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 

Sugar Free Chocolate Covered Pretzels

This is a trial. A REAL trial and error thing. And I'm trying it right now.

I wanted to make chocolate covered pretzels for Mom, she loves them. She's diabetic, sooooo... I figured I'll just melt some Baker's unsweetened chocolate and add Sugar Twin to it. That's what I'm doing now. Adding Sugar Twin, stirring, tasting, adding, stirring, tasting... I think I went wrong when I used THREE squares of chocolate. What do I know!? I never use the stuff! LOL oh... don't use three squares of chocolate. I think one will work fine. I'm also melting it in a glass bowl in the microwave, which is pretty cool, actually.

Time to go stir some more.

OUCH!  It was hot and it burnt my finger.  Added more Sugar Twin and stuck it back into the microwave for 30 seconds again. I've been heating it at 30 second intervals and stirring so the sweetener will dissolve into the chocolate and not be grainy. All the recipes I found on line have you melting chocolate chips and dipping the pretzel into that. Where is the sense of adventure in that! Besides... the chocolate chips have sugar in them. :)

Ok... gotta go get my STUFF outa the microwave again. Stirred, looking good, stuck it back in for 30 seconds. Sounds redundant, huh, doing it over and over again.  Yep...   Still a little grainy and I am not sticking my finger in there to taste it again. Well, yeah! You gotta wash your finger each time or use a clean spoon each time. geeez... Gotta teach the kids that, too, ya know! lol

Why did I think I could do this!? I can't even make fudge! ROFLOL

Ok, ready or not, let the dipping begin!  WAAAY too much chocolate....  I wonder if this stuff is actually going to set up on the pretzels or if the pretzels will be turning into a drippy, chocolate mess. Only time will tell. I do believe that next time I do this, I will search for a sugar free chocolate bar that is sweetened with a sweetener other than sorbitol (it works like Ex-lax), melt it in the microwave and dip those pretzels in that. Yeah... I think I'll do that.

Chili in a Pinch

Didn't know what to fix, didn't really want to cook. LOL  Soooooo.... Chili!!  of course!  Besides... it just sounded good and we hadn't had any in awhile. I wasn't going to make too much, I usually make a HUGE pot, this time just a semi-huge pot. LOL

I looked in my pantry and there were no cans of beans! On NO!  :::: gasping ::::: What to DO!  I know.. some folk don't put beans in the chili, but I like beans in my chili. aahhh... look there... we have pork 'n beans!  I wonder if I can use that in chili. So I tried it. I sure didn't have to put molasses in it. I usually do, but not this time.

Chili in a Pinch
1 onion
1 pepper (green, yellow, red, any or some of all)
1 to 1 1/2 lb hamburger
2  16 oz cans pork 'n beans (cheap stuff works great)
1 14 1/2 oz can tomato sauce
1 14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes
1 bottle beer
1 bay leaf
chili powder to taste (I use tons of it)
ground cumin to taste (I use quite a bit of this, too)
garlic powder to taste
salt, pepper to taste

Brown the hamburger and drain. Chop the onions and peppers, add all the ingredients and stir together. After it gets hot, cover with lid, turn the burner down to low and let it cook for about an hour, or more. Stir it ever so often.  Taste it to see if you need to add more chili powder or salt or something. Serve. Save the left overs in the fridge and it tastes even better the next day.

Denny really liked this!  I didn't tell him I use pork 'n beans, he woulda not liked it if I had told him before hand. LOL

Bread

At LAST... I finally, after years, have made a nice, light, even after a few days after baking bread. It takes some people a longer than it does others. LOL

I used this recipe and what I did will follow.

Family Bread

• 4 C warm tap water (not hot)
• 2/3 C non-fat dry milk powder or 1/4 C honey
• 2 packets or 4 tsp dry yeast
• 1 TBS salt
• 1/3 C melted margarine or oil
• 12 C (approximately) white or whole wheat flour or a combination

Mix water, dry milk, and sugar in bowl. Sprinkle yeast on top and allow mixture to sit until the yeast dissolves some. Add salt, margarine/oil, and flour.  Mix with wooden spoon until too stiff, then mix with your hands until dough is pulled away from sides of bowl and sticks together well. Turn out onto floured board and knead for 10 minutes, adding flour as needed. 

Coat a large bowl with oil, put in the bread dough and spread a little oil on top. Cover with clean towel or plastic wrap, set in a warm place and let it rise until doubled in size. 

Punch down dough, divide the dough into 4 equal lumps. Shape into loaves and place into well oiled bread pans. Cover with clean towel and let rise again. 

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes and bread sounds hollow when thumped. 

