Cheater's Guide to Italian Cream Soda

Any of you like cream soda? I do. Go to the store and get a can/carton of cream soda and it is just plain good. One day at a restaurant I tried Italian cream soda. WOA! Now that stuff is GOODER than good!

When I got home I looked up recipes for making it. It isn't hard, but unless you have different flavored syrups and keep cream handy in the fridge, like me, you aren't going to make it too often.

The other day I got to thinkin', which doesn't always turn out well, but this time I think it did. I've been buying seltzer water: it doesn't have any sugar, no fake sugar, no salt, no flavor, just carbonated water. And I have been buying the flavored creamers for my coffee, not the fake creamers, the ones with cream and milk in them. What if..... so I tried it. I put some of my flavored creamer, I think it was the cinnamon one, in a glass and added the seltzer water, stirred gently till well mixed, and it was ... good. A cheat, maybe, but hey! It worked!

So... grab some of your favorite flavored coffee creamers with the real cream and milk in it, add it to some seltzer water to taste, and you're got a fairly decent cream soda!

SALSA!!!

I like salsa. I like mine better than the store bought, but that is just me. LOL I do not put cilantro in my salsa since I don't like it and I don't use hot peppers, either. Call me non-adventurous in the food realm. But, anyone can doctor up a recipe to their liking, I do. LOL

Salsa
1 tomato, peeled or unpeeled
1/2 onion
2 tomatillos
2-3 cloves garlic (to your liking)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregeno
1/2 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil
1/2 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper

Now, chop it all up real fine. I started using the knife to chop it and thought... nah... and I grabbed my food chopper and it got it MUCH finer. Mix it up and dip in with your chips. Hope you like it!  :)

Steak and Brat Stew

Yep... sounds a little... mmmm.. but it's good. IIIIIIII thought so, anyway! Mom and hubby both ate all of theirs and according to Denny if he eats it, it's good. LOL  oh yeah, there are things he takes a few bites of and that's it. Done.

No exact amounts on most things in the recipe; we all know we all change the recipes anyway, and besides, I don't necessarily measure things when I cook.

Steak and Brat Stew

• Steak, cut into bite size chunks
• 1 brat, style of your choice, cut into bite size chunks
• 1 medium onion, cut into chunks
• 1/2 green pepper cut into chunks
• flour for gravy later
• frozen biscuits
• frozen veggies, I used a bag of Santa-Fe Medley
• bay leaf
• salt
• Italian seasoning
• broth

Brown the steak and brat in a dutch oven/soup pot. Add the onions and peppers and broth. I used frozen beef broth and pork broth. Add your seasonings, cover and simmer for two or three hours. About half hour before you plan to serve, add the frozen veggies and bring it up to a boil. Once it starts boiling, drop around 7 or so frozen biscuits into the mixture, cover and cook about ten minutes, uncover and cook ten minutes more.

Once the biscuits are finished mix some flour with milk and pour into your mixture and stir until thickened and cook a little more till the flour is all cooked in well. Now, take it to the table and serve.

I didn't know if the frozen biscuits would work, but I tried it and they worked just fine. I am sooooo glad cause I'm gettin' spoiled with frozen biscuits. My biscuits from scratch are... well... not good. LOL 

Enjoy!!

Steak and Potato Soup

I made some steak and potato soup for lunch today and hubby thought it was great. So did I, and I was thrilled. LOL  No exact proportions to the ingredients, I just toss. lol  I didn't make a whole lot, enough for four servings. I used left over steak and cut off the fatty stuff (cringing, don't like fat) and cut the pieces of steak into small pieces. I also used pork broth I had in the freezer from when I had made a pork roast. I save the broths when I cook meat. I read an article in a magazine about keeping the broth when you cook veggies, too, and think I will do that, too. After cooking the meat I pour the juice into a plastic bowl, put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge. The fat rises to the top and I take that off, rinse it in cold water, and put it into a plastic bag and stick it in the freezer. Beef fat, tallow, can be used to make candles. They are soft so I put them into containers to stay in there. Pork fat, lard, for pies and biscuits.

Have you bought lard in the stores lately? It has hydrogenated oil in it! I was going to buy lard to get away from the hydrogenated junk and low and behold, there it was in the can of lard! That's why I have REAL lard in my freezer in a bag.

Steak and Potato Soup

• Cubed left over steak left 
• Pork broth to fill pan 3/4 full
• Chopped onion
• Chopped red pepper
• White potatoes, peeled or unpeeled, cubed (I used three med sized potatoes)
• Seasonings: salt, pepper, basil, sage, oregano, thyme, celery salt, garlic, rosemary

Throw it all into the pan and cook it till the potatoes are tender. 

We didn't have any leftover soup today. YAYAYAAYAYAAYA  LOL

New Year Soup!

Only because it's the first soup I made in the new year and had to give it a name so hubby would think I got it from a cook book. :::: eyeroll :::: It DID turn out good, even if I didn't get it from a cook book. I won't give exact amounts for the ingredients because I don't know the exact amounts for the ingredients. I don't actually measure, I toss in stuff. Besides, we all know you're gonna change the ingredients anyway. LOL

New Year Soup

• pork broth (I used the broth I saved from roast pork)
• cooked pork, chopped (I used the left over pork from the roast)
• green beans, frozen or fresh
• smoked sausage slices (Johnsonville or other brand works fine)
• onions chopped
• sweet corn, frozen or fresh
• collard greens, frozen or fresh, chopped into small pieces and don't need a lot of this
• cabbage, cut bite sized 
• red pepper chunks
• green pepper chunks
• tomato sauce (I used the small can because I didn't make the normal size big pan of soup)
• salt and pepper
• sage, basil, oregano, rosemary, celery salt, garlic, touch of lavender blossoms, parsley

Toss it all into a pan and cook it up. You may need to add extra water as it cooks. Let it cook for a few hours to blend it. Put it away and heat it up the next day for the BEST flavor, of course, but if you can't wait, go for eating the day you cook it. LOL