Mary's Muse

Kielbasa Recipe

We only started eating kielbasa a few years ago when I found a delicious recipe with black beans and kielbasa.  But that was my only kielbasa recipe.  And over the past few years, I made it enough times that this time, I just didn't want to repeat it.  So I searched online again, looking for something different to make with this sausage.  I came up with a blend of two recipes and cooked them in the slow cooker.  I became a fresh, individual ingredients snob since I found I became sick when I ate things with gluten or yeast in them, so I couldn't use most of the ingredients in one .  The other recipe has milk in it, which a few of us are sensitive to.  So here is how I combined them and my slow cooker twist.

Kielbasa Au Gratin (serves 12)

 Slice 10 russet potatoes thin.  Layer the potatoes on the bottom of the slow cooker.  Layer thin slices of onion over the potatoes.  Cover this with browned slices of 2 kielbasas.  Let cook for 7 hours on low or 3.5 hours on high.  Meanwhile, wash and chop broccoli and cauliflower and peel and slice carrots.  I just put together a bowlful of what looked like a good blend.  An hour before it finished (we like crisp-tender vegetables, if you like them more tender, allow more time before the meal finishes), add the vegetables and cheese sauce (see below)  to the slow cooker.

1/2 cup + 1 tbl. butter

1/2 cup + 1 tbl. all purpose flour (we used gluten free)

6 cups milk (I used 1/2 milk and 1/2 water to thin it, but next time I believe I'll use soy milk)

4.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

Melt butter over medium heat.  Mix in flour and a dash of salt (optional) and whisk constantly for one minute.  Stir in milk/water.  Cook until mixture is hot and add a cold water and flour combination to help thicken it further if necessary.  Stir in cheese all at once and continue stirring until melted (30 - 60 seconds).  Pour cheese sauce over the mixture in the slow cooker about an hour before serving.

Cookie Baking

It's a messy job, but somebody had to do it!

Soup Wednesday

Today's meal isn't exactly soup.  It's meatless chili, which the whole family enjoys.  Following is the original recipe from "Light & Tasty," a Taste of Home magazine.

Mexican Bean n' Barley Chili

1 large onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tbsp olive oil

1 green & red pepper, chopped

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

3/4 cup quick-cooking barley

2 cups water

1 can chili beans in sauce, undrained

1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 can vegetable broth

2 cans chopped green chilies

2 tbsp chili powder

1/2 tsp pepper

Saute onion and garlic in oil for 2 minutes.  Stir in the peppers and cook 3-4 minutes longer, until tender.  Stir in the remaining ingredients; bring toa boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until barley is tender.

To adapt this to our family, we eliminate the peppers (we only like them fresh), the barley (because I'm gluten intolerant), and the sauce (we like a more brothy texture to our chili).   We use water instead of vegetable broth.  And we use what beans are on hand, which usually means kidney, in place of the pinto beans.  Pinto beans are already present in the chili beans with chili sauce.  I would recommend that you don't replace the black beans. They have a wonderful flavor all their own.  We also double the recipe.  And it goes fast!

Soup Wednesday

Today, I just made one soup.  Surprisingly, we had too many leftovers from last week.  It smells sooooo good!

Broccoli Cheese Soup serves 5

1 tbls butter or margarine

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbls all-purpose flour (we omitted this with, as far as I can tell, no effect)

1 tsp salt

3 cups original-flavored soy milk (or regular milk)

2 tsp cornstarch

3 cups bite-sized fresh broccoli florets*

1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese

*We didn't have enough broccoli on hand, so we added an equal amount of sliced carrot.  Cauliflower is another vegetable you can make this recipe with and next time I make it, I might use all three.  Also, I have to double the recipe next time.

Melt butter over medium heat. Stir in onion, [flour], and salt. Cook 2 - 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until onion is soft.

Mix milk and cornstarch with a wire whisk until smooth. Gradually stir into onion mixture.  Heat to boiling; boil 1 minute stirring constantly, until bubbly and thickened.

Stir in broccoli (or whatever blend of vegetables pleases the palate).  Cook 4 - 5 minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in cheese and cook 2 - 4 minutes more, stirring frequently (can't emphasize that enough, can they?), until cheese is melted.

This recipe is from Betty Crocker easy everday Vegetarian, one of my three favorite vegetarian cookbooks.

Soup Wednesday

I'm a terrible planner. Knowing this about myself, I thought it would be a good idea to plan the general type of meal and then go from there.  Soup is an anchor in the middle of the week.  Sundays we usually have a roast.  Monday is something with chicken unless our roast happens to be chicken or turkey.  Tuesday is spaghetti day ~ not every week, but fairly often.  Wednesday is soup (or salad in summer).  Friday is a no meat day.  So that leaves Thursday and Saturday for leftovers or chance.

In an effort to keep food costs low as well as for our health and especially to sacrifice a little thing to pray for those in need (sometimes to pray for ourselves), we started soup Wednesday.  It's generally a vegetarian soup, especially during Advent and Lent, but even meat soups have a lot less meat than other meat meals.  I make two regular-sized recipes for our double-sized family so that if the kids don't like one type, they'll eat the other.

So this is our first installment of Soup Wednesday recipes.

Sweet Potato Chili

3 tbls canola oil

2 large onions, finely diced

6 garlic cloves

1 green pepper, diced

1.5 tbls chili powder

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp oregano

5 cups water

2 15 oz cans chopped tomatoes

2 large yams peeled and cut bite-sized

1 can black beans + 1 can kidney beans (or any other combination you prefer)

Smattering of salt

Saute the onions and garlic in oil for about 10 minutes, until the onions begin to brown.  Add the bell peppers and cook for 10 minutes more.

