It’s not something that’s been written down in our family cookbook. In fact, as I was cooking this, I thought I ought to measure what I was doing so I could put it into a “recipe”. I imagine that most of our favorite dishes are like this. I have made this so often, I’m just on automatic. So here’s how I made it this week:

• 3 to 4 slices of bacon, cut into small (1/2 inch) pieces
• 1 small onion, chopped, about 1 cup
• 1 can (15 oz) creamed corn
• 1 cup corn kernels (from a frozen bag)
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into small pieces, about 1 cup
• 1/2 cup water (could use milk)

Cook the bacon over low heat. Stir occasionally to keep it from burning. When it is soft and starting to brown, add the onion. Stir once in a while until the onion is soft. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Stir. Cover with a lid. Keep an eye on this. If it starts to stick, add more water – 1/4 cup at a time. Cook until the potatoes are soft but not mushy. Serve this in a bowl as it is soupy.

My husband’s mother used to make this without the potato. Instead she would add cut-up pieces of tamale (without the wrapper). We tried this a couple months ago and it just didn’t taste the same. She did have a special touch with food. I miss that touch.

We usually have our version with carrot and celery sticks, whole wheat rolls or bread or muffins, and cold applesauce or other fruit.

This recipe is actually best in summer when you have come in from the garden with corn you just picked as well as fresh dug potatoes and onions. Mm-mm. But since it’s winter, you’ll have to try this with canned and frozen.

My goal in this blog is to share recipes that have become memorable for one reason or another. I especially like the old recipes from my childhood and early married life. The best ones have lasted all these years. This one is the first meal I made for my husband.

There’s nothing new or unusual about my beef stew. It’s just tasty, filling and fills the home with great smells – a true comfort food. I didn’t have a recipe for this. It was a dish my mom made and I’d helped her put it together many times. So what I’m about to tell you is approximate amounts. Here’s how it goes:

Start with the beef – about one to two pounds, depending on your budget and how many people you are feeding. Now that the kids are grown it’s usually a pound or less. You could go to the meat counter and pick up a package of beef stew meat or you could do some other things. I usually go to the sale or discount bin in the meat section. (Most stores have them.) See if they have some round steak or maybe a chuck roast. Lots of beef cuts will work in stew because you’re going to cook this long and slow. Then it will become very tender. I have also made this with hamburger or a mix of ground beef and ground turkey.

Now gather up the rest of the ingredients:

• 3 to 4 T. oil
• flour, 1/4 to 1/3 cup
• 1 t. salt, to taste
• 1 t. pepper, to taste
• 1/2 t. paprika
• 1 to 2 bay leaves
• 1 onion, chopped
• Water
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 3 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into about 1 inch pieces
• 1 c. peas. (I usually use frozen)

 Here’s how you put it together:

1. If it’s not already cut, cut your meat into pieces (1 to 2 inches in size) P
2. ut the flour and seasonings in a paper bag and mix it up. I’ve also used a pie plate or a deep dish.
3. Put the meat in the bag and shake it up so the meat is completely coated with the flour.
4. Put 3 to 4 T. of oil in a dutchoven and turn it to medium high heat.
5. Dump the bag of meat and flour into the dutch oven with the oil. If it looks like the meat and flour mixture is too much for the oil, add oil 1 T. at a time. Stir so the beef doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
6. Add the chopped onion and keep stirring for a couple of minutes. Then add the garlic.
7. Now add the carrots and potatoes. Add enough water to cover everything.
8. Turn down the heat to very low or simmer. Let this cook slowly so the meat has a chance to become tender. This could take one to two hours or so, depending on your cut of beef. Check on it occasionally to see if it’s sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add a little more water if it is. Just don’t add too much or it could become beef soup.
9. Continue to slowly cook everything until all the flavors join together. When the potatoes and carrots are just about done, add the peas. Cook another 15 minutes or so until the peas are done.
10. Take out the bay leaves and serve. Sometimes I miss a bay leaf. I always say, “If you’re the one who gets a bay leaf in your bowl, you get a kiss from the cook or luck for 24 hours.” Make up what works at your house.