Ok.. first of all, you really want to add your yeast, and I used 5 tsp because I did use a mixture of whole wheat and white flours, add your yeast to about 1/2 to 1 C warm water to dissolve the yeast. I probably added 2 TBS salt, too. THEN stir and add the rest of the water, powdered milk, salt, oil (I use melted butter). I add two cups of flour at a time and stir between additions. I had heard about adding vitamin C to bread dough to make it stay fresher longer, so I crushed a vitamin C tablet and added that in there, too. I used about half white flour and half whole wheat and I also only put in 10 cups of flour instead of the 12. The dough was really gooey, but I stuck by it and did it. 

After I divided the dough into four equal parts, I put two loaves into bread pans, covered and set aside. The third section of dough I spread out some and added a store bought bottle of Italian seasoning and kneaded. I added more and kneaded again, not for 10 minutes though, just enough to mix the herbs with the dough. Then I put that into a loaf pan, too. 

The FOURTH section of dough I rolled out with a rolling pin into about a 1/2 inch thick rectangle to make cinnamon rolls. Spread butter on top of the dough. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon. THIS time I really laid the cinnamon on thick. Then add a bunch of brown sugar. Spread it all around until is pretty evenly spread all over. Roll up length wise and cut into 12 portions. Place into well greased 8 x 11 (whatever the size those are), cover and let rise. 

I don't know if the vitamin C did anything or if it was using less flour, but I'll do both again. A friend of mine bought some Vital Gluten and adds it to her bread dough, it has vitamin C in it, too, and her bread turns out just delicious. 

The bread I made like this was great. Soft, light, the herbed bread turned out wonderful, too, as did the cinnamon rolls! YAYAYAYAYAAYAYAY   I was one happy granny doing the happy granny dance!! 

Native American Fry Bread

I was looking for a recipe for Fry Bread on the web and found this site, Cookin' With Three Sisters which has several recipes for it. I had never heard of fry bread before my neighbors down the road told me about it and how to make it. I did try it and it was so greasy and I wasn't sure I didn't do it right. I was right, I didn't do it right. LOL I also didn't realize it was Native American fare. I made it again this morning and it certainly turned out better than the first time!  LOL 

Old Fashioned Native American Fry Bread

4 cups flour

2 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup warm water

Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add in the shortening and water. Add only enough water to make dough stick together. Knead dough until smooth, make into fist-sized balls. Cover them with a towel for 10 minutes then pat them out into circles about the size of a pancake. Fry in hot cooking oil in cast iron skillet until brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels, serve with jam.

HOT grease.... makes a BIG difference. 

What... I didn't make any changes in the recipe?  What???  Of course I did. First I cut the recipe in half, there are only three of us here. I also use 1 C white flour and 1 C whole wheat flour and use Canola oil for the shortening. I also fried it in Canola oil and olive oil. When I was making it into the balls before flattening them I was thinking it seemed a little too dry. I didn't fix it... They were a little dry but they are tasty.  OH!  I threw in some flax seed, too. I hear it is supposed to help against hot flashes...so I try to add it to things when I remember. I really did need to add more water to the dough with the wheat flour and flax seed. Yeah. 

It IS good stuff. Perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. 

Chocolate Cookies

ohhhh,,,, just makes the mouth water saying what they are... Ccchhhhhooooooocolate... yeah... that's it, say it with me... cccchhhhooooooooocccolate cookies! mmmmm..

Hubby wanted me to make some chocolate cookies for him so I found a recipe. He said he likes flat cookies. So, ok, the first pan didn't turn out really flat, so the rest I flattened with a fork dipped in sugar. I found the sugar keeps the dough from sticking to the fork and making a mess of the cookie.

Chocolate Cookies The Household Searchlight Recipe Book, pg. 125 14th printing, 1941

• 6 Tbs butter or butter substitute
• 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate
• 6 Tbs milk
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 C chopped nuts
• 3/4 C sugar 
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1 1/8 C flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate over hot water. Cream butter and sugar. Add chocolate and egg. Mix thoroughly. Sift flour, measure, and sift with baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add alternately with milk to first mixture. Add vanilla and nuts. Mix thoroughly. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto well-oiled baking sheet. Bake in hot over (400 degrees) 10-12 minutes. 30 servings. If desired, cookies may be iced.

So... I baked them in the 400 degree oven. It was too hot and the bottoms of the cookies were pretty dark, even being chocolate. This time I turned the oven to 350 and moved the rack up to the middle of the oven. Is working great. I've been baking them for 10 minutes. The first time I made them the dough was so thin, not like cookie dough I usually make so I added some more flour. Of course, didn't add the nuts since I'm making them for hubby and he doesn't like nuts in his cookies. Silly man.