Sprinkle the chili powder and cumin and cook the spices 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Stir in all remaining ingredients and bring the mixture to a boil.  Cook 15 minutes, just until the sweet potatoes are tender.  Stir the soup occasionally during this time. Serve with cilantro or Sofrito sprinkled on top, if desired.

Pumpkin and Corn Curry

2 medium leeks

1/4 cup olive oil

2 carrots, finely diced

10 cups vegetable stock

2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and finely diced

1.5 tsp salt

generous seasoning of pepper

1/4 tsp cloves

dash of cayenne

2 16-oz cans pumpkin

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen

minced fresh parsley for garnish

Assuming you know how to wash and peel leeks, I'll take the recipe from there.  Cut the leeks into thin slices.  You should have about 3 cups.

Heat the olive oil in a large stock pot.  Add the leeks and carrots and saute for 15 minutes.  Pour the vegetable stock (we used water) in and bring to a boil.  Add the potatoes, salt, pepper, cloves, and cayenne; cook the soup for 30 minutes. 

Place the pumpkin in a large bowl. Ladle abotu a cup of soup onto the pumpkin and stirl it together to liquefy it.  Then Pour it into the soup along with the heavy cream and corn. Cook 5 more minutes (or longer if the chowder it too thin). Serve in bowls with minced parsley sprinkled on top.

 Both recipes are from Jeanne Lemlin's Quick, Simple, and Main-Course Vegetarian Pleasures.  This is one of my three favorite vegetarian cookbooks. 

Soup Season!

Ah, this is the weather. Rain pelting windows and roof.  Leaves blowing in crazy curlicue patterns without boundaries.  And the chill penetrating through fleece.  Perfect weather for curling up under a blanket on the couch and reading.  Perfect for completing that elusive 1,000 piece puzzle.  Excellent conditions for soup. 

We had a full-to-the-brim crock pot of minestrone today.  We used one can each of kidney beans and chick peas.  Carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and zucchini filled the pot along with kale, parsley, and oregano.  And tomatoes.  Can't forget the tomatoes.  I added some zing by sprinkling crushed red peppers into the mix.

Cheaper Chicken

Yesterday, I bought 7 pounds of chicken at my favorite meat counter for chicken and paid just under $21.  My husband lemon-peppered it and grilled the whole load of it last night.  We ate about 1/2.  For lunch today, I made a huge salad bar with several on-hand ingredients from which to choose.  Green and red leaf lettuce made the base.  Radishes, carrot sticks, black olives, feta cheese, sunflower seeds, and that same grilled chicken, bias cut into strips, comprised the rest.  You can choose from a variety of other ingredients, but this is what was in the refrigerator today.  I love using leftovers creatively!

Chinese Dining for Less

I'd been craving Chinese, but had been shy to try my hand at it.  Used to be, when we could no longer resist the urge, we would cave in and all go out as a family to a Chinese buffet.  We would, that is, until the $100 dinner.   I realized then that our family was just too big to go out to eat anymore.

Just recently, I started dabbling with a Sweet and Sour chicken that I just concocted in my brain as I was strolling through the local supermarket.  You see, chicken breast tenders were on sale, ready-made into strips.  I figured broccoli and snow peas would go well with stir-fried chicken.  And my kids like those little corn cobs and water chestnuts.  Following is the recipe I made up:

• 4 pounds of chicken breast, sliced cross-wise into thin strips
• 4 tbls. sesame oil
• head of broccoli
• 4 or 5 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
• bag of snow peas
• 2 cans of baby corn
• 2 cans of sliced water chestnuts
• 1 bottle of Yoshida's Hawaiian Sweet and Sour 
• Five cups of uncooked rice

Cook the rice as directed.  Brown the chicken breast strips in sesame oil in a wok or deep frying pan.  Cut the broccoli and carrots in the meantime.  Set the meat aside and stir fry the vegetables together for a few minutes in the same oil.  Add the meat to the wok and the bottle of Yoshida's and heat through.

 

Another Money-Saving Recipe

Here is our version of tacos that don't dip too deeply into the pocketbook of a large family.  This recipe feeds 10 - 12 big eaters, easily.  Another bonus is that this is a quick-to-fix meal.

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 2 cans chili beans with chili sauce
• 1 or 2 cans chili peppers
• enough water to just cover the top of the meat, beans, and peppers
• chili powder to taste
• cumin to taste
• cilantro to taste

Brown ground beef in a large skillet.  Add the two cans of chili beans with sauce, the chili peppers, and the water.  Then add all spices.  After it starts to boil, turn it down to simmer.  Let the mixture simmer until all the flavors blend and some of the water evaporates away.  We use corn shells, but you can use flour tortillas as well.  Garnish with items below of your choice.

Toppings:

• Mexican blend cheese
• iceberg lettuce
• black olives
• salsa
• guacamole
• sour cream

I was sitting in my cool house, sipping a frappe ...

What's that?  Oh, no. I didn't hit Starbucks or Hastings, or even McDonald's.  We can't afford that.  So we searched recipes online and then, based on this one, we made our own.

 

Following is our 'fattened' version. Yum!

• 1/2 cup prepared coffee
• 3 tbls. vanilla caramel latte mix (or vanilla bean for mocha)
• 1 tbls. caramel coffee shop syrup (optional)
• 2 - 3 tblsp Hershey's classic caramel (use chocolate for a mocha) ice cream topping
• 1.5 cups ice
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbls. sugar
• 2 scoops ice cream
• whipped cream and additional caramel topping for garnish

1. Add all ingredients except whipped cream to a blender.
2. Process on frappe setting until smooth
3. Pour in a glass and garnish with whipped topping and caramel or chocolate drizzle (I saw a lady drizzle into the cup before pouring the mixture)
4. Adjust to suit your tastes and ENJOY!