This dish will also work in the crock-pot on low or in the oven (300). I don’tremember what else we had at that first meal except sourdough bread. I still have a great fondness for sourdough bread with my stew. And I should mention I still have a fondness for the recipient of that first meal: my husband Jay. He still loves my stew.   

 I hope you have a chance to try this old standby. Let me know how it turns out. What was the first meal you remember making for a special person in your life?

I love soup. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods. In addition, it’s a great comfortable food. Have you notice that people always seem relaxed and at ease with a soup? Well, maybe not the hoity-doity types, but, you know, normal people. Maybe it’s the casualness of the one bowl and one utensil. I think it’s also the “slurpiness” factor. Everyone around the table seems to have their elbows on the table more often. During fall and winter I like to make soup (or stews or chilis) at least once a week. Here’s a soup I’ve been making for decades. You can add lots of different options to this soup depending on what’s on hand or your mood.

Old Fashioned Potato Soup

In a pot put:

• 4 c. potatoes, peeled and cut into small pieces
• 1 c. onion, chopped (you can use less but we love onion)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 t. salt (more or less, depending on your taste)
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 4 c. water (I usually use chicken broth – vegetable)

Cook over medium heat until the potatoes are soft but not mushy. Drain and save the liquid.
In a second pot melt over medium heat:

• 3 T. butter (you could use oil but I like my dairy)
• Whisk in 3 T. flour until smooth

Slowly add 3 c. of the potato liquid. OR use about 1 1/2 cups of potato water, and 1 1/2 cups of milk. If I have it, I’ll use some cream or half and half. We like it milky. Stir until it begins to thicken. Mix the potatoes and onions with the thickened liquid. Adjust the seasonings to your taste.

Sometimes I will add chopped ham pieces or chopped cooked bacon on the top. If you want more dairy you can put a good handful of shredded cheddar cheese to each bowl and then pour the soup over the cheese.

With this soup we usually have cornbread muffins and raw vegetables. Sometimes we may have crackers or a variety of breads, whatever is on hand. Hope you enjoy this filling and inexpensive soup.

But we also love it roasted and I discovered an easy way to do it. This idea came from the never-say-die Crockpot Lady. Here’s how I did mine:  I cut off just the very tip of the entire bulb of garlic. Just enough for the end of the garlic to show. Don’t peel anything. Wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in your crockpot on low. I used my little mini crock-pot which only has one setting. It should be done in 4 to 5 hours. It’s done when it’s squishable.

Let it cool a little. The garlic will be soft but still hold it’s shape. Take the foil off and squeeze it into a dish. Now you have this yummy garlic paste. Mixed with butter it makes great garlic bread. You can also separate the cloves, take the peel off and use them whole. My husband’s favorite pizza is Italian sausage and roasted garlic. Try it sometime.

The garlic aroma that fills the house is a wonderful side benefit. I know that lifting the lid off a crockpot slows down the process but on this one I can’t resist. But it does make my stomachgrowl for something good to eat!

For more tips head over to Rocks In My Dryer.

Got any turkey leftover?

Into a pot of boiling water add 8 oz. of spaghetti that you have broken into small pieces – thirds or fourths

While that is boiling:

• melt 3 T. butter in a skillet
• Add 1/2 c. chopped onion
• and 1/2 c. chopped green pepper.

Cook until soft. Stir occasionally.

• In a big bowl:
• empty one can of cream of chicken soup
• stir in 1/2 c. milk until smooth
• add 2 to 2 1/2 c. chopped, cooked turkey
• add the onion and green pepper thats been cooking in the skillet

Drain the spaghetti when it is done and rinse it. Add it to everything in the big bowl.  Mix all together. Then add and stir together 2 c. shredded Monteray Jack cheese.

