hurry I have replaced a portion or all of the mashed potatoes with instant.

I know you are not fond of fish, but since I posted the colcannon, I will have to post your sister's and my favorite dish to go with the colcannon; Faux Lobster or Kippers in the Jar

Faux Lobster or Kippers in the Jar

1 smoked mackerel
1 large jar or jug
1 lemon

John rarely gets flowers, and when he does I always like them better in a pint glass rather than a vase. The vases were made of sturdy glass and much better suited for kippers than roses anyhoo. Make sure the mackerel is missing his head. I don't fancy the head portion and thought it best left for the kitties. Behead him with a sharp knife if need be. Put the mackerel (the same as a kipper) tail up in the vase, jar or jug and boil some water. Gently pour boiling water into the vase to submerge the kipper. The easiest method I find, is to pour it in as if you are pouring a fine glass of ale, tilting the container to the side and letting the liquid hit the side so as not to make bubbles. This will keep the kipper from tearing his skin and getting too disheveled. Let him set for 10 minutes or so. (Long enough to make the colcannon maybe?) then debate how to get him out. If you pour the liquid out you must be certain not to spill the hot fishy liquid all over the place and crash the dinner giving it to the cat (hmm, what would I know about that?) if you take him out with tongs you run the risk of him sliding out of his skin and yet again feeding the cat (this cat has a good chance of being very well fed you might say!) either way be very careful not to burn the cat and aim for the plate! Lay the mackerel open and squeeze him all over with lemon juice. Serve!