AAANNNND of course, I used cocoa instead of the chocolate squares. This time I doubled the recipe and did you know that 12 TBS equals 3/4 C?  I didn't either so looked it up on the internet. I didn't want to measure out 12 tablespoons! 9 TBS equals 1/2 C + 1 TBS. Looked that up, too. LOL 

Did you know that adding melted butter to the already mixed mixture is harder that to add it when you are supposed to add it?  Yeah!  uh-huh... I forgot to add it to the sugar and cocoa mixture. LOL  It turned out all right, anyway.  : )

Pineapple Angel-food Cake

What a lovely treat to eat and so easy to make. My sister-in-law told me how to make it years ago, and I finally made it this afternoon.

Pineapple Angel-food Cake


Pour a store bought package of angel food cake mix into a bowl. Open a can of crushed pineapple and pour it into the dry cake mix. Stir until well mixed. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake in a preheated 350  degree oven for about 40 minutes. I checked mine after 35 minutes and it wasn't quite done. When done, take it out and cool in pan.

There ya go. Now... do not do what I did. I put mine into a bundt pan, first mistake, it isn't large enough. Second mistake is when I did what it said to do on the angel food cake package and turned the pan upside down on a bottle to cool. Part of the cake fell out and the bottle, cake pan, and cake fell over onto the counter and made a crumbly cake mess. It still tastes good.  YES! Next time I will just put it into a regular cake pan.  Yeah...   : )

Pan Seared Tuna

oohhh yeah... this was good. Denny took his first bite of the tuna and he said "This turned out good!" in an excited yet soft voice. I think he was surprised. LOL

Pan Seared Tuna Recipe by Odyssey Seafood, Treasures of the Sea package of Tuna Steaks

• Tuna Steaks
• 2 Tbs mirin rice wine
• 1 Tbs squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs minced fresh ginger
• 3 Tbs minced scallion onion
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat stainless skillet over medium high heat for 2 minutes. While the pan is preheating, rub thawed tuna steaks with 1 Tbs of lemon juice then season with salt and pepper. Cook the tuna steaks for 2 - 3 minutes on each side, depending on thickness and how rare you want your steak. Remove from pan and place on a plate. Turn the heat down to medium and add the rest of the ingredients in order given. Let them cook for one minute. Pour over the tuna steaks and serve.

And that's exactly how I did it.  OK.. you know me by now. I don't know what mirin rice wine is, I don't have it. BUT... I did happen to have a bottle of some sort of cooking wine that I had yet to open, so I opened it tonight and used that. My fresh squeezed lemon juice came from the bottle sitting in my fridge door and my minced fresh ginger came out of the jar with powdered ginger. I didn't exactly measure everything, I guestimated and poured. aaahhh.. another thing...while my tuna steaks were cooking I put everything in the measuring cup and when it came time to put it into the pan, just poured it in from the cup, including the lemon juice, since I forgot to rub it into the tuna before cooking it. 

Hey, it still turned out good! Even when I did everything wrong and backwards and all.  LOL Hubby said it was good, and he knows!  

Oatmeal-Date Cookies

mmmm.... fresh baked, warm from the oven cookies. yuuummmmm  What more can ya ask for. ahhh... a cup of tea or coffee or hot chocolate... yeah!  Ok... I have a glass of iced-tea. LOL It's HOT outside!  : )

Oatmeal-Date Cookies Favorite All Time Recipes: Diabetic Desserts, pg.18

• 1/2 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 C margarine, softened
• 1 egg plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten
• 1 TBS thawed frozen apple juice concentrate
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 C flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 C uncooked quick oats
• 1/2 C chopped dates or raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat cookie sheets with nonstick cooking spray; set aside. 
2. Beat sugar and margarine in large bowl. Add egg, egg white, apple juice concentrate and vanilla; mix well.
3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and dates. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
4. Bake  8 to 10 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. 

I used a bigger than a teaspoon to put the dough onto the cookie pans so it made 2 doz cookies, and some dough left over that I ate. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm   mmmmmmmmm good. I couldn't see breaking up a good egg and used two whole eggs. I also used real butter and I didn't have frozen apple juice concentrate so I used 2 TBS regular apple juice. I did use raisins and dried cranberries instead of the dates. Who has dates!?  

I think next time I make these cookies I will add a little more apple juice to make the dough a little moister, the cookies turned out pretty dry. Unless I should add more butter, I never know! LOL Maybe some apple sauce would work! I will not add 2 tsp baking soda next time I make these.