Put into a lightly buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I hope you enjoy this dish. Let me know how it turns out.

Cheap. Fast. Good!

By Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross

Workman Publishing, 2005

This is my new favorite food book. Yes, there are tons of recipes in here but it’s so much fun to read that I won’t call it a cookbook. The basic premise of the author’s is that good food can be inexpensive without spending hours every night working from scratch. The authors come to the book with many years of home food preparation and years of writing a food column for various newspapers.

This is a big book (475 pages) with eleven chapters and an interesting appendix. The chapters range from “Super-Saver Soups and Stews” to “Delectable Desserts”. Beside those two subjects they also cover main dishes, sandwiches, side dishes, pasta, salads, breakfasts and sauces.

One other chapter is special to me because it covers the way I like to prepare food: batch cooking. Here’s an example of the concept: Buy a large quantity of a common food when it is on sale – like chicken. Cook the chicken all at once, cool, cut and put measured amounts (like 1 cup) in freezer bags. Then let’s say sometime in the next week or so you want to make Chicken Burritos or Chicken and Broccoli Lo Mein. You pull out your already cooked chicken and the rest of the ingredients and you have a great meal in short order.

By spending an hour or so to cook, cut, package and clean up only one time you’ve done your “from scratch” cooking which is what really cuts done on the cost of groceries. One of the bonus features of cooking chicken this way is that you now have some chicken broth left over and could be a great start for homemade chicken soup or whatever you normally buy canned chicken broth for.

Interspersed among the recipes in this book are lots of short essays about everything from “Eating Healthy” on a “Budget to Saving to Share” to “Inventing Your Own Rice Pilaf Recipe”. I’ve already given a copy of this book to my oldest daughter. With her busy life, it’s a good fit. The next time I’m invited to a bridal shower this is going to be one of my gifts. I ordered my two copies from Amazon.com for $6.49 each, a really good bargain. I just checked and it is now up to $10.17 a copy. Still a good bargain.

If you want to know more about the authors and their other books, go here www.desperationdinners.com. Their website has some of their old columns and recipes. Check them out.

What works for me is ROUND STEAK. It is almost as versatile as hamburger and chicken. And, for me, it’s about the same price or less.

I always shop the section of the meat department that is called “reduced meat” or “must-sell meat”. Almost every meat market has one of these sections. I’m retired and traveling all over the country so I shop in lots of different grocery stores. Trust me, the discount section is there. It may be small and off to the side. Just ask.

I don’t know why but round steak always seems to show up in these discount sections. I always grab them if the price is really reasonable. Just today I was shopping in an expensive store north of San Francisco and found three packages that were all less than $2 a pound. One package was only a half a pound but it will work.

I have a prepared list of favorite recipes that all use round steak. So when I find a bargain I’m ready to use it. When I get home from the store I cut the meat into the size(s) I need for whatever dish(es) I’m planning to make. Here’s my list:

1. Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry – sliced into very thin slices
2. Beef Stew – cut into 1 inch chunks
3. Grilled Shish-K-Bobs – Cut in 1 1/2 inch chunks
4. Beef Strogonoff – cut in strips (1/2 inch by 2 inches)
5. Beef Pot Pie – cut in 1/2 inch pieces
6. Chicken Fried Steak – pieces about 3 to 4 inches diameter
7. Pepper Steak – cut in strips (1/2 inch by 2 inches)
8. Salsbury Steak and Gravy – pieces about 3 to 4 inches diameter
9. Filled Round Steak – cut about 4 inches in diameter and flattened
10. Steak Sandwiches – cut about 4 inches in diameter and flattened
11. Swiss Steak – cut in 4 to 5 inches in diameter
12. Baked Beef and Mushrooms – cut in 3 to 4 inches in diameter
13. Beef Steak Chili – cut in 1/2 inch pieces
14. Pan Fried Steak and Onions – cut in 4 to 5 inch pieces
15. Beef Curry – cut in 1/2 inch pieces

I hope this gives you some ideas for your own shopping and meal planning.

A Crock-pot has been a part of my cooking life since the ‘70s. Two years ago when we moved into our RV and it’s tiny kitchen, I took the big six-quart crock-pot along because I thought I would take it to my oldest daughter.  I didn’t think I would need to use it any more since I was now home all day. Boy, was I wrong! It seems like I’m using it now more ever.

Now I have the time to experiment and play around with various recipes. But I still want the luxury of being able to start dinner and then go off and do something else. I also have a problem with the oven in my RV kitchen. I can’t light it. My husband can if he gets down on his knees, contorts his body and tongue at just the right angle. Needless to say, I don’t use the oven often. So I’ve learned to bake in my crock-pot.  

This Tamale Pie recipe is one I’ve been playing around with. I like it because I can try different ingredients and seasonings in it and still not goof it up. It also combines a bread with the slow cooking tenderness we expect from our crock-pots. So here’s my latest Tamale Pie. (It tastes better than it looks in this picture.)

Put together in a skillet and cook until browned:

• 1 pound of ground meat (ground  beef or ground turkey or a combination)
• 1 t. salt
• 1/2 t. pepper
• 1 T. chili powder
• 1 t. garlic powder

Put the browned meat into a crock-pot (at least a 4 quart one). Then add these ingredients right into the crock-pot and stir together:

• 1 c. chopped onion
• 1 can (16 oz.) refried beans
• 1 can (15 oz.) red beans or pinto beans, drained (or 2 c. of your own cooked beans, drained)
• 1 can (10 oz.) diced tomatoes and peppers (like Rotel)
• 1 can chopped hot peppers (you can use 4 oz or 7 oz, according to your taste)
• 1/4 to 1/2 c. tomato juice (you want just the right amount of juice but not be runny) 

On top of the meat and bean mixture you are going to add the tamale “shell”. To do that you will need to mix together in a separate bowl:

• 1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix
• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 T. melted butter
• 1/2 c. to 3/4 c. Monterey Jack cheese,  shredded (Cheddar works good too)

When you have the cornbread  mixture together, carefully spoon it over the top of the meat and bean mixture that is already in the crock-pot. Don’t stir it. Also don’t spread it all the way to the edge. Keep it about a half an inch from the crock-pot all the way around.

Turn the crock-pot to low and let it do it’s thing for five to seven hours, depending on how hot your crock-pot is. Don’t take the lid off unless you want to slow down the process. Check it after six hours. When a toothpick comes clean from the middle of the cornbread, it’s done. It should also have a nice brownish crispiness around the edges.  This is like eating thick chili with cheesy cornbread.  Hope you enjoy.

I can’t say I love to cook the way some gourmet cooks relish a whole day or weekend spent in the kitchen. My cooking is more the “dabble–at-it” style. But I do love food and everything that goes with it. I love to talk and read about food. I read cookbooks the way I read novels. I collect recipes from everywhere and try them out occasionally. 

I love kitchens, kitchen gadgets, electrical appliances, full refrigerators, cooking pots and pretty dishes. I love the smell of bread baking, homemade soup on the back burner, and a fruit pie cooling by the window. I’ve always had this romantic ideal about my kitchen.

My first kitchen after I was married was small – only about 10 by 10 feet. It was also our dining room. The first thing I did was paint it white and sew red and white checked curtains for the window. I think I got the idea from a picture in a Good Housekeeping magazine. Since that first kitchen I’ve had a galley kitchen, a big country kitchen and a u-shaped cook’s dream kitchen. I’ve loved them all. And now? We live in a 35 foot Fifth Wheel (RV). I’m back to 10 feet long but not even 10 feet across. But, you know what? For this time in my life it is just right. I can still have that fresh bread smell, the soup on the back burner and a fruit pie cooling by the window. Life is good.

Tell me about your love affair with your kitchen. How have you made it work for you? Which kitchen is your favorite?